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“Would you two shut the fuck up? Let’s get this over with!”

“Jesus, Lance, chill the fuck out. It’s a smash and smash. Nobody’s around. It’ll be fucking easy.”

A giggle escaped me when a fist found the man’s face, and he screeched at the crack of his nose.

The three of them froze at the loud outburst before they scurried across to my bakery and stood under the awning for a long moment, glancing around, seeing if they attracted any attention.

“For fuck’s sake, the fuckingThree Stooges’dumber than shit cousins bashed up my place. If the fucker ever comes by again, I have a boning knife I’ve been dying to try out.”

“Ignoring that,” Detective Sandoval said, “but if I heard it, I’d say you don’t want to be in the same room with that slimy fuck. When he goes to prison, I’ll start a rumor he’s a predator and likes it rough and see how he fucking likes it. But again, I didn’t hear or say anything.”

We smiled at the detective.

“Well, someone is getting a dozen gingerbread cookies, along with Snickerdoodles, and my mango cheesecake, and?—”

“Are you trying to make me fat?”

“It’s how he shows his appreciation,” Burton said.

Luka laughed and said, “And I’m sure he’ll invite you over for dinner after this is all over and claim you as a friend from now on.”

“You cook, too?” the detective asked.

“Nope, that’s Luka. I only bake.”

For the next fifteen minutes, we watched as they trashed the entire place, making me flinch when my rolling pin splintered and burned. But I shot out several expletives when they found my stash of international spices and dumped them or broke the jars.

“How do you think they know your father?”

I blinked at the detective before answering, “Hale Aalto is best at exploiting a weakness, and he sees nothing but in people. If I were to guess, they work at a construction company where Hale’s employed them or they’ve either done business with my father in the past as thugs for hire, which doesn’t seem likely considering we know all their first names, or he offered them a lot of money and has leverage on them. I’m guessing the latter.”

“So you’ve never seen them before? They haven’t been in your bakery?”

Luka grunted, and I shook my head.

“Our customers are older folks from the neighborhood, college kids, or corporate types. We’re a queer safe space. Trust me, I would remember if they came in.”

The criminals seemed to tire out after they smashed the remaining glass bowls and fell into step without a word, exiting out of the obliterated front window and took off into the night.

Suddenly tired from the ongoing pushback from my father and knowing how much work we had ahead of us, I sagged against Burton as we finished with the detective. I wanted to go home, bury myself in our darkened bedroom and throw my mobile out the window, ignoring the world for as long as I could get away with it.

Instead, a plan started forming in my mind.

“The three won’t be too hard to find. But I’m not going after Hale Aalto yet, because I’ll get a confession from each of the three before I confront your father. The security footage will be a great help.”

I rubbed my metaphorical hands together, thrilled at the thought of the destruction of my father.

CHAPTER 15

LUKA

A quiet,reserved Phoenix scared me. A missing one who was supposed to be in bed sandwiched in between me and B made my heart stop as panic set in.

I understood why he was working so hard getting in contact with his father’s past associates and making allies with those who would share any negative experiences they had with Hale Aalto, but I drew the line at the constant dark splotches under his eyes and his obvious weight loss over the past few weeks.

So waking up and finding B in bed with me and Phoenix missing scared the shit out of me. I cursed as I threw the covers back and went searching for him.

I stomped down the stairs, ready for a confrontation, only to find him wrapped in a blanket on the couch, watching a baking show with the volume lowered. The dogs were curled up next to him, fast asleep, as Sunshine ran his fingers through Ruby’s coat.