Page 40 of Take a Hike
“Where’s he live?” Bennett asked, pushing his empty plate aside.
“West of town—wait.” Kieran got that thinking furrow between his eyebrows again, and Charlie very carefully did not look at it. Looking at the man just encouraged the obsession, and she was already fixated enough on him as it was. “He and his wife are separated, so last I heard he’s staying at the compound.”
“The militia compound?” An idea was forming in Charlie’s brain. A veryfunidea.
“Yeah.” His glance was wary, so he must’ve caught the glee in her voice.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the compound walls had ears…and eyes?”
Kieran’s gaze grew flinty in a way she hadn’t seen since the first time she’d met him at the coffee shop—truly hard, not justa thin, candy shell of pretend hardness over a warm and gooey center, which is how he usually looked at her now. “My dad won’t tell us anything. Besides, he’s locked up.”
Ohhh.The flinty eyes made sense now. “Not your dad, but thanks for offering him up.” She gave his knee a pat, relieved when the hardness softened with bewilderment. Seeing him truly shut down made her realize how much she liked those glimpses into his soft, squishy middle. “No, I was talking aboutoureyes and ears.”
Fifi smiled huge. “It’s time, isn’t it?”
Charlie loved her sister all the time, but right now she felt an extra zip of fondness as she grinned back at her. “Yep. It’s time for me to do a little breaking and entering.”
“You?” Fifi’s smile disappeared. “If anyone gets to invade the compound, it’s me. Bennett and I staked out the place fordays.”
“You found a body,” Charlie scoffed. “Don’t act like it was all stake-out boringness.”
“Finding a body isnota good time.”
“No, but it’s aninterestingtime, which means I should get to sneak into the compound.”
“Weshould,” Kieran interjected.
Charlie looked over at him. “Like…all four of us? That might be a little noticeable, don’t you think?”
She could almost see him fight an eye roll. “Not all four of us. Two would be best.” His gaze moved to Bennett. “You up for it, Green?”
“Course.” Bennett gave Kieran a chin lift of a nod, and the two exchanged a look so smugly male that Charlie could onlystare for a solid four seconds.
Oh no. They didnotjust try to pull that.Charlie’s gaze met Fifi’s in a moment of perfect sisterly mind melding. “Felicity Florence, did your stalker and my angry firefighter just try to exclude us from a break-in that we initiated?”
“Why yes, Charlotte Calamity, I believe you are correct.”
As if they’d rehearsed the move, both slowly turned to dead-eye stare at the men next to them. Bennett and Kieran shared a hunted look.
“Whatever should Charlie and I do while we wait for the two of you to return?” Fifi asked, as sugar-sweet as cotton candy. “Get manicures while we talk about howbraveandstrongour men are?”
Charlie batted her eyes with slow, menacing blinks. From Kieran’s grimace, she was coming off more threatening than vapid. “OMG, Fifi, we aresooolucky to have such big, powerful men to push us out of the exciting parts of our investigation so we’re stuck with the boring, tedious,safebusywork that won’t cause us to break a nail.” She forcefully fluttered her eyelashes again, and Kieran actually flinched away from her this time. Turning to Fifi, she said in a normal voice, “Seriously, though, my nails are a mess. Mani and pedi after we solve the murder and bring Mom in?”
“Oh God, yes.” Fifi spread her hands out in front of her and screwed up her face. “My cuticles look like they’ve been in a war zone.”
“So back to taking a look inside the compound…” She focused on her sister, happy to ignore the guys since they werecurrently being ridiculous. “Two teams of two, do you think? Distraction and invasion?”
“Molly and John can be here in a few hours, and I’m sure they’d love a little break in the mountains.” Fifi pushed back her plate and pulled out her phone. “Should we let them know to plan a distraction? Molly will have an excellent plan or five, I’m sure.” Her thumbs hovered over the screen, ready to text their sister. Bennett let out a small sound, as if his wife had elbowed him directly in the heart.
Carefully keeping her gaze off of her brother-in-law, who was sure to have his penitent-puppy expression on, Charlie had to bite the inside of her cheek to hold back a laugh. Fifi was hilarious when annoyed. Ignoring Kieran’s laser-beam stare that she could almost feel burning into her cheek, Charlie gave a thoughtful nod. “That should work. They can use my grenade.”
“Igave you that grenade.” Bennett sounded so hurt that Charlie almost caved, but her sister’s sharp kick to her shin under the table renewed her resolve.
“You gave her agrenade?” Kieran’s growly voice was even harder to hold out against than Bennett’s sad one, but she fought the urge to reassure him by explaining that it was just a flash-bang.
“On the other hand,” Charlie determinedly said to Felicity, “I should keep it in case we run into trouble and need our own distraction.”
“Good point.”
