Wicked Games (An Ivy Morgan Mystery Book 17) Page 7

  Max chuckled. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” His eyes turned serious as he studied her face. “Are you okay?”

  She didn’t want to relate her afternoon to him so she only nodded. “I’m fine. I’m just not used to working outdoors all day.”

  Max frowned. “You work in a plant nursery.”

  “I have to go.” Ivy headed straight for her car. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she was gone. Her thoughts, though, remained on the road several hundred feet away. Somehow, the interaction felt important. She just had to figure out how.

  7

  Seven

  Ivy was in a foul mood when she walked through the front door. The bulk of it dissipated when she saw the three vases of fresh flowers Jack had placed around the house. There was also a huge box of candy, and a gift card for the spa one town over.

  “Jack.” Ivy smiled at the pretty pink roses as she ran her fingers over them.

  “Do you like them?” He snuck up behind her and planted a kiss on the back of her neck.

  “They’re beautiful.” She automatically turned in his arms and burrowed close. “Thank you.”

  His heart hitched at how soft her voice was muffled against his chest. He’d promised he wouldn’t bring up the notion of her switching crews, but her abject unhappiness weakened his resolve. “The magistrate saw how bad things were for you today. Maybe if I talk to him ... .” He trailed off.

  “You can’t do that, Jack,” she chided. “It will reflect poorly on you.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Well, I care.” She tipped back her head and regarded him with calm eyes. “It’s only a couple of weeks.”

  “That’s going to feel like a lifetime if you’re stuck with that guy.”

  “Yeah, well ... I have to deal. I don’t really have a choice in the matter.”

  “What if I can make it so you do have a choice?”

  “No.” She shook her head, firm. “This is my problem. It’s not your problem. You need to stop worrying.”

  Jack’s scowl was pronounced. “And what if I don’t want stop worrying? Last time I checked, you and I were a unit. That means when you’re unhappy, I’m unhappy.”

  For some reason, his belligerence made her smile. “It’s enough that you’re angry on my behalf. You can’t get involved in this, though. If word gets back that you’re trying to intimidate my crew chief then not only could you get in trouble, but they might increase my punishment. I don’t want that. I would rather go through three weeks of hell than eight weeks of a cushy position.”

  He opened his mouth to argue and then snapped it shut. She had a point ... loath as he was to admit it.

  “We don’t have a choice in the matter,” she reminded him. “If I don’t finish my sentence on time, we won’t be able to go on our honeymoon. That’s what’s keeping me going. In a little over a month, we’re going to be married. I would prefer this not be hanging over our heads when that happens.”

  She was right. He hated that she was right. “I know.” He wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek on her forehead. Only one time in his life had he felt this helpless. It was after he was shot and left for dead. The weeks following that incident had left him in a bad state, depressed and determined to avoid everybody in his life. Ivy was the one who had brought him out of that funk. He owed her, and he refused to repay her by fouling things up.

  “We’ll suffer through,” he said after a beat. “We’ll do it together, like we do everything else.”

  That had her smile returning. “Last time I checked, I was the one who had to pick up garbage on the side of the highway. You can’t help me with that. We’ll get in trouble.”

  “I would totally help you if I could.”

  “I know that.” She tipped up her chin and grinned at him. “I’m thinking that you’re going to have to help by giving me an extravagant massage each night when I get home. We’re talking scented oils and a full hour of rubbing here.”

  “I’m more than willing to rub you until my fingers fall off. It’s going to have to wait until later tonight, though.”

  Her forehead wrinkled. “Why?” She hated how petulant she sounded. She didn’t consider herself a whiny person and yet that’s exactly how she sounded today. “Let’s hide away from the real world for the entire night.”

  “Oh, honey.” He looked pained. “I want to give you everything you could possibly want, but we have a dinner on the books tonight. It’s been scheduled for almost two weeks.”

  “Um ... I think I would remember that.”

