Grace Under Fire (Buchanan-Renard 14)

He started to disagree, but she stopped him when she put her hand on top of his and said, “I know I’ll always have a place to stay if things don’t work out for me. But I don’t have any emotional connection to the house now. My connection is with you and Kate and Kiera.”

Dylan nodded. “Yes, you’ll always have a home with us.”

Nick wanted to talk about XO. “Xavier is sending a car for Isabel Thursday to rehearse,” he told Michael.

“She’s not going alone,” Michael stated as though he had the last word on the matter.

“Of course I’m going alone,” Isabel protested, making no effort to hide her irritation. He had no right to order her to do anything.

“I don’t think you should,” he countered. “The man running toward you in the hotel is still out there.”

“Detective Samuel watched the surveillance video. He believes the man was just in a hurry. He also thinks my mind was playing tricks on me because seeing the man triggered the memory of the redhead standing on the corner when I was helping Detective Walsh. I’d forgotten all about him until I saw the man in the lobby. The memory came back then.”

“You shouldn’t go anywhere alone,” Michael insisted.

Michael’s frown could ignite a fire, yet it didn’t faze her. “You needn’t worry about this, Michael. You’re no longer my attorney.”

“You’re out. I’m in,” Nick said, grinning. “You’re going to have to catch me up on the investigation. You know, background information in case Isabel is pulled back in by Samuel.”

“Why am I out and he’s in?” Michael asked Isabel.

Because you’re a bonehead, and he isn’t.If they had been alone, she would have said exactly that, but they weren’t alone, and so she said, “It’s complicated, and I’d rather not go into it now.”

“Like it or not, I’m back in, babe,” Michael told her.

“I don’t like it.”

“Too bad.”

“Michael, you’re such a pain.”

“And you’re not?”

“I’m trying to be polite.”

“It’s not working.”

Nick felt as though he were watching a tennis match. “You see what I’m seeing?” he whispered.

Dylan nodded. “Yes, I do. I’m not sure I like it.”

Nick agreed. There were sparks flying all over the kitchen.

“I’m through discussing this,” Isabel said, then turned to Dylan. “Xavier is interested in buying some of my other songs. I’ll download what I can, and I have a few on an old flash drive here, but it’s saturated with blood. Do you think a technician could clean it without wiping the songs?”

“How did your flash drive get blood all over it?” Nick wanted to know.

“It was in my pocket. When that poor Detective Walsh fell into my arms, there was blood everywhere.”

“I can get a technician to clean it for you,” Nick said.

“Thank you.”

Her mind was suddenly racing again. “There’s so much to do. Xavier wants to hear some of my songs, but I’ll have to organize them first and put them all in one file.”

“And make a couple of copies,” Dylan suggested.

“Yes, I will,” she agreed. “But getting all my songs together will take time.”