Page 42 of The Hard Way

“You don’t wear a bra when you’re hanging around with us.”

I swung my legs onto his lap. “Half the time I don’t wear a shirt.”

“I told you somebody was following us,” Odin said. “Somebody’s watching us, and it’s not dead deers andfucking-gcupids. Somebody warned her.”

Zeus nodded, way more open to the idea now.

Were we being followed?

“Look, not that I’m not agreeing with you, Odin, that maybe somebody is following us and tipped her off,” I said, “but you guys have to know something about a small town—there are eyes everywhere. We’re strangers, so we are being watched. And people call each other. We’re making the rounds that the FDA made. Warren told everyone at the grocery store all about our conversation after we left—I guarantee it. Anybody there could’ve called Nancy and let her know. People probably know where we’re staying now.” Along with tales of our sexual proclivities, no doubt.

“Here’s what else I know,” Zeus said. “She felt really open to the idea of foul play. It’s guilty party 101 that you’re overly interested in tracking the thinking of people like us. Did you notice how she asked about it twice? If she was one hundred percent convinced it was the cheese, she wouldn’t have gone there so eagerly with her questions. She wouldn’t have made that leap so quickly and so often. She asked too many of the wrong kinds of questions.” He turned onto the highway.

I sat up, feeling excited and happy. What if she was having an affair? What if it was a murder?Probably not the best attitude about the possibility that an accidental death was really murder. But if that was the case, it got my sisters off the hook.

“If it’s a murder, it’s a sophisticated one,” Thor said.

“Too sophisticated for Nancy Zietlow?” Zeus asked.

“Shedidwear the telltale bra,” I said.

“Good job on that,” Zeus said.

I swelled with pride. I used to love Nancy Drew, and I was feeling a little like Nancy Drew, to tell the truth, though my guys were definitely a far cry from Ned. They were more like Ned 2.0. Or maybe more like Ned 900.5.

“I’d like to hear more about this affair rumor,” Thor said. “I’d like to find out who the guy was that Nancy was supposedly seeing, and I’d like to talk to Rhonda’s husband, too. He benefitted from Tim’s death. He got rid of his competition.”

“Fuck,” I said. “So you’re looking at Nancy in cahoots with whoever she was having an affair with. Or Rhonda’s husband. Or the Millers.”

“Tell me, Ice, would all these people know about this church potluck thing?” Thor asked. “Would they all know who brings what to it?”

“Very likely,” I said. “People get known for their hors d’oeuvres, and they’re expected to bring them around. My mom had this stuffed mushroom hors d’oeuvre she always made, and it would be weird if she didn’t bring it to a specific event. And the potluck thing was a big event.”

“So. Four theories,” Odin said.

“Wait. Four?” I said.

“Where are you getting four?” Zeus said. “I only see three.”

“Somebody else benefitted from this poisoning incident,” Odin growled. “You’re not looking at the bigger picture.”

“Besides Nancy Zietlow and her lover, the Millers, and whoever Rhonda married?” I asked. “You’re not back to the rival cheesemaker, are you?”

Odin stared out the window. He seemed so hard all the time, but he was so sensitive. He picked up on things others didn’t.

Finally he spoke. One word. “Denko.”

A chill shot through me.

I caught Zeus’s expression in the rearview mirror. He looked thoughtful. Was he actually considering this?

Denko had made it his life’s mission to pursue us, to kill us. He was part of ZOX, the covert organization Zeus and Odin used to work for as agents. Way back when, Odin and Zeus had been sent to kill Thor for nothing more than being a witness to atrocities overseas and trying to blow the whistle. When Zeus and Odin met Thor and came to see what had happened, they decided Thor was right to blow the whistle, and that ZOX was wrong for wanting him dead.

So ZOX put a price on all three of their heads.

They’d been fugitives ever since. Denko was the one carrying out that mission to kill my guys. Unlike Zeus and Odin, Denko didn’t have scruples about the people he was ordered to kill.

Robbing banks was a kind of fuck-you to ZOX. Reckless but effective, and definitely one of the more lucrative career paths for fugitives with undercover operative skills.

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