Free Framed and Burning (Dreamslippers Book 2) by Lisa Brunette Page B

witnessed what a wrecked state she was in, he would have been surprised.  
    “She was no longer Donnie’s girlfriend,” he said. “They broke things off a month ago.”
    Alvarez raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
    “Yes. And I was not having an affair with her.”
    Alvarez tossed a photocopy onto the table. Mick recognized the image.  
    “Then why was this on Donnie’s cell phone? He received it the night he died.”
    He winced, realizing Jenny had sent the photo after all. He’d pleaded with her not to send it.
    “Because Jenny was mad at Donnie. She wanted him to hurt. And she was jealous of my friendship with him. So I guess I had to hurt, too.”
    Alvarez glared at him. “What exactly are you saying? The photo’s some kind of fake?”
    Mick flashed on a moment from that awful night, before he went to the party, before he found out that Donnie was dead. Jenny’s call for him from the bedroom, saying her zipper was stuck… His fingers on her back… The way she swayed into him.  
    “A frame-up would be more accurate,” he replied.  
    Alvarez snorted. “You were fucking your best friend’s girlfriend. Maybe the two of you killed Donnie.”
    Mick clenched his fists. “What, to get him out of the way? Why would we have to do that?”
    Alvarez was silent for a moment, and then this: “Why don’t you tell me what happened that night between the hours of nine and half past midnight?”
    Mick swallowed hard, but his throat was dry. “Jenny called me, said she needed my help, that she was going to surprise Donnie, propose getting back together with him.”
    “And why did they break up?”
    Mick grimaced. “Donnie kissed someone else at a party, and Jenny caught him.”
    “So Donnie was a player.”
    “I wouldn’t call him that.”
    “Of course you wouldn’t.”
    Mick shrugged. “Donnie really liked people. Everyone he met. He never discriminated, never talked bad about anyone else, and he’d give you the shirt off his back. He was the friendliest guy I’ve ever known. He could seem kind of clownish, but people loved him. Sometimes too much. And Donnie couldn’t resist loving them back.”
    “And the night of the fire?”
    Mick remembered. Her back was so soft, and she pressed her ass into his crotch. Then she whispered, “I’ve seen you look at me, Mick.”
    He’d let his hand trace down her back, down to the curve, felt her flex and arch backward.  
    But then he stopped. Pushed her away. He knew what she was doing. “You’re just trying to get even.”
    She grabbed her phone, let her dress drop in front, and took a selfie with Mick there behind her.
    Mick knew then that she wasn’t just trying to get even; she was trying to destroy his friendship with Donnie. He lunged for the phone.
    “Forget it, Mick!” She threw the phone into a drawer and stood in front of it, her arms crossed.
    He knew he could take her. He could throw her aside, grab the phone, and smash it against the wall. But he’d have to hurt her, and something in him stopped him from that. This was dangerous ground, and he knew it.
    “Jenny,” he said. “I know Donnie hurt you. But this is… This is low.”
    “Get out!” She took off her witch boot and threw it at him. The pointy toe caught him in the chest.
    “Don’t send the photo,” Mick said.
    “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t!” She threw her other boot at him.
    So he left.  
    He told this to Alvarez.  
    “And that’s it? What happened after that?”
    “I went to a bar and got drunk. Then, to please my sister, I stumbled over to the Art Basel party but didn’t make it past the hotel bar. And Donnie got burnt to a crisp.”
    “Have you reached out to Jenny Baines since then?”
    “I tried, but she threw me out.”
    Alvarez sighed. “Wait here.” She picked up the photocopy and left him alone in the room again.
    Then a few minutes later, the door opened, and in came Jenny with Alvarez, Santiago, and Speck. They sat down at the table, Alvarez at