Armed and Fabulous (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (24 page)

"So...
what are you doing here?" asked Maddox
in a not-
so
-
agreeable tone
.
H
e
relax
ed
against the back of the couch, his wine glass in one hand
,
while he slung
one leg across his thigh
. Sometime during the evening, his boots had come off and
now
lay under the coffee table.
He couldn’t have looked more at home. I wondered what S
olomon made of our cozy evening and why he was gate-crashing.

"I was in the neighborhood and saw your car outside. Thought there might have been trouble."

Funny. Solomon hadn't entered like he thought there was trouble. I thought he was more curious as to why Maddox's car was outside when he hadn't expected it to be.
And, come to think of it, why
was
Solomon driving past?
Somehow
,
I didn’t think he had drawn
stakeout
duty.

"What's the real reason?" I asked
,
seeing as he was crashing our not-a-date
and deserved short shrift
.

"I heard you applied for a gun permit today."
He sipped the wine. “Th
at’
s good.”

I
never
expected that. "How did you know?" I asked.

"Why did you apply for a permit?" asked Maddox, equally surprised.
His eyebrows drew together as he waited for my answer.

"To keep myself safe from men who walk into my apartment unannounced," I snipped, looking at them both pointedly.

"You don't need a gun," Maddox replied.

"Possibly true, but rather safe than sorry."

"This will be over soon. If you don't feel safe
,
I can get a car to watch you
twenty-four/seven
," said Maddox.

I'd
already
heard plenty
about
how
tightly
Montgomery PD was stretched. A car seemed like an unnecessary expense to me, but I was grateful he offered. "I appreciate it
,
but no thanks."

"You really don't need a gun," he continued. "Guns are dangerous."

I bristled. "You think I'm some silly little woman who can't
handle
a gun?"

"No! Any idiot can
handle
a gun."

"Oh!" I took a large swallow of wine and glared at Maddox.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that. I meant..."

"I know what you meant. Look, don't worry about it. My brother
Garrett
helped me with the paperwork."

"Do you need someone to take you to the range?" asked Solomon
, interrupting our cross silence
. "Can you
shoot
?"

I relaxed at his words. Here was someone who wasn't tell
ing me I was a danger to myself, even if I w
ere
blonde.
And he
didn't try to patronize me. I was just surprised it
was
Solomon. When we first met, I got the impression he thought I was a ditzy
temp
.
Blondie, he had said.
Perhaps
I was wrong. Then again, I wasn't sure I could surmise anything about Solomon. "Thanks for the offer, but
Garrett
is taking me
,
and yes
,
I can shoot
,
but I haven't in a while." Not since
A
rmy boot camp, but that was a story for another time. Or never.

"
Garrett
Graves is your brother?" Maddox frowned, like he was trying to
match
a name to a face.

"
H
e's my oldest brother. The surname is a clue, huh?"

"He's a lot..."

"Older than me, yes. I was an accident." My parents had always been perfectly nice about it, but I was an accident. Occasionally
,
my family referred to me as the Graves' Hiccup; a complete surprise, but an amusing one. "He's a detective too. You might know each other."
I already knew they did.

Lily
seized
that moment to stroll in.

"Come in," I said, "It's open house tonight."

"Cool," she said, ignoring my tone. "
I just came to borrow a..." Her
eyes flickered around, drifting over Maddox to Solomon
,
then settling on the coffee table. "A
bottle
opener," she decided.

"It's in the kitchen. What happened to yours?"

"Can't find it."

Great. The first time I'd had a not-a-date in months and it ended
by
being crashed by my not-a-date's scary colleague
and my nosy best friend
. I might as well give up now. I would have to capitulate and accept one of my mother's blind dates. How bad could that be? On second thought, best not think about it.

I
rose
to get
another glass. By the time I returned to the living room, Lily had p
ulled out my desk chair and positioned it opposite the couch.
I poured and handed the wine to Lily who accepted it with a "
T
hanks."

I dropped onto the couch, about as far from Maddox as I could, and she flicked her eyebrows at me, then looked
at
Maddox
as well as
Solomon. "This is nice. Cozy," she said
.
T
hen to me
, she asked,
"How was dinner?"

"Very nice."

"Ice cream?"

"Would have been better with sprinkles," I said.
Or if you two hadn't shown up
, but I kept that to myself.

"Do you have any coffee?"
Lily asked.

I narrowed my eyes. We fell silent again, the four of us simultane
ously taking a sip of wine. I did
n't know about the others, but I was unsure of how the conversation
would proceed
at this point. I
knew how to escape
bores
on bad dates
via faked desperate phone calls (usually performed with weeping by Lily), making polite small t
alk and never seeing them again; I understood
all
out lust, and my personal favo
rite, building suspense that ended in rampant sexscapades. This
, however,
fit into the
“
none of the above
”
category.

I sighed and took another sip
,
but still no one moved. From the corner of my eye, I saw Maddox and Solomon exchange glances that ratcheted up to the glare level as every second passed. Maddox looked annoyed; Solomon looked amused and far too relaxed.

"So, I told Lily everything," I said to diffuse the tension.

"What?" said Maddox
, his head whipping round to look at me
. I waited for Solomon to say something too
,
but he just looked Lily over
.
S
he did some kind of jerky
“W
hassup
?
”
movement with her head
,
while widening her eyes at him
, daring him to give her attitude
. I'd seen her do it to mouthy patrons when she worked the club doors. It was all
posturing
,
sass, and don't
-
mess
-
with
-
me, wrapped into one move. Solomon didn't say anything, but inclined his head slightly
my way
, waiting
for an explanation
.

"It seemed prudent to tell someone," I said, avoiding Solomon's eyes and directing my comment into the middle of the room. "And Lily won't say anything."

Lily mimed zipping her mouth, locking it
,
and throwing away the key.

"How much paperwork will this take?" asked Solomon.

"Plenty," replied Maddox.

"Good job I didn't hear anything."

"Me too," agreed Maddox
with a
sigh.

"While you're all here and pretending not to hear anything," I said, glossing over their attempt at teamwork
,
"I found something odd that you may as well take a look at.
Adam
, you said to look for something out of place
;
and well, I found something out of place."

I walked through to the bedroom and picked up the matchbook, ignoring the notebook and my thick pad
. I’d filled the
pages with scribbled combinations that I worked on during the afternoon and discounted. I promised myself I would mention it soon,
but I
wanted to have a closer look at it before it
wound up
in an evidence locker somewhere.

"It's a matchbook," I said, when I rejoined them. "I haven't seen matchbooks in ages and usually they have a club or bar name or a website, a phone number, that sort of thing. But this has nothing. I just thought it was odd."

I handed the matchbook to Maddox, who looked at
it
, turning it over and opening it, then passing it to Solomon who did the same thing. I took it back and handed it to Lily without thinking. "I can't think of anywhere that
still
has matchbooks."

"That's because you don't go out
enough
. I know what this is," said Lily, turning the matchbook over and sm
iling. "
So old school, right?
Just like the movies!
It's for a club called Flames
.
You see the flame insignia?
"
She tapped it with her forefinger.