Brody & Hannigan 02 - Grand Theft Lotto Read Online Free Page A

afternoon, most of them blue-haired and teased out. If they found the red-haired manicurist's blunt statement scandalous, they kept it to themselves.
    The manicurist looked up at the tinkle of the bell and shot Hannigan a surprised grin. "Estella Jane, is that really you? I thought you'd gotten too fancy for Pearl's Cut and Curl."
    Hannigan rolled her eyes at her cousin. "Becky, you're about to buff that poor woman's nails to the nub."
    Becky Barlow stopped buffing with a gasp. "Oh, I'm nowhere close to the nub," she said, making a face. "Say, I heard about Aunt Ruby Nell's good fortune."
    "Yeah, actually, that's why I'm here." Hannigan glanced at Becky's client, a woman about her age with ridiculously long acrylic nails. "Do you know where I can find Dwayne?"
    Becky's eyes narrowed. "What's he done now?"
    "I can't rightly say yet," Hannigan answered, kicking herself mentally as she heard her accent broaden to full-blown redneck. One minute around one of her cousins, and all the hard work she'd done toning down her hillbilly twang went right out the window.
    Then she kicked herself for giving a damn in the first place. Why should she change herself for other people? Brody would never ask it of her. In fact, she suspected he found her accent a big part of her charm. Sometimes she even laid on the accent a little thicker than usual, just to see his eyes darken with appreciation.
    She did a lot of things to make his eyes darken these days. It wasn't fair to him, really, since she still hadn't decided what to do about That Night at Magnolia Park Overlook, as she'd come to think of it.
    "Well, when you find out where my brother is, let me know if you need any help kickin' his ass," Becky drawled, shooting an apologetic look at the woman whose acrylic fills she was currently buffing. "Pardon my French."
    The woman with the acrylic nails smirked. "That ain't French."
    "I might take you up on that," Hannigan promised. "So you don't know where I might find him?"
    "I never said that." Becky glanced at her watch. "Let's see. It's after noon. He's probably at Bug Swallows."
    Hannigan swallowed a groan. Bug Swallows was what everyone on her mother's side of the family called Bigelows, a family-run bar down near the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, the family who ran the place were burly, surly and covered in homemade tattoos. And that was just the women.
    On the up side, Hannigan reflected as she drove out past the warehouse district and pulled up next to a row of tricked out motorcycles, Hannigan happened to get along with the Bigelows better than she did her own extended family. For some reason the patriarch, Big Sam Bigelow, had taken a shine to her way back when she was a little freckle-faced, gap-toothed kid following her daddy around during the summers while he looked for extra jobs to supplement the family income.
    Big Sam used to stand her up on the bar and coax her to sing "Old Joe Clark" to his customers in exchange for a Sprite and a new dollar bill. He spotted her the second she walked into the bar and hollered out, "'Old Joe Clark!' Shiny new dollar, girly, for your trouble!"
    "You'll have to pay me a hell of a lot more than a dollar to get my ass up on that bar these days, Big Sam." She grinned at him, settling on an empty bar stool in front of him. "How's business?"
    "Hell, sugar. Pure hell. Too many punks around these parts figured out how to brew their own back during the recession and they've been slow coming back." He pulled a clean glass from beneath the bar and set it in front of her. "Isn't it a little early in the day for you to be drinking?"
    "Not if you'll give me a Sprite and a little information." She'd already scanned the bar for her cousin Dwayne without any luck. "Seen Dwayne yet today?"
    "No, ma'am, he ain't been by yet." He filled the mug with ice and handed her a can of Sprite. "You want me to tell him you're lookin' for him?"
    "Actually, I'd just as soon you not. But could you give me a call?" She handed