Page 44 of The Hard Way

Odin exchanged glances with Zeus in a way that told me they were thinking the same thing, doing a secret agent ESP thing. “Question,” Odin said. “How does Andy feel about older women?”

“What? Andy and Nancy Zietlow? No way.”

“Absolutelyno way?”

“Well…”

“We’ll go and talk to Andy,” Zeus said.

Chapter 8

We droppedThor off at the B&B so he could take the other rental car to talk to Vanessa. Odin, Zeus, and I took off on a route that brought us past the entrance to Sunny Sisters, a route we’d specifically avoided the last time, but I wanted to see.

I was crumbling, a little bit. But I could see the farm, right?

As we passed, I took in everything I could—our big blue house with the wraparound porch, the fence along the road with the off-color portions I’d helped my dad fix. Our old Jeep by the shed. Tiny puffs of white, grazing in the distance.

What if thiswasan elaborate Denko plan? He was a zillion times more dangerous than a homegrown Baylortown adversary.

And it wouldn’t just be us in trouble. If it was Denko, there would be no clues to exonerate my sisters with. Vanessa would lose her court case because it would be over before it started. She would go to jail. My younger sisters would be alone in the world. Those sheep would be sold along with the farm. Probably killed. I was spiraling into a dark place now.

Odin caught my eyes in the rearview. “It’s not over until it’s over.”

I said nothing, just looked my fill until we hit the Millers’ land.

We didn’t announce ourselves this time, just went to the shed. I don’t know how they knew Andy was in there—my guys often seemed able to see and hear things beyond the regular human spectrum of seeing and hearing, like dogs or something.

Andy picked up a wrench when he saw us coming.

Zeus shook his head. “That’s not how you want this to go.”

“What?” Andy said. “I’m working on this tractor. It requires tools.”

“This isnot,” Zeus repeated, “how you want this to go.”

Andy’s lips parted slightly. Defiantly, he tossed the wrench.

“Who did you tell?” Zeus demanded.

“What?”

“About the tossed cheese,” Zeus said.

“What? No one. I mean…the authorities, the FDA…”

Zeus closed in on him. “We’re not talking about the authorities or the FDA.”

Andy looked helplessly from Odin to me and back to Zeus. “What?”

The guys weren’t saying anything. I figured this was one of those spy things with letting the subject sweat, so I stayed quiet. Andy actually looked at me twice in the nervous space. It was still weird to be so close to him and have him see me as a stranger. Is this what it would be like to be a ghost?

“We just came from Nancy’s,” Odin said. “Does that help?”

With a furrowed brow, Andy studied Odin’s face. He seemed almost impatient when Odin didn’t say anything more. “And?”

“You told her about the tossed cheese?” Zeus said.

“Nancy Zietlow, we’re talking about?” He looked at all our faces. And not the door. Did that mean anything?

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