Hardy Brothers Security: Deadly Proposal Part 23

"Get us some pizza."

After everyone was seated and eating, Mandy asked about their day.

"We took a load of stuff out there," James said. "It just doesn't seem like enough."

"Well, what else can we do?"

James shifted his gaze to the table where Ally and Jake were chatting amiably. "Jake says that I'm looking too hard to fix things that I can't fix."

"Maybe you don't have to fix things," Mandy suggested. "Maybe you just need to make them better."

"And how do I do that?"

"We're going to figure out something," Grady said from his spot on the floor. "I can't just sit here and ignore it either."

"It made me really sad," Finn said. "It was like ... ."

"Like you were guilty because you somehow escaped that happening to you," James finished for him. "I know."

"You shouldn't be guilty," Mandy protested. "You can't wish worse upon yourself to lift others up."

James knocked his head against hers lightly. "I know. You just don't understand what it was like out there."

"I understand wanting to change things," Mandy said. "We can still change things. We may not be able to make them perfect but we can change them."

"You know, sometimes I think you're an optimist and sometimes I think you're a pessimist," James said. "I can't decide which one you really are."

"She's an optimist with a pessimistic streak," Ally informed him. "She's got both tendencies just like you."

James leaned back on the couch so he could see his sister's face. "You have an answer for everything."

"I'm one of the great thinkers of our time," Ally agreed, winking. "That's why you always come to me for sage advice."

"Do you actually think your advice is sage?"

"Who fixed you and Mandy when she went off the deep end?"

"I said we're not talking about that anymore," James said. "She feels bad enough. We're now referring to it as the misunderstanding, and calling it a day. I don't think making fun of her because she was hopped up on medication and recovering from being blown across a parking lot is exactly fair."

"We're calling it the misunderstanding now?" Grady asked. "Is this like us calling what you did to her after that first night the incident?"

"Pretty much."

Mandy was busily studying her empty plate. The shame she felt for her meltdown was profound. She'd never thought of herself as the kind of woman who had low self-esteem when it came to her romantic entanglements. She still wasn't quite sure how she'd fallen so far off the wagon.

James slapped another slice of pizza onto her plate. "Don't let it get to you, baby," James said. "Ally is just trying to irritate me. She doesn't care that she's hurting you in the process."

Ally's mouth dropped open. "I'm not hurting her."

"Take a look, Ally," James said, his tone chilly. "Does she look happy to you?"

Ally searched her friend's face. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Mandy said, avoiding the pointed gazes in the room. "I'm the one who had the meltdown."

"I'm fairly certain we had the meltdown together," James countered. "I don't want to dwell on it. It was eighteen hours of horror, and we've put it behind us. Ally needs to stop bringing it up. I think that would make us all feel better."

"I was just teasing her."

"So, let me get this straight," James said. "Your best friend was almost killed in an explosion. She could barely walk. Her body was a walking bruise. She was on medication that alternately made her sleepy and sick to her stomach, so she wasn't eating. She had a few rough days, which I wasn't exactly helpful with because I was doing every wrong thing I could possibly think of in an attempt to do everything right. And you think, given all of that, making fun of her is the best way to go?"

Mandy put a stilling hand on James' arm. "She doesn't mean anything."

James ignored the blonde at his side, keeping his gaze fixed on Ally's conflicted eyes. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I didn't really think about it."

"Well, think about it," James said. "Really think about it for a change."

The room sank into uncomfortable silence, with Grady, Finn, and Mandy exchanging questioning looks. James' words were both harsh and cold something he usually reserved for enemies, not his sister.

Jake was the first one to break the silence. "You know he's just s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with you, right?"

"What?" Ally was flabbergasted.

"He's trying to get under your skin for a change," Jake said. "I'm guessing you irritate him every chance you get. You might want to avoid getting under his skin by using his girlfriend as a weapon at least for a little while. He doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor about it."

Ally, confused, narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to teach me a lesson?"

James smiled widely, popping a piece of pepperoni from Mandy's plate into his mouth. "It's not fun, is it?"

Ally squealed irritably, launching herself from her chair and into her brother's direction. "How could you do something like that? You know I'd never hurt her."

James tangled with her, wrestling both of her wrists into his right hand. "I know," James said. "I still don't want you bringing it up again. Be nice to my blonde."

"I loved her long before you did," Ally said. "I have certain rights as the best friend."

James shook his head, refusing to fall prey to Ally's twisted logic. "Yes, but as the boyfriend, it's my job to protect her. As your older brother, it's my job to both protect and torture you."

