“Fine.” Redmond gave in, as he always did. “If something goes wrong, though, you’re taking all the blame.”
“Don’t I always?”
“Not even close, little sister.”
“I CAN’T believe we’re doing this,” Redmond grumbled. He hadn’t stopped complaining for five straight minutes. “Is this the type of stuff you did with Aidan and Jerry in high school?”
“Jerry used to make us dress in all black and carry binoculars when we spied in high school.”
“I’m so glad I was too cool to hang out with you guys then,” Redmond said. “Getting caught doing this would totally ruin my street cred.”
I snorted. “You grew up in an all-white suburb full of trust fund kids and swanky cars. You don’t have any street cred.”
“I have street cred,” Redmond protested. “People fear me.”
“Is that why you want the motorcycle?” I asked, pressing closer to the building so Andrea wouldn’t be able to see us as she scanned for traffic before crossing the street. “Do you think it will make you look like a badass?”
“Hey, I’m already a badass,” Redmond said. “You can’t see it because you’re my sister. Women everywhere swoon when they see me as it is. I would be unstoppable on a motorcycle.”
“Have you ever considered trying to date these swooning women for more than one night?”
“Not all of us are happy in a domestic setting,” Redmond countered. “I think that’s a woman thing.”
“Aidan and Jerry are happy.”
“That kind of proves my point.”
I frowned. “That’s kind of a homophobic way to look at it,” I pointed out.
“See, you purposely trapped me into saying something I didn’t mean,” Redmond said. “That’s another woman thing.”
I blew a raspberry instead of responding. I was pretty sure it conveyed my response perfectly.
“We can’t keep following her,” Redmond said. “It looks like she’s going to that bar, anyway. She wasn’t lying. I don’t know if you thought she was, but she clearly wasn’t.”
Was that why I insisted on following her? Did I think Andrea was lying? “There’s something off about her … and it’s more than her interest in Griffin,” I explained. “It’s as if she wants to beat me. She reminds me of Angelina. She’s just not as overt with her intentions.”
“Speaking of Angelina, have you seen her since your last big fight?”
“I think she finally realizes she’s never going to get Cillian back,” I said. “Hopefully she’s moved on. If she wasn’t such a bitch, I would almost feel sorry for her.”
“Really?”
“No,” I admitted. “I’ll always hate her.”
“There’s my sister,” Redmond said, smiling. “Look. Andrea is meeting someone outside. That doesn’t look like a woman. It looks like a date. Maybe she’s not interested in Griffin after all, and you made all of that up in your head.”
It definitely didn’t look like a woman. She leaned in to kiss the man on the cheek, and my heart started pounding when I realized who she was meeting. “Do you know who that is?”
“No,” Redmond replied. “I’m definitely better looking than that dude. Do you think I have a shot with her?”
“If you touch her your thing is going to fall off,” I said.
“Why? Do you think she gets around?”
“No, I’m going to curse it so it falls off, because I don’t like her and I don’t want her around my family,” I shot back. “Focus on the important things here. Look really closely at that guy and tell me you don’t know who he is.”
“Fine.” Redmond was exasperated, but he narrowed his eyes so he could focus on the man who was intently chatting with Andrea. “He does look familiar. I … holy crap.”
“There it is,” I muttered.
“Is that Everett Grimpond?”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.”
“How does Griffin’s partner know Everett?” Redmond asked. “That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“She didn’t act as though she knew him at lunch the other day.”
“Did she see him?”
“She commented on him when I recognized him,” I replied. “I was trying to tell Griffin that I needed to talk to him without making a big deal about why. She made some offhand comment about him being one of my ex-boyfriends and I believe the word ‘tool’ was bandied about.”
“He is a tool,” Redmond agreed. “I don’t understand how Everett and Andrea hooked up. Looks like they’ve known each other for a long time. I have a hard time believing they somehow ran into each other after you fought with Everett in the restaurant.”
“He left before me.”
“So how did they hook up?”
That was a really good question. “What if Everett was at the restaurant to meet Andrea in the first place?” I suggested. “What if she invited herself to lunch with Griffin and me because she didn’t want to be seen with Everett?”
“That sounds like you’re grasping at straws. Why would she do that?”
“I’ve never liked her,” I said. “I know it makes me sound jealous, but there’s always been something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. I know Griffin would never cheat on me, yet she went out of her way to suggest otherwise. She did it right in front of him.”
“What did Griffin do?”
“He told her off while I was talking with Everett,” I answered. “He didn’t go into a lot of detail, because I was fuming about Everett and really nervous about telling you guys the truth.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to have Cillian run Andrea before I mention any of this to Griffin,” I said. “If I say something now, I’m worried he’ll think I’m jealous and making stuff up.”
“He wouldn’t think that, Ais,” Redmond argued. “I agree about having Cillian run her first, though. There’s no reason to fly off the handle if we don’t have to. Griffin has done a lot for all of us. Let’s not panic until we have a reason.”
“We should get back,” I said, tugging on Redmond’s arm. “Griffin might be looking for us.”
