Lacey Luzzi: Spiced: a humorous, cozy mystery! (Lacey Luzzi Mafia Mysteries Book 8)

by Gina LaManna

  Anthony didn’t seem to hear Meg, but he definitely noticed me. Watching with a tilted head, he raised his shoulders in question.

  “Hi,” I squeaked. “I’m coming.”

  “You have to move your feet, Lacey,” Meg called. “One in front of the other.”

  Shuffle left, shuffle right. Shuffle left, shuffle right.

  “Still coming,” I called with a wave. “Just give me a second.”

  “Just walk, Lacey,” Meg called. “You can do it.”

  Anthony’s lips turned up in a broad smile, his teeth glinting Trident-white in the moonlight. Just when I was about to yell at him for making fun of my lame attempts at ice skating, he took a step onto the ice. I sighed in relief; my rescuer had arrived.

  But then my rescuer did something dangerous. He lifted up the bottom of his shirt to wipe the light sheen of sweat from his brow and, in doing so, exposed a set of swoon-worthy abs. Abs that were so swoon-worthy, I swooned my way right onto my ass.

  Step, slip, crash! Followed by a yelp of pain and a potentially broken tailbone, I landed on the ice, sprawled ungracefully in a backwards spread-eagle. The pain shot through me, the vicious tendrils of fire starting from my lower back and burning their way through my body. My brain, my back, my legs, everything tingled.

  Anthony appeared beside me in a second. “Lacey, are you okay?”

  “I…” I bit my tongue to distract myself from the pain in the rest of my body. “I…ouch!”

  “What hurts?” Anthony’s eyes filled with concern, one of his hands pressed against my forehead, the other hovering over my stomach. His fingers brushed against my hips, and it was a testament to how much I was hurting that I couldn’t even enjoy his hands on my waist.

  “You…broke…” I gasped. “My butt.”

  “Me?” Anthony’s face morphed into shock. “What did I do?”

  “You lifted up…” I breathed. “Your shirt.”

  “Your abs broke her ass, buddy,” Meg called from shore. And then she threw her head back and laughed uncontrollably. Until she realized nobody else was laughing. “Sorry.” She cleared her throat. “Not funny.”

  Anthony scooped me gently into his arms. “Let’s get you home, sugar. We’ve got to see what Dr. Gambino has to say about this.”

  “I know what he’s going to say,” I hissed through my teeth. “He’s going to laugh at me, and then tell me he doesn’t blame me.”

  Anthony’s eyebrows knitted together. “Blame you for what?”

  “For falling over at the sight of your abs.” I winced. “He’s gay, you know. Dr. Gambino appreciates a nice male figure just like the rest of us.”

  Anthony’s face paled. “Maybe there’s a female doctor on call?”

  “I don’t need a doctor.” I threw my arms around Anthony’s neck. “Just a lot of Advil. And maybe a sugar bomb. I mean, my ass was already numb from sitting on the ice, so I’m halfway to recovery.”

  Anthony walked me towards shore with small, careful steps, his hands warm where he’d snuck them under my clothing. When he pressed them against my skin, a sigh of pleasure escaped my lips.

  “You okay?” Meg asked when we got to shore. “That looked like it hurt.”

  “I’ll be okay,” I sighed. “My tailbone will recover.”

  “Yeah, your ego won’t, though,” Meg said. “That was pretty embarrassing.”

  “On the contrary.” Anthony looked into my eyes, the smallest of smiles twitching at his lips, almost as if he were afraid to let a grin loose while I was in pain. “I thought it was cute.”

  “You want to make a joke, I can see it,” I said. “Go ahead.”

  “No joke,” Anthony said. He took a few more steps towards the path, Meg following behind.

  “Hey, since my glutes are out of commission at the moment, would it be possible to get someone else out here to keep an eye on the guy in the ice shack?” I said. “I’ll explain later. He hasn’t given us a concrete reason to be suspicious, but I’d feel better if someone was hanging around.”

  “Already on it,” Anthony said, before lapsing into silence as we trooped down the path. When he looked at me a few minutes later, that lingering smile was still there.

  “What?” I said. “Out with it.”

