Page 5 of The Scenic Route
“Who’s Zach?” The words rumbled out of his deep chest, the smooth bass of his voice twanging a muscle in her chest, kind of like when she walked into a club with the music turned up so loud she could feel it internally. Shaking off her strange reaction, she focused on his actual question.
She had to give it to him. The man had a good poker face. “Zach Fridley? The guy who got away, thanks to you?”
He was back to just frowning at her silently.
“If you don’t know who Zach is, then why did you stop mefrom chasing him?” She held on to her patience with extreme effort as she looked him up and down. “And then sit on me?”
That got a reaction—just a slight twitch of discomfort, but at least he wasn’t just watching her, stone-faced and silent. “You fell.”
“Yes, and I got back up again.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “How was knocking me down again supposed to help me?”
“I didn’t mean to…” Trailing off, he switched gears abruptly. “I need to talk to you.”
It was her turn to stare, thrown by how easily he’d dodged her accusation. “You need to talk to me.”
His chin dipped slightly in the smallest of nods.
“You need to talk to me.” Her voice went up to a higher pitch, but she couldn’t stop it from happening. She’d almost had Zach Fridley literally in her grip, but this random guy decided to plant his mountain of a body in front of her because he wanted to talk to her. “If you need to talk to me, you come to my house or call my cell or even follow me into the grocery store, but you don’t tackle me in the middle of a chase!” Her voice grew louder toward the end, and she sucked in a breath, trying to regain her calm—or at least the outward appearance of calm.
Before he could respond, Charlie popped into view as she ducked under a hanging branch. “Where’s Zach? Did you get him?”
“No.” A fresh wave of aggravation rolled over Felicity at the reminder. “I was really close, but then this rando sat on me.”
Charlie looked at the stranger and then back at Felicity. “What?”
“Yeah, he couldn’t just stalk me like a normal person.” With a final, longing glance in the direction Zach Fridley had run,Felicity huffed a frustrated sigh and forced herself to let go of her disappointment. “We might as well head back. Hopefully Molly and John had better luck finding…um, better luck.” She almost mentioned their mom but remembered at the last minute that letting this stranger know their mom was in the area—and that they were trying to hunt her down—was a bad idea. The fewer people who knew she had basically jumped bail, the better.
Chasing Zach had taken her off the trail, but Felicity had a general idea of where she was. Turning around, she started tromping back toward the house, taking a sour satisfaction in making all sorts of noise as she walked now that she didn’t have to be stealthy.
“Wait,” the stranger protested. “I still need to talk to you.”
“Nope.” Felicity didn’t pause or even glance behind her, even though she felt Charlie’s curious gaze on the back of her neck. “I don’t talk to treasure hunters who ruin my takedowns and sit on me.”
“I’m not a treasure hunter.” From the closeness of his voice, the guy was following her.
“I don’t talk to cops who skip-block me either.”
“Not a cop.” A hint of frustration leaked into his even tone, which lifted Felicity’s spirits somewhat. At least she wasn’t the only one annoyed. “I’m a private investigator.”
Although she really wanted to continue ignoring him, that piqued her interest. She glanced at Charlie, who was being unusually quiet. Her sister was looking positively gleeful as her gaze bounced between the stranger and Felicity. Charlie always did love drama.
When the stranger didn’t elaborate, Felicity couldn’t stop herself from asking, “A PI? Who hired you?”
“Maxwell Insurance. They insured Simone Pichet’s necklace.”
Felicity’s head dropped back as she groaned at the sky. “Great. Yet another person lurking and getting in our way.”
Charlie finally broke her silence. “You’re so feisty right now, Fifi. I love it.”
“I won’t get in the way,” the stranger said, sticking close to their heels. “Don’t you want help proving your mom’s innocence?”
Felicity met Charlie’s incredulous gaze and almost laughed. “Why would we do that? She’s guilty as sin.”
“Fifi,” Charlie muttered warningly, and Felicity rolled her lips between her teeth, regretting her words. In her defense, it had been a really rough day for her so far.
The PI seemed to roll with it though. “Don’t you want help finding the necklace then?”
What she could really use help with was finding her mom, but she couldn’t say that. After all, they were pretending that Jane hadn’t skipped bail so they could hold on to their house for as long as possible. All they needed to do was make sure Jane made her first hearing in a few weeks. Unfortunately, that was proving to be harder than they’d first thought.
