“Because you puked the whole way home.”
Uh-oh. “In your Explorer?”
Eliot’s expression was dark. “No. Thankfully you warned me before you did it and got the window down. You puked on the side of my Explorer.”
Oh, well, that was better than the alternative. “So … no harm done.”
“Except for the puke on the side of my vehicle.”
“So, very little harm done.”
Despite the heavy weight hanging over the room, Eliot’s lips curved. “I’m going to make you detail that Explorer. You’ve been warned.”
“Sure. I think that sounds fair.” I accepted the bottle of water he grabbed from the nightstand and cracked it open. “Are you going to yell? If so, I’d rather get it out of the way now. I don’t want it hanging over me all day.”
“Why would I yell?”
“Because I didn’t tell you where I was going and got completely bombed.”
“What do you think I’m most upset about in that scenario?” Eliot sounded like an annoying therapist. I kind of wanted to pinch him to make the questions stop. I played along, instead, but only because I was too weak to yell.
“The part where I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
“That’s correct.” Eliot smirked at my scowl. “You should’ve at least texted that you weren’t going to be home last night.”
“I had every intention of returning home.”
“How were you going to get here? You were way too drunk to drive.”
“That’s why Uber exists.”
“Well, at least you were thinking on that front.” Eliot rolled his neck until it cracked. “Did you call Jake to meet you?”
I’d almost forgotten Jake was even there until he reminded me. “He came in after me. He was in a bad mood, too.”
“I know. He was chatty on the way home. He was drunk, but nowhere near as blotto as you.”
That was another thing I didn’t remember until he reminded me. “Jake came home with us. I … forgot. Have you checked on him?”
“He’s a grown man. I have no intention of checking on him. I did, however, leave aspirin and several bottles of water next to his bed. I’m sure he’ll get up when he’s good and ready.”
“Yeah.” I scratched the side of my nose. “He said he feels guilty because he doesn’t feel guilty enough about Cara’s death. I told him he was taking the martyr route – or something close to that. I didn’t use as many big words, but I’m not sure he believed me.”
“He’ll be fine.” Eliot smoothed my hair. “Do you remember what else you told him?”
I took a moment to consider the question, my stomach twisting for an entirely different reason when I remembered the rest of my discussion with Jake. “Oh, crap!”
“And there it is.” Eliot’s smile was smug, which kind of made me want to punch him. “I wondered when you’d get there. I thought it would take all of the fun out of the conversation if I had to fill in the blanks.”
“I told Jake what I did. I told him I broke the law. He knows I’m a thief!”
“He does.”
“Crap!”
I shifted on the bed, seriously considering yanking the covers over my head and hiding for the rest of the day. “I can’t believe I’m so stupid.”
“I’m happy you told him. That’s what I wanted you to do. I’m proud of you.”
That was the second time in two days he’d said those exact words. They didn’t make me happy. “Don’t be too proud. If I hadn’t been drunk there’s no way I would’ve told him.”
“I don’t believe that,” Eliot argued. “I think you would’ve told him regardless once you came to the realization that I was right. I would’ve been happier if it didn’t take a gallon of Jack Daniels to push you to that point, but it’s over and done so I won’t make a big deal about it.”
Those were welcome words. That didn’t mean I was happy about the turn of events. “Are you only saying that because you feel I’ve been punished enough?”
“No. I could honestly punish you more and be fine with it.”
“Are you saying it because you won and I lost?”
Eliot offered up a smirk. “I’m not obsessed with winning. I think you’re confusing my motivations with yours.”
That was entirely possible. Still, I wasn’t ready to let it go. “Are you saying it because you’re trying to lull me into a false sense of security before springing some unbearable penance on me?”
This time Eliot’s smile was bright enough to fill me with warmth. “I’m saying it because I love you and I mean it.”
“That’s kind of sweet.”
“I also need you to get over yourself so we can head down to breakfast,” Eliot added. “We need to start plotting strategy with Jake.”
“That’s less sweet.”
“The sentiment is the same.” Eliot pressed a kiss to my forehead before standing. “Hop in the shower and wash off the stink of bourbon. I’ll be in the kitchen when you pull yourself together.”
Oh, well, I’d had worse offers.
JAKE LOOKED as bad as I felt when I joined him and Eliot in the kitchen. His skin was unnaturally pale and his generally messy hair stood on end from a recent shower.
“You look like death.”
“Lower your voice,” Jake hissed, his eyes flashing. “Can’t you see I’m in pain?”
“He’s even grumpier than you,” Eliot supplied, banging a frying pan onto the stove and grinning when I shot him the finger. “Maybe not.”
“Do you have to be so loud?”
“He’s getting off on it,” Jake said. “He thinks it’s funny that I’m considering locking myself in a closet with nighttime cold medicine for the day.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
“That neither of you are doing,” Eliot said, grabbing a bag of hash browns from the refrigerator. “You guys will feel better after breakfast and a lot of juice. We have orange and tomato juice. I recommend you both start drinking now.”