  “I would, too, especially since you were swearing like a belligerent trucker when you agreed to it.”

  That’s when realization hit Ivy smack in the face. “Family dinner.”

  He offered up a tight-lipped smile. “Family dinner. Now that everyone is ... getting along ... we agreed to a big dinner so we could spend some time with Dorian.”

  Dorian Lanning was a recent addition to the Morgan family. Er, well, he was more like a return addition. Years before, he’d been Felicity Goodings’ boyfriend. Circumstances had torn them apart, but now they were giving it another try. Since Felicity was Ivy’s favorite aunt, she wanted to encourage the relationship to the best of her ability.

  “I forgot.” Ivy rubbed her forehead and tilted her head down to hide her scowl. “We can’t pull out now. My mother will have a fit.”

  “Since your mother is still angry about us investigating Felicity when Zelda died, I would prefer not extending my stay on her bad side,” Jack acknowledged. “If you really feel like you can’t see people, though, I’ll make the call. She can blame it on me.”

  Ivy immediately started shaking her head. “We can’t do that. My mother will melt down. I want her to get over herself, and that’s not going to happen if we miss dinner. We have to go.”

  “I would agree. I just ... you’re so tired.” He moved his hands to her shoulders and started rubbing at the tension there. “I promise to massage you for as long as you can stand it when we get back. Just ... look forward to that.”

  “Oh, I will.” Ivy’s eyes flashed with impish charm. “I’m going to make you my love slave when we get back here. You’ve been warned.”

  “That is not punishment in my book.”

  “Good to know.”

  IVY TOOK A LONG SHOWER, her skin pink when she exited the stall. She was convinced she’d scrubbed a full layer of skin from her body. Still, it felt good to dress in normal clothes and she was feeling markedly better when she and Jack landed in the parking lot of the local diner.

  “How do I look?” Suddenly, she was nervous as she checked her reflection in the visor mirror.

  “You look beautiful,” Jack answered earnestly. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world.” Confused, he snagged her hand before she could start running it through her hair. She’d let it air dry so a mass of loose waves fell around her shoulders, giving her a wild look that appealed to Jack. “Why are you nervous?”

  She shrugged, noncommittal. “I don’t know. I just don’t want to look like a criminal, if that makes any sense.”

  “You don’t look like a criminal. You look like Ivy, a woman who is paying a terrible price for doing the right thing.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s laying it on a bit thick. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”

  “It’s true. This should never have happened.”

  “Well, it did. We have to deal with it. There’s nothing else we can do. I would appreciate it, though, if you didn’t tell my parents how bad things are. I don’t want them worrying.”

  Jack worked his jaw. On the surface, he understood the sentiment. He wasn’t certain he could refrain from making his distaste over the entire situation public, though. “They would sympathize with your predicament,” he said after a beat.

  “They would, and then my mother would call the magistrate to demand I be switched to a different team and my father would start spending all his time at Max’s lu
mberyard so he could watch with binoculars and run to my rescue at the first hint of an argument.”

  Honestly, that possibility appealed to Jack. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  She extended a warning finger in his direction. “I don't want to give them anxiety. Can’t you understand that? I don’t want you living under the constant cloud of anxiety either, but you have easier access to information. Just ... please.”

  She rarely asked him for anything. She was independent to a fault, something he was hoping to break her of eventually. Because he understood how hard it was for her, though, he nodded. “They won’t hear it from me.”

  “I really appreciate it.”

  He grabbed her hand and pressed the palm to his lips, an intimate exchange that made Ivy’s heart flutter. “You can repay me later, after I massage you until you’re nothing more than a limp noodle.”

  Her grin was lightning quick. “I think that sounds like a fabulous idea.”

  “Good. All I want tonight is to take care of you. Let me.”

  “I think the flowers and the chocolate were a nice start.”

  “Just wait until you see the chocolate cake I bought. It’s in the refrigerator.”

