Cooked by Adrienne Giordano

Author:Adrienne Giordano [Giordano, Adrienne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ALG Publishing

Thoughts still circling the possible implications of Molly managing Reuben LeBeau, Lucie came to a stop and double-parked in front of Villa Rizzo. She hopped out to move the ancient lawn chair Dad had left—so thoughtful—in the Rizzo reserved spot.

In her lifetime, Lucie couldn’t recall one instance where someone had moved the chair and commandeered the space. Maybe it was fear of Joe Rizzo’s wrath or simply a sense of honor. Certain things in this neighborhood were sacred. Reserved spots were one of them.

Particularly in the winter. If you dug snow out of a parking space, you basically owned it until the snow melted.

Lucie parked, locked the car, and grabbed her briefcase from under the blanket she kept in her backseat to hide things under.

Waning sunlight dipped below the rooflines, taking precious heat with it. This time of year, they were lucky to even have sunlight at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Her phone rang. Tim returning her call. She’d called him from the office to update him that her background checks on the firefighters were a dead loss. Not one of those people appeared to be doing anything fishy. Damn them.

Not good with the ransom drop looming.

Who knew if Antoine even had the money together?

Dean. She’d check with him. See if there might be emails regarding money movement.

“Hello, Detective,” she said into the phone.

“Hello, Ms. Rizzo.”

Their silly little name game brought a sense of calm to Lucie’s otherwise lagging nervous system. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

She stepped onto the curb, inhaled a long pull of crisp winter air, and let the cold center her. “Listen, hot stuff, I’m halfway through the list of firefighters. I’ve spent a small fortune paying for background checks. They’re all clean. Barely a parking ticket.”

“It was worth checking them out. My buddy has a sister who’s a paramedic. I’ll ask if she knows any of them. What was the other message you left me? About the chef.”

“The friend. He was doing a demo today at a food show, so Ro and I went to check it out. And before you get all mad about my screwball investigations, you should know it was a bust.”

“What happened?”

“Aside from Ro being called a whore by a bible thumper with a perv of a husband?”

Tim let out a strangled laugh. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll tell you about it later. Needless to say, it got the chef’s attention. We talked to him after the demo and made up some nonsense about wanting him to cater a wedding. A double wedding.”

Silence.

A chunk of Lucie’s heart might have been sheared clear off by its sharpness. The horrifying thought of marrying her rendered him speechless.

Shake it off.

“Relax, Tim. He caught us off guard and Ro ran with it. We weren’t being serious. Sorry if I terrified you.”

Because, after all, why would the honorable Tim O’Brien even want to marry into the Rizzo family? After what he’d seen of her life, he should run.

Fast.

“Luce, you didn’t terrify me. Well, the whole double wedding thing with Joey and Ro, maybe. But you.

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