The Mercenary Next Door (Rogues and Rescuers #2) - Lucy Leroux Page 0,75

ingredients were a closely guarded family secret. It was the only recipe in his repertoire that took hours, plural. If he didn’t eat take out, Mason’s meals were simple things that took less than a half an hour to prepare.

However, the ragù was worth every minute, or so he kept telling Laila whenever she asked. Giving her some garlic bread to tide her over, he juggled the phone when Ransom practically yelled in his ear. “Did you check the file Toya sent?”

“No, I’m cooking,” he replied, checking over his shoulder, but Laila wasn’t in the kitchen. Figuring she had gone to set the table, he lowered his voice. “What about the file?

“What are you cooking?” As usual, Ransom had been distracted by the mention of food.

“My grandma’s ragù and linguine.”

Ransom whistled. “Now I know you’re in love.”

Mason didn’t deny it. What was the point? “What was it about the file?”

“I’ll tell you when we get there.”

He scowled. “You’re coming over?”

“We are now. We’ll be there in twenty.”

Hanging up with a shake of his head, he called to Laila, warning her to set two extra place settings.

The sauce was finally ready by the time their self-invited guests arrived.

“The file was mostly gibberish,” Rosamie said, passing the salad to Laila. “I guess it’s the code for the OS, but I only took a quick look. Toya knew we were in a hurry, so she just did a data dump. We will have to scour it ourselves.”

“I think I can speed up the search. I took enough coding classes before switching to respiratory therapy to tease out what’s part of the operating system from the call logs. What I don’t know is how the GPS data will be formatted. I’m going to have to do some research,” Laila said, putting her hand over her wineglass before Mason had a chance to serve her. “So, it might be a long night for me. I think I should skip the wine.”

Rosamie nudged her hand off before she reached for the other bottle he’d put out—the Chardonnay. “A search like this needs wine. Lots of it. Don’t worry. I won’t let you go to sleep.”

The Filipina flicked her lashes at him. “Red wine makes her sleepy. White makes her wired.”

Mason mock saluted. “Then, I’ll go get the corkscrew.”

It took most of the bottle of wine for Laila to work through the data. The girls settled on the couch in the living room while he and Ransom crowded on the armrests behind them.

“The only person he called that entire day was his father,” she muttered at some point.

“No incriminating calls?” Rosamie asked, her shoulders drooping.

“Except one of the calls happened at one forty-nine in the morning.”

There was a beat of silence as the foursome absorbed that. “It makes sense,” Mason said. “Who does a spoiled man-child go to when he gets in over his head?”

“I’m not sure I agree with the man-child part, but there were definite signs of being spoiled and going to his dad for advice whenever there was a challenge on the horizon,” she said.

“I guess killing someone would qualify,” Rosamie said darkly.

Laila grimaced. Mason could tell she wasn’t convinced he’d done it, but this circumstantial evidence pointed in that direction.

“It’s not enough for a jury,” he said. “The fact he called his father at that hour doesn’t prove anything. It could easily be dismissed as a drunk dial.”

“A drunk dial that lasted eleven minutes?” Rosamie peered closer at his computer screen.

“That does seem a bit long for a drunk dial,” Ransom observed. “But it might just be long enough for daddy dearest to call someone on another line and put a plan in place.”

“That might be true, but it seems odd that it would be the last call. If they were getting rid of Jasmine’s body, wouldn’t there be more calls to coordinate?” Rosamie asked. “For something like this, I’d imagine Joseph would have the phone glued to his ear so that he could get step-by-step instructions.”

“Maybe he did,” Laila pointed out. “They might have wised up and switched to one of those apps that delete your messages. Which I should have thought of before…”

Mason rubbed her back. “It could be something else. Didn’t you say Joseph has a cousin at the fraternity?”

“Yes,” Laila said, straightening. “Bryce. I kind of forgot about him.”

“We should all be that lucky. Bryce is the worst.” Rosamie’s mouth tightened. “But if you asked me if he could be involved with something like murder, I would have said