Page 29 of The Scenic Route
“I said wewon’thave to sleep four to a bed.” Lou must’ve interpreted his panicked look correctly. “You really need to meet Ellie’s husband, George. He’s your brother from another mother.”
Bennett didn’t respond. He just blinked a few times while backing toward Felicity. Pulling out another chair, he plopped down next to her, close enough that their shoulders touched. It seemed to be becoming their usual position.
“Back to Marian,” Lou said without taking a breath as shepoured coffee beans into a grinder. She didn’t seemed fazed at Bennett’s lack of response. “Tell me everything. No! Go back to your stakeout. Did you find Dino?” She started the loud grinder, making conversation impossible.
“The stakeout was a bust,” Felicity admitted once the grinder had fallen silent. She leaned back in her chair, Bennett’s shoulder rubbing against hers, giving her that familiar sense of security she was beginning to associate with him. “We couldn’t drive close enough to see anything, and when we approached on foot, my phone lit up, so someone in the guard tower shot at us.”
Lou stared at her, apparently shocked speechless. It only lasted a few seconds, but Felicity was certain that it was rare for Lou to be silent for any length of time, so she still took it as a victory. “You wereshotat? Are you okay? Were you hit? Is that why you’re limping?”
“We’re fine. I just twisted my ankle running away.”
Lou finally broke out of her shock-induced paralysis and started filling the first coffee maker. “That’s good. I mean, not good about the ankle, but good that you don’t have any bloody holes in you.”
“Only holes are in the cars,” Bennett muttered, but Lou must’ve had ears like a bat, because she immediately latched on to that.
“What cars? Cars were shot? That’s so weird. Who shoots at cars, of all things? Hang on. Callum really needs to hear this directly. This is grade A, prime gossip. The fire station guys are going to be livid they didn’t know about this once it alleventually comes out.” She tapped out a text as Felicity met Bennett’s meaningful gaze. She gave a small nod and turned back to Lou.
“Speaking of gossip,” Felicity said, trying to think of a way to ask Lou if she or one of the other murder ladies squealed without sounding accusatory. “Marian heard from someone that we planned to bring Dino in, so she wasn’t feeling all that hospitable toward us.”
Lou groaned loudly, her head dropping back as she swore creatively at the ceiling. “This town. No one can keep a secret to save their lives. I’m positive it wasn’t any of the murder club ladies, but I can ask them if they know anything about who may have overheard and spilled the beans to his auntie.”
“Sure, although the damage is done on that end,” Felicity said. Maybe it was naive of her, but she believed Lou. Her instincts told her that none of the murder ladies was the loose-lipped culprit, and her gut had proven to be pretty reliable in the past. Besides, she was battling a militia in a strange town with no local sources and only one ally. She needed all the help she could get. “Dino knows we’re here for him. Maybe just remind the others of the importance of being discreet when discussing whatever they discover or hear in the future. Less chance of me getting shot at that way.” Felicity knew this was good advice for herself too. Who knew who’d been listening in at the coffee shop or Levi’s yesterday?
“Definitely.” Lou began stocking the pastry case. “Where’d you end up sleeping last night? You should’ve texted me.”
“It was late, and we managed to get a few hours of sleepin the car,” Felicity said, even as her hip gave a throb that echoed the one in her ankle. The floor had been rather hard, especially with Bennett half on top of her. The memory made her cheeks burn again. “A couple of guys shot up the trailhead parking lot where we’d parked this morning, so that wasn’t a fun wake-up call.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Lou waved her hands, a paper-wrapped croissant in each. “You were shot attwicein twelve hours?”
“More like six hours, but yeah.” Felicity knew she was punchy from lack of sleep, because the conversation was making her want to laugh. “Speaking of bullet holes in cars, is the auto shop in town any good? Bennett has a windshield that needs replacing.”
“Yeah, Donnie’s good.” Still clutching the croissants, Lou stared at her. “But how are you so calm? I’d be screaming hysterically if I were you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Callum said as he walked in. “Your place was burned to the ground, and you barely missed a beat.”
Leaning over to kiss him quickly on the lips, Lou said, “I think your memory is faulty. There was a lot of crying, some screaming, and I threatened to move in with a pack rat.” She turned to look at Felicity and Bennett. “Not a euphemistic human pack rat. The literal small, fuzzy, disease-carrying animal.”
Felicity blinked, unsure what to do with that piece of information, so she just gave Callum a nod of greeting instead.
“Is that a bullet hole in your windshield?” Callum asked.
“It is,” Felicity said.
“Any connection to the damage-to-vehicles call at the Blue Hook trailhead the sheriff’s department got this morning?”
She met Bennett’s gaze before turning back to Callum and giving him a small shrug. “Maybe?”
“Maybe.”
“Probably?” For some reason, she felt like a teenager being interrogated by her father, even though Callum couldn’t be much more than ten years older than her. He just had that stern-dad stare down. “We didn’t call the sheriff.”
“What happened?”
Lou gave him an affectionate bump with her elbow. “I was just asking that. This wasn’t the only shooting last night, by the way.”
Callum’s brows shot up as he turned his attention back on Felicity, and she opened her mouth to speak.
“Hang on!” Lou interrupted, tapping at her phone, and Felicity closed her mouth. “Let’s get the murder club ladies over here while I finish setting up for my shift. Only a few people come in before seven, and we can all just stare at them until they get uncomfortable and leave.”
