He continued, “Do you know of anyone who’d like to go on tour with them?”
“No. You’re the guy with the music industry connections.”
He shook his head. “It’s you, Jules. You should tour with them. I let the tour manager listen to a recording of one of our gigs, and he loved it. The spot’s yours if you want it.”
My jaw dropped. “Me? But I don’t tour. I mean, not anymore.”
“Why not? You’re playing bigger venues around town now. The only difference is that you’d be performing in different towns.”
That was a huge difference. “I can’t just drop everything and tour around the country. I have two jobs. Plus things are going pretty well with this guy I know…”
Grinning, he said, “That won’t be a problem. I’m going with you. Javier and Mick are on board, too.”
I could barely wrap my mind around what he was saying. Touring with Pete was a fantasy I’d had forever, but between his work schedule and me giving up on singing as a career long ago, I didn’t think it could ever happen. I felt giddy at the prospect, but my analytical side was doing its best to keep a lid on my excitement.
“You’re taking off work to go? What about Java Jive? We can’t just leave it.”
“It’s only five weeks.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t too terribly long. “But—”
He silenced my worrying with a kiss. “Say yes.”
“Pete, do you really think we can do this?”
“We can do anything together. You should know that by now.”
That was true. “Okay, then. Yes.”
—
I felt like I was floating on our way back to my apartment. Touring the country, playing music every night with Pete was more than I ever could have asked for. And he’d made it happen because he believed in me and always had. My heart couldn’t get any fuller, and this was only the beginning.
My phone rang, shaking me out of my dreamlike state. I frowned when I saw Cooper’s name on the display. What could he possibly want? I hit the decline button.
“Screening your calls?” Pete asked.
“Yes. It was Cooper.”
“Poor brokenhearted kid.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, stop.”
A text came in from Cooper: Your apartment has been broken into again.
I gasped. “What the hell? He says my apartment has been broken into again.” I put my head in my hands and moaned, “I couldn’t be happy for even an hour?”
Pete sped the rest of the way to my apartment while I called Cooper to verify his message. He sent me a picture of my (again) busted doorframe. I then called Ryder and 911.
When we got to my apartment, Cooper was standing guard by my open front door.
“Cooper, thanks for watching out for me. I appreciate it,” I said.
Stony-faced, he replied, “You’re welcome,” then marched into his apartment without another word.
Pete and I entered my apartment, cringing as we saw all our hard work ruined. Every box and bag we’d packed had been opened and emptied onto the floor. When the initial irritation began to subside, a chilling fear began to take over. To my knowledge, Jared Fisher hadn’t been found yet, but now I had a pretty good idea of his whereabouts.
Two uniformed MNPD officers got there first. They took my statement and Cooper’s. Not long after that, Ryder and Maya arrived, grim-faced.
Maya rushed to hug me. “While I’m happy to see you back, did you have to bring the crazy with you?”
I frowned. “This was not the plan.”
She lowered her voice. “And you’re sure it wasn’t the boy toy? Ryder said he was the one who called to let you know.”
“No, it wasn’t Cooper. I overheard him telling the uniform he’d been at a clinical from three o’clock until he got home and called me. He has to clock in and out for school credit, and he’s shadowing a doctor the whole time so there’s proof of where he was every minute this afternoon and evening.”
Ryder said, “I called Harrison on the way over here. They’ve yet to locate Jared Fisher, but I’m thinking they can narrow their search to here in town. I’m afraid he’s fixated on you for some reason. This is twice now, same MO. I’m just thankful you weren’t here.”
Pete squeezed my shoulder. “Me, too.”
An unmarked police car squealed into the parking lot. Delaney jumped out, huffing and puffing. His beady eyes landed on us, and he made a beeline for me. I could feel what little joy that was left inside me being sucked out as he approached.
“What the hell happened here?” he demanded, shoving Pete and one of the uniformed officers aside to get a better look inside my apartment.
I blew out a long breath. “Evidently our fun little case isn’t over yet.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Or you did this yourself for the attention.”
“Seriously? If you actually think that, then you’re a bigger tool than any of us ever imagined.”
My friends had to cover their smiles as Delaney’s face turned purple.
“Stay out of my investigation!”
I raised my voice to match his. “How does my place getting ransacked while I’m gone translate to me inserting myself into your investigation? If you’d done your job in the first place instead of wasting time trying to pin a murder on us, none of this would ever have happened! Find. Jared. Fisher!”
Cursing under his breath, he brushed past us and barged into my apartment, turning his wrath on one of the officers inside.
Pete said, “How long do we have to stick around?”
“Shouldn’t be long,” Ryder replied. His brow furrowed as he turned to me. “I don’t think you should stay at Pete’s like you did last time. This guy could be watching you. I want you in protective custody until he’s caught.”
“Oh, come on,” I whined. “No offense, but I’m soooo tired of cops right now. And I’ve already taken two days off work this week. The coffeehouse could be in a shambles, for all I know.”
“I told you the place is fine. Listen to what the man has to say,” Pete said.
