She turned to see West’s assistant Lori entering the restaurant with her husband Brad.
“Lori, it’s so good to see you.”
They hugged and Leann shook Brad’s hand since she’d only met him a few times in the past.
“I knew you were back in Tremont,” Lori smiled, her arm hooked with her husband’s. “West mentioned it the other day. For the reunion, right?”
“Yes, it was last night.”
The girl’s smile dimmed. “I heard about Drew. Such a sad thing. Poor Jenna. I’m hoping to get by there tomorrow to pay my respects.”
“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you. There was a full house today.”
“I’ll definitely go after church tomorrow.” Lori’s eyes lit up as she gazed over Leann’s shoulder. “I see you’re here with Zach. Looks like West didn’t scare him off at all.”
Say what?
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“West called Zach in early this morning. I couldn’t hear every word that was said, of course.” Really? You’re slipping, Lori. “But West was warning him off, although Jason seemed fine with the two of you. Good for Zach that he didn’t listen.”
“Yes, good for Zach,” Leann replied, already planning West’s slow, agonizing death.
The hostess stood in front of them with an air of expectation.
“Oops, looks like our table is ready,” Lori giggled. “Stop by the office and maybe we can go to lunch or something. I’d love a good long catch up.”
“I will. Have a nice dinner.”
Lori and Brad passed Zach as he joined her in the foyer of the restaurant. “Is that West’s assistant?”
“It is,” Leann confirmed. “I hear that you had a meeting with my brother this morning. Care to share any of those details?”
His smile grew wider, his cheeks turning a ruddy shade. “I think you already know all of the pertinent information. And the answer to your unspoken question is no. I was not planning on telling you, although I assumed you’d find out sooner or later—this being Tremont and all.”
“You’re going to have another murder to investigate because I’m going to kill West.”
Leann was going to make her brother pay dearly for interfering in her life.
“I understand why he’s upset you,” Zach agreed, wrapping an arm around her waist and leading her to the door. “But I get why he’s protective. You’re his little sister. I feel the same way about Gigi and Aubrey.”
“Did you threaten West or Travis?”
“No, but I could see that they were happy.”
It was her turn to blush. “He doesn’t get to decide if I’m happy or not.”
Opening the car door for her, he reached for her arm before she could get in, his fingers skating across her elbow and sending a shiver up her spine. “Are you? Happy, I mean?”
The question was asking a hell of lot more than her emotional state and for a second it felt like her heart skipped a beat in her chest. This attraction that had been growing between them was having a moment…right now. She’d been wanting it and here it was.
Don’t screw this up.
She smiled and squeezed his hand. “I am. Very happy. How about you?”
His smile showed off even white teeth and a dimple in one cheek. “I’m happy too, Leann.”
“Tomorrow I’ll deal with my brother,” Leann sighed, plotting all sorts of bodily harm on her sibling. “I’m going to educate him. It will be painful.”
Zach smirked. “Learning is never easy. I kind of feel sorry for the poor guy. If it makes you feel any better, your brother Jason specifically said he wasn’t going to warn me off and that you were a smart woman who could make her own decisions.”
“That makes one man in the Anderson family that’s not an imbecile. The testosterone…it burns.”
* * *
Troy Wallace hadn’t come quietly from the looks of things. His eye was already turning purple and the corner of his lip was swollen. His clothes were dirty and his sleeve was ripped. He’d put up a good fight, that was for sure. Zach couldn’t help but wonder what the officers who brought him in looked like.
The interrogation room was impersonal and stark on purpose with its puke green walls and bare furnishings – nothing but a table and two uncomfortable wooden chairs. Zach took the chair across from Troy and settled in for the long haul. His suspect didn’t look like he was in the mood to be cooperative.
“Wallace, glad you could join us tonight.”
“Fuck you.”
It was one of the nicer things that had been said to Zach during questioning.
“Now are you aware that Drew Marshall was murdered last night at the reunion?”
Slumped in the chair, a sullen look on Troy’s face, the man didn’t look like he was going to answer the question so Zach was surprised when he replied.
“I heard.” Terse and to the point. “What does that have to do with me?”
As if he didn’t know. Surely Troy had watched enough cop shows to know what was going on.
“You’re a person of interest in this case. You were read your rights by the officer that brought you in. Would you like an attorney to be provided for you?”
That had Troy sitting up in his chair. “I don’t have anything to hide. I didn’t do anything wrong, man.”
Good cop or bad cop? Zach decided on the former, based on nothing more than a gut feeling. The body language he was reading right now said this guy needed a friend. An enemy would simply make him clam up.
“I’m sure you didn’t. I just want to hear your side of the story.”
Troy’s lips twisted and he huffed out a breath. “You want to hear my side of the story? I’ll tell you my side. That little bitch Jenna led me on. One minute she’s rubbing up against me and the next she’s telling her husband that I’m hitting on her.”
“You had a crush on her in high school,” Zach said, keeping his tone as neutral as possible. If Troy felt like he was being judged he’d stop talking.
Shrugging, Troy shook his head.
