Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

“I love you,” she said, and I grinned.

“I love you too.”

“What about that other thing?” she asked, her stormy steely blue eyes clouding over with worry.

“That I can’t talk about, just know that it’s being handled.”

She nodded carefully. “You’ll be careful?” she asked.

“With my current status as a watched man, I’ll more than likely be out of it for this round until the heat is off of me.” I scowled.

Her expression softened. “I can’t say that’s too upsetting for me,” she said honestly, and I nodded.

“I figured you wouldn’t have much to complain about there,” I said wryly.

“Can we go somewhere?” she asked me suddenly after a silence.

“Just the two of us, for a day or two? No club, no bar, just you and me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said.

I grinned.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

30

Raven…

“Now please, don’t anyone get stabbed, or shot, or beat up, or otherwise need any medical attention for like the next three days!” I called to the track of masculine laughter around my apartment.

My apartment was emptied of all my belongings which were being stored upstairs in the clubhouse’s second floor. They’d put the brakes on finishing the club’s upstairs, yet again, to do this renno on my apartment first, then the rest of the units surrounding mine. I don’t know what they’d said or done to convince my landlord, and personally, I’d been surprised he’d gone for it, but here they were, working away; everything covered in plastic and a layer of plaster dust and God knows what else. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were things like asbestos and shit in these walls… which is why we were all wearing respirators and other protective gear. It was a last look at the place, a final “before” before we left on our long weekend away – just me and just Mace.

The weather was warmer, spring had sprung, and we were going for a long ride that I knew involved at least one ferry ride. I still had no idea where we were going, though. Mace was being close-lipped. It was an adventure in the making and I, for one, was excited.

I needed the vacation, as small as it might be.

“This place will be mostly done by the time you get back,” Glass Jaw vowed.

I shook my head in wonder. “I seriously just don’t see how,” I said. I mean, there was so much to do.

“Leave it to the professionals, sweetheart,” he said with a wink through his goggles. He moved around some of the other men in their Tyvek moon suits and I shook my head and smiled, though you probably couldn’t tell through the bulky respirator unit on my face.

“Go on, get out of here!” Glass shouted, his voice muffled, and I did, stepping out into the hallway and going down the stairs, waiting until I got outside like I was instructed to get everything off.

“So, was it as cool as you thought it was gonna be?” Mace asked casually from the back of his bike. I rolled my eyes as one of Glass Jaw’s guys from his regular day job as a contractor of some sorts took my protective gear from me.

“Sort of, I mean, they’re taking sledgehammers to the walls! There’re all kinds of weird stuff in them, too. Like old newspapers from the forties.”

“Yeah, they used to use that shit as cheap insulation back when,” Mace said nodding. I handed over my oversized moon suit thing to the guy who nodded and stepped into it.

“Thanks again,” I said, and he grinned.

“Boss says jump, we jump and ask if it was high enough,” he replied back. I laughed. That sounded like Glass. He was a hard-ass and somewhat of a perfectionist but his finished product really spoke for itself. He’d fired two guys about a month ago and had hired Mace to replace one and found he didn’t need to replace the other. Mace knew what he was doing and was damn good at it. Of course, I knew that already.

“You ready?” Mace asked me as I settled onto the bike behind him.

“I am more than ready!” I declared. “Take us out of here!” He handed me back my helmet, and I put it on my head as he started up the bike.

I grinned in excitement and had to laugh a little at myself. To think, only a few months ago, I had been scared of the idea of getting on his bike, but by now I was thoroughly addicted to the ride and letting the wind sweep my cares away with every single mile that passed beneath its tires.

We rode down to the Seattle waterfront where we boarded the Bainbridge Island ferry for the half-an-hour ride across the sound. We stood on one of the top decks breathing in the fresh and salty air and indulging in the wind off the water, taking selfies with the Olympic mountain range far in the background against the backdrop of a blazingly brilliant blue sky.

The ride on the other side took me through places I’d never heard of or known until we ended up in a little slice of heaven known as downtown Poulsbo which is where we stopped for lunch and to explore a bit.

“How did I not know about this place?” I asked as we waited on our food at this little Italian place that Mace swore was the absolute best.

“I’d like to know that too, ‘Ms. Been to the Nevada desert for Burning Man.’” He wrinkled his nose at me, and I stuck out my tongue.

“While I’ve been places,” I said. “I guess I haven’t gotten out to explore locally, much. Like, I bet I could show you places in Ballard and Fremont that you didn’t even know were there.”

He conceded that point. “Haven’t spent much time in either neighborhood, so I bet you could.”

I held up my wine glass, and he held up his beer. “To weekend adventures until we die,” I declared, and