Ryder conceded, “Maybe it doesn’t have to be so invasive. You can go stay in a hotel that requires a key card to grant access to the upper floors, and we can post a uni outside your door. Then you can go to work tomorrow, and I’ll babysit you. Will that work?”
I rubbed my forehead. “I guess…”
Maya gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “You seem rather shaken still.”
“I am. And I’m not looking forward to the prospect of spending the rest of the evening alone in an empty hotel room with only my thoughts to keep me company.”
The corner of her mouth turned up as she glanced at Pete. “I bet you could bring a friend along to keep you company.”
—
A uniformed MNPD officer escorted Pete and me from my apartment to a hotel downtown that was only two blocks from the police station. We were taken in through the delivery entrance and up to our room via a service elevator. The officer checked around the room, and after pronouncing it free of murderers, left us alone.
Pete took my hands. “I know this isn’t how I expected my day to end when I woke up this morning. How about you?”
I laughed mirthlessly. “Not even close. Too bad we can’t rewind the day to the part right before I got the call from Cooper.”
“Tell me the truth—are you absolutely positive about going on tour? I was worried I was overstepping, but I figured it would be easier to ask for forgiveness than to try to talk you into letting me give it a shot. Plus I didn’t want to get your hopes up, only to crush them if the guy said no. But it’s one hundred percent your decision. You can still say no, and I’ll be fine with it either way.”
I slid my arms around his waist. “I’d be crazy to give up five weeks with you all to myself, with nothing to do but hang out and perform.”
Smiling, he said, “There are probably a few other things we could do.”
“Like what?”
I asked innocently.
“This.”
He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my neck, which sent a flash of heat through my body. I tightened my grip on his waist and pulled him closer to me. His lips found mine, hot and insistent, as his fingers threaded through my hair.
Pulling away much too fast for my liking, he said breathlessly, “Just so we’re on the same page…are we still planning to take this glacially slow? Or is that not a thing anymore?”
I slid my hands up his back. “We’ve done glacially slow for twelve years. I think that’s long enough.”
—
I’d never experienced this level of bliss before in my life. Not even once. Had I never truly been in love with the men I’d dated before? And had I always been in love with Pete with my whole heart and simply been too stupid and afraid to ever do anything about it? I was sure I was guilty on all counts, but luckily I had the rest of my life to make up for it.
I nestled into Pete’s arms, and he pulled me close.
Unable to wipe the grin off his face, he said, “That was pretty great.”
“Only pretty great? As amazing as your other bedroom skills are, your pillow talk could use some work.”
“That was pretty great…honey? No, wait. That somehow sounded worse. Should I be calling you ‘honey’ or ‘sweetie’ now or not?”
I pinched his cheek. “No, you keep calling me ‘Jules.’ No one else is allowed to call me that except you.”
“What are you going to call me?”
“I seem to remember calling you ‘stud muffin’ a couple of times. What would you think of that?”
He gave me a mock frown. “I think you were using it sarcastically. And while an accurate moniker, I don’t think it quite captures the essence of me.”
“Hmm. A moniker that captures the essence of Pete Bennett…Man child?”
“Maybe I’ll just stick with Pete.”
I tilted my head up so I could look straight into his deep brown eyes. “That works for me, because then I can say this—I love you, Pete.”
Cradling my face with his hand, he said, “I love you, too, Jules. I always have.”
Chapter 26
As I was reaching to silence the alarm clock, Pete flung his arm across me and beat the thing until it stopped beeping.
I said, “You realize I get up at this time every morning, right? If this living-together thing is going to work, you can’t be karate chopping my alarm every day.”
Eyes squeezed firmly shut, he wrapped both arms around me and pulled me close to him. “No one gets up this early.”
“Do you think the pastries magically appear overnight at Java Jive’s doorstep?”
“No, I know some hot chick goes in and bakes them. Now, shh. I’m trying to sleep.”
I couldn’t help but smile. He was even more adorable in the morning, if that was possible.
After I had to nearly physically drag Pete out of bed, we finally made it to Java Jive not too late. The morning shift uni who had brought us here stood guard in the front of the house, since Ryder wasn’t scheduled to arrive until a little later.
As I was trying to concentrate on cutting the butter into my dry scone ingredients, Pete was busy smooching my neck. “Not that I mind this while we’re alone, but sooner or later our staff is going to start arriving. Are we ready to make our new…situation public?”
Between kisses, he said, “Well, if anyone asks who put that smile on your face today, I’m not opposed to you telling them the truth.”
“Okay.” I turned around so we were face-to-face. “But get this out of your system now, because it’s not fair for us to make out in here if I don’t let the employees do it.”
He kissed me thoroughly, leaving me breathless. “There you go. Out of my system. Now if I don’t pry myself away from you, it’s going to get back into my system real fast.”
“Then go to the office and do some accounting or something.”
“Ah yes, accounting. The age-old boner killer.”
—
When we opened and Gertie came in, Pete was still in the office, so I sent Rhonda back to get him.
