He still thought his father was paying me. “It’s not about money. It’s aboutwho I am. I’m not a PI. I’m not a cop. I’m…” I hesitated, but damn, he couldn’t bethatnaive, could he? “I’m not agood guy, Miller.”
“I know that.” It came out fast, irritated. “It’swhymy dad picked you, right?”
I sighed. “Your dad didn’t pick me. He asked a favor from my Boss, and myBosspicked me because…” Why the hellhadCastellani picked me, the guy with such shitty judgment? “Because I have a knack for solving problems.”
He stood and crossed to me at the sink, leaning in close so I couldn’t get away from him. “Then solve this one for me.” His eyes turned dark. “Because if anyone’s hurt my sister, I want to hurt them back. And that’s the kind of work the Castellanis do, right?”
CHAPTER14
MILLER
For an Italian mobster,Jack sure seemed shocked at the idea of a vendetta. It took him a second to find his voice.
“How thefuck—” he started, and bit it off.
“See?” I couldn’t help bragging. “I’m not such an innocent little kid after all.”
He grabbed me by the arms and put his face close to mine. “Firstup,” he said, his husky voice sending a thrill down my spine, “like I told you, I’m doing this alone. And second, you might think it’s cute shouting about—” He paused. “About where I work, but if someone overhears you, they mightnotfind it so cute. And third…if I find out someone’s harmed your sister, I’ll be bringing that information to your dad, not to you.”
“Why, because he’s the guy with the money?”
He gave me a twisted smile. “Because if anyone’s ordering a hit, I’m sure as hell not gonna letyouget involved.”
I hadn’t meant that I wanted to order ahit. That wasn’t what I meant at all. But I couldn’t back down now, not when I was getting somewhere. “You think I don’t know what I’m asking?”
“I think you’reunclearon the consequences.”
We studied each other. I could see he wasn’t going to budge on one thing, so I pushed him on the other. “Fine. Whatever we find, we take to Dad. But we’re doing it together.”
“I don’t have time to babysit.”
“JesusChrist. I’mtwenty-six, JJ; I can handle myself!” I was getting mad, and I was grateful for it. For the last twenty-four hours I’d been all over the place: worried, horny, anxious, hurt. Anger would pull me out of it. “Youneedmy help. You want to get into Annie’s house, right? Talk to her crowd? I can do that for you.” I let that settle in his mind as I tried to get my heart rate to slow down a little. I was going to keel over any second now if it kept going so fast. The thing was, I couldn’t tell whether I was scared or exhilarated or turned on. Jack had a combination effect on me.
After a moment, he said, “Do you have access to your sister’s private social media accounts? The ones the public doesn’t know about?”
“Uh-huh.” I didn’t, not since she’d blocked me after ourfalling out. But it seemed like a way in.
Jack’s eyes—grayer than usual in this light—ran over my face and I wondered, for a split second, if he was going to kiss me again. He was still holding me by the arms, and I was looking up into his face, my mouth tingling with anticipation.
“You can help with gathering intel,” he said grudgingly. “And you can let me useyourname to get into places. But anything on the ground, any action, that’s me and me only. Get it?”
“Okay.”
“I mean it. You’re not going to charm your way into anything more.”
For the first time in what felt a long time, I gave a genuine smile, although it felt alien on my face. “So you think I’m charming, JJ?”
He gave a soft snort and pushed me aside gently so he could sit back down in front of his laptop. “If we’re doing this, let’s do it. I have an hour and then I need to go to work again, so let’s be tactical. Get over here.”
I sat down and then shuffled the chair around the table to sit next to him and view the screen. There was a whole document on the screen with typed notes that looked like a screenplay. Surely Jack wasn’t writing a spec script, along with everyone else in this city?
And then I made out the first word. It was my name. I read the first few lines carefully as Jack leaned over to get some notepaper, and recognized my own words.
It was a transcript of our conversation from yesterday. He’dtapedme, after I told him not to.
Sneaky asshole.
“Why bother asking permission if you were just gonna do it anyway?” I asked, pointing at the computer.
