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Mine was unrestrained. “Perfect.”
After I pulled on Kieran’s shirt and towel-dried my hair, I met the guys in the living room, where they were having a near-silent argument.
When I stepped into the room, the words stopped and they stared each other down. Each gave a stiff nod before going to stand on opposite sides of the room, like they were ready to fight.
I’d never felt more uncomfortable as I went to sit in the chair near Kieran.
I needed to be close to him. To draw strength from him and to know that after everything, he still loved me.
But every few seconds, Beck sent pained looks in my direction before dropping his stare to the floor.
A part of me cared for him. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have endlessly worked to keep AJ off his back. No matter how much he’d ruined my life, he’d always been there, and I hated hurting him.
Just as I knew Kieran did, even with their current anger toward each other. Otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped himself from shifting closer after I sat down, and kept his distance instead.
“Jessica,” Kieran finally said, breaking the heavy tension in the room as he moved to stand in my line of sight. “How do I find AJ?”
My head snapped to Beck.
That bastard.
I was retracting every good thought I’d just had about him.
“Is there anything you won’t do to betray me?” I asked, but he only looked at me with an unapologetic expression.
“I can’t help you if I don’t know,” Kieran said calmly.
“You were never supposed to know,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Even now?”
I looked up at his question and had to bite back the automatic reply. After a few seconds, I settled into the chair. “He has a warehouse in downtown Raleigh. But, apparently, he has men following me because he thinks I’m going to skip town.”
“How much do you owe him?”
“Enough,” I said automatically.
“Jessica,” Kieran said with a sigh.
I slapped a hand on my thigh. “It doesn’t matter, because it’ll keep going up. He tripled the price and gave me a week to get it, then cut that time in half just because he could.”
“I’ll find him,” Kieran vowed.
“Good luck.”
“I know who he is and what he did. I told you I’d fight your demons.” His fierce eyes searched mine until I dipped my head in a nod. “I’ll find him,” he repeated, his voice low and deadly.
“We need to know what Mickey had you doing for him,” Beck cut in. “What he had you looking for. Who he had you watching. Everything.”
“I thought you knew.” I tried to keep the bitterness from my tone when I looked at him, but it was hard when I knew he’d sold my mom out to Mickey.
“I put things together in the last week,” he said. “But all we know is what Kieran heard from your conversation with Mickey about searching his room.”
The memory of the pain and hatred in Kieran’s eyes as he repeated my words flashed through my mind, threatening to steal my breath. But I forced myself to remember that he was here.
That he was listening to me. Believing me. That he was giving me another chance I didn’t deserve.
“I don’t know how many times I told you I wasn’t watching all of you,” I said to Kieran, my voice thick. “But I wasn’t. I was leaving after a random afternoon here, just spying on Beck, and Mickey’s driver caught me. He’s the only one who ever has. He dragged me into his car and drove me home. I’d already seen him following me for weeks, but he hadn’t ever stopped me. I had a knife in my hand and he knew it, so I tried to stay calm and asked why he was stalking me, but he never said a word. A couple nights later I was on my way to my street, and he did the same thing. Mickey came to me the next day with the driver. He said you’d taken something from him. He didn’t know if you’d keep it in your room or on you, so he wanted to make sure I could grab things without you noticing.”
