Chicken Caccia-Killer (A Jordan McAllister Mystery) by Liz Lipperman Page A

hadn’t been—and still wasn’t—very good at it because he’d glanced away and hadn’t looked in her direction again.
    She’d found out later that he’d thought she was involved in an international diamond smuggling ring and had only forged a friendship with her to get information. But before he’d wrapped up the investigation and sent the bad guys to prison for a very long time, he’d managed to save her life and steal a piece of her heart.
    They’d carried on a long-distance romance the entire nine months he was in El Paso on another undercover assignment, and they hadn’t really had the opportunity to give the relationship a chance to work. It wasn’t until he’d been promoted and transferred to Dallas as the field commander at the FBI headquarters downtown that they’d finally been able to spend time together. That was, until his mother and sister showed up for the Italian Festival.
    Things weren’t going so well for his family now, and Jordan was frustrated that there was nothing she could do to help. She smiled to herself as an idea popped into her head. She remembered Alex had once teased that the whole world needed to be on high alert when she got one of her hair-brained ideas.
    But she couldn’t stand by and do nothing while he and his family were in crisis. She was in a unique position here with a press pass and an assignment to cover all the events of the festival. Today was the first day the vendors would be allowed to set up their booths in preparation for Friday, when the festival would officially open to the public.
    Perhaps she could use the contacts to get the scoop on Marco. She might even find out what Emilio had held over his head to convince the playboy to marry his daughter.
    A horrible thought burst Jordan’s euphoric bubble. What if after seeing his daughter in tears at the party, Emilio had decided to confront Marco and remind him what he had to lose by being a jerk? And what if that meeting had heated up and ended up with Marco taking a dive over the railing of his balcony? Given that in the past twenty-four hours Jordan had heard stories about the short fuses both men possessed, was that so hard to believe?
    She thought not.
    She decided she needed a game plan, but not before she overdosed on chocolate and caffeine. Reaching for the bread pudding, she shoveled a huge bite into her mouth. It was even more fabulous than Alex had described, and she wondered if she could talk Myrtle into giving her the recipe for her column. Victor could give it some wonderful Spanish name like Chocolate budin de pan. The Globe readers would love it.
    As she inhaled the delicious chocolate desert, she made plans to run out to the Plainville fairgrounds and do a little nosing around after Alex and Kate returned home. What would it hurt to check things out?
    In the meantime, as she stared at Natalie’s desert on the kitchen counter, she said a quick prayer for some serious willpower.

C HAPTER E IGHT
    Alex and Kate showed up at the house a little after noon with meatball hoagies from Guido’s, one of Jordan’s all-time favorite restaurants. She caught Alex’s eye and smiled, thinking the dark circles and concern she saw there belied his attempt to appear unfazed by what he’d just watched his sister go through.
    “I told you I’d make it up to you,” he said, trying to smile back.
    “Alex?”
    He turned to his mother whose forehead was creased with worry lines. “Come have something to eat, Mom. These hoagies are better than Uncle Undo’s. Let’s eat them while they’re still a little warm. Then we’ll tell you all about this morning.” He directed her toward the kitchen table. “It’s not bad news. I promise. It’s just complicated right now,” he added in an attempt to erase those lines.
    “Unlike the TV shows, it may take weeks for the DNA samples to come back,” Kate said. “Without that, the only thing Captain Darnell could do was ask me a few more questions.”
    Natalie’s