PENITENCE: An Andi Comstock Supernatural Mystery, Book 2 (95,893 words) (14 page)

He slid down a little, raining kisses on her neck, the swell of her breast, the tip, taking his time, wincing occasionally. She knew he was being careful not to irritate his cracked rib, but making love wasn’t conducive to protecting a broken bone.

She put her hands in his hair and gave a mild tug. “Jack?”

“What, baby?” he responded, busy tonguing her navel.

“Jack, look at me.”

He raised his hot, stormy-sea gaze to settle on her face.

“I love you.”

He smiled at her so sweetly, she almost melted on the spot. “I love you, too, Andi.”

Jack ended u
p
spending the night, which was just fine by Andi. It wasn’t just the sex that was good with him. Having him beside her, being able to talk to him about anything, was an equally important piece of their relationship.

Yeah, Jack lectured her frequently with his me-cop-you-not mantra, and sometimes he delivered it with anger, but she knew he only did it because he cared. He’d gotten particularly steamed after romancing her on Sunday night when she admitted she’d considered putting herself up as Denise’s stand-in. Fortunately, that was now water under the bridge, though in retrospect, after she’d told him that The Liquidator, aka Dex Moran, knew what Denise looked like, the part of the story with Andi-as-substitute could have gone untold.

Andi stretched, missing Jack’s warmth beside her. She could hear the shower running and decided to join him. Water conservation and all that.

Thirty minutes later, they sat at her table, each enjoying a bowl of oatmeal and an English muffin.

“You’re great in the kitchen, babe,” he said.

“You’re pretty great there yourself,” she replied.

They weren’t talking about cooking skills. Exchanging heated, knowing looks, they both smiled.

“How’s your day stacking up?” he asked.

“Bunnicula is waiting for me with his bunny fangs hanging out.”

“Want to have a celebratory dinner out tonight?”

“I don’t know. Shouldn’t we wait until I sign something?”

“It’s up to you. Are you going to have a contracts attorney look everything over?”

“Vaughn recommended one to Denise for the buyout Clem’s partners are trying to force her into. I suppose I could hire him, too.”

“Might not be a bad idea. It’s not that I don’t trust Vaughn or Orion, but you gotta look out for yourself first. Look what’s happening to Clem’s wife with his partners.”

Andi nodded and made a mental note to contact the lawyer first thing. “What’re you going to be doing today?”

“The hit-and-run idiot will be arraigned this afternoon, but other than that, I’ll be catching up on paperwork that didn’t get done last week. Unless someone calls in a violent crime.”

That set Andi to thinking about the next day, Wednesday. “I hope The Liquidator holds to Clem’s birthday for the hit so we have a shot in hell of stopping him.”

“Me, too. I’ve run this Dex Moran bastard through every database EPD has access to and can’t find him anywhere.”

“It must be an alias. It doesn’t even sound like a real name. I mean, who names their kid Dex?”

“It could be short for Dexter, which I’ve also run through every damned database I can.”

“Have you just Googled him?”

“Not yet, but I plan to do that this morning. Surely someone, somewhere will have put something up about this guy.”

They cleaned up the kitchen together, then left the apartment, sharing a lingering kiss in the parking lot.

Andi arrived at work to find a prototype of the Wild Hare’s vampire likeness taped to her door. Drawn by Lacey, who was one of two Belt artists, he was exactly as Andi had pictured him in her mind. She walked down to Lacey’s office to congratulate her on yet another great character depiction, then went back to her office and set to work immediately on the Bunnicula chapter.

At noon, her co-workers asked if she wanted to get in on a pizza delivery. Andi, who never turned down an opportunity for pizza, said yes. Besides, she was on a roll and didn’t want to take an hour lunch break.

Mid-afternoon, the dense smell of smoke filled her office. She got up and closed the door.

I did something bad, Andi, and I don’t know how to fix it.

