Page 66 of Lawbreaker

“Everybody was sick!” Ben defended himself. “I was only trying to help.”

“I called my cousin who owns the restaurant, and he loaned us a cook,” Tony said.

“Andhe—” Mrs. Murdock pointed at Ben without looking in his direction “—was never allowed in my kitchen ever again.”

“Some thanks I get for trying to be helpful,” he muttered.

“We thanked you,” Tony responded.

“They locked me out of the apartment for half a day!” Ben retorted, glaring from one to the other. “People laughed at me, sitting in the damned hall on the floor!”

“One guy snickered,” Tony translated. “And he was one of ours.”

“Well, it hurt my feelings.”

“He doesn’t have any,” Tony said helpfully. “He was tombstoned in the wrestling ring so many times that only about ten of his brain cells are left.”

“Don’t you listen to them, Ben,” Odalie said soothingly. “I used to love watching you onMonday Night Raw!”

“You did?” Ben asked, wide-eyed.

“I did. I have an autographed picture of you back home in my room,” she added. “Dad took me to a match in Dallas. You were signing photos, so I got one.”

“Well.” Ben brightened. He smiled at her.

“He can write?” Mrs. Murdock asked Tony in mock astonishment.

“Don’t look at me—I didn’t know, either,” Tony replied.

Ben picked up the container of salad dressing and looked narrow eyed from one of them to the other.

Tony and Mrs. Murdock looked at each other, sighed, got to their feet together and waved their napkins in defeat.

Ben beamed.

After supper, they sat over cups of coffee in the living room with its comfortable stuffed sofas and chairs.

“Tony, you’ve never shown Odalie the orchids, have you?” Stasia asked.

“Orchids?” Odalie asked, wide-eyed.

“Orchids,” her sister-in-law replied, smiling. “He has some beautiful rare ones. Even rarer than the ones in the Jungle Room on Long Island.”

“But aren’t they really hard to keep?” Odalie asked.

“Very,” he said, getting to his feet. “I have light tables with automatic waterers. But I still mist them myself every day. The rare ones tend to be temperamental.”

“He was going to put in a terrarium and bring Rudolf over here from the Long Island house to live. Until the revolt, that is.”

“Revolt?” Odalie asked as she stood up.

“Mrs. Murdock and Ben and both bodyguards stopped him at the door on the way out,” Stasia said. “It was them or the snake. So poor Rudolf is stuck on Long Island.”

“Poor baby,” Odalie sighed. “I’ll bet he gets lonely.”

“Our neighbor’s teenage son comes over to check on him every day,” Tony said. “I think the kid’s in love with him. I came home one day to find him watching old DVDs of Ben’s wrestling tours with Rudolf sitting in his lap. Actually, partially in his lap. He’s too big to be a lap snake,” he chuckled.

“Orchids,” Stasia prompted. “Thataway.” She pointed toward the hall.