Page 84 of The Hard Way

“Organic? Important to be organic with those threats.” I was mocking that comment, which I didn’t entirely understand, but there was a little bit of admiration in there. My guys were like master-level artisans of crime.

I stared out the window at the passing scenery. “I wish we were designing a kitchen like we told Chas we were. I wish the four of us were moving to our own place where nobody could get to us, and that we reallyweregoing to have a large entertainment kitchen. Isn’t there some place we can be safe like that? A place without an extradition treaty or something?”

Thor regarded me sadly. “Not for us.”

Chapter 13

The guys had takenmy secret ski slope parking space. I had Thor park in the second most hidden spot, the one Vanessa had taken, and we headed in, crashing through the underbrush until we came to the fence around the clearing and the giant ski jump.

“This is where you used to go?” Thor asked.

“It seemed more modern back then.”

“It was only two years ago!”

“I know. Everything seems weirdly more shabby and rickety now that I’ve been places like Beverly Hills.”

He looked the thing up and down, all the boards half off and the extra ones nailed haphazardly here and there. “I don’t think Beverly Hills is what’s making this thing look rickety.”

I pointed up at the platform. “There they are.” Two figures were visible—Odin and Zeus. The lump on the platform was probably Jeremy. “If they let him drop, it’ll look like a suicide,” I observed.

“They’re not going to let him drop,” Thor said. “They need him to think they might, though.”

We climbed the fence and headed to the jump. I grabbed a board and started up. Thor followed.

I was surprised Thor so blithely followed after me, but then I realized he’d know that Odin and Zeus would’ve checked it out. My guys trusted each other like that, almost like they were each others’ eyes and ears.

Voices became audible as we got near the platform. Zeus’s head became visible first. He smiled at me. Then I saw Odin crouching next to him, over a man I presumed was Jeremy Zern.

Jeremy had a scrubby brown beard, a close-shaved head, and puppy dog eyes, and he wore a lime-green windbreaker. He was holding onto a vertical support with bound hands; his feet were bound, too. “Hey! Help me!” Jeremy said.

Zeus grabbed my hand and pulled me up. He said nothing, just nodded.Don’t talk, that meant.

“You want to be an accessory to murder?” Jeremy continued. “Because if you don’t do anything—”

Odin slapped the top of Jeremy’s head. “Shut it.”

“What’s going on here?” Thor demanded, coming up right after me. “The fuck?”

“They want me to turn myself in for something I didn’t do,” Jeremy said. “I’m not turning myself in for something I didn’t do!” This outburst had the flavor of something he’d repeated over and over.

Deny deny deny.The usual criminal move.

Jeremy gripped the vertical support more tightly and looked down. Frightened of heights? Maybe that’s why they wanted him up here. I couldn’t begin to guess how they could’ve figured out Jeremy was frightened of heights. The very powers of divination that made Zeus and Odin such amazing sexual partners made them the kinds of enemies you totally didn’t want to have.

“Help me,” Jeremy said to me, thinking his chances were best with the resident female.

“She’s not going to help you,” Odin said, all low and rumbly. “She’s cold as they come.”

I suppressed a smile. Odin knew how I enjoyed being made out to be a badass. He shot a sly glance at me. I wanted to kiss him so bad.

Thor looked from Odin to Zeus and back to Odin. “Let’s try being reasonable here. There has to be something…”

Zeus toed Jeremy’s foot, which made Jeremy cling harder to that pole. “Jeremy here complained about the exertion of coming up here. I know a way for him not to have to deal with the stairs on the way down. How about that?”

Jeremy turned his puppy dog eyes to Thor. “I didn’t do it. They said they’d shove me off if I didn’t go turn myself in. But I wasn’t anywhere near that place.”

“Your prints match the crime scene,” Zeus said. “Are you suddenly a university researcher?”

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