  “So…seven months into our relationship, and I still got it?” Anthony looked at me, his smile growing brighter by the second. “That was a swoon-dive, I believe.”

  “Got it?” I let my chin droop against my chest with a light laugh. “Anthony, you’re made of it.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “Okay, tell me one more time. You ran here? From home?” Crammed into the Lumina, I’d taken to sprawling across the back seat, while Anthony and Meg sat in front as we caught up on the events of the afternoon. “Why?”

  “Why what?” Anthony turned up the heat in the car. “Why was I running around the lake? Exercise.”

  “There’s plenty of other ways to get exercise,” Meg said. “I told you, Lacey. You’re not doing a good job in other areas.”

  Anthony closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest. “Running is good for your cardiovascular system. It also helps keep me in shape for my job, generates endorphins, and makes me happy.”

  “You have the emotional capacity to be happy?” Meg’s eyes widened, then she blew out a breath. “Hello, newsflash.”

  “So does candy,” I added from the back seat. “Lots of endorphins. That’s why I’m so happy all the time…ouch!” I groaned. “This really fudging hurts.”

  “You don’t sound happy right now,” Meg said, shaking her head wisely. Opening the glove compartment in the car, she slid out a pack of Rolos and handed them back. “Eat up. The endorphins will help.”

  “We should really get you to a doctor,” Anthony said. “Just to make sure you didn’t break anything.”

  “I’m already embarrassed enough.” I bit my own cheek to fight the pain. “I don’t need word getting out around the estate that I broke my rear end trying to walk on ice.”

  “Well, it wasn’t the ice that did you in, it was the abs,” Meg said. “Just to be clear. Far less embarrassing.”

  “Good. Just what I want everyone talking about,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “Well, since you can’t walk, you don’t have much of an option.” Anthony’s eyes met mine via the rearview mirror. “We’ve got five minutes until Fede gets here, and then we’re going home. I’ve already warned Dr. Gambino we’ll be stopping by, at least to pick up an ice pack.”

  I moved my internal bite-marks from my cheek to my lip. “Fine. And morphine.”

  “No drugs on the job,” Anthony said. “You know that.”

  “I didn’t know that, but now I know you’re no fun,” Meg said. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like you.”

  Anthony stared at Meg, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

  “Hey, break up the party, you two,” I grunted. “What’s next on the list of things to do? And talk fast. I need a distraction before I start screaming. Anthony, you never did tell us why you choose today to run around outside in your skimpy clothes.”

  “Besides burning off the cupcakes your grandmother forced down my throat, I thought it might be helpful for you.” Anthony said. “Carlos told me about the issue with Nicky and his kids. I came over here to assist you.”

  “You ass-isted, all right,” Meg guffawed. At my murderous stare, she shut right up. “Sorry. Still too soon.”

  I turned my glare from one partner to the next. “What did running around the lake have to do with the missing girls?”

  “I figured you two could only cover so much ground, and I talked to Clay and got the location from the girls’ phones, which brought me here.” Anthony looked out over the ice, the frozen water sparkling like diamonds, the ice hut a dark mark against the horizon. “We can’t check every bush in the city, but if the girls were anywhere near the main path on this lake, I would’ve seen them. Or heard them, if they were talking.”

  “You�
��re a bit of an overachiever,” I said. “But I’m glad you’re on my team.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you ran from the estate,” Meg said. “That’s like a marathon.”

  “Exercise,” he said again. “It’s good for you.”

  Before things escalated into a donuts-versus-exercise argument, I took advantage of an opening in the conversation to change the subject. “We know the girls were here. We don’t know that they’re still here.”

  Meg sighed. “I told Clay to call me the second he finds anything, and I haven’t heard a peep. I’m guessing no news there.”

  “That’s odd,” I mused, tapping a finger against my teeth. Clay almost always had information. “Okay, well, as soon as Fede gets here to take over the night watch for our fisherman friend, let’s go talk to Nicky. Maybe he’s heard something. The ice pack can wait, since you already nixed the morphine idea.”

  “Don’t you plan on eating something in there?” Meg asked. “It’s dark out already. I should’ve had two lunches by now, and that baguette hardly counts as a meal.”

