Page 30 of Moonshine Kiss
“You’re playing a public relations game here,” she explained. “The angrier you get, the more negative footage they blast all over the place, the guiltier your daddy looks.”
She was right. I brought the heels of my hands to my eyes. “Jonah’s right. This whole thing sucks.”
Leah Mae nodded sympathetically. “Yes, it does. You two are going to take the brunt of the attention. Your house is accessible, your jobs are more public.”
Jonah and I shared another look. He was a personal trainer with public classes all over town. And he shared a name with a potential murderer.
Thisreallyfucking sucked.
Leah Mae reached out to both of us, covering our hands with hers. “Y’all are gonna be just fine. Sooner or later a more salacious story will be pullin’ on their attention,” she promised. “Hang in until then.”
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to take the attention off of us by going back on TV for us, would you, Leah Mae?” I teased. “Maybe you and Jameson could get engaged, and you could go on one of those bridezilla shows?”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re hilarious. So funny.”
“How’d you get in the backyard,” I asked her. “The gate’s locked.”
She grinned, flashing a glimpse of the gap between her front teeth. “I jumped the fence.”
Jonah snickered. “We’ve got models climbing fences to get to us, Bow. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all?”
15
Bowie
Iwas cursing myself for not parking in the garage at the back of my lot last night. Now, thanks to Lazy-Ass Past Me, Present Me had to walk out my front door and back down the driveway into a small camera crew.
Jonah, being annoyingly in shape and fueled by anger, had snuck out the back and jogged across town to meet his trail running group at the lake. I debated doing the same but didn’t want to spend the entire day with slush stains down the back of my Dockers. Teenagers were often assholes. As the unfortunate substitute teacher who’d accidentally sat on a chocolate pudding lid learned the hard way last year.
I gave the ragtag news crew another look through the front window. Leah Mae was right. I was the easiest to get to. None of my other siblings had houses this accessible. Hell, Gibson was tucked away on some serious acreage on a mountain. Sneaky-ass reporters wouldn’t be able to get within a half-mile of his house.
Well, I sure as shit wasn’t gonna let some half-assed news crew get me worked up or make me late for work.
I let myself out the front door, locked it, and kept my head down as I hurried to my SUV.
“Mr. Bodine! Did your father kill Callie Kendall?” the dumb motherfucker in the trench coat shouted at me.
My middle finger flexed anxiously, begging to be called to duty. I pretended I hadn’t heard him and slid behind the wheel. I slammed the door on the idiot’s questions, swearing under my breath.
The engine came to life, and I shifted into reverse. Easing down the drive came to an abrupt stop when the news crew crowded onto my driveway blocking my exit.
Leah Mae and Jayme were not going to be happy with what I was about to do. Maybe if I rearranged this guy’s face news would travel and these turkey vultures would leave us alone…or at the very least, gawk at us from a respectable distance.
I rolled my window down, deciding to give them one last chance to live. “Y’all are in my way.”
The guy in the trench coat with the tiny microphone took that as an invitation. He jogged up the side of my vehicle and shoved the mic in my face.
“Mr. Bodine, your father is a person of interest in the disappearance of Callie Kendall. What can you tell us about your father’s involvement with Callie? Were they having an affair? Has your father hurt other girls?”
“Listen here, you piece of—”
“Stop.”
I was cut off by the very authoritative voice of a very peeved deputy. Cassidy—in full uniform—strode around my SUV and got within punching distance of Mr. Lois Lane. “You’re trespassing, sir. I’m going to have to ask all of you to step back onto the sidewalk and show me your IDs.”
The guy with the mic was all smiles. “Officer, I’m just asking Mr. Bodine a few questions. The people have a right to know—”
“The people have a right to back out of their driveways safely without someone tryin’ to crawl up their ass. Now, I’ll ask you again, very nicely, to step onto the sidewalk and let Mr. Bodine pass.”
