Peeved, Greer frowned. “What do you mean, what plate? The one I told you, Viper, and Rider about.”
Confused, Shade laid his fork and knife down on his plate before he started carving Greer into tiny pieces. “You and I made up the story about a rental car in front of Jo’s house, so how was there a plate to run?”
“Oh… I must have forgotten to tell you the part about the license plate being real.”
“You must have.” Shade said through clenched teeth. “Tell me now.”
“I was kind of listening in to that little chat you were having with Harvey. So, when he said how that money was in his truck one morning, I drove over to the apartment building he and Nicole lived in. It’s the same one Jessie lived in.”
“May I get you gentlemen another drink? Dessert?”
“No.” Shade gave the waiter a frustrated glare, wanting him to disappear.
Greer had other plans.
“I seem to have gotten my appetite back for dessert.”
At Greer’s smug expression, Shade knew he was going to have to pay for not properly kissing ass enough to him.
It was painful, but he managed to force a smile to his lips. “Order whatever you want. It’s”—he practically had to pry the last two words from his lips—“my treat.”
“Well, ain’t that nice of you.”
“Matter d', I’ll take a couple of those appetizer platters and four of those dinners I just ate to go.” Greer leaned across the table as if he was confiding to him. “Holly and Jessie have to work tonight. They wanted me to cook dinner for them. This works out better, don’t ya think?”
“For you,” he agreed.
Greer gave him a jaunty wink before turning back to the waiter. “I’ll take the hot fudge cake with extra ice cream and cherries on top. I’ll polish it off while the other food is cooking.”
“Yes, sir.” The waiter started moving away.
“Hold up a sec. My wife don’t like her steak as rare as mine. Burn that son of a bitch.”
“Bring me another drink first.” Shade stopped him before he could escape. “Make it a double again.”
“Hitting that sauce a little hard, ain’t you?”
Shade pressed his lips together, chanting to himself not to say anything.
Greer gave him another jaunty wink. “Don’t worry; I have connections with law enforcements if you get pulled over.”
He gave a murmur of appreciative as the waiter brought the cake and gave Shade the drink he ordered.
“Anyway,” Greer returned to what they had been discussing. “If you remember, Jessie was kidnapped from the building—”
“I remember.” Shade took a drink. He wasn’t a praying a man, but he was going to be praying over Greer’s grave if he didn’t get to the point.
“Management decided their best interest was to install working surveillance cameras. Management is also one of my customers… Not that I’m still selling,” he added quickly. “He used to be one of my customers, and he let me have a gander at those videos of his.”
Shade clutched his glass at the information.
“Couldn’t see his face. All I could see was a black rental car, and someone get out in a big, gray raincoat. That’s the plate I ran down for you. It’s not a rental from town, but I called around when you never went by and found out where it was rented from.”
“Here you go, sir.”
Greer raked a spoonful of cake into his mouth as the waiter set the two bags of food onto the table.
“Thank you kindly. I’m very appreciative of the service you have given me,” he complimented him. “Shade, make sure you show him my appreciation.”
“Of course.” Shade started to take another drink of his whiskey when he realized it was empty.
Greer waited until the waiter left to offer his advice. “I’d drink a couple of coffees before I hit the road if I were you.”
Patting his belly, he rose up from the table. At the same time, he reached inside his uniform pocket, coming out with a slip of paper that he laid down on the table.
Shade reached for it, but Greer didn’t remove his hand from the paper. Expecting him to ask for an outrageous sum of money for the information, he looked up to see Greer staring shrewdly down at him.
“Don’t feel bad about making Gavin get off his ass. I would have done it a year ago.”
“How’d you know…?”
“Shade, there isn’t much I don’t know.” Winking, he removed his hand. Then, taking the bag of food, he left him staring after him.
He was taking his credit card out of his wallet when King stopped at the booth.
“Next time you want to take Greer out to dinner, take him to the diner or the Pink Slipper.”
“It’ll definitely be cheaper. Grab some coffee and have a seat with me.”
“Dinner crowd is starting to come in—”
“King, have coffee with me.”
“I’ll be back.”
Shade put the slip of paper in his wallet as the waiter took his credit card. He was scrawling his signature on the receipt when King came back with the coffee.
His father-in-law sat down across from him. “What did you want to talk about?”
“How would you feel if someone in town tried to blackmail me by pretending to have pictures of Lily nude and spreading them around town?”
King’s gaze went glacial. The sophisticated host and owner of the most expensive restaurant was gone, and in his place was the cut-throat businessman who used to rule Queen City. “I’d ask you two questions.”
“What are they?”
“Why don’t you take care of him yourself?”
“I promised Lily I wouldn’t lay a hand on him.”
“Then I only need the answer to my next question.”
“Which is?”
“What’s his name?”
Shade entered his home to see Lily sitting on the floor by the couch with Clint, John, and Logan, playing Monopoly.
“Daddy, you’re ho
me!”
He smiled as the boys jumped up and ran to him, throwing themselves into his arms.
“Don’t get up,” he said when he saw Lily starting to stand. “I’ll come down there.”
Sitting down behind her, he kissed her as the boys resumed playing the game.
“Are you going to play with us?” Greer’s nephew Logan asked.
“No thanks. I’ll just watch.” He placed his arm on the couch cushion as Logan took his turn.
Lily leaned against his chest as they watched. “Logan came home with Chance and Noah until Jessie can pick him up. She’s running late, and the boys have football practice, so I offered for him to visit with us. Have you eaten?”
Shade looked up from winding a tendril of her hair around his finger. “I ate,” he told her, then asked the children, “What have you boys been up to?”
“I finished my homework before starting to play with Logan,” John said, rolling the dice on the gameboard.
Logan stood up. “You can take my turn, Mrs. Lily. I need to go to the restroom.”
Lily rolled the dice, moving her piece the required number of spaces.
“How about you, Clint?” he asked his younger son.
“Logan and I colored while John did his homework. You want to see my picture?”
“Yes.”
Clint hopped up from the floor to run into the dining room, coming back with two pieces of construction paper. It was easy to see whose was Clint’s and whose was Logan’s.
Seeing his expectant face, Shade looked at Clint’s first. It was a big cupcake with a candle on top.
“It’s Mrs. Bliss’ birthday tomorrow. I made her a cupcake.”
“I see. You did a good job. She’ll love it.”
Shade looked at the other picture in his hand as Clint sat back down on the floor. Greer’s nephew’s drawing wasn’t what he was expecting. John and Clint had both loved to draw since the first moment Lily put crayons in their hands. He had also gone to their school enough times and had seen the pictures the students had drawn, hanging up in the hallways. Logan’s was on another level. He was already showing signs of being a gifted artist.
As soon as the word gifted appeared in his mind, Shade studied the picture closer, his throat tightening.