Deadly Coincidence (Brantley Walker Off the Books #4) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,45

voice, instinctively flinching.

“Get it now,” he demanded.

“Fine,” she huffed, stomping to her bedroom, then into the closet. She placed her finger on the biometric sensor, retrieved the gun, checked the chamber and the safety, then carried it with her back to the living room, where she found Dante peeking out the blinds on her front window.

He shot a look back over his shoulder, so she held it up, showed him she had it.

“Good. Keep it with you.”

When he went back to looking out the window, JJ knew she needed some answers, but before she could get them, she was hoping to calm him down some.

“Can I get you somethin’ to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee?” she offered.

“I’m good,” he said on a rush of air before moving back to the couch and sitting on the very edge of a cushion. It was like he thought the thing would swallow him if he dared lean back and get comfortable.

“Are you sure?”

Dante waved her off, his gaze fixed on the front door again.

Since she’d already talked herself into coffee at the diner, JJ decided she could make a cup. What could it hurt? At the very least, she would be up at midnight, ringing in the new year with all the happy people.

“Give me a minute, then,” she said, moving toward the kitchen. “I’m gonna make some coffee.”

After setting her gun on the counter, she popped a K-cup into her Keurig then set her mug beneath it. When it started the process of heating water, she stood there, watching it as though that would make it hurry along.

While she waited, she figured maybe she could get Dante started on explaining why he was so freaked out and why he felt she needed to be armed. And more importantly, how he thought she could help.

“So, what’s so urgent that you had to come over on New Year’s?” she called out, eyes focused on the coffee now dripping much too slowly into the cup.

He didn’t respond, but she was used to that. When they had dated, Dante rarely paid much attention to her.

“I can’t help if I don’t have some details, so you might as well cough ’em up now.”

JJ never did get a response.

Then again, the bolt of pain that pierced her skull and had her crumbling to the floor took her mind off the answers.

In fact, it took her mind off everything as the world went black.

Chapter Ten

Baz had hoped he wouldn’t find himself here tonight, but he’d known it was a possibility. After all, convincing JJ to talk to him had been a long shot.

What made it worse was the fact that she had agreed and then she’d hurried off to meet her douche of an ex-boyfriend rather than try to work things out with him.

If that wasn’t telling, Baz didn’t know what was.

Now as he walked into Moonshiners, he let the sounds block out all the emotional turmoil he’d experienced in the past hour. He wanted to believe her meeting with Dante didn’t mean anything, but Baz wasn’t one to make assumptions. Not usually and certainly not when it came to JJ. Then again, she hadn’t hesitated to rush to Dante’s rescue, so what was he supposed to think?

One look at the crowd surrounding the bar told him if he went that route he’d probably still be waiting by the time the clock struck twelve, so Baz bypassed it, hoping one of the waitresses might get to him faster.

He scanned the room, saw Brantley, Reese, and Cyrus chatting at one of the tables. He headed over, smiling and nodding at a few familiar faces. He purposely kept going, not in the mood to chat it up with those who would want to know how he was doing, what he was up to. Right now, the only thing he was interested in was numbing himself with booze.

“I was hopin’ you wouldn’t make it tonight,” Brantley said when Baz approached the table.

Baz could see the concern in his boss’s eyes, knew Brantley had been hoping for the same thing he was: for him and JJ to work things out. Unfortunately, neither of them got their wish tonight.

“You and me both.” He nodded at Reese, then Cyrus. “But here I am.”

“Grab a seat.”

Baz glanced around, noticed there weren’t any to be had. His gaze snagged on a couple of ladies looking his way, a pretty blue-eyed blonde wearing a dark purple sweater, smiling brightly. Baz managed a smile back, thinking that she was the