Suddenly, my tryst with Will was feeling less like a lapse in judgment and more like a mammoth mistake.
His grin deepened. “Cat got your tongue?”
Alex Grace was an angel—of the fallen variety. And sometimes I was sure that I had crashed right along with him.
I pasted on my friendliest smile. “Hey,” I roared back.
His eyes widened and my cheeks flushed again in what I was certain was a candy-apple red. Adorable on a bouncy brunette. Positively lobster-ish on a pale-fleshed redhead like myself. “Sorry,” I said, lowering my voice.
There was a beat of awkward silence before Alex put his hand on the elevator door and raised his eyebrows.
“What?” I asked.
“You coming out or were you just taking this puppy for a ride?”
“Right. I was just heading out.” I pointed to the door, in case he was questioning my mode of exit.
“Me, too,” he said.
“But you were waiting for the elevator.”
“Checking up on me?” he said, falling into step beside me.
Maybe he isn’t upset with me, I said, my body suddenly feeling light. Maybe he’s going to ignore what happened and we can go back to being friends! Maybe everything can go back to normal.
Before we hit the glass double doors, a voice called out. The chief of police had tired basset hound eyes that zeroed in on Alex, then flicked quickly to me. “Grace! Oh, hey, Lawson. Hey, man, we just got a call. Sutro Point. Double homicide. Looks pretty bad.”
Oh, yeah. Things were definitely going to be back to normal.
Chapter Two
Alex gave me a gentle push forward.
“See you later, Lawson.”
I flattened myself against the wall as officers surrounded Alex, giving him the lowdown as their shoulder radios squawked and beeped. Alex’s shoulders stiffened, his eyes on the officer in front of me. I took a few tentative steps closer, my head cocked as I tried to listen. My stomach dropped.
“. . . bloodbath,” said one of the officers.
“Double homicide,” another one finished as he shrugged into his coat.
“The area is destroyed. Looks like a tornado hit it.”
The officers filed out into squad cars, kicking on lights and revving engines. Alex went out the door toward his car and I followed, yanking on his arm.
“What’s going on?” I wanted to know.
“None of your business.” He didn’t meet my eyes, but I noticed how the color had drained from his face. His jaw was set hard and that same muscle—the one that said he wasn’t telling me the whole truth—jumped. I flipped on my heel.
“I’m coming with you.” I had the car door open when Alex turned the engine over.
“No, you’re not.” He kicked the car in reverse and I did a double hop, surprising myself when I flopped down into his passenger’s seat, yanking the door shut behind me. There was a faint smile on Alex’s lips as he looked over his shoulder, backing us out at warp speed and throwing on the flashing lights.
“You really don’t understand the word no, do you?”
I shrugged, hoping he couldn’t hear the wild thump of my heart. “Seems like kind of a waste to learn now. What’s going on, Alex?”
He pinned me with a hard glare. “Why don’t you tell me, Lawson?”
Heat surged over me once again and I jammed my hands under my thighs. “I mean right now. This case.”
He swung back to stare out the windshield, negotiating the midafternoon traffic like the SUV was a pinball. “Double homicide out by Sutro.”
“I thought they said bloodbath.”
Alex’s eyes flashed. “You were listening.”
I nodded. “The place was destroyed? Like a tornado?”
Alex’s eyes stayed fixed on the road in front of us, but I could tell he was thinking, considering how much to tell me. His grip on the wheel, his white knuckles, told me there was a lot to consider. “It’s police business.”
I narrowed my eyes, shooting him a steely glare. I was surprised when my hard look softened him a touch. “Fine. As far as I know, right now it doesn’t look supernatural, but it does look bad. Real bad. Which means you’re going to sit your pretty little ass right here in this car while I go take a look.”
I was happy to have my ass acknowledged and happier still that it was preceded with “pretty” and “little.” But it didn’t stop me from crossing my arms in front of my chest and hitching my chin. “How do you know it’s not supernatural?”
He blew out a sigh. “Look, if I find any unicorn hooves, I’ll call you, okay? If I weren’t in such a hurry I would have tossed you out of the car.”
“You still could have.”
“Before or after your Dukes of Hazard stunt?”