Angelina glanced over her shoulder, her expression twisted and hateful. “What do you want?”
I held up the bag. “You forgot your medication.”
“You mean you stole my medication,” Angelina huffed out, striding back in my direction. “I’m filing a police report about this. Don’t think you’ll get away with it.”
I shot a glance at the police officers in the pink-stained car, both of whom seemed desperate to stare out the opposite window and pretend they weren’t listening to the exchange. “Do you guys want to arrest me?”
Neither man so much as looked in my direction.
“I guess not.” I forced a smile for Angelina’s benefit, knowing it would drive her crazy. “Are you going through menopause?”
“What?” Angelina’s eyebrows flew up into her forehead. “Why would you ask that?”
I shrugged. “You’re growing a beard.”
Angelina’s hand flew toward her top lip.
“Beard,” I stressed. “You’re doing a good job at keeping up on the mustache.”
“I will rip your hair out of your head,” Angelina hissed, reaching forward.
I easily sidestepped her, biting back the urge to laugh when Angelina almost tripped over a seam in the sidewalk. “You should be careful. I’m sure the cold feels good to you given all of the hot flashes you’re dealing with, but it will hurt if you hit the pavement.”
“It’s going to hurt when I put my fist in your face,” Angelina gritted out.
Finally, the police officer in the driver’s seat of the car couldn’t ignore the potential for violence a second longer and opened his door, embarrassment tinging his cheeks as he exited the vehicle.
“Ladies, is there something I can help you with?”
“Who are you?” Angelina asked, frustrated.
“They’re cops,” I replied. “I already told you that.”
“Oh, well, I want her arrested.” Angelina extended a finger in my direction.
“On what charges?” the officer asked.
“Being a menace.”
“You’ll have to do better than that.”
“I caught her going through my purse,” Angelina announced, scowling.
“Is that true?” The officer turned his full attention to me.
“No.” I shook my head. “I accidentally knocked her purse off the bench and she caught me putting everything back. I was not going through her personal belongings.”
“Don’t believe her!” Angelina screwed her face into a hateful expression. “She’s an evil woman who has been obsessed with me since we were kids.”
“I’m not obsessed with you,” I scoffed.
“You want to be me.”
“You’re a skank. No one wants to be a skank. Well, the Kardashians are fine with it, but they’re the exceptions.” I hopped from one foot to the other, my cold feet aching. “I need to get back inside.”
“Wait.” Angelina glared a hole into the police officer. “Aren’t you going to arrest her?”
“I don’t have jurisdiction,” he explained. “If she were in Royal Oak I would arrest her.”
“If you don’t have jurisdiction why are you even here?” Angelina was beside herself. “I’m just so sick of all of this. I can’t stand you and your stupid family and all the weird things that happen around you.”
I couldn’t exactly blame her. Still, it was too cold to remain outside, so all I could do before fleeing inside was raise a hand in farewell. “Good luck with your menopause. The beard is hardly noticeable, although you might want to look into some bleach just to be on the safe side. If it takes you a few days, don’t worry about it. You’ll cover it up eventually.”
Whew. That should make her feel better.
20
TWENTY
“What happened to your feet?”
Dad didn’t look happy when he found me staring at the bottom of my feet in front of the fireplace shortly before dinner. Griffin was due to arrive any moment. I was in serious pain, and I needed a way to hide my stupidity.
“Um … I forgot to put my shoes on before going outside.”
Dad cuffed the back of my head. “What did you really do?”
“I’m not exaggerating. That’s what I did.”
“Oh, geez.” Dad lifted my feet and knelt, studying the soles as he made disgusted sounds in the back of his throat. “You have frostbite.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. I was outside for less than five minutes.”
“Then you almost have frostbite, maybe more like frost burn,” Dad said. “The bottoms of your feet are all red and leathery.”
“They won’t fall off, will they?”
“I doubt it.”
“Well, that’s the best bit of news I’ve had in hours.” I wiggled my toes, grimacing as pain shot through my feet. “Why didn’t someone remind me to put on my shoes?”
“Because putting on your shoes before going outside during a Michigan winter is common sense.”
“Obviously not.”
“You’re my least favorite child right now,” Dad muttered. “You know that, right?”
“I thought I was your most annoying child.”
“Those two qualities are not mutually exclusive.”
“Good to know.”
Dad growled, shifting his eyes to the open door as Griffin strolled in. “Hello.”
“Hey.” Griffin furrowed his brow. He looked tired, as if the day stalked him, stabbed him and then mounted his head in a hunting cabin. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I replied hurriedly, jerking my feet away and tucking them under the blanket. “Dad has a foot fetish.”
Dad scowled. “That’s disgusting.”
“And borderline incestuous,” Griffin said. “What did you do to your feet?”
“Nothing.”
“I think she might have frostbite,” Dad volunteered.
“Oh, well, there’s some good news.” Griffin joined Dad on the floor and extended his hands. “Let me see.”
“I blame you for this, Dad.” I stuck out my feet and whimpered when Griffin grabbed them.
