A Berry Bookish Puzzle: A Kylie Berry Cozy Mystery (Kylie Berry Mysteries Book 10) by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The dining room seemed to fade away. I saw the raging man in front of me, but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of blood rushing past my ears. Somewhere in the back of my consciousness I felt Sam move to my side. I didn’t have enough command of my body to turn and look at him, but I felt the waves of tension that vibrated off his body.

There were only two customers, two college kids who studied at the café during slow hours. They didn’t usually come this early in the day. They must have been regretting it now.

The man’s eyes snapped to Sam and me. He stomped over to us and slammed his meaty hands on the counter that separated us from him. I had never been so grateful for that counter. I had never been so desperate to crawl into a hole.

“You gone braindead or something?” the man spat. “I asked you where Kylie Berry is.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but my mouth was too dry to manage a word. How had I managed to make a stranger this angry? Maybe he was a friend of Frank Sanders? Olivia Beningham’s nephew? The first option seemed likely but the second didn’t as much. I didn’t remember seeing a picture of the red-faced man in front of me in Olivia’s house—nor had I seen a calmer version of him. And Olivia seemed too classy to do something so violent.

“Should I call Detective Calderos, boss?” Sam asked.

I shook my head and managed to squeak out a soft “no.”

“Go ahead and call Brad. I’ll kick his butt, too.” The man slammed his hand on the counter again, this time with a fist instead of a flat hand. “Where is Kylie Berry?!”

“I—I’m Kylie Berry,” I croaked. The man’s eyes snapped to me. It took all of my courage, but I didn’t shrink away. “I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but if you just calm down and tell me what you want, maybe I can help.”

“Huh, yeah, you’re just who I was lookin’ for. I’ll tell you what I want, Red. You to keep my name off those fat lips of yours and somewhere they belong.”

I narrowed my eyes. “There’s no need for that kind of talk. And I can’t be spreading your name around town if I don’t even know it. Who. Are. You?”

“Barret. Drennup,” he spat back.

A chill went through me, starting at the top of my head and ending at my toes. If I hadn’t been so reluctant to take my eyes off Barret Drennup, I would have checked to make sure nobody had poured a bucket of ice water over my head.

I didn’t know the man in front of me, but I knew about Barret Drennup. Olivia Beningham had mentioned him to me that very afternoon.

Maybe I was wrong about her not sending him? No... I still don’t think that’s her style. But who did?

The bell above the door chimed again. Barret and I didn’t break eye contact.

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