Free One Book in the Grave: A Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle Page B

forced to admit that my loony, bald-headed sister had become a true artist with food, even if she refused to include red meat in her palette. At least she hadn’t turned her back on chocolate.
     
    There were no freeways, no shortcuts, no easy way to make the long, circuitous drive west from Sonoma to Point Reyes Station in Marin County. There were only narrow two-lane roads that twisted and wound through rolling hills and mountain passes for more than fifty miles. But since it was a beautiful—if slightly treacherous—drive, and since I was being driven by Derek in his sleek Bentley Continental GT with Gabriel in the backseat—in other words, two of the most handsome men in the northern hemisphere—you wouldn’t hear me complain about it.
    After checking the map and his GPS, Derek decided to drive a few miles north up to Santa Rosa, where we would pick up Highway 101 going south. It might have seemed like we were going out of our way, but the highway was actually faster and we’d make up some time before we had to turn west on Petaluma Point Reyes Road. That’s where we’d start to lose time on those winding mountain roads, but Derek assured us that the Bentley would handle the turns and switchbacks with class and ease.
     
    “I’ll let you know how that works out from the backseat,” Gabriel said amiably as he squeezed in his six-foot-plus frame. I had offered to sit in the back, but he insisted, so I moved my seat forward to accommodate his long legs, and we hit the road.
     
    As Derek drove, I filled in some of the blanks in MaxAdams’s history. I told them about Emily and how much I’d liked her, and how much she’d loved the
Beauty and the Beast
book I’d given them.
     
    I was glad I’d brought the book along with me on this trip so I could show it to Max—if we were able to find him, of course.
     
    I was still having a hard time believing that Max was alive. And oh, my God,
Emily.
How could he have done this to her and to all of us? How had he managed to keep us in the dark for three long years?
Max, what were you thinking?
     
    I pulled out my cell phone to double-check my voice mail. But Emily hadn’t returned my phone call. It had been two days already, and I had to wonder why I hadn’t heard back from her. I knew I’d called the right number. Her voice hadn’t changed at all.
     
    Would the people who lived at the address Guru Bob gave us be willing to lead us to Max? Did I really want to see him? Yes, but I had questions. Too many, really. I needed to know how his tools could have shown up next to a dead man and buried in my tire. I knew he hadn’t killed Joe. Max was too good a person to ever have killed anyone. But, then, the Max I knew would never have lied to his friends and family for three long years. Could he have turned into a cold-blooded killer?
     
    Absolutely not. But I had to admit that I was getting a strange feeling about this whole adventure.
     
    Derek touched my knee. “Stop worrying.”
     
    “How do you know I’m worrying?”
     
    His mouth twisted in a sardonic grin as he applied a little more pressure to my knee. “Your leg is shaking enough to overturn the car. You always shake your leg when you’re fretting over something.”
     
    “I do?” I slapped one hand to my knee to hold it still.
     
    “Yes, love, you do. And another thing.” He kept his eyes on the road but reached over and stroked my forehead with his fingers. “You get the tiniest, most adorable frown line right here, between your eyebrows.”
     
    “Damn, I thought the Botox would take care of that.”
     
    I appreciated the snicker I heard from Gabriel in the backseat.
     
    Derek tweaked my cheek. “Don’t even joke about that.”
     
    “There’s nothing adorable about frown lines,” I muttered.
     
    “Everything’s adorable on you, darling.”
     
    I smiled adorably at him, then laughed when Gabriel began swearing under his breath. I couldn’t quite catch what he’d said, but was