Page 33 of Stay in Your Lane!

Oh my God. No. I wasnotgoing to get all fluttery about holding on to the guy’s hand while I inspected it for piranha carnage.

Then again…

I mean, I hadn’t ever thought of Steve a wingman, but maybe he was doing me a solid this time? He kind of owed me, after all.

Right then, Everett came back into the room sporting a Band-Aid around his finger. “I feel like that’s a badge of honoror something.” He puffed out his chest. “I survived a piranha attack!”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Well, that must make me immortal or something, because I’ve survived a lot of them.”

“All Steve?” He tipped his head toward the tank. “Or do the others bite sometimes, too?”

“Mostly Steve. About ninety-eight percent Steve.” I gestured at the other end of the tank. “Jack got me once when he was little. Latched on hard because I guess he thought I was a threat or something, but at that size, they can’t dotoomuch damage.”

“When he was—wait, do you have baby pictures of your piranhas?”

From anyone else, that question would’ve been full of incredulity. The way Everett’s eyes lit up, he was two seconds away from asking—no, demanding—to see every baby piranha photo I possessed. And for the first time, I wanted to whip out all those photos—and videos, because Lord, there were videos—and show them to someone, secure in the knowledge he’d be fascinated and not weirded out.

“I, um…” I was definitely blushing as I closed the top of the tank. “I… do, yeah.”

Just as I suspected, his eyes got huge. “Oh my God! Seriously? Can I see them?”

Chuckling, I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll dig them up. They’re probably in the same album as the kitten pics of Jeff and Patches.”

That got an even better reaction. “Holy shit! Your phone is just full of cute baby animals, isn’t it?”

Laughing, I hung the fishnet on the hook beside the tank. “Guilty?” Some of the guys I’d dated had thought that was stupid, or endearing in a“pat me on the head and act like I’m being childish”kind of way. Everett seemed genuinely thrilledat the prospect of being bombarded with the gigabytes of kitten and baby piranha media I had stuffed on to my phone.

Not that I was dating him. Because I wasn’t. This was strictly… I mean, we weren’t…

We were looking into a homicide that the cops were trying to write off as a suicide, that was what we were doing. Not exactly“okay, kids, let me tell you how I met your other dad”romcom material.

I cleared my throat. “I should, um… I should let the cats out.”

“Oh God!” He stiffened. “How long have they been in there?”

“Relax, relax.” I headed down the hall, adding over my shoulder, “They have toys, food, water, litter—they’re good.”

Then I opened the spare bedroom door, and both cats came thundering out like they’d just escaped Alcatraz. Jeff was instantly in Everett’s arms, purring and making biscuits, while Patches bumped against his legs and meowed like she hadn’t seen human or feline in years.

I rolled my eyes. “Drama queens.”

Everett started to say something, but a knock at my front door made us both stiffen.

I checked my camera on my phone, and yep, it was my brother. I swore under my breath as I brushed past Everett and the cats. “Colin’s here.”

Just before I reached the door, I scooped up Patches, who’d followed me. The last thing I needed was her dumb ass bolting outside again. With the cat safely tucked under my arm, I opened the door.

It wasn’t my cat that bolted out the door—it was my good mood. Out the door, down the street, and into the ether.

Colin stood on the porch in his patrol uniform, his squad car on the curb. I wondered for a moment why he hadn’t parked in the driveway, but then I answered my own question: Everett’scar was in the driveway. There was room for two, but only if they both pulled in relatively straight. Everett… had not.

“I’m on lunch,” my brother said, “so let’s make this quick?”

“Right. Yeah.” I stood aside and gestured for him to come in. “I don’t think this will take long.”

“If it’s about Dad’s retirement gift, you could just?—”

“No. It’s not.” I shut the door behind us. “It’s about a case.”

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