“Yeah. I’m hungry, too,” Redmond said. “We’ll put Cillian on this as soon as we get back to the house. There might be a perfectly plausible explanation for all of this.”
“That would be a nice change of pace,” I said.
Twenty-Seven
“Has he found anything?”
Cillian, Redmond and I were holed up in one of the east wing parlors as we searched for information on Andrea. We were trying to be quiet – which isn’t always easy in the Grimlock world – so we opted to hide in a part of the house people rarely visited.
“I’ve barely logged on,” Cillian muttered.
He was still angry with me. I could see it in the set of his shoulders. I didn’t blame him, although I hoped Redmond would be able to wear him down. Two brothers on my side while two others actively worked against me made for better odds.
“Okay,” I said, my voice small. “I’ll … go someplace else.”
“Don’t go,” Redmond ordered. “We need you to act as lookout.”
“I still don’t understand why we’re doing this on the sly,” Cillian said.
“Because Aisling doesn’t want to upset Griffin if she doesn’t have to,” Redmond replied. “She doesn’t want to cause a fight if it’s not necessary.”
“She deserves for him to dump her,” Cillian said. “I think I should tell him what she’s doing behind his back. Getting dumped might remind her that family comes before boyfriends.”
I licked my lips. “You don’t have to do this,” I said. “You don’t want to be around me. I get it. Don’t purposely hurt Griffin because you’re angry with me, though. I … shut down the computer. You don’t have to help me. Just … don’t hurt Griffin.”
Cillian scowled. “Oh, don’t you even think of doing that,” he snapped. “Do you actually think I would go out of my way to hurt h
im? What’s the matter with you?”
“I think that I hurt you and you want to lash out,” I replied, fighting to keep my tone even. “I think the easiest way to go after me is by hurting Griffin. He doesn’t deserve it.”
“Dammit, Aisling! I would never hurt Griffin because you’re an idiot,” Cillian said. “No matter what you think, I would never purposely hurt you either.”
“Do you think I purposely tried to hurt you?”
“No. I think you were frightened and you didn’t know what else to do,” Cillian answered. “That doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” I said. “You have every right to be ticked off. Just … can you be ticked off and look into Andrea’s background at the same time? There has to be something we’re missing. It’s too much of a coincidence. You have to see that.”
“I do see that,” Cillian said, his fingers flying across his keyboard. “I still don’t understand why she would go after Griffin, though. Is that a chick thing I don’t understand?”
“You should’ve seen them staring each other down in the hallway,” Redmond supplied. “If Aisling wasn’t my sister, it would’ve been totally hot.”
“You’re a pig,” I snapped.
“Oink, oink.”
Cillian grinned. His smile is always charming, but it was especially delightful now because I hadn’t seen it in what felt like forever. “Do you think Aisling could take her?”
“I don’t know,” Redmond said, lowering himself to the floor so he could rest his back against the settee. “Andrea carries a gun and she’s kind of badass. Aisling fights dirty, though. She’s not above a good hair-pulling contest.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I do not pull hair. Jerry pulls hair.”
“I remember a time or two when you pulled my hair,” Cillian countered.
“That’s different,” I argued. “I was a foot shorter than you and hair-pulling was the only weapon I had at the time. That shouldn’t count.”
“Okay, that doesn’t count,” Cillian said, tugging on a strand of my hair before realizing what he was doing. “I … crap.”
“What?” I glanced around, worried someone had discovered us.
“He just realized he’s not angry with you, even though he wants to be,” Redmond supplied. “Now he doesn’t know what to do with his righteous indignation.”
“Oh,” I said. “I … Cillian, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to … I didn’t know what to do … um … I was confused and scared. I really am sorry.”
Cillian sighed. “I know you’re sorry. I knew you were sorry when you were telling us what happened. We’ve been worried about you … and now the way you’ve been acting makes sense. Still, Aisling, we’re your family. You should’ve trusted us enough to tell us the truth.”
“I trust you with my life, Cillian,” I said. “I didn’t want to repay your loyalty by breaking your heart.”
“Oh, good grief,” Cillian muttered, reaching over to give me a hug. “You can’t always protect the people you love, Aisling. Sometimes bad things happen no matter how hard you try to fight the inevitable.”
“You sound like a fortune cookie,” I said, struggling to hold back my tears.
“You sound like my bitchy sister, who I’m going to love no matter what,” Cillian said, pulling away from me. “I’m always going to stand by your side, Aisling. You just need to believe that our family is stronger than your fear.”
“Now you definitely sound like a fortune cookie,” Redmond said, pointing at Cillian’s computer screen. “Looks like your search is back. What does it say?”
Cillian shifted his attention from me, furrowing his brow as he read through Andrea’s file. “Well, this is … interesting.”
“Do you want to expand on that?” I prodded.
“Andrea Black is not Griffin’s partner’s real name and the department knew she changed it when she applied for the position,” Cillian said.
“Why would they allow something like that?”
“I’m going to guess it’s because Andrea’s father is a huge political supporter of Griffin’s boss,” Cillian said. “I … Aisling, you’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you, but this does explain a few things.”