  “We can grab food on the way. My treat,” I said. “I’m open to any type of food, as long as it’s Dairy Queen cake.”

  When nobody argued, I took that as a yes.

  “I think that’s Fede.” Anthony nodded towards a set of headlights approaching in the distance.

  We sat waiting as a black vehicle pulled up beside ours. Just then, I shot bolt upright. “Hang on a second. There’s something I need to check.”

  With excruciatingly slow movements, I released myself from the back seat of the Lumina.

  “Where are you going? Let me take care of it; you can hardly walk.” Anthony pulled me in for a close hug, his warmth soothing. “Lay down, sugar.”

  “Meg brought up an excellent point,” I said. “We’re hungry, and we’ve only been out here what…two hours or so?”

  “I’m surprised you’ve lasted so long,” Anthony deadpanned. “You must be woozy.”

  “I am, but that’s not the point,” I said. “Can you imagine if the girls left home after breakfast? They’d be starving without food. They needed to eat, and I bet they did if they spent any time here.”

  “So are you saying we go look for restaurants?” Anthony waved a hand around. “Because even the hot dog stand is closed for the season.”

  “What do young girls on their way to school take with them?” At Anthony’s bewildered gaze, I sighed. “Hang on a second while I talk to Nicky.”

  Anthony hung onto my body just like I’d told him. His hug made dialing the phone a little more difficult than it might otherwise have been, but I wasn’t about to sacrifice that comfort and security for a phone call.

  “Nicky, hi,” I said, after some fancy finger work on the dial-pad. “Have you heard from the girls? Oh…okay. We’re headed over in a second, but I have a question for you. What do the girls eat for lunch at school? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Interesting. Okay, thanks. See you soon.”

  Anthony raised his eyebrow once I got off the phone. “Would you like to interpret?”

  “Nicky’s been trying to get the girls to make their own lunches for years. You know, trying to teach them independence and all that jazz. But you know how Nicky gets around his girls; he caves in to anything they want.” I wiggled in a little closer, stealing as much warmth radiating from Anthony’s body as I could. The man was an anomaly; even after running around the lake like it was the Boston Marathon, he wasn’t sweaty or gross. If anything, he smelled like a flower. An expensive flower, at that. Go figure.

  “So he gave them lunch money to get them off his case,” Anthony said. “And they never made their own lunches.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Until about a week ago. And then the girls asked Nicky to buy brown paper lunch sacks from the store, so they could make their own lunches. He thought it was just a phase, something all the cool kids were doing.”

  “Probably those hipster kids,” Meg chimed in. “They’re all about saving the environment and making their own sandwiches.”

  “Nicky didn’t suspect anything was strange. The girls made their own lunches all week, so he wasn’t going to ask questions,” I said. “But what if they had been preparing for this day? Practicing everything from the making of their own lunches to the route they’d take to run away? Then, all they would have had to do was wait for the perfect day and the perfect opportunity. Today would’ve been the perfect day because Nicky was at the laundromat, and he wouldn’t be home to get the phone call from school.”

  “That makes sense,” Meg said. “Because the other days Nicky runs a business from home, so that wouldn’t have worked out so hot.”

  “Nicky’s running a business out of his home?” I said. “I didn’t know that.”

  “You don’t want to know that,” Anthony murmured through closed lips. “And neither did I. For that matter, how do you know about his business, Meg?”

  Her eyes widened, then she crossed her arms. “I don’t have to answer these questions! Anyway, let’s focus on the pressing matter. You two need to get a room with all that kissing and hugging you’re doing back there.”

  Anthony pressed his lips quickly against my forehead, whispering so Meg couldn’t hear. “It might really annoy her if I give you a huge kiss right now.”

  “Yeah, probably.” I leaned in further, letting the weight of my body sink into Anthony’s arms.

  Whether the prospect of annoying Meg did the trick, or if Anthony really did want a kiss, he didn’t waste any time getting to business. His lips lowered, melding to mine. The chill in the air made the warmth of his mouth all the more delicious, and his arms tightening behind my lower back gave me a sense of security I’d never believed possible.