“Sure, I liked her. So did a lot of guys. She wasn’t as pure and angelic as she wanted everyone to believe. She screwed a bunch of guys.” Troy grinned. “She and I fucked in the back of my old man’s Chevy one night after a basketball game. Good old Drew was home with the flu. I doubt she ever told him about that, though.”
Troy and Jenna? He didn’t appear to be making anything up, his expression clear and direct. He’d made eye contact with Zach and his body position wasn’t closed off. It could be, however, that Troy simply believed what he was saying. But that didn’t make it true.
“So she was flirting with you last night?”
Troy slapped the table. “She damn well was and then had the nerve to act like it never happened. I wouldn’t have gone after her without any encouragement. You know, her being married and all.”
You’re a real humanitarian.
“So after you and Drew fought where did you go?”
“I left,” Troy emphasized the last word. “I got the hell out of there and headed down to Lucky’s where they don’t water down the drinks. I never wanted to go to that stupid reunion anyway.”
And yet you did.
“Were there any witnesses?”
Troy smiled. “A whole bar full of them. I played pool and darts and left at closing time.”
“I’ll check on that. So where have you been all day? Did you know that the police wanted to talk to you?”
“I took a load of hay up to Sullivan and hung around. The cops pulled me over when I was coming home. Are we done?”
“For now. If your alibi doesn’t check out we’ll be having another discussion, though.”
“I can’t wait,” jeered Troy, levering to his feet. “Listen, if you want someone that had a beef with Drew you need look no further than his good friend Darrell. They were…what do you call it? Frenemies. They competed for everything and poor old Darrell usually came out on the losing end. After awhile that has to
piss a man off, you know what I mean?”
Darrell Madison? Based on what Wallace said, he just might fit the profile. But where was he?
Chapter Sixteen
‡
After Zach dropped her off, Leann had the deputy drive her to West and Gigi’s home a few miles away. He waited in the cruiser as she ran the doorbell, taking deep breaths and trying to rein in her rising temper. If she was going to move back – and it was shit like this that made her go back and forth about it – the first step was to put in place some boundaries between herself and her family. That started today. Right now. Unknowingly, West had opened up a huge issue and she was about to give him hell and then some for overstepping. Zach was the nicest man she’d met in a long time.
The door swung open and West stood there with a surprised look on his face. “Hey, little sister. We didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow at dinner. Come on in.” He peered out the door and saw the cop. “You brought a babysitter?”
“Thanks,” she replied, following him into the living room where Gigi sat on the sofa feeding their baby son Ryder. “Zach is at the station questioning Troy Wallace.”
“Leann, what a lovely surprise,” Gigi gushed, smiling and waving to a comfortable chair. “Come sit down and visit a little while. When he’s done feeding you can even hold Ryder if you want.”
Now Leann felt a little silly. As pissed off as she was, she hadn’t expected to walk in to this cozy domestic scene with Gigi feeding the baby and West…holy shit…was her brother doing dinner dishes? That was one for the books.
The words still needed to be said, however, and she was here so she might as well say them.
“I hear you had a little chat with Zach this morning. Want to tell me about that?”
Her brother had the good sense to look ashamed, his cheeks turning red as he sat down on the couch next to his wife. Perhaps he was hoping Gigi and the baby would protect him.
“I asked him to come in and talk about Drew Marshall’s murder.”
Settling into a chair opposite, Leann clutched her purse on her lap, her knuckles white with the anger she held bottled up inside. Yelling wasn’t the answer here no matter how much she wanted to let fly.
“Did you talk about anything else?”
West’s gaze dropped to the floor and he shifted uncomfortably on the couch as if he was being poked and prodded with a pointy stick.
“We might have chatted about other topics. Why do you ask?”
Leann stared at her brother, floored by his aversion to the truth. He was always spouting off about honesty and integrity but when it came to running her life he didn’t give a shit.
“Do you lie to everyone in your life or just me? Does Gigi know you’re a big fat liar? Does she know that you don’t think her own brother is good enough for an Anderson?”
To Gigi’s credit, she didn’t get angry or upset. Instead her brow arched and she gave her husband a mean look. “For the love of all that’s good and holy, what have you done now, Westin Anderson? Look at me.”
Swallowing hard, West lifted his head and tried to look his wife in the eyes. “I was just worried.”
Sighing, Gigi rolled her eyes. “You better start talking and fast or you are going to have not one but two women put their foot in your ass, then make you wear it as a hat.”
Leann had never had an ally before in her battle with her nosy, overbearing brothers. This was nice.
“Your brother is interested in our Leann,” he said defensively, his arms waving in the air to emphasize his point. “So I talked to him. Going after the little sister of a friend is completely against the bro-code.”
Dear Lord in heaven, save them all from the dreaded bro-code.
“The nerve of him,” Gigi exclaimed in mock horror. “A good, honest, hard working man like my brother Zach interested in a woman. What’s next? The zombie apocalypse? If I didn’t have my hands full I’d smack the back of your head. In fact, I may have Leann do it. It might knock a little sense into you.”
Leann had been silent so far, letting Gigi take her husband to task, but this was her fight and she needed to do it herself.
