Laughing, she twirls out of my hands and swings the front door open with a flourish. “Top of the morning to ya, Chief!”
Used to her crazy now, he chuckles and steps in. “Good morning, Andi. How are you doing today?”
“Aw, you know. I didn’t lose my leg or anything.”
Shaking my head, I drop my face into my hands and breathe through her wild outbursts.
“So it’s a good day, then?”
“Yessir! Hey, Oz.” Surprised, I turn to face my front door and watch Oz take Dee in a long hug. I didn’t expect him to come today. I didn’t expect X to bring in backup for our weekly chat. “How are the babies? How’d Benny do on his paper?”
He releases her with a roll of his eyes. “As if you don’t already know. I heard him talking to you on the phone this morning.”
She smacks his shoulder and wears a wide smile. “But I wanted to hear it from you. Tell me how proud you are of the little asshole.”
Rubbing his shoulder, he pulls his hat off and chuckles. “I’m so proud, Andi. I watched him study for weeks. He didn’t like it, he didn’t wanna do it, but my boy is now the proud owner of a paper on Romeo and Juliet. Who knew he was a romantic at heart?”
“It’s not a romance!” she laughs. “Everyone dies. I’m surprised Benny’s research didn’t turn that up.” She moves around the two men and pushes the front door closed. The wind still has a little chill to it; it’s not open windows season, but it’s also not cold enough for a fire. It’s justin-betweenand perfect for too-small shorts and snuggling. “Come on in. Are you talking business? Or do we want sweet tea and brownies?”
Alex’s serious eyes flip away from mine and land on Andi’s. “What kinda brownies you got, Miss. Conner? Because I’m starting to consider felony charges.”
“You’re so cute when you use those big cop words.” She spins away and heads toward the kitchen. “You boys all think you’re so bad using words likesquatter… charges… stalker… restraining order. On a scale of one to none, how scared do y’all think I am?” She pulls a pitcher of tea from the fridge and sets it on the counter. Reaching up and collecting tall tumblers, she reminds me of my first day back home so long ago. When she tried to force me to accept her help. When I threw the glass across the room and made a mess… and broke her heart. “It’s just normal tea, chief. And there are no brownies, but I made rainbow cupcakes. You want some?”
“No thanks, Andi. Actually…” His eyes come back to mine. “We came to talk to the rook about something kinda serious.”
“I’m not coming back, X.”
“Well, that’s not why we’re here today.” He and Oz move forward slowly. Like they’re approaching a skittish animal and don’t want to scare him off… scaremeoff. “Something has come up. Something kinda big that you might wanna know about, and we didn’t want you to hear about it from a random in the street.”
“I don’t hear anything. I’m never in the street.”
Oz sits on the single chair near mine and rests his ballcap on his knee. “Right, but this is kinda big. It’s rocking our world right now. Ahh… It’s rocking Jess’ the most.”
“Jess? Lenaghan?” Sensing the guys’ serious tone, Andi rockets across the room and drops down beside me. Her hand forces mine from a tight fist out so our fingers lace. “Something wrong with her, Chief? She’s okay, right? She doesn’t deserve more shit.”
“Well… that’s just the thing.” Alex sits his ass on my coffee table and runs a hand through his hair. “She’s been sitting her bar exams. She’s been a mess since everything went down, since Kane was killed and the club burned down. She’s been dealing with burns to her legs and arms, and grieving so bad we all worried she might do something… well… something kinda crazy to make it easier. The kinda crazy that can’t be reversed.” He blows out a gusty breath and shows me a window into the world I’ve been ignoring for months. I didn’t stop to think about her grief. I didn’t stop to ask about burials for Kane and Jay. I didn’t ask about anything, because I was so caught up in my own shit.
“Maybe I should call her… Or I guess I could send flowers or something.” I turn to Andi. “We can send flowers, right? Is that the right thing to do? I don’t fuckin’ kno–”
“I’m not done,” Alex inserts. “On top of all that, on top of all the shit that’s been going down, and all the loose ends that are still being tied up, she’s been studying for the bar. She’s been working toward this for years; it’s been her dream since she was seven and realized she could debate her way out of anything. She gets off on arguing with people.”
“Kinda like Jules,” Oz chuckles.
“Yeah, well…” Alex shakes his head. “Jess sat her exams this week.”
“Okay…” A man with my life experience knows when the shit is about to drop. He knows when someone is giving only snippets of news and not the parts that are most important. “Get to the point, X.”
“Yesterday was her last day.”
“Good for her. Now get to the fuckin’ point!’
Silence falls over my home. From a dancing Andi, a snorting Nacho, and a purring Ninja, to awkward silences and a heaviness in the air that steals my breath. My eyes flip from Alex’s to Oz’s. To Andi’s, but she’s as in the dark as I am. I look back to Alex, and will him to speak before I lose my shit.
“Bishop ain’t dead.”
* * *
Which Bishop?I don’t know. I didn’t ask.