  The way he kissed me, his eyes closing and that small, intimate sound in the back of his throat, made me feel like he’d never let me get hurt. Well, except for just now. On the ice. That hurt pretty bad. But in the scheme of things, Anthony was always there to catch me when I fell. Except today. However, I suppose it could be argued that slip was mostly my fault.

  “I need a six pack.” I pulled back from the kiss and looked up at Anthony. “That’s the answer to all of this.”

  “Beer is not the answer, Lacey.” Anthony raised a hand and brushed his thumb across my eyebrow. “I don’t even know what the problem is, but beer is never the solution.”

  “Well, that’s not entirely true. Beer solves plenty of problems,” I said. “It quenches your thirst on a hot summer day, it’s the perfect pairing with a grilled brat, and it keeps you warm in the winter. I bet if that guy in the hut had a keg out there, he’d be a lot happier.”

  “Water, lemonade, and a blanket – those are also the answers to those problems.”

  I wrinkled my nose at the mention of water. Not one of my favorite food groups. “I wasn’t talking about beer, I was talking about abs. If I had a six pack of my own, I could practice staring at it in the mirror. Then, maybe I wouldn’t be so intimidated by yours.”

  “You’re intimidated by my stomach?” Anthony actually took a step back, holding me at arm’s length. “Because I’ve always been intimidated by yours.” He reached over and dragged his fingers from my rib cage to the top of my hips. “Food. It’s always going in there, but I don’t understand what happens after that.”

  I put my hand over his, on my stomach. “Thank you.” I grinned. “She’s impressive.”

  “Your stomach’s a girl?” Meg called. “That’s weird. Mine’s named Chomper, and he’s a boy.”

  “Let’s get back on track. It’s not my stomach we need to be worried about,” I said, sitting up in the back seat. “We need to be worried about—”

  “—mine,” Meg interrupted, climbing out of the car. She shut the door and fanned the air around her. “You’re gonna wanna give that a minute to settle.”

  “The girls came here, right?” Ignoring Meg, I gestured to the picnic tables near the beach. “Maybe this was the first stop on their runaway
journey. It would’ve been the perfect place to regroup, have lunch, and get ready for phase two.”

  “And if they ate all of their school lunches,” Anthony jumped in, seeing where I was going, “then they’d have no reasons to take the lunch bags with them.”

  “Ah, I see,” Meg hollered through the window. “You guys are smart. So you’re telling me that there might be half a sandwich just lying around?”

  “Don’t focus on the sandwich, look for the paper bag. If we can find that, at least we’ll know they were here for sure. I’m not getting my hopes up, but there’s also the tiny chance they threw something out with the bag – a note, an address, a name.” I squinted across the lake. “We don’t have time to check every trash can in the three-mile loop, but I’m guessing if they stopped, it would’ve been on the deserted beach. Let’s split up; everyone check five bins each.”

  “That’s a lot of trash,” Meg said, opening the car doors for Anthony and me to climb out. “I don’t particularly want to get my nails dirty.”

  I shook my head. “You won’t have to, since they’re probably empty. Moreover, anything that’s been inside the bin for longer than a day is frozen. Probably that means the bacteria is gone. So just glance inside and poke around with a stick if you see something interesting.”

  Anthony nodded and took off towards the furthest garbage can. Meg followed him, taking a quick detour into a patch of foliage near the beach. She returned with a stick the size of my leg and started thunking it against the ground.

  “Thanks for your help,” I called after Meg. “I appreciate it.”

  She paused and looked back. “You know I’m always here to help. And you’re doing a good job, Lacey. Keep it up. We’ll find them. You did real good back at the estate, keeping it together in front of Nora and Carlos.”

  “Be honest. Do you think they’re safe?” I asked, finally voicing my own concerns now that nobody was counting on me for a brave face. “I’m worried, Meg. I haven’t heard anything from Clay or Nicky.”

  “They’re fine, Lace,” Meg said. “You should feel more impressed than anything. Think about it this way: if they planned a runaway this complicated in advance, then their hiding spot is going to be good. They don’t want to be found, not yet. But they will.”