Page 31 of Macaron Massacre
“Ah.” She lifts a brow his way. “So you must be acquainted with my sister.” She expels a dark laugh. “I jest.” She looks my way. “Claret has a dicey career in a seedy part of Leeds. Poor girl just never believed in herself. That was the difference between the two of us. I believe in me and—well, she did, too.” She slaps her thigh as if it were a hoot. “But alas, she didn’t believe in herself.” A strange energy takes over her person as if she were reliving a bad dream.
Everett leans in. “How long has your sister been working for the wrong side of the law?”
“Too long.” She flicks a finger through the air. “I apologize.” She looks to the girls and me. “I’m afraid I may have painted my sister out to be a thug. In reality, she’s a lover, not a fighter. Claret was seeing two different men. Poor thing couldn’t decide between the two—always back and forth, back and forth.” She rolls her head from side to side as if to exemplify the fact.
Nell pops up next to her as a sea of stars swirl around her. “This is starting to sound familiar, isn’t it?”
I choose to ignore Nell momentarily.
“Go on,” I say to Michelle. “How did she know which one was the best for her?”
“Oh, she didn’t. She chose the wrong one in my opinion. Her other suitor was an insurance salesman. He was heartbroken when Claret decided to go with Louie, but he’s since moved on. And now, he has a sensible job with a sensible wife and three sensible children. Poor Claret. Louie was quite the playboy before he met her, and he’s since resumed his philandering ways. She chose dangerous over sensible, and now all she has is her job and her cats.”
Oh my God, that’s going to be me!
I turn to Everett and scowl for even entertaining his philandering ways one more time.
“It’s not happening, Lemon.” His cheek flickers because he’s smart enough to connect the philandering dots.
Noah nods. “It’s happening. Be sensible, Lottie. You have enough danger in your life as it is.”
“Oh hush, you.” I scowl at him as well. “You’re already well on your way to having a sensible wife or two. Can’t you see? There’s no safe scenario left for me.”
Michelle Ireland laughs as she brings her hands together. “Now there’s something I’ll have to add to my speech. There is no safe place. It’s true, Lottie. The only safety we have is in ourselves. It’s either one or the other.”
Britney glides an easy smile my way. “You can’t have one, so it must be the other.” She stabs her arm through Noah’s and yanks him in. “And let’s see, Mack Nut. I have Noah, and Unlucky has her hands full with Judge Baxter’s sexy gavel… Where does that leave you? Oh yes, all by your lonesome.”
Cormack stalks over and threads her arm violently through the crook of Noah’s other arm, and I can’t help but smirk.
“Noah, you’ll have to stop acquiring wives and girlfriends”—I say—“you’re quickly running out of limbs.”
He blows a hard breath as the two of them start in on a tug-of-war, and I scuttle Everett and Michelle over a notch.
Nell tips her head toward the suspect before us. “Perhaps ask her about her other sister?”
Everett gives my hand an approving squeeze.
“What about Dawn? Do you think she had a vendetta against your father?”
Michelle’s skin turns pasty in patches as if I caught her off guard. “Dawn wouldn’t kill anybody. She was a good girl, and she didn’t deserve to be treated the way she was.” Her fingernails press into her fist so hard her skin glows white. I can’t help but note she’s all but drawing blood. “Dawn was four years younger than me. While we were growing up, she was my living doll. I loved her as if she were my own. She wasmybaby girl.”
Strange. She’s talking about her as if she were no longer with us.
Nell nods. “Ask her when was the last time they spoke.”
“When did you last speak with Dawn?” I give a little shrug as she pierces me with an icy stare.
“Six years ago, when my father cut her out of the family.”
“Six years? I can’t imagine going that long without speaking to my sisters.”
“I can,” Everett quips. “You must have been very upset with her for offending your father.”
Michelle shakes her head as if she couldn’t deny it enough. “Not true. But my father had it stipulated legally that should my mother, sister, or I speak to Dawn, we would be cut out of the will. That’s not a risk any of us could take.”
I nod as if I understand, sympathize even, but I can’t do either. I couldn’t stand to lose one of my sisters for all the money in the world.
“I’m assuming you’ve spoken to her since your father passed, right?”