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I looked in JJ’s eyes, saw the determination there. I had to bite back a curse. “Don’t go to him, JJ. Don’t you dare. Especially now that Malik didn’t get his way. We’re going to handle this together. We’ll figure it out. Once we know why Malik wants it, we can plan.”
“I went to him the other day.”
I tensed. “When?”
“Over a week ago. I had to know if he had something to do with breaking into your house.”
“Fuck’s sake!” I knew how hard it was on him to go there, to talk to him. It riled him up, pissed him off. I didn’t want that for him. If I’d thought his dad had something to do with it, I would have called or gone to him myself.
“What did you expect me to do? Sit back and let him do whatever the fuck he wants? And by the way, he said it wasn’t him.”
“I didn’t think it was. I told you that when we were on our date.”
“He also said he wouldn’t touch any of you or Pey and Dom. Junior is obviously off-limits due to his relation to us.”
“What did you give him in return?” Greer asked.
“Nothing. But he told me not to ask anything else of him. I won’t. Your lives matter, nothing else.”
“And yours,” I added.
JJ swallowed. “And mine.” His eyes met Greer’s. “He told me he wouldn’t hurt you. Malik was here. Does that mean Malik went behind my dad’s back or did my dad lie to me?”
“I’m not sure. But Dex is right. You don’t want me to go to him, don’t you do so either.”
“Fuck,” JJ bit out, resigned, and dropped his forehead to my shoulder.
I wrapped an arm around him while my other went around Greer. We stood under the water, let it wash away the day. Shit, the day wasn’t even close to being over yet. I really hoped nothing else happened because we were all so messed up, I didn’t think we could handle it.
We stood there until our shoulders relaxed. Until our fingers pruned. Until we couldn’t stand being wet any longer then got out and toweled off. The sun was still up when we went into the bedroom, but none of us wanted to do anything but be together, so we climbed into bed and wrapped ourselves around each other and slept. It didn’t solve anything. We didn’t come up with a great plan. But it was what we needed, and, in that moment, it was all that mattered.
31
GREER
Bouncing the tennis ball didn’t do enough to soothe me this morning so I went downstairs to the gym and ran on the treadmill for a while. I punched the heavy bag until sweat ran from me in earnest. I lifted weights. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to calm down.
Hell, it was amazing I got any sleep last night. Every time I heard a sound in the house, I picked up my phone to check the cameras, making sure there was no one inside who shouldn’t be. I disturbed JJ enough that he took the phone from me and put it on the dresser out of arm’s reach. A gun sat on both of the nightstands, loaded, ready to use.
Malik got into my home. A place where the men I loved were staying. Where my fucking family was. And damn did I want to hurt him. We traded enough punches for me to realize we were evenly matched. Malik didn’t become Jordan’s second-in-command by being weak. He fought with skill honed from hours of training.
JJ had gone to his shop to work on a few vehicles, even though it was Sunday. He wanted to help his employees catch up. Or so he said. I had a feeling it had more to do with him needing an outlet like I did. He didn’t want to kick the shit out of my heavy bag though. He wanted to bury his hands in an engine and focus on that.
Dexen stayed home with me, concern swimming in his eyes. I told him not to worry and to go to the club, but he shook his head, wrapped his arms around me, and held me. I hadn’t known I needed that until he did it. Too bad it wasn’t enough to calm me all the way down.
“Baby, you have to stop,” Dexen said descending the stairs.
My chest heaved, the heavy bag in my arms as I stilled its movement. “I can’t just sit here. I have to do something to figure this out.”
“I think we need to talk to Jordan Sr. I’ve been going over it in my head and I’m not sure what else to do. JJ said his dad told him he wouldn’t touch us, which to me means Malik acted on his own.”
“He could have lied to JJ.”
“He wouldn’t do that. Good or bad, he’s always honest when it comes to his son. I learned that the first time I dated JJ.”
“Let me go shower.” I grabbed a towel and started wiping myself down. “Can you call JJ and tell him we’re coming down to his shop? But maybe leave out we’re going to talk to his dad. I don’t want him to bolt and do it on his own.”
“Good idea.” Dexen stepped close, his hands going to my hips. He was in jeans and a Henley, looking gorgeous. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll talk to Jordan Sr., get this all worked out.”
