Miller stood, still holding my hand. “Thanks, Chris,” he said. “But JJ’s going to take me to the police station.”
“But—”
Miller let go of my hand long enough to hug the big, blond movie star goodbye. “Thanks for looking out for me,” he said robotically. “But like I said, JJ’s going to take me to the police now.”
Booker eyed me with suspicion. “You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” he said quietly to Miller.
“No, thank you,” Miller said with a politeness that broke my heart. Anaïs Beaumont turning up dead was the worst outcome foreveryoneinvolved. Miller turned away from both of us without another word, heading for the back door. “I’ll ask the manager to have the car brought around to the back,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “Come on, JJ.”
But Booker caught my arm as Miller left the room. “Listen,” he said, deepening his voice and pulling himself up to his full height. “I don’t know you, man, but if I hear Miller’s not being treated right at a time like this—”
I peeled his hand off my arm, bending his thumb back lightly until he yanked away, rubbing at his wrist.
“Thanks for your help,” I told him. “I appreciate what you did here today. But Miller’smyconcern.I’lltake care of him. Understand?”
His glare didn’t lessen any. “Here’s what I wanna know: what kind of man are you? If you’ve got problems with the Mob—”
“Iamthe Mob,” I hissed at him, and his eyes widened. I got hold of myself. Another fuck up, admitting what I was. I could only hope there were no bugs in this place. “All of that going on out there?” I said in a more reasonable tone, waving my hand toward the foyer. “Not your business. Now, for the last time, thanks for your help. I’ll see you around.”
“You better believe it,” he called after me, but only once I was out the door.
Still, his question had sunk in. What kind of manwasI?
If there was one thing I knew, it was that Miller Beaumont deserved a lot better than he’d gotten from me so far. I wasn’t a go-to guy for emotional stuff, and grief like he must be feeling was way out of my comfort zone. But right now, he was relying on me. I wasn’t going to let him down.
Iwasn’tgoing to fuck this one up.
* * *
The police didn’t like me being there with him, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. I waited for a long time in the lobby on a plastic seat. Freddy sent me through more details as they trickled in—shotgun to the face, read one text, and I winced.
Eventually Miller came back and shrugged off his cop escort as I stood to meet him. “You okay?” I asked gently, putting my hands on his shoulders. “They didn’t make you…they didn’t take to you identify her, did they?”
He shook his head. “Her manager, Craig Wyatt, already gave primary identification. But they did take some blood from me for DNA matching.”
He didn’t seem to realize that meant the body wasn’t fit for visual identification. I was glad he didn’t know; I didn’t want Miller thinking on the state of his sister’s corpse. “Okay,” I said carefully. “What about her phone? Did she have that with her?”
“They said it was missing.”
“Have the cops talked to your parents?”
He nodded.
“Do you want to give them a call yourself?”
He gave an adamant shake of the head, a firm left-to-right-to-left slicing.
“Okay,” I said again. “Then let’s get out of here.” I put my hat back on my head with one hand and offered Miller the other. His fingers were cool when they slipped into my palm, but his grip was firm.
I led him outside, where we both stopped to breathe in the night air for a second. Personally, I wanted to get the stink of cop out of my nose. I kept tight hold of Miller’s hand and only once he was in the car did I check the undercarriage of the car. Like I’d thought, I’d picked up a Bernardi tracker at the Chateau, right where they always put them. At least the assholes were predictable.
I threw it on the sidewalk, ground it into the concrete with the heel of my shoe, and got into the car. I wanted to get Miller somewheresafe. Somewhere he could let go of the shock and feel whatever it was he needed to feel.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked forlornly.
“To my place.” It hadn’t even been a question for me, but maybe it was for him. “Unless…did you want to go to your friend Nate’s house? Or back to yours?”
He looked down at his knees. “No,” he said quietly. “I’d like to be with you, JJ. If you don’t mind.”
