Page 16 of Take a Hike
“Yes, I see you,” Charlie muttered under her breath, confused by this un-treasure-hunter-like behavior. She was used to the five of them lurking around, at least attempting to be covert and ninja-like. This time, however, Tassie met her halfway.
“It wasn’t us,” Tassie blurted out before Charlie could even say hello.
“What wasn’t us?”
“We didn’t burn down the coffee shop.” There was a gleam of desperation in Tassie’s eyes. “We weren’t even here. I swear it.”
Charlie blinked, taken off guard by her words. The idea that the treasure hunters had tried to kill them hadn’t even occurred to her, but she stopped herself before assuring Tassie of that. Here was some free leverage, and Charlie wasn’t going to throw that away. “Hmm…so you say. Why don’t we let the sheriff decide who’s guilty?” She half turned, starting to raise her arm as if to flag down the sheriff.
Tassie grabbed her arm. “Wait! No! We were having dinner at Levi’s.”
Charlie cocked her head, confused. Tassie was just as much a newcomer to Simpson as Charlie was. How did she know the locals already?
“Levi’s—the barbecue joint?” Tassie must’ve seen the blank look on Charlie’s face. “We figured you’d be meeting in the coffee shop for a few hours, so we grabbed some dinner.”
“All five of you?”
Tassie nodded.
“Even Rhys?” Suspicion was heavy in Charlie’s voice.
“Yes.” Tassie smirked a little. “He’s had a crush on Bones for, like, forever.”
“Really?” Charlie caught herself before she could dive deeper into this fascinating piece of information. “So I’m supposed to believe all of you just bailed for a few hours? It hasn’t even been a full day! What if we’d taken a field trip to the necklace? Or, you know, someone tried tokillus?” She couldn’t help but glare at Tassie, who shrank into herself.
“Sorry! It’s just been a long time since we’d gotten together and caught up. I didn’t even know that Dave had another kid.”
“What time did you leave?” Charlie asked, again resisting the urge to ask for more details.
Tassie shrugged. “Not sure what time exactly, but your sister and her stalker had just arrived. We all know how much you Paxes like to talk and talk and talk…” She trailed off under Charlie’s stern gaze and started again. “Anyway, since we didn’t have the coffee shop bugged yet, we figured there was no sense in sitting around in the cold, waiting for you. It was Lachlan’s idea,” she finished defensively.
Charlie knew it’d be no use taking Tassie to task for intending to bug the coffee shop, but she did make a mental note to warn the others about the potential for eavesdroppers. “Bennett’s herstalker-husband now,” she corrected mildly instead. “Did you see anything before you left? Anyone lurking, looking shifty—besides the five of you, I mean.”
“Nah.” Tassie looked relieved at being off the hook. “It was dead quiet. That’s why we decided to go eat.”
“What are you still doing here?” The snarled question made Tassie jump as her eyes went wide. Charlie’s heart leapt, but it was more from an inappropriate excitement rather than from being startled.
She raised an eyebrow at Kieran as he came to join them. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”
“You should be in bed. You almost died.”
“Not really.” A tiny, doubtful chorus in her mind tried to replay scenes from earlier, when the fire roared all around her, but she threw a mental bucket of water on her inner voices. “We were in the process of getting ourselves out when you arrived. Firefighters became our plan C or even D when we heard your response time wasseventeenminutes.” She tsked.
The tips of his ears turned red, and it was strangely adorable. “It only took us nine minutes, and it’s a big county. Seventeen minutes is a good response time up here. Under ten is almost unheard of and—wait. Why am I arguing with you?”
“Because I’m irresistible, debate-wise at least?”
Now the cherry edges of his cheekbones matched the tops of his ears. “You—”
“Hang on,” Charlie interrupted, looking around at the dwindling crowd. “Where’d Tassie go?”
“Who’s Tassie?”
“The fortune hunter who was standing right here a second ago.” Charlie pointed at the ground in front of her, which was now unfortunately Tassie-free.
“There.” Kieran pointed at the back of Tassie’s green jacket, which was currently climbing into the back seat of a VW Fox. The driver gave Charlie a wave—evidently, Bones figured that Tassie had erased any suspicion of the fortune hunters’ guilt. In the front passenger seat sat another familiar face.
“Is that Rhys?” Charlie asked as the Fox did a U-turn and drove away.