“Hello, Clem.” Not for the first time, Andi wondered if there was an afterlife manual that mandated troubled souls to speak to her by repeating the same unsettling, opening salvo before they said anything else. Sherry Hemmer had done the same thing.

Have you found him?

“No, not yet. We can’t even find anyone by the name of Dex Moran.”

You’ve learned nothing at all about him?

“He attended your memorial service, and we only know that because he signed the guest book and left behind a picture of Denise with….”

With what? Dammit, Andi, tell me!

“He drew a reticle on her face.”

Goddammit.

Andi briefly contemplated Clem taking the Lord’s name in vain, given that he was already treading on thin ice where sins were concerned. Since he had enough problems, she moved the conversation along to his wife’s newest problem. “Your partners converged on Denise yesterday and informed her they’re going to force her to sell your share of the partnership to them.”

What? They can’t do that!

“Denise and your mom went over partnership contract and couldn’t find any clauses saying Gus and Vince could force the issue. In fact, they couldn’t find anything about buyouts at all.”

That’s because we never intended to buy each other out! We deliberately left out any mention of it.

“It gets worse. They only want to pay her five million.”

You’re shitting me! The business is easily worth twenty times that! What are those assholes trying to do? Wait! Five million? That’s the payout for my company life insurance! Goddammit! Those pricks don’t have thirty-three million between them to make the buy. They’re trying to intimidate Denise and they’re using my frigging death benefit to pull it off. Fucking assholes! Tell her not to do it.

Andi envisioned the air around her turning blue from all the profanities. “Your partners informed Denise she
has
to sell. She told them to go to hell. Vaughn gave her the names of both a contracts attorney and a forensic accountant, and she’s talking to them today.”

That’ll make those stupid chickenshits back off. They’ve both been giving me a lot of grief lately, but I had no idea they’d turned on me so bad. So much for friendship, huh?

“What do you mean, they’ve turned on you?”

Gus wants faster expansion by adding properties to our inventory. Vince wants to move into foreign markets, like Central America and Dubai. They’re both freaking nuts. Do they not know the economy is in the toilet right now? Even commercial properties are in jeopardy this time through.

Not for the first time in her life, Andi wished she had a better handle on economics, beyond how her weekly paycheck and her debts interrelated. “Were they at loggerheads with each other, or only with you?”

Mostly just me, because adding more properties could be done in foreign markets.

“Did you ever mention any of this to Denise?”

Nah, she didn’t need to hear me bitching about my partners. Besides, she didn’t want me to go in with them to begin with. She always said I have more savvy and common sense than the two of them put together.

Andi found herself slightly disturbed by Clem words, but she didn’t know why. “Why
did
you partner with them?”

He made a sound of disgust.
Gus and Vince were both trust-fund babies. I had the know-how, they had the cash. Three amigos. We thought it was an opportunity made in Heaven. Fuck me for trusting them as friends! I’d like to go beat the shit out of both of them, right now, but I guess that’ll have to wait until they die.

“I don’t think God allows fighting in Heaven.”

He actually snorted.
That won’t affect me.

“Once this thing with your hitman gets resolved, you do know that you’ll be able to pass on, right?”

To what? Hell? Not exactly where I want to spend eternity.

“It’s not like that,” Andi said. “God welcomes anyone into Heaven who truly repents his or her sins.”

Who gave you that load of malarkey?

“Father Riley. He’s the priest at St. Gemma’s, but then you already know that, don’t you?”

Why would I know that?

“You said you met The Liquidator there.”

That doesn’t mean I know the priest there. Hell, that’s not even my church and I didn’t suggest it, the hitman did.

That gave Andi more food for thought. “Father Riley kind of works with me concerning the Smokies.”

Smokies? That’s what you call us lost souls, isn’t it?

“That’s what I call the souls who are cremated and who pass by and speak to me on their journey to the afterlife. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re lost.”

I sure as hell feel lost.

