Page 14 of Take a Hike
Kieran’s grunt sounded like it might actually be related to a laugh—not a sibling, but maybe a cousin? Or a laugh’s second cousin? With him holding the mask on her face, Charlie couldn’t turn her head, so she rolled her eyes toward him instead, wanting to see what a laughing Kieran looked like. His scowl was still in place, however, so apparently slightly amused Kieran was indistinguishable from cranky Kieran.
“Right.” The sheriff turned to Charlie. “Ms. Pax, I want to talk to you as soon as that oxygen mask comes off.”
Rebooting her innocent expression, Charlie gave a small wave of assent. She avoided nodding, since she wanted plausible deniability that she’d neveractuallyagreed to the interview later. After a silent, steady glare at all four of them, the sheriff stalked away.
Once she was out of earshot, Charlie let out a long breath that was echoed by her sister. Rolling her eyes toward Kieran,she gestured for him to remove the mask. When he continued to frown at her, she turned her gaze pleading. He only lasted three-and-a-quarter seconds before folding.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But if your cough gets worse, or you develop a headache or any other symptoms, go to the hospital.” He waited until she nodded before removing the mask.
“Thanks,” she said. Turning to Fifi and Bennett, she resisted the urge to clear her throat, since Kieran looked ready to jam the mask back on at the first sign of a cough. “First, I didn’t need rescuing. I’d just saved myself when he showed up.” She jerked a thumb at Kieran.
“You jumped into a fire.”
“Yes.” Charlie had to give Kieran that point. “But then I immediately jumpedoutof that tiny fire, without your help. When you snatched me up, I was standing on a section of floor that was very clearlynotburning, thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome.” He turned and started putting equipment away.
“I didn’t…grr.” His grumpiness wasn’tquiteas fun as it had been earlier—more like infuriating. She snuck a glance at his profile. He was still incredibly hot though. Tearing her gaze away from him, she refocused on her sister. “Second, you know better than to try to lie, Fifi.”
“Right?” Fifi sighed. “As soon as the words were out, I knew I shouldn’t have jumped off that verbal cliff.”
“It’s okay.” Charlie couldn’t stand to see her usually cheerful sister so down on herself. “If I had to have a sister-wife, I’d definitely pick you.”
Another amused grunt came from Kieran as Bennett looked slightly alarmed at the direction of the conversation.
“Don’t worry, B.” She gave her brother-in-law a pat on the arm. “I don’t think it’ll come to that. It’s too bad a certain overzealous firefighter didn’t have another oxygen mask he could’ve used on you, Fifi, rather than just leave you scrambling to answer the sheriff.”
“Thatwould’vebeen handy.” The subtle note of accusation in Fifi’s voice made Charlie hide a grin as Kieran glanced up, frowning.
Under their censorious gazes, he huffed, grumbled something unintelligible, and stomped away, looking ridiculously hot during the whole process.
“Charlie. Charlie.Charlie!”
“Hmm?” Charlie hummed, reluctantly turning away from her most excellent view of Kieran’s backside.
Fifi tried to glare, but her stern expression collapsed into a laugh. “Focus, sister-wife. Someone tried to kill us. We need to figure out who trapped us inside and set the coffee shop on fire.”
“Right.” Charlie shook her hands by her sides, bringing her brain back in line. “Attempted murder beats lust. There’ll be time to discuss the whole Kieran Byrne subject after we bring in Mom.”
Bennett suddenly looked very uncomfortable, making Charlie laugh and slap him on the shoulder.
“It’s okay, big guy,” she reassured him. “You don’t have to contribute to that conversation. But you have to admit that it’s better than having me as your second wife, right?”
“Yes,” he said, a little too quickly to do much for her ego, but Charlie just laughed again.
“C’mon,” she said, making her way toward the ambulance while keeping a wary eye out for the sheriff. “Let’s go talk to the president of the murder club. See if we can narrow down a suspect list.”
Fifi skipped a step to catch up. “Isn’t this place the best? I mean…amurderclub.”
Rolling her eyes toward her sister, Charlie gave an amused snort. “We were almost just murdered by fire.”
Fifi grimaced. “I didn’t say Simpson was perfect.”
Bursting into laughter that changed to a coughing fit, Charlie gave her sister a flat look through watery eyes. She only lasted a few seconds before admitting, “Yeah, this place is the best.”
***
“I’ve lived a fairly enemy-free life for the past couple of years, so I’m thinking one of you—or all of you—were the target.” Lou gave the EMT a smile as he unwrapped the blood pressure cuff. “Am I good to go?”
