Page 43 of The Hard Way

It was professional with Denko, but it was also personal these days. Tying up a guy and having sex in front of him will definitely make things personal.

Nobody was saying anything for way too long.

“That would be kind of elaborate,” I said. “To set this whole thing up. Right?”

“Not too elaborate,” Zeus said. “We’re really exposed here. We’ve exposed ourselves, made ourselves vulnerable. That benefits Denko.”

“Let’s assume Denko knows who I am…” It was a scary thought, but that’s where this was going. “How would he find out about anything in Baylortown? Not to mention the thrown-out cheese?”

“Maybe he triggered it,” Zeus said. “We still don’t know how that cooler got unplugged. The assumption is that somebody kicked it out. What if the plug was pulled to trigger the disposal of the cheese?”

“Fuck,” I whisper. “But here’s the thing I keep going back to—it’s not a sure thing that cheese makes people ill, just from it warming up. It’s a lot to go through for no guarantee of success, unless the person doesn’t know about food safety.”

“Denko would’ve covered his bases,” Odin said. “It’s just a theory.”

“Still! God!” I hugged my arms around myself. “It’s almost a good plan.”

Odin looked grim. Could this be why he felt watched?

“Say something, you guys. What if it’s Denko? He figures out who I am and my connection to my sisters. He engineers a suspicious incident, knowing we’ll come.”

After a silence, Thor said, “Our fear was always that he could arrest your sisters or illegally detain them, threaten to hurt them if we don’t turn ourselves in. This would be better, actually. If this is Denko, he could snap us up without your sisters ever knowing you’re not dead. All he’d do is ruin them and cause the death of Tim Zietlow. With this plan, he doesn’t have to detain and threaten your sisters. He doesn’t wind up with three civilians to deal with. Causing a suspicious salmonella outbreak is effective and efficient. And he knows we started doing detective work…”

“Oh my god. What if you’re right?”

“Just a theory,” Odin said.

“Oh, just a theory,” I said. “That our greatest enemy has us in the palm of his hand. But it’s just a theory, so…”

“No, it reallyisjust a theory,” Zeus said, pulling to the side of the road. The conversation had turned dead serious. “I don’t think it’s the likeliest of the possibilities. Nancy Zietlow really did seem cagey.”

Yet he’d pulled over. It was decision time.

“I’m inclined to stay and deal with this situation,” Zeus continued. “I’m not seeing that we have a choice now.”

“I’m so sorry I got us into this.”

“You didn’t get us into anything.” Thor pulled me into a bear hug, spoke close to my ear. “If it’s Denko, he hasn’t made his move yet.”

“I don’t care who it is now,” Odin said. “Somebody fucked with Isis’s sisters. We stay. We fight. If it’s Denko, he has us by the balls now either way.” He glanced up, dark and dangerous in the rearview. Our eyes met. Shivers went over me.

“Thank you,” I said in a small voice.

“Your family is our family,” Zeus growled, pulling back onto the street in a decisive, angry way.

I nestled my head onto Thor’s shoulder, trying not to get my fake nose plaster on his sleeve. I’d spent so long fighting for that farm all by myself. The four of us were a family now. We fought for the farm together. We didn’t have a home of our own that we could feel safe and cozy in, a place that we belonged, but we’d damn well make sure my sisters had it.

“We need to solve this fucker fast. Let’s see if anybody else knew about the unplugging,” Zeus said. “If we can trace this thing to Rhonda’s husband or to Nancy, that would be really fucking helpful. It would mostly rule out Denko. Thor, go back to the sisters and really figure out if they told anybody.”

“Talk to Vanessa first,” I said to him. “Impress on her how important it is to figure out if anybody else knew. You can tell her straight that somebody might be screwing with them, and she’ll get it out of Candy or Kaitlin. That’ll be more effective than gathering the three of them.”

“Got it.”

“And find out who Rhonda married.”

Thor smiled. “Of course, goddess.”

“Where do we go?” I asked. “While Thor talks to Vanessa?”

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