Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills Series Book 6) by Mary Moore (novels to improve english .txt) 📕

He had gambling debts and wanted their money, so he went about scaring them into handing it over without looking like a shit bag to them and his family.”

“Bet he looks like a shit bag to them now,” Alex sighed, squinting into the distance. “Little fucker.”

“Just to say,” Judd said. “I was against the room when it was suggested by a well-meaning civilian, who’d spoken to one of your residents. Then we received funding for it, and it was approved, and I bit my tongue about how useless I thought it would end up being. Once you see it in action, though, and the difference it can make to an investigation, even one like that, I admit that I was wrong.”

“Your point?” I asked, not seeing where this was going.

“I’m just saying, sometimes suggestions and changes aren’t a bad thing. Maybe having a Townsend as a mayor would do both our towns some good.” His shoulders started shaking at our incredulous looks. “Or maybe not. We won’t know until it happens.”

Alex straightened from where he’d been leaning against our vehicle. “If you’re going to move onto saying that we should ask Hurst for help in finding Lord—”

“Fuck no,” he clipped. “But he might be useful in getting our mayors to trip up. They’re greedy fuckers, so if he panders to them, they’ll lap it up.”

Scowling at him, I opened my door. “You know, I heard him say he’d seen a beautiful property for sale in Palmerstown, and with his age and all, some peace and quiet would be perfect. Plus, Linda’s been on at him to move somewhere that isn’t so taxing on her knees—something about arthritis and bad joints.”

I left the threat hanging in the air, smiling to myself as I ignored their furious glares at the implication.

“Well played, Richards,” Alex snickered, turning the engine on. “Maybe they’ll have nightmares tonight?”

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see a text from Bexley waiting for me.

Bex: Is it weird that I’m cuddling your pillow? There’s a mark that makes me think you drooled on it in your sleep, but I turned it over to avoid it and can live with my decision. I’m too tired to care after repainting the booby wall.

Chuckling, I tapped out a reply and put the phone away, think about what Alex had just said about Judd and Kap.

“Then they should both find women to chase those nightmares away, man.”

Driving down the road that led out of Palmerstown, he asked, “Things going well with Bexley?”

Alex had lost his first wife and had been fake married a second time as part of an investigation into a group of people who were defrauding men. His second ‘wife’ was in prison because of her crimes.

I’d never spoken to him about how he felt about it, but if I was in his shoes, I knew I’d be kind of bitter. He’d moved to Piersville after DB and Tabby had hooked up, and the man who’d arrived was very different from the man sitting beside me now. Alex was happy now, looked healthier, and looked more relaxed, but he deserved happiness and peace.

“It absolutely is. Think you’ll ever give it another go?”

“Possibly,” he grunted, but his tone was off.

Glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I pressed, “Let me rephrase that, then. Think you’ll give her a shot?”

Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he was silent for a moment. Finally, he blew out a breath. “I want to. Evita—Evie—is different and makes me laugh without meaning to, but I don’t know if she wants to. She’s just gone through a world full of hurt and has a teenage son who seems to have experienced his own version of it. Would I make it worse for them?”

“You’ve been through hurt, too,” I pointed out. “And seems to me that, even with the loss of his mom at a young age, you did okay by DB.”

“Can’t say I did when I took that case on, though.”

“Don’t be dumb,” I snapped, shocking him. “You did your job and probably saved young kids from the trauma of what that group was doing. Wrecking marriages and stealing the money from them led to men committing suicide, Alex, you know that. Someone had to help stop them and feed the Feds the details. DB didn’t hold it against you, and he’s the one who you were most concerned about.”

Alex let this sink in for a moment. “I’ll think on it.”

Realizing there wasn’t much more I could say on the subject, I decided to lighten things up. “Well, aren’t we modern men, talking about our feelings and women and shit.”

“If I get an embroidered apron and start asking for recipes, punch me, will you?”

“I think Tony would burst out crying with happiness if that day comes.”

Shaking his head, Alex sighed. “He does have the best recipes, and I swear he makes food that just isn’t possible to do in real life.”

I’d heard the rumors, but I’d never experienced his cooking for myself. “So I’ve heard. I just hope he doesn’t plan on ever trying to teach Bex how to cook.”

He looked at me in surprise. “That bad?”

“She burned water two days ago,” I told him, expecting the laughter that came out of him. “I shit you not, she put it on to boil eggs, forgot about it, and only remembered when the smoke alarm went off, and she found nothing but a brown residue inside the pan that was almost on fire.”

“What was the brown residue?”

“She seasoned the fucking water to boil the eggs in, thinking it would make its way through the shell, so it was salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, and soya sauce.”

The whole vehicle jerked as he looked at me, accidentally yanking the steering wheel with the sudden movement.

“I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“She also tried to make herself mac ‘n cheese out of the box and burned it. That time she forgot to