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“Are you sure? How well do you know this guy?” he asked, lowering his voice.
“I don’t know him at all,” I admitted. “But I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt us.”
“How can you be sure?”
I opened my mouth to defend Jack, but had a hard time coming up with anything significant. I knew he was a criminal. That alone made it hard to differentiate him from the rest of the people in this neighborhood. “Look, he’s given us a ride a few times, and he got my car fixed. If he was really a bad guy, I doubt he would have done that much.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s not involved in some shady shit.”
“I know, but it’s only for the rest of the night. Parker needs sleep and something normal. If I move him again, it’s only going to make things worse.”
“And you’re sure this guy won’t mind you staying?”
I wasn’t sure at all. In fact, he’d pretty much done everything to get away from me as soon as we were over here. But he did run back into my house to get Parker’s things. Maybe he wasn’t a good guy, but he’d been far nicer to me than I expected.
“It’s fine.” Jack’s voice sliced through the air as he stood in the doorway of his house. “The kid is wiped out. Leave him for the night. In the morning, we can see what the damage is to your house.”
“Thank you.”
I heard Parker cry out and hurried down the hall to check on him. As soon as I was inside the bedroom, I saw him reaching for his bear in his sleep. I picked it up off the floor and tucked it back into his arms. Muffled voices caught my attention and I walked back to the door, staying out of sight to hear what they were saying.
“—make sure she’s safe.”
“She’ll be fine for the night. Whatever this is about, I’ll make sure it doesn’t touch her.”
“How can you be sure? Everyone knows this is Baz’s neighborhood. You’re on his payroll.”
“I know this may be hard for you to wrap your head around, but not everyone is in with Baz.”
“Then why are you here?”
It went silent, and I thought that maybe Jack walked away, but then I heard his voice.
“Baz owed me. I kept his son safe in prison, and he got me out. End of story.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying that. Look, just keep her safe.”
Footsteps sounded down the hall and I rushed back to the bed, sitting down beside Parker. When the door opened and Pete duckedhis head inside, I got up and pretended I hadn’t heard a word they’d said.
“Is he okay?”
“Yeah, he just dropped his bear.”
“Alright, I’m gonna head back to the station and find out what I can. Maybe you should consider staying somewhere else. At least until we figure out what’s going on.”
That wasn’t an option, but it wasn’t his problem. “I’ll think about it.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then walked away. I followed, wrapping my arms around myself as I waited for Jack to lock up the house.
“I’m really sorry about this,” I said as he shut the door.
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, I mean barging into your house and taking over.”
“If you recall, I brought you over here.”
I tried not to stare at him, but it was impossible. Despite what I knew about him, I was drawn to him. His dirty blonde hair was messy, but gave him a dangerous vibe. It was odd to think of hair that way. But it made his cheekbones stand out, accentuating his eyes and pulling me in. When I realized I was staring, I dropped my gaze, but that was worse. My eyes trailed over his pecs, down the length of his torso.