“Did you hear yourself?” Leann asked her big brother, so pissed off that her voice shook. “Did you hear what you said? You called me ‘our Leann’ as if I don’t belong to myself. As if I’m an object that you and everyone else own and only share when you feel like it. I’m a human being, West, with thoughts and opinions of my own. It’s sad that after all these years you only see me as an extension of yourself.”
“That’s not true,” he protested, his face becoming even redder. “I was just worried about you.”
“Why?” she shot back immediately. “Why were you worried? What horrible fate did you think awaited me from dating Zach?”
Jumping up from the couch, West paced his living room. It appeared to Leann that he delaying long enough to come up with a palatable reason for his actions.
“I just didn’t want you to get hurt. Is it a crime to worry about my baby sister? If it is, just lock me up and throw away the key.”
West even tossed a pretend key into the air to emphasize his point.
“Don’t be a drama king,” Gigi said sharply, her narrowed-eyed gaze on West. “Your sister asked you a question and she deserves a serious answer. Do you have one? Because I’d like to hear it too.”
West rounded on the two women and pointed to Leann. “I don’t have to take this shit. Both of you ganging up on me. It isn’t fair. I did what I did because I was worried about Leann. That’s my right as her brother.”
West stomped outside and Leann sat rooted to the spot, once again questioning the wisdom of moving home. She didn’t want it to be like this but no one was too supportive of these boundaries she needed in place.
“He’s exhausted and sleep-deprived,” Gigi said, her tone apologetic. “Normally he’d be happy to argue with you all night long until every cow in the county was fast asleep. Now do you want to hold your nephew?”
“I certainly do. He’s even cuter than the pictures you sent me.”
The warm, sweet-smelling bundle was placed in Leann’s arms and she dropped a kiss on Ryder’s forehead. “Don’t worry about me and your daddy. We always argue but we always make up. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Yes, it will be.”
West’s voice swung her attention from the baby to where he was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, his shoulders stiff. He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin. “I have something to say.”
“Then you should say it.”
“I’m not going to apologize for doing what I think is right. I was worried about you and so I gave him a little nudge. You should be thanking me that I care this much.”
It was laughable. “You’re doubling down on this strategy? I have to give you credit, brother dear—most people wouldn’t stand behind their high-handed, asinine actions but you make it look like art. You must think I’m an idiot.”
He shook his head. “I think you’re an incredibly smart woman, Sis. Hell, a lot smarter than me.”
“But still stupid.”
He threw his hands in the air. “Why do you keep saying that?”
“Because you think I’m too dumb to know whether a man is good or bad. Whether he’s the kind to cheat. You think I’m too stupid to make my own decisions despite evidence to the contrary. I’ve been doing that for many years, you know, and so far I haven’t done too bad of a job. I’m tired of you acting as if I don’t have a brain in my head because I’m a girl. I’m standing up and telling you right now that I simply will not allow you to interfere in my life any longer.”
His face had gone red again. “I just thought–”
“Stop,” she said firmly, standing to hand the baby back to Gigi. She was trembling too much to hold Ryder. Anger and a newborn didn’t mix. “You seem to be under the impression that your opinion matters here. It does not. You don’t get a vote on how I live my life, just as I don’t
get one about yours. What you think doesn’t matter in the least. As in not at all. So you can stop this ridiculous behavior or you and I are going to be toe to toe constantly. But I warn you right now, I will not back down. You will keep your nose out of my affairs or I will do it for you. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”
“Crystal.”
“Good.” Leann turned to Gigi and tried to smile. “I’m sorry this wasn’t a more pleasant visit. It was wonderful to see you and the baby. Hopefully we can do this again.”
Gigi gave her husband some nasty side eye. Leann almost felt sorry for him because she had a feeling he was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight. “It’s certainly not your fault. You’re welcome here any time.”
“Listen, this whole argument is for nothing. I talked to Jason after Zach left my office and I’m not going to interfere anymore,” West said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I actually think that you and Zach would make a nice couple.”
Gigi’s eyes narrowed at her husband and Leann was more than suspicious as well. West didn’t often change his stubborn, obstinate mind so easily.
“You talked to Jason about this?” Leann asked cautiously. “And what did he have to say that was so life-changing?”
“You know…that Zach was a good guy.” West shifted on his feet. “That we should be happy that you two like each other. That kind of stuff.”
That kind of stuff? What in the ever-loving hell?
“So he didn’t say anything different than I did but because it came from a man it meant more? Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s not it at all,” West said loudly but then realized his baby son was in the room. “He just explained it in a different way.”
Gigi’s brows had shot up. “Wow, he must have made one hell of an argument. But let’s get to the heart of the matter here. Are you going to stay out of Leann’s love life and respect her decisions?”
“I am,” West said firmly.
We’ll see about that.
“And you’re going to tell my brother that you’re not opposed to him dating Leann?”
West shrugged. “Sure, I can do that.”
“Tomorrow,” Leann replied sharply. “You’ll do it tomorrow at dinner.”
Reunited With Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 6) Page 10