Page 148 of Murder

“Marc Fisher.”

“Oh yeah, right.”

“Yours are awesome, too,” she says. “Kors?”

“Yep.”

She smiles brightly. “I like you. I think we could do some damage in a shoe shop.”

Kellan puts an arm around Cleo’s shoulders, fixing Barrett with an exaggerated, brain numb kind of look, which is actually hilarious. I giggle, and Kellan raises a brow. Damn, he’s charming. He’s got this sort of…rakish vibe about him. Where Barrett is so quiet and mysterious, Kellan has this swagger…

“So,” he blinks at Bear. “You guys want to go get breakfast?”

“Sure.” Barrett looks at me, and I nod. He steps out of the doorway and I move past him to lock the door.

“Cleo wants a breakfast burrito,” I hear Kellan say from behind me. Barrett’s hand strokes up my neck, sifting in my hair and making me shiver. The touch is brief and soft, a kind of touching base, I think.

I turn around, door locked behind me, and he folds his big hand around mine.

“I said I’d do waffles, too. Like Waffle House,” Cleo is saying. “Mmm, I’ve been missing me some Waffle House.”

And this is how it happens that, two hours later, the four of us are talking over napkin-covered plates and half-drained sodas at the nearest grease palace. Cleo and I are seated across from one another by the window, talking about Lularoe leggings and being from the South, and whispering about her and Kellan’s covert business—which is insane. And incredible.

“So you’re like the king and queen of…?” I mouth the “M” and “J” silently because I’m too nervous to say it aloud in public even though Cleo just told me the story herself in murmurs.

Long story short: the two of them get medical marijuana to cancer patients in states where it isn’t legal yet. At one point, they financed the venture by dealing to college students, but now, since Kellan got his bone marrow transplant, some of their friends are overseeing that part of their operation, while Kelly and Cleo live in California, by the ocean.

Cleo smiles at my question. “Maybe more like Robin Hood and Little John.”

I laugh, and Barrett’s arm settles around my shoulders.

“So wait up…how’d you guys meet?” Kellan cuts in, looking from Bear to me. I see his eyebrows quirk as his gaze settles on his brother.

Barrett squeezes my shoulder and smirks down at me. “Gwenna laid me out.”

Kellan and Cleo look from him to me, smiling expectantly. When Barrett doesn’t supply deets, Kellan lays his big palm on the table, leaning forward.

“All right Bear, what did you do?” At the same time Cleo tells me, “I’m impressed.” She shoots me a look of wonder. “Barrett is a badass.”

“It wasn’t my fault.” I give Bear a guilting look, earning a smirk. “I was working out in the woods early one morning and he scared me. I attacked.”

Barrett shakes his head, mock shaming. “Split my scar open.” He taps his head.

“His head is so hard, I bet she hardly even dented it.” Kellan grins at Barrett, who commandeers Kelly’s coffee cup and gives Kellan a funny, mock-threat look as he steals a long swallow.

“Ah, shit,” Barrett says as soon as he lowers the cup.

I frown, confused, as Kellan holds his palm out. “I was finished.” He smiles, and his eyes glide to me. He smiles at me, but it looks…strange. Not self-conscious? He seems too confident for that, but…

Cleo leans her head against his shoulder and changes the subject. “We went to the beach. I wish you guys had come, too. It was so amazing.”

Kellan kisses her temple. It reminds me so much of something Barrett would do, my stomach flips a little. “Not like we live on a beach or anything,” he teases.

“The Gulf is different,” Cleo argues. “White sand versus cliffs; hot, hot, gloriously hot sun versus the breeze. They’re all good, but man…”

“I get it,” I nod. “If you’re from the South, the Gulf is everything.”

“We live overlooking the beach,” Cleo tells me. “And it’s amazing. So beautiful and breezy. But we don’t get out that much. I’m finishing my degree online—” she jerks her thumb toward Kellan— “and he’s working on his MBA online, too. We are not about the party these days.”

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