“Sorry,” Griffin intoned, lifting my legs so he could see the damage for himself. “I think you’ll live, but I’m dying to know how you managed this.”
Griffin made a groaning sound as he stood, one my father mimicked to perfection as he pushed himself up, and blew out a sigh as he sat on the couch next to me.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, grabbing his hand and flipping it over so I could study his palm. “You look tired.”
“Oh, thank you, baby. Men love to hear that just as much as women do.”
“I didn’t mean it as an insult. In fact, I was going to offer to give you a massage after dinner. I think you need to relax.”
“That’s nice of you.” Griffin patted my knee. “It’s also suspicious. I can’t remember the last time you offered to massage me. More often than not you trick me into massaging you.”
“I had a professional massage today.”
“Did your father hire people to come in and keep you out of his hair?”
“I wish I’d thought of that.” Dad shuffled to his desk. “She suckered me into giving her my credit card so she could stalk Angelina at the spa.”
I expected Griffin to be agitated because he wasn’t informed of our spa visit, but all he did was smirk. “Fun. Did you get in a slap fight today?”
“Not even close.”
“That’s not what Redmond said,” Dad interjected. “He said Angelina reached for you, but you managed to evade her.”
“Did she slap me?”
“No.”
“Then it wasn’t a slap fight.”
“Fair enough.” Dad turned back to his computer. “Did you really spend four thousand dollars at the spa?”
“Most of that was Braden,” I replied. “He needed a lot of work done. That unibrow is frightening.”
“Really?” Dad didn’t look convinced. “Braden
says you needed special treatment to hide the hump in your back.”
“I’ll make him pay later.”
“Of course you will.”
I turned back to Griffin. “What were we talking about again?”
“Your slap fight with Angelina.”
“Oh, it wasn’t really a slap fight. Jerry found out from Nadia that Angelina was spending the afternoon at that day spa in Rochester, so we decided to go there. Dad gave me his credit card, and sent Braden, Aidan and Redmond with us because he was sick of hearing us talk.”
“I was sick of you guys attacking the police with water balloons,” Dad corrected. “Hearing you talk was a close second, though.”
“We’ll come back to the water balloon thing,” Griffin warned. “What did you find out at the day spa?”
“That Braden gets his unibrow waxed every two weeks. Oh, and he has his back waxed, too.”
“About Angelina,” Griffin pressed. “What did you find out about her?”
“She’s going through menopause.”
“Really?”
I shrugged. “She had a boatload of medication in her purse. We accused her of having menopause. She didn’t deny it. She also had three really expensive lipsticks in a knockoff purse, and she tried to have me arrested by the cops who followed us, but they just laughed at her.”
“The cops followed you to the spa?”
“They did, although they tried to pretend they didn’t, even though Angelina and I were going at it pretty hard,” I explained. “They didn’t get out of their car until Angelina tried to pull my hair. By then my feet already hurt because I’d forgotten my shoes, so I didn’t spend much time messing with them.”
“Oh, well, that was very smart of you.” Griffin exchanged a weighted look with my father. “Tell me about the water balloons.”
“That sounds like a line from a porno.”
Griffin smiled as Dad scowled. “I don’t think your father finds that funny.”
“I just pretend I don’t hear her fifty percent of the time,” Dad said. “As for the water balloons, technically it’s my fault. Most of them were bored, and I didn’t see the harm in it.”
“The harm in what?” Griffin asked, tracing his finger over my engagement ring.
“I let them torture what I assume was about half of the Royal Oak Police Department with a bag of water balloons and their imaginations,” Dad replied. “They got a little creative. I found the pink food coloring amusing. The laundry detergent was ingenious, because it won’t come off in this weather. I drew the line at the lighter fluid.”
Instead of expressing outrage or disappointment, Griffin broke out in huge grin. “You attacked the police with water bombs all day?”
“Just in the morning. We went to the spa in the afternoon.”
“Well, that sounds like a day well spent.” Griffin brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “Do you want to hear about my day?”
“Always.” I shifted so I could rest my legs on his lap and share the blanket with him. “Did you miss me?”
Griffin smirked. “Always. Where are your brothers? I only want to go through this stuff once.”
“I’ll get them.” Dad left us alone while he hunted the troops, giving Griffin a chance to kiss me to the point where I thought my lips might be suffering from frostbite, too.
I was a little breathless when we separated. “You really did miss me, huh?”
“Yes. I pictured you here, bored out of your mind, and pitied your father for most of the day. I’m happy to hear you managed to have some fun.”
“I still missed you.” I pressed my index finger into his cheek. “I’m sorry you missed the shenanigans.”
“I’m sure you took video.”
“It’s already on YouTube.”
We shared another kiss, ignoring Dad as he cleared his throat upon entry.
“Knock that off,” Redmond ordered, smacking his hand against Griffin’s arm as he walked past him. “There’s no need to act like animals.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” I shot back. “You tried to get naked on a public terrace the other night. Who’s really the animal?”
“You,” Redmond replied, wrinkling his nose. “You’re a … what’s the most annoying animal on the planet?”