  Her eyes widened in a comical manner. “Pulling out all the stops, huh?”

  “You have no idea.”

  THE REST OF THEIR PARTY WAS ALREADY settled around the huge table at the back of the diner when Jack and Ivy entered. Even though she wasn’t really feeling it, Ivy plastered a bright smile on her face and waved at JJ, Max’s girlfriend’s son. He was squirming on his seat he was so excited to see them.

  “It’s about time,” JJ snapped when Ivy closed the distance, his arms wrapping around her waist. “I thought you were shanked.”

  Ivy frowned, confused. “I ... who ... .” Her gaze was dark when it landed on a sheepish Max. “What did you tell him?”

  Max’s cheeks reddened under his sister’s heated glare. “I might — and I do stress might — have been talking to Amy and JJ overheard,” he admitted. “I thought he was doing his homework.”

  “I don’t want you to get shanked,” JJ insisted.

  Frustrated, Ivy ran her hand over the boy’s soft hair. “How do you even know what that is?”

  “Max let him watch Orange is the New Black,” Amy volunteered, shooting her boyfriend a dark look. She clearly wasn’t happy. “Apparently the women on the show were talking about it.”

  “I thought it was a comedy,” Max argued. “It won awards in comedy categories.”

  “Yes, well, there’s a new rule in the house,” Amy said primly. “Now I get to okay any television shows before Max and JJ can start binge sessions.”

  “There were naked women, too,” JJ said on a whisper, his eyes wide. “It was so gross.”

  Jack chuckled at the boy’s reaction while steering him back toward the table. “You’ll think differently at some point in your life.”

  “Says you,” Michael Morgan shot back, his eyes trained on Ivy’s wan face. She was his only daughter and he was ridiculously protective of her. Right now, his father radar was pinging nonstop. He recognized his daughter wasn’t having a good day ... and it made him angry. “I still don’t like girls. Except for this one.” He pushed the chair to his left out and tilted his head toward Ivy. “Sit by your father.”

  It was an order, not a request. Even though Ivy would’ve preferred sitting almost anywhere else — including next to her mother — she knew better than arguing. It was likely that her father would say something to make her cry before the night was out, and there was little she hated more than looking fragile in front of her family.

  “How are things at the nursery?” Ivy asked, hoping the change in subject would distract everybody. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to check in as much as I would like over the past few days but ... it just hasn’t worked out.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Michael’s expression was grave. “Max says that you’re being mistreated by the man heading up your work crew. I think something should be done about it.”

  Ivy murdered her brother with a dark look. “Why are you getting him all worked up?” She was exasperated. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  “Hey, you’re my sister.” Max squared his shoulders. He was used to Ivy’s fiery temper and knew she would be angry that he dared talk out of turn. He refused to apologize, though. “You look like death warmed over. You have dark circles under your eyes ... and you’re afraid. I saw you running back to your car this afternoon and it wasn’t just that you were eager to return home.”

  Jack snapped his head up, his eyes firing. “What happened? What didn’t you tell me?”

  “Who cares about that?” Luna Morgan, Ivy’s mother, challenged. She also had a fiery temper and it was on full display today. “I want to know why you haven’t had her transferred to another job yet. You’re a police officer. You should be able to call in favors.”

  “That’s what I want,” Jack reassured her. “In fact, that’s what I want more than anything. I’ve been ... cut off ... from that avenue.”

  “How so?” Michael leaned forward. “Why can’t you help?”

  Before Jack could respond, Ivy turned her full attention to Felicity and Dorian. They sat together on the opposite side of the table, their fingers linked on the tabletop, and looked absolutely in love. They also looked beyond concerned.

  “How are you guys?” Ivy queried, desperate to change the subject. “You look happy. Like ... really happy.” She beamed at them. “I’m guessing things are going well.”