"I hate you," Ally grumbled.

With one hand controlling Ally's wrists, James used his other to tweak her nose. "Just be nice to my girl and I won't have to embarra.s.s you."

"You can't embarra.s.s me without embarra.s.sing her," Ally said, her face smug. "Every embarra.s.sing thing I've ever done has been with her."

"She has a point," Grady said. "I can't think of one funny Ally story that doesn't involve Mandy."

"Like the time they toilet papered the princ.i.p.al's house because Ally was convinced he was looking down Mandy's top in his office one day," Finn suggested.

"What?" James looked disgusted.

"You were already gone," Finn said. "And that dude was a total pervert."

"He looked down your shirt?"

Mandy shrugged. "That's what it seemed like."

"How old were you?"

"I was fifteen."

James was furious. "Why didn't you tell me? I would have handled it."

"You were already gone," Mandy said. "And Ally and I took care of it."

"By toilet papering his house? That doesn't seem like a very good punishment."

"We started the toilet paper on fire when we were done," Ally said, her face red from the exertion of trying to escape from James' grip.

"Wait, is this when you got arrested for arson? Mom wrote me about that when I was in Afghanistan. I guess I missed out on some of the key details."

"We were never charged," Ally said. "Dad took care of it. The princ.i.p.al didn't want it to come out in court that he was looking down Mandy's shirt, so he refused to swear out a complaint."

"It's too bad you didn't burn his house down," James grumbled.

"The point is, I've had her back longer than you have," Ally said. "I'm allowed to tease her."

James tickled Ally's ribs. "No. Tell me what else the two of you did while I was away. I like these stories."

"We didn't do anything," Ally argued. "That was the only thing."

"What about the time you two conned the quarterback by saying you both wanted to sleep with him and then stripped him naked and stole his clothes so he had to walk home in the buff?" Grady suggested. "I love that story."

James wrinkled his nose, casting a curious look at Mandy, who was studiously looking at an empty spot on the wall. "Who was the quarterback?"

"No one."

"Kip Jones," Grady said.

"Isn't he doing a dime up at the state pen in Traverse City for rape?" James asked.

"He is."

James furrowed his brow. "Did he hurt one of you?"

Mandy shook her head hurriedly. "No. It was nothing like that."

"It better not be," James growled.

"He felt up our friend, Sherry, under the bleachers at a football game," Ally said. "He took pictures and showed everyone. He even put some of them out on the web. He got what he deserved."

James eased up his hold on his sister. "I'm going to let you up," he said. "I have a feeling you might have a point about the friend thing warring with the boyfriend thing."

"I always have a point," Ally said, straightening her shirt and flicking James on the ear. "I'll stop bringing up the misunderstanding, though. It's mean, and I don't want to be mean to Mandy."

"Just me."

"You deserve it," Ally said, sauntering back over to the table where Jake was watching the exchange with amused eyes. "Besides, it's a sister's job to irritate her brother. You're just going to have to get used to it."

THE PHONE ringing on the nightstand jolted James awake. Mandy was asleep on his chest, her blonde hair spread out like a halo in the dim light of the bedroom. A quick glance at the clock told him it was early, a little before five.

James answered the phone without checking to see who was calling. "h.e.l.lo."

"James, it's Sophie," the voice on the other end of the phone is. "I'm sorry to call you so early."

"Sophie?" Mandy stirred on James' chest. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Grady?"

"He was fine when I left him in bed two hours ago," Sophie said. "I got called out on a story."

"What is it?" James ran his hand over Mandy's worried forehead, smoothing it.

"I got called out to a body dump at the Clinton River," Sophie said. "Someone shot a man in the back and dumped him in the river."

"Is it someone from the tent town?"

"Kind of," Sophie said. "One of the sheriff's deputies at the scene recognized the man from a previous incident."

"And?"

"It's Cole Gordon."

James sat up straight, being careful not to knock Mandy around in his haste. "I'm on my way."

Twenty-Two.

James handed Sophie a fresh cup of coffee when he found her hanging around the crime-scene tape near the river. It had taken some convincing, but Mandy finally agreed to remain at the apartment while he came to the scene. The thought of her warm and safe in the bed they shared was fueling him.

"Thanks," Sophie said, taking the coffee from him. "The days are getting warmer, but it's still cold out here. I needed this."

"Yeah," James replied, sipping from his own coffee. "Have you found anything else out?"

"They don't know what kind of gun it was yet," Sophie said. "They won't have that until they do an autopsy."