Page 57 of Code Violation

Nero had his phone in his hand and was scowling at the screen. Forrest wanted to ask if everything was okay but also didn’t want to pry. They didn’t owe each other anything.

Grabbing the bag of Brussels sprouts and a bunch of scallions, Forrest poured the sprouts out onto the cutting board, then selected a knife and began cutting off the dry ends before slicing the vegetables in half and dropping them into a large bowl. He’d slather them with olive oil and sea salt before roasting them.

He’d expected things to be slightly awkward—they had just had sex again. Maybe Nero would want to go back to his place later? There wasn’t any tension that Forrest could sense, but, as Lani often pointed out, he could be an idiot.

Fine. Maybe he should ask. Maybe that was what the scowl was about.

Forrest waved the knife he was using to chop the green onions back and forth between them. “You okay with this?”

Nero looked up, a sly smile teasing his lips, making parts of Forrest twitch. “This? You mean you feeding me? Or you making me come so hard I saw stars and a comet? I’m fine with both, thanks.”

An added eyebrow waggle had Forrest chuckling.

“Alright. Guess I won’t worry that I was off my game.”

“Nope.”

Forrest still wanted to know what Nero had been frowning about but asking seemed like crossing a line. What line, he wasn’t quite sure, but he wasn’t going to cross it.

Then there was the very real fact that his truck was likely totaled. And Rufus Ferguson was possibly missing.

The oven beeped, so he slid the pan of spouts inside and set the timer.

“Do you think the accident, the fire, and Ned’s death are related?” Nero asked abruptly.

Forrest straightened up so quickly he made himself dizzy.

“What?”

Nero spoke slowly and carefully, as if he was concerned Forrest was a bit slow on the uptake or that maybe his head injury was more serious than they thought. But really, Forrest knew he was giving him crap. “Do you think the accident just now, the fire at the mansion, and Ned’s death could be related?”

“Why would they be related?”

“Well, we’re snooping into what happened. Maybe we—okay, totally me—asked the wrong questions? Or maybe just me being in town telling everyone I was going to be asking questions made someone nervous?”

Huh, impressive. Nero was almost as suspicious and conspiracy theory oriented as Forrest was.

“The fire happened before Ned was killed,” Forrest pointed out. “You think the librarian messed with my brakes?”

“Maybe not Fernsby, per se. But you have to admit that an awful lot has happened just in the past few days. Literally almost the second I really started to look into the cases.”

Forrest had never met this Fernsby person. While he managed to piss a lot of people off, he usually knew who they were.

“I guess?” Forrest questioned.

“I don’t like my thoughts any more than you do but hear me out. If we had been killed, don’t you think that most people in town would’ve laid the blame at your feet? You’ve said yourself that you have a reputation. Even if it’s been years since you and Xavier terrorized the town, people don’t forget.”

“We never lit anything or anyone on fire,” he protested weakly. The lightheadedness returned and suddenly his legs felt shaky again. Forrest moved to the table and sat heavily in the chair across from Nero. “Shit. Mostly, I just keep encouraging people to think I’m kind of bonkers. It keeps them out of my hair.”

“Have you talked to your sister more? Does she know about Rufus missing? I’d be surprised if she hasn’t called you after her threat earlier.”

Forrest groaned, wanting to pound his head against the wall. Instead, he heaved himself upright again and went in search of his phone. It lay where he’d left it on the coffee table in front of the couch after getting home.

Four missed calls. She hadn’t bothered to leave a message.

“Fuck.”

The last one had been while he’d been in the shower, which meant that Lani would be knocking on his door any minute.

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