As I poured her coffee, Gertie said, “You’re particularly rosy-cheeked this morning. Does this mean you and my grandson went out on a date last night?”
Gertie always wanted the scoop on who I was dating, and she was never shy about asking prying questions about my sex life I didn’t want to answer. I hoped she didn’t get too personal, considering this was her grandson we were talking about.
“Yes, we did.” Normally, I wouldn’t have considered the impromptu trip to Big Shotz a date, but if you counted the hotel and all the sex, I thought it more than qualified.
I smiled at Pete as he sat down next to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He gave me a shy smile back.
Eyeing the exchange between the two of us, she asked, “And? Did you finally admit that you love each other?”
Not taking our eyes off each other, we answered, “Yes.”
“Hells bells. It’s about time. You could make the record books for longest foreplay.”
And there it was.
Feeling my face flame up, I looked away.
Pete groaned. “Aw, come on, Gert.”
She laughed and took one of our hands in each of her own. “Oh, don’t get your panties in a bunch. All I’m trying to say is I’m happy for you two.”
The line at the cash register was beginning to lengthen, so I left them to help Camille make the coffee orders. While I was away from Pete and Gertie, I saw them speaking with their heads together. At one point she wiped a tear from her eye and beamed at him. Gertie was thrilled that Pete and I had got together. She’d been encouraging us forever and had treated me like a part of her family from the first moment I’d met her. They both glanced my way, so I pretended not to have been openly watching them. I flicked my eyes back over and noticed her covertly press something into his hand, which he put in his pocket. Those two were up to something, but I wasn’t going to poke my nose into it. I’d done enough investigating lately to last me awhile.
Gertie and Pete waved at me and left, and a few minutes later Ryder came in and took a stool at the counter. We’d managed to get the customer line manageable again, so I went over and poured him a cup of coffee.
“I take it you’re going to park here all day? Sounds kind of boring, if you ask me,” I said.
He grinned. “I’ve got hot coffee, good food, and marginally decent company. It’s much better than sitting in a sweltering vehicle doing surveillance or being chained to a desk.”
“I suppose you have a point there. Any word on Jared Fisher’s whereabouts?”
Taking a sip of coffee, he shook his head. “Not yet. You trying to get rid of me already?”
“Never. But I wouldn’t mind getting back to my normal life.”
“Nothing about your life is normal.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Does everyone think that?”
He eyed me for a moment. “I didn’t have a chance to ask you this last night, but I noticed it looked like you’d been packing up your apartment. Going somewhere?”
It was an odd feeling, but I’d finally got to the place where I’d moved on where Ryder was concerned. Before, it had always felt wrong to talk about Pete with him. Not anymore.
“I’m moving in with Pete.”
He nodded. “Good for you guys.” Judging by his sincere reaction, I thought he seemed to have moved on, too.
“Thanks.” I took a breath as I readied myself to break the news about the tour. “Also, I’m going on tour with the Maguire Girls.”
Ryder’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? That’s fantastic. Congratulations.” He reached across the counter and gave me a hug. “When? Where? Tell me all about it.”
—
Once I filled him in on all the details I knew, I got back to work. But after a few hours, I was beginning to get fidgety. It had been over fifteen hours since the break-in at my apartment. In my
mind, the cops had had a ton of time to locate Jared Fisher, but we hadn’t heard a peep. I walked over to where Ryder was sitting on the couch and flung myself down next to him.
“Any word?”
“Since the last time you asked ten minutes ago? No,” he replied, not glancing up from the magazine he was perusing.
“Besides being frustrating and dragging out forever, this case is…sad. Usually our cases end with a bang, and you feel justified in having brought down a killer. This time it’s just depressing.”
He gave me a sidelong glance. “What, someone has to get shot for it to feel like a victory to you?”
I rolled my eyes. “That is so not what I said. I mean, Scott’s dead. Mandi’s dead. Jared has three kids who are going to grow up without a dad around. Nobody wins here.”
“As opposed to other murder cases where there’s a clear winner.”
“You know, I came over here to talk to a friend. If I wanted to get hassled, I’d work the cash register.”
He nudged my knee with his. “Oh, lighten up. You’re feeling like a caged animal—I get it. Have a little patience.”
“Have you met me?”
Chuckling, he replied, “I know. ‘Patience’ is not your middle name.”
Pete didn’t get to come in for lunch, since he was trying to make up some time for having left work early the previous day. Not getting to see him only made me more unsettled, and not being allowed to even step foot outside for some fresh air was getting to me as well. I settled for pacing in the office while Ryder sat at the desk and ate his lunch.
“Juliet, do you think you could give it a rest for a few minutes?” he asked, clearly irritated by the angst I was no doubt radiating into the air.
I stopped and made an apologetic face. “I’m sorry. I’m helpless, and I hate that feeling. Can’t you use me as bait or something? Maybe that would speed things up. I could stand on the sidewalk and wave my arms. Surely if Jared’s watching, he’d see me and come after me. Then you could nab him.”
Ryder stared at me. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Well, that’s because I’m being slowly driven nuts.”
Murder Over Mochas Page 22
