Raking my nails along the floorboards, I try to find which one is loose. When that doesn’t work, I use the backs of my knuckles to knock on the wood while listening for a hollow sound.
“I’d ask, but…” Keane says, lowering to his haunches beside me. Somehow, he seems to quickly figure out what I’m up to.
He taps near the foot of the bed, and I become hyper-focused when the empty sound I’ve been searching for resonates in the room.
Keane and I work together, picking at the cracks between the floorboards until one loosens enough for me to slide Jax’s knife underneath and pull it up.
“Huh.” Keane grunts when he sees the tattered and worn leather journal I carefully remove from its hiding place.
Blowing off the thick layer of dust that coats the musty book, I unknot the thin leather band that’s securing it. “You never had a secret place where you’d stash stuff?” I ask him, pulling my legs in front of me so I can sit in a crisscross position.
“Just for my weed.”
I hold my elbow up and sneeze into it, the dust getting to me. “I thought only Jax smoked.”
Giving me one of his panty-melting grins, he replies, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, princess.”
“Ditto.”
“Touché.”
Once I get the knot undone, I open the journal, my eagerness to finally see its contents too much for me to wait. Keane slides closer to my side, our heads almost touching, as he peruses along with me.
I flip the page. Then another, and another, as confusion wrinkles my brow. It’s all numbers, dollar signs, and coded messages. Keane starts mumbling curses under his breath.
“Do you have any idea what all this means?”
He takes the journal from my hand and closes it. “Unfortunately, yeah.” Keane looks around the room as if searching for something. “Kellan, you motherfucker.”
“Keane, what?”
He stands up, taking my hand to help me stand as well. “We need to burn this.”
I try to snatch the journal back, but he keeps it just out of reach. “The fuck you will. Give it to me. Now.”
“Andie, you don’t understand.”
My hands slam to my hips in exasperation. “Then explain.”
The anger and worry I sense spiraling off Keane put me on edge. Why do I have a feeling that Kellan’s journal contains more secrets that I’m not going to like?
“I want Jax to look at it first.”
“No, you’re going to tell me what you saw.”
My mouth gapes open when Keane blatantly ignores me and heads out of the bedroom.What the hell?
Chapter 24
Hitting the red button to end the call with Tessa, I stare down at my phone, my heart heavy. Still no change with Rafe.
“This is fucking insane,” Jax murmurs, slowly reading down a page before flipping to the next, his entire attention on Kellan’s old journal in front of him.
The guys are seated around the end of the dining room table. I’m sitting cross-legged on top of it, being lulled into a sense of calm I really don’t feel by Liam’s hand which has been absentmindedly caressing my thigh while we wait.
Patience has never been a virtue of mine, and right now, I’m having to literally stop my hand from snatching Kellan’s journal away from Jax. Apparently, he and Keane have no problem understanding the gibberish Kellan wrote on the pages. My skin feels itchy and too tight, making it impossible to sit still. Giving up, I swing my legs around and hop off the table.
“Be right back,” I tell the guys, already walking off to get some air and to think.
