Page 17 of Blood on the Rocks

“Water?” he asked her with furrowed brows. It was the first time he inquired about something personal, except when he asked if she was okay after her uncle’s surprising departure. “Isn’t that a little... boring?”

Seraphina was so shocked at his question that she couldn’t help but laugh as she asked, “Excuse me?” Shaking her head, she answered, “I’ve never, in my life, liked carbonation. Water’s my favorite drink.” Brandon pushed his brows up but said nothing. “Obviously it’s not boring if you had to comment on it,” she pointed out.

His lips twitched up. “Touché,” he agreed. The waitress came back with their drinks before rushing off to take more orders.

“So you called the meeting with my grandfather to talk about your contract, or did he call it?” Seraphina asked.

“I did,” Brandon said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “He had yet to make a decision with me about my new asking price, but the papers were already reporting that he was planning to reject my offer and trade me. I wanted a direct answer for him.”

“Wait a second,” Seraphina said. “You mean he never mentioned trading to you at all before the press found out about it?”

“No.” He shook his head. “That was the weird thing. I’ve known your grandfather for three years and he didn’t like the press in general. I really didn’t think he would leak something like this to them without talking to me about it.”

“I don’t think he did.” The words were out of her mouth before Seraphina could stop them. She blushed at her mistake, her careless mouth, but she continued on. “What did you guys end up discussing during your meeting?”

“Nothing,” he replied, his pale green eyes appearing to be more bold in color the more his discussed this with Seraphina. “His door was closed, and when I knocked, there was no response. I thought Ken might have forgotten about our meeting, but when I called him, I also got no response. I was kind of pissed. I thought that maybe he was blowing me off or trying to teach me one of those lessons he always preached about, so I left.”

“You didn’t open the door?”

“No. I feel weird about that. I’ve had some bad experience walking in on things I’d rather not see, even if I do knock prior. So if there’s no response, I don’t push it. I try to respect peoples’ privacy.”

At that moment, the food arrived. Midway through a rather big bite of cheeseburger, Seraphina’s phone went off.

“Excuse me,” she said, her mouth full of food. She stood up and chewed as quickly as she could, swallowing, before she said, “Hello?”

“Miss Hanson, it’s Detective Williams,” came the other voice. “Am I interrupting anything?”

“No, no, what’s on your mind?” Seraphina asked, wondering just what Williams wanted. Was he finally going to tell her that her uncle Alan was the prime suspect in her grandfather’s murder?

“Yeah,” he said in a voice that sounded as though he didn’t quite believe her. Well, it wasn’t as though what Seraphina was doing something wrong, right? “Well, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d like to swing by your place tomorrow and talk to you and your sister. The autopsy report just came in, and it’s pretty obvious that we have some stuff to discuss.”

“It is,” Seraphina said a bit harsher than she intended. She headed back to the table and apologized before popping a fry into her mouth.

“I hate to do this,” Brandon said, and from the look on his face, Seraphina thought that he seemed... uncomfortable. “But I want to point out that technically, I haven’t yet resigned with the team.” Seraphina gave him a dry look.

“I know,” she said. “Let’s just keep our agreement, okay? I pay for each game, and once this entire thing is over, we’ll talk about it.” She pursed her lips. For whatever reason, she suddenly felt annoyed. Maybe it was Brandon, even though he looked pretty cute in black slacks and a white t- shirt. Maybe it was Williams, and the fact that he seemed to be keeping her and Katella out of the dark and all she wanted was to know what happened to her grandfather and be done with all this... pain. Maybe it was both. Maybe she was stressed. Maybe she was in over her head. She needed to get out of here. She needed to be alone. “I have to go.” With that, she put a twenty on the table and headed out the door, shoving her hands in her pockets, without looking back.

The cool air pinched her cheeks but it had a soothing effect on her. Her shoulders loosened. Her heart did too. She slid into her car, ready to go home and go to bed.

It was probably Jack’s Burgers. She really missed her grandfather.

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