The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The First Collection by Frost, J (great novels .txt) 📕

Master Theo and DirtyGurl are in the kitchen. I saw them go that way while you were in the other room.”

I kiss her on the forehead. “Thank you, my good girl. Let’s go find them. I want you with DirtyGurl while we deal with this.”

She nods and nestles into my side.

I turn to Jiro. “I need to find Theo.”

“Right behind you.” He holds his hand out to Laurel as he rises off the couch.

The hallway seems abnormally crowded, possibly because there are couples in cinches all along it. I push my way through to the kitchen, ducking a half-hearted punch from a man whose blow job I interrupt as I bump into his back. He curses at me before he goes back to banging his boyfriend’s head against the wall.

I tuck Emily a little more tightly against my side.

The kitchen is just as crowded as the hallway. There’s a dense mass of people near the sink, and I hear the sounds of retching even over the loud conversations and even louder sex sounds. Either the bathroom was busy and Daisy decided to use the sink, or someone has had too much to drink

Elbowing my way into the room, I glance at the central island, where the drinks and finger foods were laid out. It’s a shambles, with nothing but a few crumbs left on the food trays and most of the drink bottles standing empty. The punch bowl has maybe a half-inch of orange liquid in the bottom. I try to remember how many gallon jugs Glory had on the counter. Five? Six? Maybe more.

As I’m scrabbling through my memory, I see a flash of blue out of the corner of my eye.

DirtyGurl’s pushing through the crowd around the sink. Her dreadlocks swish among more natural hair colors as she makes her way to a mop of spiral curls. When DirtyGurl reaches Daisy, she rubs her hand up Daisy’s back and leans over to offer words of comfort. It occurs to me that Daisy’s a frequent-enough visitor at Blunts that DirtyGurl knows her.

A hand closes on my arm. Remembering the guy from the hall, I put my hand in my pocket for my baton before I turn.

Theo shoves his face into mine, nose to nose, so he doesn’t have to shout. I smell cigarettes on his breath as he growls, “This party’s outta hand.”

“Agreed,” I respond. “I think the punch might be spiked. Can you flash your badge and start clearing people out—”

My phone buzzes in my breast pocket.

Manny?

I fumble my phone out.

Max.

I exhale in relief and swipe my thumb over the ignore button.

He rings back immediately.

I’m torn. Max could have something. But Theo’s glaring at my phone and he doesn’t know who Max is. Nor do I really want Theo-the-cop knowing about Max-the-hacker.

I swipe my thumb over the ignore button again.

“Spiked with what?” Theo growls. He sounds like he’s grinding rocks between his molars.

“I don’t know, but this is way wilder than Rick’s parties usually get and the color of the punch is wrong. It should be red.”

Theo lifts an eyebrow. “Red,” he says flatly.

“Don’t give me that look, mate. My Spidey sense is tingling. Rick’s manager made the punch. She could be the stalker. There’s a goddamn gang bang going on in the dining room and people fucking in every corner. All these people can’t be exhibitionists—”

Theo sneers. “Everyone knows you have a thing against gang bangs.”

“I have a thing against my client being poisoned by something in the fucking punch!” I shout at him.

The kitchen goes silent around us.

Theo gives me a glare that tells me exactly what he thinks of my outburst before he stretches his arm over his head, holding his badge in the air. “Sorry, folks. We might have to call this an early night. No reason to panic. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the punch.” He gives me another glare. “But if anyone feels sick, please come and talk to me before you leave.”

Several people surge toward Theo. I yank my arm out of his grip and step away to return Max’s call.

I turn straight into a fist. This punch isn’t half-hearted. It has a man’s full weight behind it. His fist catches me right on the jaw and rings my bell. With stars bursting behind my eyes, I stagger back.

“Fuck, Rick, have you lost your fucking mind! He’s has a head injury!” Manny, two steps behind Rick, grab’s Rick’s arm.

Rick jabs his elbow into Manny’s face and swings for me with his left. For a moment, I don’t see his fist. I see a fire extinguisher and Jason-the-Murderous-Bastard’s face behind it.

Emily screams. “No!”

No one’s taking me away from my little girl again.

I side-step Rick’s punch, balance on my good leg, and sweep his knee with my left leg while hammering a punch at his face. His nose crunches against my knuckles. He falls back into Manny and a woman who doesn’t scramble out of the way fast enough.

“Jiro, get the girls out of here,” I snap as I advance on Rick.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jiro wrap his arm around Emily and sweep her towards the door.

Rick staggers up out of the tangle of people and comes at me again, his shoulders drawn up to his ears like a boxer. He’s as much a boxer as I am a fucking caber tosser. He also doesn’t keep his guard up for shit. I slam my left knee into his undefended gut while blocking his sloppy cross. He doubles over and is only saved from my follow-up hook by Theo grabbing me from behind.

He wraps his arms around my chest and shouts into my ear. “Back the fuck off or I’m going to cuff you.”

I work my fists for a moment before I lower them. I do not want to end the night in a holding cell.

Restrained, all I can do when I see Rick’s fist coming at me again is turn my head.

He catches me on the cheekbone