open space, glanced back towards the stairs where the guys were sleeping then opened the top drawer. There was a roll of money inside. More than I'd seen in a damn long time and it was most definitely whispering my name and telling me to take it with me when I ran. Not yet, my love, but soon.
I closed that drawer and found another with random bits of crap including several keys on a ring, but they were big and bulky, not what I was looking for and not the keys to the doors or windows here in the house either.
I moved my search on, rifling through drawers, cupboards, shelves. Anywhere and everywhere that might hold something of interest or most ideal of all, the rest of the keys that matched mine.
I crept from room to room, exploring the house while trying to hunt down anything interesting and coming up short time and again. There was a locked door beyond the kitchen which I couldn’t budge and had to give up on with a frustrated huff and another one before the dining room. When I made it to the big tv room at the back of the house, I even checked down the backs of the sofa cushions. Nothing.
"If there's something in particular you're after, you could just ask, you know," JJ said casually and I almost screamed as I lurched upright and whirled on him, finding him standing in the doorway in a thin pair of shorts and nothing else, his muscular arms folded over his chest as he leaned on the door jam and waited for me to explain myself.
"I want to leave," I said defiantly, folding my own arms while trying not to think about the fact that I was only wearing his wifebeater and had just been bent over the couch with my bare ass in the air aimed right at him. The shirt fell down to my mid thigh while I was upright like this but...yeah, there was no denying the amount of ass that would have been hanging out of it while I was bent over like that. Goddammit.
"So you thought we might keep the keys to the front door between the cushions?" he asked, seeming somewhat amused and I just shrugged. "Maybe I should go and wake Fox and Chase up, see what they think about you searching the house in the dead of night."
"Don't," I said before I could stop myself, but I wasn't sure why I was bothering. JJ had no loyalty to me so there was no reason for me to think he'd keep this between us.
JJ's face split into a knowing grin and he pinned me in his gaze as he considered his options.
"Alright. How about we swap secrets then? I won't tell so long as you explain those bruises to me," he offered.
"That sounds like you'll just own two of my secrets. It’s not a swap," I pointed out and his smile widened in a way that made my stomach knot.
JJ may have seemed like a nice guy on the surface, but there was something about that look in his eyes which told me that was all bullshit. I'd met enough dark souls to recognise the danger of the ruthless streak in them no matter what mask they presented to the world. This was a man who was used to getting what he wanted by one means or another and I wasn't going to forget that. The boys I'd once run with were living the life they'd always been destined for. One of violence and crime and death. Any sweetness they'd once had would be thoroughly corrupted by now.
"Looks like it," JJ agreed. "So what's it to be?"
I rolled my eyes and stalked towards him, slipping past him when he refused to move out of the doorway and ignoring the way my body had been pressed to his in the tight space for that split second before I made my way back to the kitchen.
I helped myself to a glass of OJ, poured a second for JJ because I was a peach like that then dropped down onto a stool before the kitchen island as he came to sit beside me.
I took a long swig of my juice, placed the glass down and looked into it as I decided to give him the truth. At least enough of it to get him off of my back. They weren’t going to drop this now that they’d seen the bruises