Page 64 of Psycho
Cricket froze. “I-I’m not sure. Hardly anybody comes in here anymore.”
Lucas kept pressing. “Anybody who looks like a skinhead? Somebody with some shady tattoos?”
She shook her head. “Definitely not. I would have noticed. Are they killers, too? I thought you guys were college professors? Are you, like, secret agents on the side or something? Am I in danger?”
Lucas wanted to assure her that she wasn’t but he had no idea what the fuck was going on. “They aren’t after you. They want me. If they come in here and ask about me, tell them anything they want to know.”
“What do you mean?” she asked in confusion.
“It probably won’t come to that. They’ll probably just keep spying on me from a distance. But if they want to know where I’m staying, tell them I’m staying with my boyfriend. Give them August’s name if you have to. Tell them you don’t know anything else. Text us when they leave. Do your best to stay where people can see you from the street.”
Cricket’s fair skin grew chalky. “Maybe I should just go home sick.”
“You could do that, too,” August agreed. “It might be safer.”
She glanced to where her phone sat on the counter. “Yeah, I’m going to call the owner.”
“Do you want us to wait with you?” Lucas asked.
Cricket shook her head, gaze nailed to the car down the street. “No. I’m fine. I’ll lock the door if the driver tries to come inside.”
August picked up the cup holders filled with coffees, so Lucas grabbed the pastry box. “Chances are, he’ll try to follow us when we leave.”
Cricket heaved a heavy breath. “No offense, but I fucking hope so.”
* * *
When they entered the Mulvaney secret lair, Lucas stopped short. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but it wasn’t all the people packed around the table. The usual suspects were there—August’s grumpy brother, Atticus, and his alcoholic brother, Archer. Adam was there, too, sitting with Noah on one side and two identical looking men on the other. Thomas was the only one standing.
August slid the pastries down the table and set the coffee between them. Lucas watched in surprise as they set upon the treats like sharks in a feeding frenzy, elbowing each other out of the way to snag what they wanted from the box. All but Atticus, who turned up his nose at the sugar, taking the black coffee and retreating as far from the melee as he could manage.
“I wanted that, dick,” one of the twins said as Adam snatched a donut from his fingers and stuffed the entire thing in his mouth.
“The’ you should be fasser,” Adam managed around the fried dough.
Noah rolled his eyes at the others, giving an apologetic look to Lucas before snagging a cheese danish from the corner of the box, breaking it into pieces to eat.
Archer took the lid off his coffee and dumped the amber liquid from his glass into the cup. There were twelve steps in that man’s future.
When they’d finally settled back into their chairs to eat, Lucas asked, “Um, can we get started? I’d really like to know what Calliope found.”
“This one’s kind of bossy,” the other twin said. “Didn’t see that coming.”
August glared at the two men. “Lucas, the rude one is Avi, the other is Asa. You know the rest of them. Is Calliope ready?”
Lucas gave a hard look from one to the other before dismissing them entirely, turning to Thomas. “Has she said what she found?”
Noah shook his head. “Not yet. We just got here ourselves.”
“Calliope, are you there?” Thomas asked.
“I’m here.” She still had a hard edge to her voice. “I wish I wasn’t but I am. Anybody with a conscience might want to skip the refreshments. This one’s grim.”
Noah looked longingly at his pastry before pushing it away. Lucas didn’t feel like eating anyway. None of the others seemed bothered by Calliope’s warning.
“What did you find?” Thomas asked as August and Lucas finally took their seats.
“A red room,” Calliope said in a rush.
