Chapter 30 Machine
THIRTY
MACHINE
I spent the rest of the day working with Kade to stage Ricci’s body for the authorities to find, strategically making it look like he was attacked in his own home and being careful not to leave any prints or forensics.
This was my specialty. I knew how to manipulate a crime scene to lead the police to someone other than ourselves.
After getting cleaned up at RSS and finalizing a few things, I decided to go to the store to grab more baking ingredients for Badger. Lord knew she was going to go through them quickly.
The door chirped as I walked through the threshold of the penthouse. As I’d imagined, the air smelled of something sweet. Lucy looked up from her bed near the couch, huffed, and lay back down. Badger must have worn her out by playing with her.
When I turned the corner, Badger was in the middle of frosting a cake.
She had flour dusting her face and apron.
I smiled, enjoying seeing her in her element.
The island was covered in pies, cookies, loaves of banana bread, and chocolate truffles.
I placed the groceries on the counter and walked behind Badger, wrapping my arms around her waist.
“Well, someone has been busy.” I pressed a kiss under her ear, making her shiver.
“Well, we need quite a bit for the funeral tomorrow,” she said, focusing on making the frosting as smooth as possible on the top of the cake.
I looked around the kitchen. “I think there’s enough, Bunny.”
She stilled at the use of her nickname.
“There’s still so much to do,” she murmured, going back to what she was doing.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
We hadn’t talked about Ricci or Arrow. It was as if she had gone into lockdown in her mind. As if nothing was real if we didn’t say anything. Instead of answering my question, Badger spun in my arms and placed a dollop of frosting on my nose. She let out a giggle as I gave her a deadpan look.
“Well, that wasn’t very nice,” I said, swiping the frosting off of my nose and licking it from my finger. It was buttercream and tasted like heaven.
Badger left my arms and swept to the other side of the island.
“What are you going to do about it, Hammer?” she taunted.
I gave her a predatory smile before lunging around the corner to catch her.
She squealed and ran, frosting in hand, down the hallway.
I chased after her. I knew what she was doing; she was deflecting.
She wanted an escape from reality, and for the time being, I would provide that to her.
I just hoped she would eventually let me in.
Only time would tell.