Read The Borrowed and Blue Murders (The Zoe Hayes Mysteries) for Free Online

babysitter part-time. The neighborhood’s actually safer than it used to be.”
    “But you’ve got kids now,” Tony persisted. “And somebody got murdered on your back porch. You need to be more—”
    “Nothing’s going to happen to me or the kids.” I looked to Nick for support.
    Nick returned my look but didn’t say a word, and I couldn’t read his expression.
    “Seriously, Zoe,” Sam chimed in, selling real estate. “You guys should take the kids and move somewhere safer—I can get you guys a deal, believe me. What do you want? A condo? A nice house in the burbs?”
    “This is our home. We like it here.” I made my voice flat, trying to sound final.
    Sam scowled. “Look, I’ll gather up some information on properties. No pressure. When you’re ready, you and Nick can look it over—”
    “But for now, you’ve got bodyguards,” Tony had volunteered. “As long as Sam and I are here, you don’t need to worry. You won’t be alone.”
    And, for the rest of the day, while Nick worked with the detectives, his brothers had followed me, a tag team, wherever I’d gone. They’d taken turns. For a while, Sam had disappeared into my office to talk on his cell or work on his laptop, but Tony had stayed glued to me. If I turned around too fast, I bumped into him. Tony had stayed with me while I bathed Luke; he’d watched as I measured the kibble to feed Oliver. Then, when Sam had finally emerged from my office, they’d switched places. It was Tony’s turn to disappear and Sam’s to be my shadow. I’d had to insist that he wait downstairs when I went up to the bathroom. One or the other had been with me every second, watching but not necessarily helping as I cleaned up the kitchen, tossing out empty beer bottles and finally putting away the wilted lettuce and other groceries I’d bought that morning. Sam or Tony, together or apart, had shadowed me as I’d ordered pizza, as Molly and I had made salad, as I had emptied and refilled the dishwasher. They’d backed off a little when Nick came in, gathering around him to hear the latest from the police. Finally, when the pizza had arrived and they’d been distracted by food, I’d escaped, tucked Molly into bed and taken refuge in my bedroom, where I’d called Susan. I didn’t want to stay in my room all night, but if I went downstairs, I’d risk reactivating my security detail.
    Wait a minute, I told myself. This is your home, not theirs. It’s not even Nick’s yet. They are all merely guests here. And they have no right to crowd you or make you a prisoner in your own home. Go on downstairs and, if they bug you, tell them to back off. Since when have you been shy?
    On the other hand, since when had I had family? Never. As an only child, I had no idea how to coexist with siblings. What were the rules? These men were Nick’s brothers, and I wanted to become close to them. I wanted them to accept me, even love me, so I hadn’t complained once since they’d arrived. Not made one peep. Not about the way they were taking up every spare minute of Nick’s time. Not about how both Sam and Tony kept using my private home office repeatedly for hours at a time without even asking. Not about Tony spilling coffee on my purple velvet sofa, not about them repeatedly letting Oliver out of his crate so he kept peeing on the floor, not about the clutter Tony left in the living room or the raised toilet seats or the shaved-off whiskers lining the bathroom sinks—
    Wait, whoa, I told myself. Stop. Do not go down the list-of-resentments path. I reminded myself that Sam and Tony were family, that they would be there only for another week and that no mess, no inconvenience, no invasion of privacy could compare to the joy their presence brought to Nick. Besides, Molly was getting to know and adore her uncles. I needed to stop being a sulky spoiled brat and go join them.
    And so, smoothing my hair, taking a deep breath and putting on what I thought might pass for a sisterly