Bluegrass Undercover (Bluegrass Brothers)

triples froze and looked from Parks to the car they were currently destroying. One of the men, the one with the tattoo of himself on his forearm, at least Cade hoped it was of himself and not one of his buddies, pulled out a piece of paper.
    “Says he drives a year old Black SUV. Toyota.” One the three men leaned forward to look at the front of the car.
    “Ford. Oops.”
    “Dammit, Steve. Boss is going to be pissed.” He shoved the guy he called Steve and then noticed Parks was closing in on them. They began to push each other and trip over one another as they leapt back into the Escalade and tore out of the parking lot.
    Cade shook his head and tried not to laugh at the mess-ups the lackeys Gaylen had sent continued to make. H e looked at the damaged vehicle. Poor Parks, he wasn’t going to take this very well. He loved his SUV. He fell to his knees in front of his broken headlights, his hands stretched up to the heavens and cried, “My Baby!” before collapsing into tears.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Annie sat on the old floral couch and looked at the wall. She put the glass of Sangiovese down on the small, wood side table and leaned forward. She had lit candles in the living room and poured a glass of wine in an effort to relax. She hoped it would trigger something as she looked at the wall where she posted all the notes on the case. There were pictures of the players with different color yarns attaching them to other players and pieces of evidence, but so far nothing was connecting them. There was no common thread.
    Just this afternoon she had received the information that S2 had spread from Kentucky to Florida and now to Texas. She had looked through the file before the game but couldn’t figure out how it had gone from Miami to Houston. Hence the wine and candles. She took another sip of wine and looked at the cases. The only common factor was that the buyers were all high school athletes. With a sigh, she slouched back against the couch. This was what her Friday nights had consisted of for years now, and boy it was almost as depressing as the fact she couldn’t figure out the connection in these cases.
    The knock at the door surprised her. Maybe the Rose sisters had taken pity on her again and brought her some food. They had surprised her once a week with some home cooked goodies that made her excited every time the door rang. She did kind of feel like Pavlov’s dog, but if it was any more of the pumpkin spice cake that Miss Violet had dropped off last week, she’d happily drool. Suddenly giddy to see what goodie awaited her, she got up and hung the picture of some saint over her notes before bounding to the door and quickly opening it.
    “Hi.” Oh crap. That was not who she thought it was going to be.
    “Hello, Cade. What brings you by tonight?”
    She tried to hide herself behind the door. She was wearing a pair of baggy flannel bottoms from Victoria’s Secret and an old Florida State t-shirt that was a size too small. She had kind of filled out some since college. She was definitely not in any kind of outfit to see Cade in, especially when she desperately wanted to apologize for the punch. It was a good punch, though, but he didn’t deserve it. She knew that now.
    She just didn’t really know how to deal with men who might care for her, and she believed that he did care for her. She was used to men putting her down, always thinking that because she was a woman she could not do what they did. They didn’t want to be her partner in the field because they didn’t trust a woman to have their back. They didn’t want to go undercover with her because they never thought she’d be able to pull it off. And they never wanted to hang with her after a case because she wasn’t one of the guys.
    “Something happened after you left that I thought you should know about. Can I come in?”
    Oh double crap. He looked so good in his jeans and black pullover. Of course, not as good as he looked out of them. She took a quick look down at her black flannel pants with pink polka dots and shrugged. It wasn’t like he was interested in kissing her again.
    “Sure.” She opened the door and waited for him step inside. “I ’m guessing what happened wasn’t too bad since you are smiling. Come into the living room. I was just having some wine and trying to find the common connection to all the cases that have appeared in Kentucky, Florida and now Texas.” She walked into the living room and took the saint