Malicious Mischief (A Rylie Keyes Mystery) (Entangled Select) Read Online Free Page B

I’d devoured last night. “Sorry about your brother’s Vespa.”
    “It’s insured, but my cell phone was in the cubby.”
    “Dang. I’m sorry.”
    “No worries. It was acting kind of crazy, probably time for a new one.”
    That was Solo, always looking on the bright side, if one could actually find a bright side when someone has been murdered. “This is all my fault,” I said. And then told him how the van had knocked down the beehive when it had shot through the trees. “I wish Zach hadn’t texted you. You’d be home in bed.”
    He looked beyond me, back to the van. “We can’t control life, only how we deal with it.”
    “I suppose.”
    “FoY’s van is messed up,” he said.
    I didn’t whimper, but wanted to. “Yeah.” Then a wave of nausea slid through me at the welts on his arms, all red and angry. “Do those stings hurt?”
    He shrugged again. “A little.”
    I cut my eyes to a piece of broken off beehive in the grass. I wondered if the hair-of-the-dog worked on bee stings. “Maybe honey will help the pain.” I dabbed some on his rain-wet welts. “Better?”
    “Awesomely better, mawn,” he tossed back. “Did you know honey doesn’t go rancid?”
    “True story?”
    He nodded, getting some of his color back. “I read it earlier on a Snapple cap at 7-Eleven. Fire away, ski daddy, I studied hundreds of them nailed up on the wall behind the Slurpee machine. Try to stump me. Come on, give it a shot. What? I thought you drank Snapple.”
    “I do. Diet peach is the bomb. I just don’t read the caps.”
    “Crazy, mawn. Interesting facts, free for the taking. You know how I like to stay informed. It’s primal. What are the chances, huh, of lover-boy being the first cop to show up on the scene?” He nodded to Zach. “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: you two look good together, like steak and potatoes.”
    Zach was definitely steak, lean and rare with his perfect blend of strength and vulnerability. “Don’t we, though?” I exhaled a long breath. “We’re still just friends, though.” I looked back and caught Solo’s weighty gaze. “What?”
    “Coward,” he said. “Bad way to start the day, huh?”
    “No joke. It’s like a wide-awake nightmare.”
    “Thank God you didn’t kill Otto Weiner.” He relieved me of the bag of licorice. “I couldn’t take food from a murderer,” he said, chuckling, but it was a grim sort of chuckle and his cheeks were pale again.
    “Want some coffee?” I gave the Thermos top a quick twist. “It’s still warm.”
    “I’m good,” he said.
    From across the field, Zach called out, “Head to the squad car. We need to stay clear of the scene, not destroy anything, or remove evidence.”
    I stared at the Thermos. “Uh-oh.”
    Solo stuffed the licorice inside his vest before he grabbed the Thermos from my hand. “Tell him it’s mine.”
    Was he serious? “I can’t let you do that.”
    “But you could get in trouble.”
    “It isn’t like this coffee is evidence.”
    “Not unless Otto was poisoned first, then suffocated. Are you sure you didn’t poison him?” he asked with a wink. “By how much he barked orders at FoY, it was only a matter of time until someone bumped him off. You know I’m getting all happy when I think of about it, a fun filled workday without grumpy ol’ Otto Weiner.”
    “Wow, I know, right?”
    “Um, Rylie, better not say that to the cops. Big mistake, saying things they can misconstrue. Just play it cool and hold a tight rein on anything they could take wrong.”
    We fell silent, neither of us wanting to admit that my recent dispute with Otto, along with his body being found in the van, kind of made me a good suspect. Finally, Zach reached us.
    “Let’s go,” he said. “It’s going to rain again. That isn’t from the van, is it?” He nodded to the Thermos. “You could get jail time for tampering with evidence.”
    I froze.
    Solo snorted. “Of course not. We’re not that stupid. I