“Whatever.” Despite the fact that I didn’t want to encourage Eliot’s bossiness, I grabbed one of the empty glasses from the center of the table and filled it with tomato juice. I was open to anything if it meant beating back the most atrocious hangover I’d suffered in recent memory. “Wait … what time is it?”
“It’s nine,” Eliot replied. “I already called The Monitor and told Fish you were taking the morning off due to illness. I did not tell him what illness. I figured you could come up with your own lie to cover that.”
“Oh, good. I’m going to tell him I have the bubonic plague. I’m pretty sure that felt exactly like this.”
“Whatever makes you happy.”
I flicked my eyes to Jake. “What about you? Should you call the office?”
“I’m the boss,” Jake replied. “I can do whatever I want. I don’t even need to make up an excuse.”
“You’re lucky. Still, I can’t wait to see Fish’s face when I tell him I’m suffering from the bubonic plague. He’ll send me home early just to shut me up.”
“At least you’re looking on the bright side of things.” Eliot grinned, his enjoyment in the face of my misery obvious. “How many eggs do you want?”
“Three.”
“Good. Jake?”
“I don’t care.” Jake tried to flatten his hair. “I shouldn’t be here. I need to get to the office and start hounding Fraser again. He refuses to return my phone calls.”
“You’re stuck here until I drive you both back to Mount Clemens,” Eliot said. “Your vehicles are in front of the bar.”
Whoops. I’d forgotten about that. “How did you even know we were there?”
“Because I went looking for you, and it wasn’t hard to spot your vehicle. You’re the only person I know with Star Wars stickers all over your car.”
“I told you those were a good idea.”
“Yeah, if you say so.” Eliot started cracking eggs. “Before I take you back to town we need to
come up with a plan of action.”
“I plan on hydrating all day and never touching bourbon again,” Jake said. “That’s my plan.”
“And that’s not what I was talking about.” Eliot looked as if his temper was starting to bubble. I recognized the signs. “We need to start working together to solve Cara’s murder. That’s the only way we’re going to get out from under this.”
“I don’t have authority to investigate this,” Jake argued. “You made sure of that when you insisted I call the state police.”
“And I stand by that decision,” Eliot said. “Listen, I know this is hard for you, but we’re all in this together. We need to start approaching this in an intelligent manner. That’s our only option.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Well, for starters, Avery wants me to run a full background check on Edward Haugh,” Eliot replied. “I’m going to do that. I’m also going to run a full check on Cara while I’m at it. It’s obvious she had her own secrets.”
“Because she had that file on Avery?”
I was starting to wonder if Jake remembered that part of our conversation. I shifted uncomfortably when he brought it up, pursing my lips as he arched an eyebrow.
“I’m still not angry about that,” Jake offered. “I’m not happy. Now that I’m not drunk, it seems a reckless way to spend an afternoon. It’s over and done with, though. You stole the file and now we have to deal with the repercussions.”
“You’ll want to look at that file,” Eliot noted. “She got her hands on your high school yearbook and wrote some very unflattering things about Avery inside. She was clearly obsessed with your past with Avery. I’m guessing she believed that Avery was the reason you dumped her.”
“I dumped her because she was becoming increasingly erratic and I realized I’d never love her,” Jake clarified. “Avery wasn’t a part of that decision.”
Eliot didn’t look convinced. “Not even a little?”
Jake held his hands palms up. “What do you want me to say? We’ve talked about this. I love Avery, but not the same way you do. I don’t want this to turn into an unnecessary argument.”
“That’s not what I was getting at.” Eliot shook his head as he grabbed a spatula from the drawer next to the stove. “I know you don’t feel the same way about Avery that I do. If I thought otherwise I’d have drowned you in the pool last night.”
I darted my eyes to the sliding glass doors, something occurring to me. “You’ve checked to make sure Grandpa isn’t out there swimming naked, right?”
“Nope.” Eliot shook his head. “One dose of your naked grandfather is more than enough for me this week.”
“Your grandfather has been swimming naked in your pool?” Jake snorted. “That sounds just like him. When we were teenagers, he’d sit around in his underwear – and sometimes naked – while reading the newspaper in the living room. He honestly didn’t care who saw him.”
“He still doesn’t care,” Eliot offered. “He says he’s breaking in the neighbors the correct way.”
“Well, Avery was worried about being the bad element in the neighborhood,” Jake said. “At least now we know she really will be.”
“Ha, ha.” I would have rolled my eyes but my head hurt too much. “Let’s go back to talking about Cara. Eliot is going to run searches on her and Haugh, but there has to be more that we can do.”
“There is,” Eliot confirmed. “Jake is going to ask questions around the county. Cara planned a bunch of parties, and Jake knows the people involved. He can get information that we won’t be privy to. People will be far more likely to talk to him.”
“That’s if they believe I’m not a killer,” Jake hedged.
“Anyone who knows you won’t believe you’re capable of that.” Eliot wasn’t particularly perturbed about Jake’s statement. “You’ll be fine.”
“Okay.”
“What about me?” I asked. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to do what you always do,” Eliot replied, causing my eyebrows to fly up my forehead.
“Really? You’ve never said that to me before.”