I sucked in a calming breath even as my heart rate increased. “Who is Andrea?”
“She’s the piece of the puzzle we’ve been missing,” Cillian said.
I FOUND Griffin sitting on the floor in my father’s office ten minutes later, his angular face intent as he leafed through a series of files he brought back from the precinct.
“Hey,” he said, not bothering to glance in my direction. “Is it time for dinner yet?”
“How did you know I was here?”
“Let’s just say you have a presence,” Griffin said, smiling as he studied the sheet of paper in his hand. “I keep thinking I’m going to stumble across something about your mother’s fire in this miscellaneous folder I found. There’s a ton of stuff in here, but so far I haven’t had any luck finding reference to her fire. I’m sorry.”
“Why would you be sorry? You’ve gone out of your way to help me. I’m the one who should be sorry.”
Griffin finally wrenched his gaze from the file and fixed his eyes on me. “What’s wrong? Did you have it out with one of your brothers?”
“What makes you think something is wrong?”
“You’re hovering in the doorway and clutching your hands together,” Griffin replied. “Your face is white and you look as though you’re about to throw up. I know I’m not an expert, but I can read you pretty well these days. What happened?”
“You’re going to be upset when I tell you what I did,” I said.
“Normally that statement would send chills through my body,” Griffin said. “You were with me all day, though. How could you possibly have gotten yourself in trouble when I wasn’t looking?”
“It’s not that,” I said hurriedly, stepping into the room. “It’s … um … .”
“Aisling, tell me what’s going on,” Griffin said, his voice calm. “You’re not going to feel better until you tell me and I can’t decide whether I’m going to kill you until I know what you’ve done. So … spill.”
“While you were in the file room back at the precinct, Redmond and I ran into Andrea in the hallway,” I said.
“Oh, please tell me you didn’t kill her and hide her body in the closet.”
“We didn’t kill her,” I replied. “Instead we … followed her.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure any reason I give will be sufficient to explain why I felt it was necessary,” I admitted. “Redmond and Cillian have both asked me that exact question. I’m not sure why I felt the need to follow her. The best I can come up with is that she said she was meeting friends and I find it impossible to believe that a woman with her personality could have any friends.”
Griffin was nonplussed. “I see,” he said. “You couldn’t have followed her for very long. You weren’t gone more than a half hour. What did you see?”
“Are you going to yell at me?” I asked, studying the pleasing planes of his face. “If you’re going to yell, I almost wish you’d just get it over with.”
“I haven’t decided whether I’m going to yell yet,” Griffin said. “Keep telling your story. If I’m going to yell I’ll give you fair warning so you can start running. Does that make you feel better?”
Not really. “Um, sure,” I said. “Well, we followed her for about two blocks. She went to a bar on … well, I’m not really sure what street we were on. Redmond could probably tell you if that’s important.”
“Andrea went to a bar on a Friday night? Is that what you’re telling me?” Griffin asked. “I’m shocked. There are no words for how troubling this is.”
I scowled. “There’s no need to be sarcastic,” I said. “I’m not done yet.”
“Oh, good,” Griffin said. “If this story gets any more boring I’ll need a nap.”
&
nbsp; “She met someone at the bar,” I continued, ignoring the snark. “They greeted one another in front of the bar by exchanging kisses on the cheek and … well … they seemed to know one another.”
Griffin leaned forward, intrigued. “Who was it?”
“Everett Grimpond.”
Griffin rubbed the back of his neck as he considered what I said. “She didn’t act as if she knew him at the restaurant yesterday. Why would she be meeting him now?”
“Well, see, this is the other part you’re probably going to be angry about,” I said. “I didn’t want to tell you what we saw until we knew more because … well … I was convinced you’d think I was jealous and I didn’t want to look petty.”
“Yeah, you have nothing to be jealous about,” Griffin said. “I’m not the type to cheat on a woman and, quite frankly, you’re more than I can handle as it is. I don’t care about that. Tell me what you found out.”
“I’m still kind of worried you’re going to yell,” I admitted.
“If you don’t tell me what you found out, I’m definitely going to yell.”
I sighed. “Cillian ran Andrea through his computer. We made up, by the way. Well … kind of. We hugged.”
“I’m happy you made up with Cillian,” Griffin said, his patience clearly starting to wear thin. “Tell me what you guys found.”
“It seems Andrea Black isn’t her real name,” I said. “According to Cillian, and he can show you proof in the records, your boss knew that wasn’t her name because one of his biggest political supporters – who gave a hefty donation to his new city council campaign, by the way – is Fox Grimpond.”
“How is Fox Grimpond tied to Andrea?”
“He’s her father.”
Griffin stilled, surprised. “But … wouldn’t you have recognized her?”
“Amber Grimpond was a little older than me,” I explained. “She was mousy and she had a huge crush on Cillian, if I remember correctly. She kind of faded into the background because Everett was such a snake and sucked up all the attention whenever he was around. When we were younger she had brown hair. She’s obviously dying it now. She also had Everett’s unfortunate nose, which she’s clearly had fixed. If I had to guess, those boobs are fake, too. I knew they were too perfect.”
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