We waited in silence, but at last I had to give a small smile. “I keep thinking about Harper.”
“Harper Connelly?”
“Yeah. She was the first person who realized what was going on with me. Most people, they just think I’m…you know. Stupid.” Jack’s arm had snaked around the back of my chair, and his fingers were rubbing up and down my arm as we both watched the download progress. “Harper’s little brother had dyslexia, so she suggested a bunch of things I could use to help me out on the phone and computer.”
He cleared his throat. “Is that what you have? Dyslexia?”
“Don’t know. Never bothered getting a diagnosis. It doesn’t affect my life much these days, since it’s not like I have to read scripts regularly or anything.” I sounded bitter to my own ears.
“Your teachers never noticed?”
“Annie and I spent a lot of time on set with Mom when we were kids, and then we were acting ourselves, so we had tutors. Whenever one of them suggested I had a problem, Dad would fire them.Hesaid I was just lazy. When I got older, I realized he just couldn’t stand the idea of a less-than-perfect child.”
JJ’s fingers were still stroking, soothing. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said at last. “But I’m glad Harper helped you out.”
“She was soniceabout it. Sent me ideas and tips. She always kept her texts short, or sent me voice messages instead. Ibeggedher not to tell Annie or anyone else, though. Didn’t need another fucking reason for Annie to…” I sighed. “Sometimes my sister can be kind of a bitch.”
Jack’s hand slid up next to my neck and he gave me a quick squeeze. “You don’t say.” He sounded almost amused.
The computer gave a happy little ding. “Okay, it’s downloaded.” JJ’s hand withdrew. Damn it.
We hunched together to watch the video, our thighs pressed up against each other, warm and comforting. I was grateful for the human touch.
I was even more grateful when Jack slung his arm around the back of the chair again, casually, resting against my back, almost-but-not-quite hugging me.
Some part of me expected to see something terrible on the video. But there was nothing there. Like the security guards had said yesterday, there was just a brief glitch. Jack silently pointed to the clock on the wall in the kitchen area, which had stopped. After another glitch, the clock jumped forward, a hole had appeared in the glass door from the patio, and everything else seemed the same.
“Looks like a pro job to me,” Jack sighed. “But that group knocking off celeb homes were working the Hills. A little too coincidental that the first time they decide to hit Malibu, it happens to be your sister’s place.” He shut the laptop. “Let’s get back to the people who know your sister. I need something solid, something I can give the Boss when he calls me in.” He tapped a compulsive finger on the table as if it was encouraging his brain to tick over. “Rochford is the best lead right now,” he said at last, “since she’s also the one who went poking around the salon for information, and according to you, she knows your sister better than the other two. Right?” I nodded. “So we need to rule her out. Where do we find her?”
I gave a smile as bitter as my black, unsweetened coffee. “Roxy’s easy to find. She likes it that way. But she won’t be accessible until later this afternoon. So until then…?” I gave him a questioning look.
“Until then, I have work. You—” He pointed at me like I was a dog he was training. “Stay here and weed through your sister’s private social media accounts. Rochford’s too, if you can?”
Shit. I still hadn’t admitted I didn’t have access to those, so I swallowed down the snark I’d been about to deal him over his bossiness. “Um, yeah. I’ll check their public socials, too, plus Emma’s and Harper’s. See if I can spot something you missed.”
“Good plan,” he said approvingly. “I’ll be back around one. I’ll bring you a burrito or something.”
He had that samethis conversation is overtone that he’d used last night when he told me we were leaving Nate’s place, but he did soften all the order-giving with a squeeze to my shoulder as he stood. And a few hours alone to snoop through Jack’s apartment—and his laptop—was a tempting idea.
“Get me the Fiesta salad from Cali Corn Grill,” I sighed. “I saw one a few blocks away from here.” The glance Jack sent my way as he went off to shower made me think I’d end up with a burrito whether I liked it or not.
I’d dived deep into Roxy Rochford’s Instagram feed by the time he was ready to leave, and felt like I’d lost a few IQ points along the way.
“Here,” Jack said from behind me, and I turned around.
My eyes widened so fast I just about sprained my eyelids. “What the fuck isthat?”
He was holding out a gun to me in the palm of his hand.
“What thefuckis that?” I reiterated, staring at him.
“It’s a pocket pistol. Easy to fire. Might not take someone down unless you hit them somewhere important, but it’ll wake ’em up. You keep it with you while I’m out.”
“Um, how about no?”
His half-smile died into seriousness. “You wanted to be in on this investigation, Miller. And you agreed to do it my way. So when I say you take the gun, you take the gun. Understand?”
“I don’t even know how to shoot it! No one knows I’m here—”