“I want you to do what you usually do within reason,” Eliot clarified. “I’d prefer you didn’t tick anyone off to the point where they want to kill you. We’ve got a murderer out there. Odds are that one of us is going to cross that individual’s path over the next few days. We all need to be careful.”
“I’ll be careful.” I smiled as Eliot slipped a heaping plate in front of me, my appetite returning with a vengeance. “This looks good.”
“Smells good, too.” Jake inhaled deeply. “I think I’m starting to feel better … and only part of it is because of the food. Eliot is right. We need to work together on this one. We need to solve it.”
“Then we should eat and get to solving,” I said. “The sooner we start working on this, the sooner we can put it behind us.”
“At least we have a plan.” Eliot squeezed my shoulders. “The first thing you’re going to do is run my Explorer through a carwash. I’m not driving around all day with puke on the side of my vehicle.”
“I’ll do something dirty in the bedroom tonight if you do that yourself.”
Jake snorted. “That won’t work.”
“Sold.” Eliot’s grin was lazy. “I might make you wear an outfit, so be prepared.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“You won’t say that when you see the outfit. I’ve got a thing for girls who dress up as Twilight characters.”
The urge to puke was back. “You’re evil.”
“I love you, too.”
20 Twenty
“Okay, you need to stay in touch with me throughout the day so I know where you’re going. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
Eliot was all business when he dropped Jake and me in front of the bar to reclaim our vehicles. Now that we weren’t fighting I found his bossy nature attractive. Jake merely found it funny.
“Okay, but I think that’s going to put added strain on our relationship,” Jake deadpanned, causing me to snicker. “I’m not used to having to check in with someone. Are you going to send me kissy-face emoticons when I text?”
Eliot scowled. “I was talking to Avery.”
Jake barreled forward as if he didn’t hear him. “You’re not going to ask me to text you naughty photos, are you? If so, I have to say I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m an elected official. If we break up you might use those photos against me.”
Despite his hangover, Jake was markedly more upbeat. I was glad to see it. “Just don’t make a sex tape with him. He’ll make you watch it over and over, and pick out things both of you could do better.”
Jake and Eliot slowly turned in my direction, twin looks of disgust on their faces.
“What?”
“I don’t make sex tapes,” Eliot offered, his cheeks coloring. “I think they’re tacky.”
“Plus the camera adds ten pounds,” I teased. “According to Cara, I already have thick thighs. I don’t want to see that on video.”
“You don’t have thick thighs.” Eliot extended a finger. “You do have an out-of-control mouth, though.”
“On the sex tape you said you liked my mouth,” I drawled.
“Stop talking about a sex tape,” Jake ordered. “I’m good with your relationship, but I don’t need you to go to a creepy and scary place.”
“I agree with Jake,” Eliot said. “You always take things too far.”
“That’s not what you said when I showed you my impersonation of a human pretzel during our last video.”
“Avery.” Eliot growled. “That is not even remotely funny.”
“Then I’m not telling the story right.” I turned to find Jake’s cheeks and ears turning bright red. “You should know that turning into a human pretzel was a lot of work, so eventually I just gave up and ate pretzels while Eliot did the bulk of the work.”
Jake chuckled as he shook his head. “I’m
so glad Eliot has to put up with you.”
“I think we’re all glad for that.” I moved toward my car, frowning when I saw the overnight parking ticket on the window. I snagged it and flipped it over, wrinkling my nose when I realized it was from the sheriff’s department. “Fix this for me.” I slapped the ticket against Jake’s chest.
Jake shook his head. “No. You’ve been a bad girl and have to pay that yourself.”
“I only drank as much as I did because you egged me on. I only wanted one drink and you convinced me ten was a better idea. This is your fault … so you need to make that ticket go away.”
Jake refused to back down. “I believe your exact words were ‘don’t stop pouring until I think I’m a Jedi knight,’” Jake argued. “How is that on me?”
“For your information, I always think I’m a Jedi knight, so that makes absolutely no sense.”
“I’m not fixing that ticket.” Jake folded his arms over his chest.
I turned to Eliot next, pasting my best “you love me and you have to do what I say” expression on my face.
“Don’t even think about it,” Eliot said. “You already owe me for the puke. I’m not paying that ticket for you.”
“Fine.” I tossed the ticket in a nearby trash receptacle. “All done.”
Jake scorched me with a look. “You can’t just throw away a parking ticket.”
“Why?”
“It’s against the law.”
“Why else?” I moved to the driver’s side of the car and pressed the fob button to unlock it.
“Avery, I order you to pay that ticket,” Jake demanded.
I pretended I didn’t hear him, and focused on Eliot. “I’ll text you when I get to the aquarium. That’s where I’m starting my day. I want to talk to a few of the workers to see if they can give me any insight into who Cara was hanging with while she was there.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Eliot waved as I slid into the car and closed the door. I didn’t miss the fact that Jake retrieved the ticket, his lips moving rapidly as he said something to Eliot. For his part, Eliot didn’t look particularly upset about the ticket. Either way, I knew they’d handle it.
I lowered the window and waved. “I knew you’d see things my way.”
[Avery Shaw 11.0] Unwritten & Underwater Page 18