“That’s only because you did something you shouldn’t have done. Now you regret it and you don’t think it can be reversed.”

You got that right.

And just like that, he was gone again.

Andi was so frustrated, if she could have spit nails, she would have.

. . .

An hour after Clem’s voice and his smoky essence vanished, Andi remained in a bit of a funk.

Bunnicula took a dark turn as a result. She tried to work around the shadows for a while, then decided she needed some fresh air to clear her brain. She saved her work and headed outside, bundled up because the temperature insisted on hovering right around freezing.

She walked six blocks in one direction, then six in another, and repeated herself twice more until she arrived back at the Belt. She didn’t even get her hand on the front door handle when the smoke came.

I did something bad, Andi, and I don’t know how to fix it.

Several seconds passed while she waited.

Sorry I’m being such a prick.

And just that quick, he was gone again.

Andi shook her head, baffled. Just what she needed, a temperamental Smokie who popped in for a quick apology, but couldn’t bother to hang around and finish a conversation.

Hadn’t Denise mentioned that Clem’s behavior had been somewhat erratic in real life, too? His impulsive decision to kill his wife most likely had exacerbated that quirk and turned him topsy-turvy. Andi decided to cut him a little slack. After all, he had only her, and a limited number of others she trusted, to rely on to resolve the situation he’d created. Dumb ass.

She entered the building and ran into Gerd.

“Andi! Just the person I was looking for! Come have a coffee with me!”

What the heck, she only had thirty minutes left on the clock anyway and it wasn’t likely they’d be productive all of a sudden. “Let me run up and turn off my Mac and get my purse, okay?”

Gerd grinned. “I’ll wait right here for you.”

Andi dashed up the stairs, wondering how long Gerd planned to stay in Edgerton. Her relationship with Orion certainly had taken a swift romantic trajectory, which reminded her that she’d neglected to mention to Jack that Gerd had extended her stay.

“Java Josie’s okay?” Andi asked.

“Perfect.” Gerd drew in a deep breath and blew out a little steam puff. “I love it here. Not nearly as cold as Dubuque.”

“I’ve never been there, but I hear your winters are harsh.”

“They can be.”

They entered the coffee shop and each ordered a latté and a chocolate chip cookie. Josie was working and delivered the order to their table personally.

“So, what do you do with your time while Orion’s at work?” Andi asked Gerd.

“I’ve been looking for a job.”

“You’re quitting Dubuque PD to move here?”

Gerd nodded, smiling. “Crazy, right? I didn’t believe in love at first sight, but Andi, I swear, it happened to both of us.”

Andi stared at her, stunned. Giving up a secure job, based on a relationship that was only a couple of days old? Wow, that was a huge decision, probably based on a dynamite sexual attraction, but hey, who was she to judge? “This sounds serious.”

Gerd gave her another grin and Andi could have sworn there was a sparkle-tooth involved. “It is.”

“Do you have family that might protest you moving here?”

“No, my parents live in Minnesota, but they’re never there during the cold season. One of my brothers and my sister live in California and the other brother is in Arizona. We usually see each other about once a year.” She shrugged. “Isn’t that what are airplanes for? Getting to one place from another to visit?”

“Can’t argue with that. Where’ve you been looking?”

“Edgerton PD, for one. The county sheriff’s office, for another, but I also talked to people at the FBI and the U.S. Marshal’s Service today. I have options. I have a small pension built up at DPD, too, plus savings, and a deferred compensation account, so I can live comfortably while I explore all my options.”

“A hotel will eat up your savings,” Andi said.

“Well…I’m not actually at the hotel any longer.”

“You moved in with Orion?” Smooth, Andi. That’s not your business.

Gerd nodded, her sparkle-tooth appearing again. “I know it’s sudden, but it just feels so right. I’m thirty-two, Andi. Orion is thirty-eight. We’re both old enough to know what we want and we’ve both had enough bad relationships to recognize a stellar one when we experience it.”