  “They’re going well,” Felicity confirmed. “We’re thinking of taking a trip to the Upper Peninsula before the wedding, although that’s still up in the air. It might have to wait until after the wedding. We’re both swamped at work.”

  “Well, it’s not that long of a wait.”

  “No,” Felicity agreed. “We’re not talking about us, though. We’re talking about you. I don’t want to pile on Jack here along with everybody else — under most circumstances I would believe that unfair — but I have to agree with your mother here. Why aren’t you doing something, Jack?”

  Ivy felt Jack stiffen and her heart recoiled. This was not how she wanted the night to go ... and she blamed Max. “This is your fault,” she hissed, glaring at her brother. “Why couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut? All I wanted was to park my car at your lumberyard. I shouldn’t get punished for that.”

  Max made a protesting sound. “Hey, I’m trying to look out for you. That’s my job as your big brother.”

  “Freaking out Mom and Dad is your job?” Ivy was incensed. “It’s like I can’t trust you for anything.”

  “Oh, knock that off,” Jack said finally, rubbing his forehead. “Max is doing what he thinks is right. You can’t blame him for worrying about you. It’s not fair ... for anybody concerned. The only reason I agreed to your demands that we not talk about it is because you seemed to need it.

  “Well, the cat is out of the bag,” he continued. “Your family knows you’re having a rough time of it. That’s not a bad thing. They love you. They want to help.”

  “We do want to help,” Luna agreed. “I still want to know why you haven’t done something to help her out, though.”

  “Because ... .” Jack wasn’t sure how to respond. He felt like an absolute failure as a fiancé. He was convinced there was no worse feeling in the world. “There are ... constraints ... to my position,” he started. “I want to do what I can, but Ivy thinks it’s a bad idea.”

  Luna turned an incredulous look on her daughter. “Are you crazy? You’re engaged to a police detective. There aren’t a lot of perks that go along with that position. This is one of them. Take advantage of it.”

  “No.” Ivy adamantly shook her head. “I don’t want to abuse the system. That’s not right.”

  “Um, you were arrested for a stupid reason,” Michael argued. “You shouldn’t be trapped in the system in the first place.”

  “Well
, I am. It’s too late to go back in time. I’m stuck here now, and I’m not going to risk Jack’s job — or getting extra community service hours — because I want special treatment. It’s not going to happen, so ... just let it go.”

  Clearly still fuming, Luna folded her arms over her chest and stared at a spot above Ivy’s head. That allowed Amy, who hated it when anybody fought thanks to a fraught past, to redirect the conversation.

  “So, I hear a body was found out there,” she started.

  Ivy nodded as she rubbed her hands over her skirt. “Sasha Carmichael. It’s tragic. I wasn’t the one who found her, though. It was a guy on my crew.”

  “That is tragic,” Michael noted grimly. “I know her parents. I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

  “I knew her a little bit,” Amy volunteered, taking Ivy by surprise.

  “You did?” Jack shifted on his chair. “How did you know her?”

  “She came to the bar about twice a week.” Amy worked at a rough-and-tumble bar out on the highway. Max was constantly trying to get her to quit, but until she found another job, she refused. She had a child to provide for and she had no intention of slacking on the job. “She was pretty friendly and talkative. I liked her.”

  “Her parents said she was dating someone, but they didn’t know who,” Jack noted. “They said she was keeping it to herself for the time being. Nobody else we’ve talked to seems to have any information on this guy. I don’t suppose you know who he is, do you?”

  “Um ... I’m not sure.” Amy’s brow furrowed. “I did see her with a guy a few times. He was younger, in his twenties. I don’t have a last name, but I’m pretty sure his first name was Jason.”

  Ivy’s stomach twisted as she leaned forward. “Are you sure?”

  Amy nodded, confused. “Why? Is that important?”

  “Um ... maybe.” Slowly, Ivy slid her gaze to Jack. “There’s something else that happened at work. You’re probably not going to like it, but I think you have to know.”