Page 149 of Cross & Crown

street and they had to get out before they could check either

body. They thought you still had it.”

“Why kill him, though?” Kelly asked. “Why not try to

grab him and get the items back?”

“So I don’t get there first,” JD said, his eyes on Nick. Nick

nodded grimly, eyes darting between JD and Kelly.

“Wehaveto get there first,” Julian said.

Kelly straightened, shaking his shoulders out and clapping

his hands together to rattle everyone from the suddenly heavy

silence. “Well, let’s get on it! We’ve got until our meeting

tonight to look over these letters and figure this shit out, so let’s work it out, bitches.”

Nick chuckled, but held his finger up before Kelly could

reach for the papers inside the case. “Crime scene.”

Kelly’s shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes. Nick got

out his phone to call the techs in. “Use your badge to have sex in a parked car but won’t let me National Treasure a piece of

evidence,” Kelly muttered as he walked away.

“Parked car?” Julian asked as he followed Kelly out.

“He’s more fun when he’s off duty.”

150

Chapter 7

elly’s plan to spend the rest of the day going over

Kthe bundle of letters they’d found in the display

case backfired spectacularly, because Nick apparently had

shit to do that didn’t involve trying to decipher Colonial-era

penmanship and he refused to help.

He also refused to let Kelly do it, so Kelly was left with

nothing to do but watch Nick fill out paperwork. He was so

bored he could have cried.

Nick assigned the letters to Julian and Hagan instead,

along with the contemporary diary that had been recovered

---