Page 77 of Hiss and Make Up
Sierra sat at the table and drummed her fingers.Think, think, think. She didn’t know much about Adrien. She’d never even seen the guy. All she knew was that he was Chloe’s brother, and he worked with Marc as some kind of computer geek.
That was it!
Before Sierra could follow through, a deep series of barks erupted from outside. A few seconds later, a knock at the front door echoed through the trailer. She slid to the ground and crawled a few feet to hide behind a kitchen counter.
The person outside fiddled with the knob, and she realized that she hadn’t locked the door.
Crap, crap, crap.
The door creaked open. “Hello?”
She reached a hand beside her and opened the nearest cabinet. CorningWare. Plastic containers. Nothing with a handle.Crap. She grabbed a glass lid and pulled it against her body.
The door closed. “Adrien?”
Footsteps moved closer across the carpet and stopped at the edge of the hallway. She held her breath and gripped the lid tightly as the footsteps came toward her.
“Seriously?”
The voice was clear now. Clear and familiar.
She looked up and waved with the hand not holding the lid.
Marc shook his head. “You’re really looking for an assault charge, aren’t you?”
“Hey, I didn’t hit you this time. I call that making progress.” Progress. She remembered the check and the fact that they’d taken a million steps backward that morning, even though she still had no idea why. “Although you’d totally deserve it if I had.”
“You’re probably right.” He held out a hand to help her up. “We can talk about that later though. What the hell are you doing here?”
“Me? What areyoudoing here? I thought you were at work?”
“I was. I thoughtyouwere at work.”
“I was. Now I’m here. Didn’t you say Adrien would never do that stuff? Didn’t you rule him out?”
Marc frowned. “That was before I ruled out my brother-in-law. And before I got this.” He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket.
“This better not be more job openings,” she said, taking the paper.
“Would you just put that lid down and look at it?”
She returned her weapon to the cabinet and unfolded Marc’s paper. “What’s this whois.com stuff?”
“Check out the address I highlighted.”
“You found out where Adrien lives. So did I.”
She knew she sounded bratty, but his cold shoulder that morning still stung like a fresh wound. She wasn’t ready to make nice. Not yet. Not here. Not without good reason.
He yanked the paper back. “I already knew where Adrien lives.” He shook the paper. “This tells me the email was sent from here.”
“Theemail?” Adrien had sent the email. They had proof now. Maybe not enough to pin everything on him, but enough to know they were on the right track.
Marc nodded and stuffed the paper in his pocket. “Freddy helped figure it out.”
She stood to dust off her butt. Adrien’s kitchen floor wasn’t the cleanest place to sit, that was for sure. “You’ve got a good friend in that one.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
