Page 225 of Things We Hide from the Light
I shook my head and dialed Nash. “Nope. I’m calling your uncle to tell him you just identified our henchman.”
“I did?”
Nash’s phone was ringing. “Come on. Come on. Shit,” I muttered when it went to voicemail. “Nash. It’s me. Burner Phone Guy is Cereal Aisle Guy. Mrs. Tweedy was with me when we met him in the grocery store. He was buying the same kind of candy that Waylay said is Duncan Hugo’s favorite. There were candy wrappers all over the warehouse floor in the crime scene pictures. I saw him again at Honky Tonk the night Tate Diltoncaused a scene. I know it’s not much to go on, but I feel it in my gut. Call me back!”
“Whoa,” Waylay said when I hung up. “That was alotof words real fast. You sound like my friend Chloe.”
I clapped my hands on her shoulders. “Kid, I’m buying you a cartload of candy.”
“Cool. So who’s Cereal Aisle Guy?”
“I hope you’re not talking about me.” The deep rumble of a male voice behind me had dread sinking to the pit of my stomach.
I squeezed the girl’s shoulders. “Waylay, go find Liza J and go outside,” I said as quietly as I could.
“But—”
“Go. Now,” I said, and then I turned around and pasted a flirtatious smile on my face.
Cereal Aisle Guy was dressed in track pants and a long-sleeve T-shirt. His cart was once again full of healthy produce and lean proteins. The only thing missing was the candy.
“So we meet again,” I said coyly. “I was just telling my short friend how I met a cute guy in the cereal aisle.”
“Were you? Because it sounded to me like you figured out something you shouldn’t have.”
Well, shit. So it was going to go down this way? Okay.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go disappoint a twelve-year-old’s dentist,” I said.
A large, meaty hand closed around my bicep. “The dentist will have to wait, Lina Solavita.”
My heart wasn’t just cartwheeling, it was trying to climb out of my throat.
“I’m not a fan of nonconsensual touching,” I warned.
“And my friend isn’t a fan of you following his boys around and getting one of them arrested.”
“Hey,Iwasn’t the one who decided it was a good idea to bang my brother’s wife. Maybe you should be having this conversation with him.”
“I would, but he’s in jail becauseyoucalled the cops on him.”
“In my defense, the whole naked thing really threw me.”
“Let’s go,” he growled.
His grip was cutting off my circulation.
“I’m going to give you one chance to take your bear paws off me and leave. One chance for a head start before I kick your ass and then my boyfriend, the chief of police, shows up to finish the job. You’re legit. At least partially. If you drag me out of this store, there goes that life. You’ll be a full-time criminal.”
“Only if I get caught. You caused too many problems and now it’s time to face the consequences. Nothin’ personal. It’s just business.”
“Leave her alone, you gigantic shithead!” Waylay appeared at the mouth of the aisle and savagely hurled a can of kidney beans at my captor.
It caught him in the forehead with a satisfyingthunk. I used the surprise canned good beaning to my advantage and kneed him in the groin. He released my arm to grasp his balls with one hand and his forehead with the other.
“Fuck!” he wheezed.
“Run, Way!” I didn’t watch to make sure she listened. Instead, I landed a jab to the man’s jaw. My knuckles screamed in agony. “Damn it! Is your face made out of concrete?”