“An ostrich,” Jerry answered, lifting the other side of the blanket and crawling under to cuddle next to me.
“No one cares about annoying animals,” Dad barked. “Griffin has some information he’d like to share. You have been screwing around all day. It’s time you focus on something important.”
“I, for one, look forward to it.” I beamed at Griffin, but he shook his head.
“You can ease up,” Griffin said. “You’re not in trouble, and I have no energy to fight. You don’t have to lay it on so thick.”
I blew out a sigh. “Good, because I was running out of material.”
“I’m sure you were.” Griffin turned somber. “So, I have some interesting news and I’m not sure how you’ll take it. Before I share it, I want everyone to remember that we don’t know anything yet, so there’s no reason to fly off the handle.”
“Did you hear him?” I asked my brothers pointedly. “He means business.”
“I’m talking to you, baby.” Griffin kept his tight smile in place. “I decided to run a state search because I had an idea. I thought maybe the two bodies we’re dealing with weren’t the first to be discovered under mysterious circumstances.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dad acknowledged. “I didn’t even think of that.”
“I didn’t until later in the afternoon either,” Griffin admitted. “I wish I’d thought about it earlier, because I would’ve had time to make a few calls once the search results came in, but I can chase that tomorrow.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Aidan chided. “What did you find?”
“Fifteen other bodies.”
“I’m sorry, but … what?”
Griffin nodded, as if to hammer home the truth behind his words. “There have been fifteen bodies found in this area – we’re talking Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Monroe counties – in the past three weeks.”
I was quiet as I absorbed the information.
“In some cases, witnesses reported seeing the bodies move before they fell to the ground or were discovered later unmoving in a park,” Griffin continued. “In one case, a woman swears the body hissed at her and tried to bite her neck before she clocked the individual with her purse. By the time police showed up, the body wasn’t moving and the medical examiner found that he’d been dead for at least two weeks.”
“That’s almost exactly what happened to Aisling,” Redmond pointed out.
“It is.” Griffin’s gaze was heavy when it fell on me. “Do you have something you want to say?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Well, let me have it.”
“Okay.” I sucked in a big mouthful of air before tossing off the blanket and hopping to my sore feet, ignoring the pain that shot through my soles as I pumped my fist in the air and wiggled my hips. “I was right!”
I did the dance of the ages, my “I’m right” dance, and didn’t bother acknowledging the sighs and eye rolls permeating the room. When I turned back to Griffin, I found his lips curving as he watched me. “It was almost worth putting up with the dance to tell you that.”
“You liked the dance,” I argued, limping toward the couch. “Admit it.”
“I prefer the ‘I won’ dance, but the ‘I’m right’ dance is a close second.” Griffin lifted my feet so he could study them a second time. “Did that hurt?”
“It was worth it.”
“How did I know you would say that?” Griffin’s fingers were gentle as he lightly rubbed his hands over my sore feet. “While I’m not quite as enthusiastic about Aisling being right, I can no longer say with certainty that she is wrong.”
“Ha!” I extended a finger in Dad’s direction. “I was right.�
�
“We don’t know that,” Dad cautioned.
“How can you say that?” I was understandably annoyed. “We have seventeen dead bodies discovered in the metropolitan region and all of them appear to have been wandering around after death.”
“Perhaps there’s some sort of weird virus going around that causes the exact same thing,” Dad suggested. “Have you considered that?”
I honestly hadn’t. “No, because it’s zombies.”
“Or it’s a mutated virus,” Dad shot back. “The simplest answer is almost always the correct answer, Aisling. You know that.”
“That’s not what you said when I told you the Easter Bunny was bunk right after my sixth birthday.”
“Shut up.” Dad graced me with a warning look before shifting his attention to my brothers. “I don’t know what to make of this, but who here believes that we’re being invaded by zombies?”
Dad used that tone of voice he used when asking if any of us had seen a snipe while camping in the backyard. To my utter surprise, Aidan and Braden raised their hands.
“Really?” Dad’s frustration bubbled up. “Now I have three of you believing in zombies? Ugh.”
“I don’t know if it’s zombies, but I think it could very well be something freaky and supernatural,” Jerry offered. “Of course, there’s always the possibility that it’s a super virus like in 28 Days Later, and we’re all doomed. I’m not sure which I prefer.”
“Ooh.” I was intrigued by the 28 Days Later comparison. “That’s a good reference, Jerry. Those weren’t zombies. They were infected people who kind of looked like zombies.”
“It’s not zombies,” Dad snapped.
“You said yourself it could be a weird infection,” I pointed out. “You can’t backtrack now.”
“An infection is vastly different from zombies.”
“Except for the symbol I saw,” I reminded him. “Did any of the bodies have that symbol, Griffin?”
“I asked, but I won’t get an update until tomorrow,” Griffin replied. “Right now we’re in a holding pattern. All we know is that this isn’t new and Aisling is hardly the only one affected. That’s something I’m certainly going to bring up with Detective Green when I see him again.”
Grim Rising (Aisling Grimlock Book 7) Page 20
