Free Bite Me (Devlin Haskell 3) by Mike Faricy Page A

stay here, Dev. I don’t want you to see my bedroom,” she giggled.
    I shook my head but remained in the kitchen. Gary followed Kiki like a little child. I hope he knew what he was in for. I could hear the tone of their conversation coming from her bedroom, but I couldn’t make out what, exactly, was being said. Eventually they returned to the kitchen.
    “So I got a drop cloth, tray, roller, roller covers, rag to wipe up drips, masking tape, brush, your choice of paint. You’re good to go. You want a drink or anything?”
    “A drink?” Gary asked.
    “Yeah, I got a couple different beers in the fridge, a w hite wine, red wine over in the cabinet there. A full bar in the dining room, if you’re into the hard stuff, you know.”
    “No, probably shouldn’t,” Gary said.
    “Suit yourself, I’d be drinking all the time if I had to hang around with this character,” she said pointing at me.
    “I know what you mean,” Gary said.
    “Look, Gary, I’m going to talk Dev into going with me to the store so I can get a few things. You got everything you need?” she asked.
    “Yeah, you kids get the hell out of here,” Gary shooed us out the back door with his hands.
    “Why do I have to take you to the store?”
    “Because,” she smiled.

Chapter Eighteen
    We went to the hardware store, and the dry cleaners, the grocery store, picked up some sort of make up cream at the hairdressers, got some fish oil tablets at a health food store. With all the driving around I had to refill my gas tank. We’d been gone the better part of three hours when I pulled into the alley behind Kiki’s house. I noticed a broken gin bottle in the alley, but didn’t pay much attention to it.
    “I hope Gary was all right, I didn’t think we’d be gone this long,” she said.
    I gathered up a handful of shopping bags from my back seat, grabbed the twelve pack of diet Coke she couldn’t live without. Kiki held a cardboard flat filled with little pink flowers in plastic trays.
    “He’ll be fine, with any luck he’ s finished, I have to check him back in early this afternoon.”
    “ Check him back in?” she asked, we were climbing the steps to her kitchen door. She’d just set the cardboard flat on the bottom step.
    “Oh, he’s in some post treatment joint, they just ke ep close tabs on the guy is all, don’t want him out drinking, running with the wrong crowd, you know.”
    “You knew this and you left him alone in my house? Jesus, Dev, I offered him a drink, told him where the beer and wine and all my liquor was,” she was hurrying now, quickly pushing into the kitchen. I dropped all the shopping bags next to the kitchen counter.
    “Gary, Gary we’re back. Gary?” she called, walking quickly down the hall.
    “Will you relax, he’s fine, Jesus, how much trouble…”
    I heard her scream from the bedroom and ran down the hall. She stood in the doorway with a hand to her mouth, a shocked look on her face. I stared over her shoulder. It looked like Gary had taken one of the gallon cans of paint and just flung the contents. The paint was splashed across wall, over the woodwork, and puddled onto the hardwood floor. Long drip marks ran down the wall.
    “ Christ, it’s not even the right color,” I said.
    “Oh my God, what in the hell… Jesus, my clothes,” she screamed.
    Bras and thongs were scattered across the floor on the far side of her bed .
    “You didn’ t leave them there?”
    “Me? No you idiot, of course I didn’ t leave them there. Oh my god, he’s ruined my bedroom. He’s ruined it. Your pervert friend has ruined my bedroom, Dev.”
    “Look, Kiki, I don’t know what to say, I didn’t think…”
    “ Stop right there. Oh my god, you complete and utter idiot,” she screamed and picked up an empty bottle of lubricant off the floor next to her scattered thongs.
    “Maybe now’ s not the best time for that,” I said, then ducked as she threw the bottle at me.
    “Get out of my house,” she