Page 62 of The Hard Way

Zeus and Odinand I sat in our bed, surrounded as usual by watchful cupids, reading like an old married couple, which I suppose we were. It was still hard to get my mind around that, and it never stopped being wonderful.

A soft knock at our bedroom door. “You guys up?”

It was Thor, back from his motel odyssey.

“Come in,” Zeus said softly.

Thor walked in and threw his coat on the bed. “Pay dirt. Six Winks Motel,” he said.

I groaned. The scummiest deer hunter motel ever!

“What kind of man conducts an affair at Six Winks?”

“Hank Vernon,” I said. “I should’ve told you to start with the grossest place.”

“Yeah, well, we have it now,” Thor said. “I even got security footage.”

“The noose tightens,” I said.

“It’s not a noose yet,” Zeus said. “It’s still just circumstantial evidence. All we have is an affair and a suspiciously timed visit to the Piggly Wiggly, which could be explained by the affair.”

He updated Thor on what we’d found.

“It’s an excellent crime,” Thor said. “If Hank did the break-in himself, it’s nearly flawless. Yeah, we have him on the affair. That just means he’s a terrible person, which everyone already knows.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

“We won’t give up,” Zeus said.

I sighed. “That’s the kind of thing somebody says when all hope is lost.”

“You’re wrong,” he said.

But I suspected I wasn’t. “It’s like one of those signs that says ‘drug-free zone.’ You would never put a ‘drug-free zone’ sign somewhere where there’s a drug problem.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Thor said. “We always do.”

“I could get us physical evidence,” Odin said. “It’s out there. Hank could tell us.”

“Through extreme measures,” Zeus said.

“Her sister could do time for a crime she didn’t commit,” Odin bit out. “That’s prettyfucking-gextreme.”

“Even so,” Zeus said. “Think it through. You know Denko came through here after our robbery. You know he knew it was us. You think he didn’t leave his card and ask Hank to report anything unusual? Thuggish insurance investigators are one thing, but a black-ops-style interrogation by three armed men over a food safety dispute? You think that’s not going to draw Denko’s attention to Baylortown? And how long until he looks at the Sunny Sisters?”

“I could make it work,” Odin said softly.

“It’s not how we roll,” Zeus growled.

Odin glanced at Zeus. It was just a glance, but it had Zeus climbing over me and hauling Odin right out of bed. He pinned Odin to the closet door.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Both their faces were glowing, and it wasn’t the good kind of glow. “Tell her what you’re proposing.”

Odin glittered at Zeus.

“I’m with Zeus,” Thor said. “That’s a no-go.”

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