“No.” His face was schooled into an innocent expression, but I could see in his eyes that he knew he had overstepped.
“If you want them to keep working, you’ll get up and find your own food.”
He set his keyboard down and stood up. “I brought groceries this morning.”
“Right. Then you should know what to cook.”
His eyebrows drew together. “Cook?”
“You heat up food in a pot or pan.” I mimed stirring a pot.
“I don’t know how to cook.” He scratched his neck.
“You’re telling me that Mavis leaves you without any way to feed yourself?”
“I can make sandwiches and we have a microwave. Plus there’s always take-away.” He shrugged.
“If you want to go out in the big bad world, you’ve got to learn how to take care of yourself. Mavis spoils you.” I turned and headed for the kitchen.
“I heard that.” Mavis didn’t look up from her work.
“I can always buy something to eat.” Kenny followed behind me.
“No you can’t.” Ava piped up from her seat. She looked up at us. “If you can’t cook, you could end up stuck in a house for days with nothing to eat but canned soup.”
“What’s wrong with soup?” The kid opened the tiny refrigerator and poked around inside.
“Just say no to soup.” Ava smiled at me.
“Try eating it and nothing else for a while.” I took the milk from him and poured myself a glass. I looked at Ava and lifted the carton.
“Please.” She smiled and then looked back down at what she was working on. She was drawing lines between highlighted lines. I handed her a glass and looked over her shoulder.
“Have you found something?”
“I’m not sure.” She hesitated.
“Talk it out.”
“It’s probably nothing. I worked for aircraft engineers, so maybe I’m reading too much into this.” She chewed on her lip. “Most of these flights are on private jets. I can tell from the call signs. They’re a little more complicated here than in the States, but there are a couple that show up very often.”
“Gambling addiction?” Mavis looked up.
“Maybe. Or it’s people that charter a private jet.”
“You mean the owners of the charter.” Someone that had connections to a group of people that had more money than most small countries. “They’re feeding guests to Maria.”
“I’ve been wondering how Maria could just approach all of these wealthy people with invitations and not worry about being sold out. Yeah, a lot of them are bored, but there’s gotta be a portion of them that are uptight and not willing to step out of line. She needs someone to gauge who is right and who isn’t.” Ava shook her head. “I’m betting that Maria is the owner and has a hooligan managing it for her. Someone charming that can get away with passing out an invite.”
“Makes sense.” Mavis tapped her chin with her pen. “She hides behind a face and they funnel even more money into her bank accounts.”
“So, how do we find this person?” Kenny leaned against a counter and looked at us. He was holding a cucumber in one hand and a spoon in the other. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do with either, but he had a good question.
“We need to figure out which companies seem to be feeding customers. Then pick someone to target.” Mavis leaned back in her chair and pulled the clip from her hair, letting it fall down her back.
“And force them to take us?” Kenny brightened. “Impersonate them?”
“Yeah, because no one would notice we’re not the person they normally worked with,” I snorted.
“Forcing someone to take us would backfire the moment they got a chance to rat us out.” Mavis was watching the cucumber in her nephew’s hand with concern.
“Not if we kill them afterward.” He mimed using the cucumber as a knife.
“How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time? It seriously boggles my mind.” Mavis rolled her eyes. “We convince them, Kenneth. Make them want to help us.”
“What if it’s a woman?” The teenager sat the cucumber on the counter and bent back to the fridge, looking for something to go with his vegetable.
“Not a problem.” Mavis raised an eyebrow. “Not that I’m going to explain it for you.”
“Not to doubt your skills, but not all women are going to like you. Or find you attractive,” her nephew pointed out as he pulled bread from a bag.
“Then Owen can seduce them.” She said the words as if this plan was completely normal, nothing more than a job, but I saw Ava tense from the corner of my eyes. Usually I wouldn’t mind that job. It took little effort and usually worked better than killing everyone. But after last night I really had no desire to ply anyone else with my charms.
I shrugged, but couldn’t meet Ava’s eyes. I would do whatever I had to, to keep her safe. Even if it made her hate me in the process.
WHAT THE HELL was I? Chopped liver? Had last night not meant anything to him? He was all set to go seduce some rich woman.
I hoped she was eighty-five and on oxygen.
And had an ingrown toenail that he would have to massage.
He could apply her anti-fungal cream.
With his big, manly hands.
Ugh.
I took a deep breath and looked back at the papers in front of me. It was much more likely that it would be a man and Mavis would be working her thing instead of Owen. Yet, he had just agreed to do it if he needed to.