Page 52

I relocate to a safer drawer of sweaters.

Behind me, she mutters, “Ugh, fuck this.” I glance back at the wrong moment and immediately face the wall again as she yanks the remains of her torn shirt over her head.

She blows a raspberry at my back. “Nothing you haven’t seen, handsome.”

“Sure, but we’re in your bedroom now.”

A beat of silence. Then, she snorts. “Your selective morality is deeply questionable.”

“You have no idea.”

“Maybe I will now, since apparently you’re kidnapping me.”

I wait until she tells me she’s decent before turning around. She’s pulled on a thin black sweater, her limbs still trembling from adrenaline. She laughs again, but it fades as she presses both palms briefly against her stomach. “I don’t know how you still make me laugh at a time like this.”

Something in my chest squeezes. “Natural talent.”

In the bottom dresser drawer, I find a small cardboard box behind pajama pants. Pastel unicorns. Hearts. Clouds. Suspicious, I nudge open the lid, then straighten while holding the box. “Will you be wanting this?”

Jubilee turns. All the color leaves her face. “Gage.” She lunges.

Too late. I lift the box just out of reach. Inside lies a colorful assortment of toys I’ve casually considered. Well. Maybe not casually. A rabbit vibrator. A rose-shaped suction toy. Several other brightly colored silicone objects.

Jubilee buries her face in both hands. “Oh, my God.” I make a thoughtful noise and reach for the rabbit. “Do not.” She lurches, smacking my wrist and snatching the box.

I catch the other side on instinct. “I was only looking.”

“With your hands!”

We tug once. Uh oh. The box jerks upward, and its entire contents rain onto the carpet with a series of soft thumps; they sound deafening in the tiny bedroom. A bright pink rabbit lands beside my boot. The rose rolls beneath the bed. A purple object bounces once off the dresser.

Slowly, I raise my chin. Jubilee’s jaw hangs open, her cheeks so red, I’m almost concerned about her blood pressure. “This,” she says, gesturing shakily at the sex-toy crime scene, “is the most mortifying experience of my life.”

I arch one brow. “More mortifying than endangered shrubbery over a raccoon over a corpse you stabbed?”

Her knees pull together, her vision shifting everywhere but at me. “Yes. More than that.”

My mouth curves despite my best efforts. “And you thought the underwear drawer was going to be bad.”

“Ugh, Gage.”

I take pity on her and help while she shuffles her feet. The rabbit is last. I pick it up by one ear and study the offending creature. “You know, I spend half the growing season trying to keep these little bastards out of my garden.”

“Gage.”

I give it to her with a courteous nod. “Fortunately, I’m not threatened by battery-powered vermin. This one can stay. As long as it doesn’t eat my strawberries.”

She laughs so hard, she nearly drops the box. “You are unbearable.”

“Guess you’ll just have to bear with me.”

At the sound of muffled voices from her mother and the detective, Jubilee checks the door, then me. “We really have a thing for bonding over bodies, don’t we?”

“At least we don’t have to bury this one.”

“Good.” She gestures at her skirt and tights. “I am so not dressed for shoveling tonight.”

“You weren’t dressed for it the first time either.”