“I like to be polite.”
The way he said it made me laugh, but I added, “That’s the second time you’ve lied to me, JJ, after pretending you were going to drop your investigation. Don’t lie to me again. I don’t like it.”
His gaze dipped to my mouth and he ran a tongue over his bottom lip before he shrugged. “You need to understand there are things I won’t be able to tell you about my work. But if I can’t tell you something, I’ll just say that. Okay?”
I got the feeling it would have to do, even if I didn’t like it. “Okay,” I said at last.
He’d already pulled up Annie’s Instagram and was scrolling through it. “Before we start—” He paused in his scroll. I was grateful for the distraction; seeing her beautiful, happy face in photo after photo was making my head spin. “—how did you find me here?”
“Same way I found out you’re a Castellani.” He raised an eyebrow, refusing to beg for the information. “You’re not the only one with contacts,” I said at last. “One of the guys at my party last night—he runs theCute Crimswebsite.” Jack grimaced. “Yeah, I know,” I chuckled. “Anyway, he clocked you right away. I asked if he could find a contact address for you and he sent me a whole bunch. I went to, like, three different places before I came here.”
Teddy had been awealthof information, but finding out that Jack was a full-fledged Castellani mobster had shaken me more than I cared to admit. Jack had seemed like a guy who knew how to carry himself, how to deal when shit went down. It was part of the reason I found him so darn irresistible. Annie and I had once joked about our shared weakness for bad boys.
But a Castellani? That was something else.
It was only after I turned up in his neighborhood that I realized Jack wasn’t the only one I had to worry about. I might get rolled while I was here. My car was probably getting stripped for parts right then, as we started looking through his notes.
I didn’t care, though. I had insurance.
And I trusted this guy.
Whatever else he was, Jack was fair. He had acode. I’d seen him handling all kinds of drunks at the Beartrap. If it was an option, he preferred compromise over violence, even when it cost him out of his own pocket.
“Your sister’s private socials,” Jack began, and I bit my lip. Starting there, where Icouldn’thelp, would derail us right at the start.
“Hey, what’s this?” I asked, grabbing a random note from the desk.
“A few of the people I want to talk to. The ones who keep coming up in intel frommycontacts.”
I pushed it across to him. “Read it out loud and I’ll let you know my thoughts.”
“Read it yourself.”
“Ithinkbetter when I hear stuff out loud. Plus we’re gonna be here a real long time if I have to decipher that shitty handwriting, man.”
He gave a sigh, but he read down the list. “Roxanne Rochford. Emma Dempsey. Harper Connelly.”
I actually laughed. “You thinktheyhave something to do with Annie’s disappearance?”
“I don’t think anything. These are just the names that keep coming up. Do you disagree, Trouble?”
I smiled at the nickname. I liked it, liked the way he looked at me when he said it. I waggled my hand. “Roxy—yeah, she might know something about where Annie is. Harper and Emma? Not these days. Plus what about her industry contacts? Her manager, for one—Craig Wyatt.”
Jack scribbled down that name. “Boyfriends?”
“Only when she wanted a little paparazzi attention.”
“She’s famous. Doesn’t she have a pap detail 24/7? Come to think of it, that could be a lead.” He scribbled down something else.
“No. I mean, yeah, Annie gets followed. But only when shewantsto be followed. She knows how to fly under the radar if she needs to. And she’s a thousand percent committed to her career; no guys distracting her. So far as I know, anyway.”
“Okay. How about Rochford, Dempsey and Connelly? I did a quick search and they were calling themselves the Four Flames there for a while, like a damn pop group or something. What can you tell me about them?”
The Four Flames. It hurt a little to think about that now. Those four girls, so ecstatic with themselves, with each other…they’d been fun to be around.
Until things turned sour.
“The Four Flames was just a nickname that their fans gave them when they started hanging out together,” I told him. “And then entertainment media picked it up. They were…friends.”
