“Why?” Baz asked.
“He didn’t say.” She scooted out of the booth. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t give him a chance to speak before she was hurrying toward the door. Any other time, she would’ve told Dante to go to hell, but right now, she was honestly concerned. She’d known Dante Greenwood for most of her life, and even though he’d fucked her over on too many occasions to count, JJ couldn’t leave him in the lurch. Never once in all that time had Dante asked anything of her.
Not like this.
It took less than ten minutes to get to her small house just a few blocks from Main Street. She slowed down on the approach, scanning the street and the houses. There were no other vehicles in her driveway or parked at the curb, which she took to mean she’d beaten him there.
It wasn’t until she was unlocking her front door that her heart was jolted by a man stepping out from beside her house.
“Holy shit, Dante,” she gasped, clutching her chest. “You damn near gave me a heart attack.”
His eyes were wild, his usually perfectly styled hair sticking up everywhere. He certainly didn’t look like the well-put-together man she’d known for so long.
Dante scanned the street, the yard, behind him, keeping to the shadows as he approached the front porch.
“We need to go in,” he urged, his voice low and still ringing with hysteria.
Figuring she might get answers if he felt safe, JJ opened the door, stepped inside, and was practically mowed down by Dante.
“Lock the door,” he insisted, moving toward the kitchen, peeking around the wall.
JJ locked the door and turned to watch as he hurried to check all the rooms, as though he expected her to have company.
“No one’s here,” she assured him.
“You don’t know that.”
JJ frowned. “I’d like to think I do. Thisismy house.”
“Where’s your gun?” he asked.
Now she was really getting concerned. “Dante—”
“Where is it, JJ? Are you armed?”
“It’s not on my person, no,” she snapped back. “It’s locked up. Why?”
“You need to get it.” His gaze swung to the windows, the door, then back to her. “You need to have it on you.”
JJ was beginning to wonder if he was high. Dante had never been the paranoid type, but he was clearly on edge right now.
“Now, JJ!”
She shrieked at the bark in his voice, instinctively flinching.
“Get it now,” he demanded.
“Fine,” she huffed, stomping to her bedroom, then into the closet. She placed her finger on the biometric sensor, retrieved the gun, checked the chamber and the safety, then carried it with her back to the living room, where she found Dante peeking out the blinds on her front window.
He shot a look back over his shoulder, so she held it up, showed him she had it.
“Good. Keep it with you.”
When he went back to looking out the window, JJ knew she needed some answers, but before she could get them, she was hoping to calm him down some.
“Can I get you somethin’ to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee?” she offered.
