“Oddly,” Kane replies dryly, “her obsession with criminals has never bothered me.”

Obviously, he’s egging on Andrew and when Andrew scowls, I laugh. Naomi appears in her red apron with a tray of food. “I have honey garlic shrimp,” she announces and quickly rounds the couches to set the display of food, napkins, and mini plates down on the stone coffee table.

She hurries away and I say, “That’s a sign we should just sit down, stuff our faces, and get along.”

We do. We sit. Andrew is on the couch and Kane and I in an oversized chair beside him. All three of us grab a little cup filled with shrimp. Once our mouths are full, the need for conversation is gone. We’re on little cup number two when Andrew says, “I’m pretty sure hell is groaning, the three of us together, sharing a meal.”

“And Dad, too,” I add, taking the whiskey from Kane’s hand to take a sip from his glass—it tastes better in his glass than mine—before I hand it back to him, my mind chasing an idea.

“Or not,” Andrew corrects. “Kane and I are invited to the fundraiser. Maybe we’re giving Pocher exactly what they want. Us together.”

I sit up straighter with a realization. I’m on my feet a moment later and crossing to the room to stop at the kitchen island, where I grab my stack of notecards. I thumb through them all and I stop at one card: Look here, so you won’t see the truth.

The jar of blood is a distraction.

The invitation to the charity event is an olive branch that is a lie.

Both seem to point to Pocher. Unless he, too, and the timing of his return, is also a distraction meant to keep us from seeing what’s really going on.

So, what is really going on?

I’m swimming in circles and that’s exactly what someone wants me to do. And I really do hate being the boring girl who does what’s expected of me.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

When I return to the living room, Kane and Andrew are standing at the window, their backs to me. I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that conversation involves me stabbing Roger to death and the aftermath. Their aftermath. The reality here is that if my brother doesn’t pull himself together, he’s headed for trouble, and he might take us with him.

Kane won’t let that happen.