Page 50 of A Touch of Frost
I reached across the space and held her hand, lacing our fingers, wanting to steal a little of her courage, a little of her strength.
There wasn’t enough time. Soon, a black jeep pulled in behind our car and while my heart raced something terrible, the familiar face of the man from the underground bar hopped from the vehicle and jogged up to ours. He slipped into the backseat and patted my shoulder before leaning around to drop a peck to Frost’s cheek.
I bit back a growl as Frost called Black Widow and placed her on speaker phone.
“There have been a few customers.” Lizard reported. “But who’s to know really? Paul is still inside.”
“Do you think the place has a basement?” Frost asked.
“I don’t see anything that would suggest there is a basement.” Lizard replied. “But the building goes all the way back onto the property. There are two smaller structures in the back. You can’t see them from the road, but they’re there.”
“Okay.” Frost was thoughtful. “We’re going to wait until it’s dark. The less customers in the place, the better. I don’t want collaterals. When we breach, you and Widow take the store. Jesse and I will tackle the structures in the back. Tink will be our floater—she’ll step in if one of us need an extra gun.”
“What about, Hono?” Black Widow’s voice filled the interior.
“I sent Tex a message to leave her be.” Frost replied. “She’s probably under and if she is, she won’t get here on time. Right now, we’re it.”
“We still have a few hours until dark.” Lizard pointed out.
“Lizard and Widow, head back home,” Frost replied. “Tink will meet you there. Jesse and I will take over watching the place.”
“Roger, that.” Black Widow replied.
“I have some food in my jeep, let me grab stuff for you.” Lizard hopped from the backseat and hurried away. When he came back it was with a bag. He set it in my lap, patted my shoulder again and leaned back.
Lizard reminded us to watch our backs and slipped from the vehicle. I kept my eyes on him until he climbed into the Jeep, flipped a U-turn and took off behind Black Widow the way we’d come.
Frost drove us to Lover’s Folley but parked a little way down the street. As she watched, I went through the bag to find a couple of sandwiches, a few bags of potato chips, juice, bottles of water and a few candy bars.
I ripped into the wrapper of one of the bars and held it out to her. Frost smiled but accepted it. She bit it and I grabbed one of the other and set the bag between my legs on the floor.
“So.” Frost turned her attention back toward Lover’s Folly. “What’s your story?”
“Really? You’re telling me Tex hasn’t given you a full write-up?”
“I could ask him if you want.” Frost replied. “I thought you should tell me about you.”
“My mother was a professor until she married my father.” I explained. “He made more than enough money, but I never saw why she had to give up her career so that his could thrive. She was never the same after she stopped working. My father was a movie producer—very successful.”
“Wait—your father is Trevor Ackert?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?” Frost pushed.
“Really.” I replied. “I grew up mostly with my brother. My mother was miserable, spent very little time with us. My father was always off to one shoot or another. When he was home it was to pick on me, pit me against Paul. He seemed to get off on it. My mother hid among her books and her different charity events. After a while, I got tired of it.”
“Pit you against Paul?” Frost leaned in to bite my chocolate bar.
“Hey now!” I teased. “Keep your mouth off my chocolate.”
“Selfish, much?” She smirked at me.
Crinkling my nose at her, I shook my head and bit into the sweet goodness. “Nothing I did was ever good enough. I played the sports, got the grades—just like Paul. It was like I didn’t exist. One day when I was eighteen, he started in on me and I’d had enough. So, I left.”
“What did Paul have to say about this?”
“Why can’t you behave?” I looked out the window then down toward Lover’s Folly. “My father was a bastard. If he told me the sky was blue, I’d get a second opinion or check. He’d broken every promise he’d ever made to me, my mother, Paul. I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust my mother or brother to have a backbone to stand up to him. The day I left my father told me I wouldn’t be allowed back.”
