Coffee & Criminals

30. The Devil is a Good Kisser

Wolfe turned around and abruptly walked out of the kitchen.

I stared after him for a second, annoyed. I heard his footsteps retreat past the foyer and disappear as he stepped onto the plush carpet of the living room. Oh no, he was not getting away from me this time. I was done with people leaving me. I needed answers and he was going to give them to me, or else...or else what? Cry? Like that'll help.

I flicked the stove off and dumped the last burnt pancake into the trash. The kitchen looked a mess, but we could clean that up later. Fixing up two plates with pancakes, I drowned mine in syrup and drizzled just a bit on Wolfe's. For a man who killed as easily as he breathed, I didn't think Wolfe really liked sweet things. Although he did seem to have an unusual amount of Twizzlers around...I also dropped a whole bunch of chocolate chips over both of our plates. I tucked the pancake syrup bottle under my chin, put the bag of chocolate chips under one armpit, bag of Twizzlers under the other, carefully balanced both plates on each hand, and began to slowly make my way into the living room.

It was a nerve-racking journey from the kitchen to the living room but I made it without spilling anything, and I think that's an accomplishment all on its own.

Wolfe was sitting on the couch, staring hard at the plasma screen tv hanging over the elaborate fireplace. There was yet another soccer game on but the sound was on mute so I don't know what the hell Wolfe thought he was doing. He didn't say anything as I came in but did look up.

"Wanna talk now?" I asked, dropping the two bags and syrup bottle onto the glass table in front of the white leather couch. Stepping around the coffee table, I put my plate next to the bag of Twizzlers and gave Wolfe his plate.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." I sat down next to Wolfe and took a bite. Not terrible, but they weren't the best thing I ever tasted. Too eggy. It was probably my fault, but could you really blame me? Cooking with Wolfe Sterling wasn't exactly the easiest task in the world. I didn't have much experience around drop dead gorgeous men, and a criminal at that. I was surprised I made it this far without completely losing all my marbles. For example, out of the seven metaphorical marbles I have, I might have lost, like, two or three. Which still left me with four or five marbles. I love math and stupid analogies.

We ate in silence for a few seconds, but those few seconds were all I could handle. Putting my fork down and swallowing noisily, I glanced at Wolfe. "Can I please know now?"

Wolfe stared at me for a second, chewing slowly until I lost another marble and reached over to hit him. "What do you want to know?" He finally asked.

"Why would my best friend try to ki-" Catching Wolfe's irritated glare, I swallowed again and changed my words. Wolfe wasn't going to give me any answers if he was angry so it was probably best for me to not be so annoying for once. If I could stop myself, that is. Kinda hard to stop being annoying when being annoying was your default personality, but I'd try. "Why do you believe Ade Sinclair had a part in the assassination to take us both out?"

"Because he's not the guy you think he is."

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Wolfe and his vague responses was going to be the death of me one day. "Elaborate or I'll stab this fork right through your kneecap."

"Because-" Wolfe said, clearly amused at my ridiculous threat. "-he's been lying to you ever since you both met. I asked Jasper to run a background check. He tapped into the government's civilian information and ran Ade Sinclair's face and prints through every database there is. Do you know what we found?"

"He's a good guy, Wolfe. Like I said, Ade wouldn't hurt a fly." I knew the conversation we were having was going to be a hard one, but that didn't stop me from getting frustrated. Wolfe's words just weren't clicking with me. I couldn't picture Ade as anything except a good friend who made some icky choices, and to have Wolfe paint him in such a bad light was difficult for me to accept. "I don't expect much. Maybe a traffic violation? I don't know. What'd you find?"