“You’ve got keen eyes,” Julius said. “Where’d you pick up observational skills like that?”
Okay, so maybe he was impressed and suspicious. An answer leapt to my tongue. “I guess all the physical training I did taught me to think on my feet. It’s a lot more than just strength and fitness, the instructors always liked to say. You have to anticipate your opponents’ moves in advance as much as you can.” That wasn’t even a lie.
I hesitated as if embarrassed to admit the rest, which was totally made-up. “And, you know, living with my dad and then my boyfriend… I had to stay on my toes, keep alert to their moods and any clues about what they were getting up to so I knew how to avoid trouble as much as possible. Not that it helped me all that much in the long run.” I ducked my head and rubbed my elbow.
The tapping behind me stopped momentarily. “You got away from them in the end,” Blaze said softly, and it hit me that I’d been forgiven. At least by him. The knowledge sent a weird flutter through my chest.
Julius didn’t argue with my story. I couldn’t help pressing my advantage. I’d coughed up some intel for them—now they owed me.
“So,” I said as we meandered on along the long stretch of the side wall, “do you have any idea why this happened? I mean, some of the people Anna lived with could be jerks, but—I can’t imagine—for someone to kill them all like that… She never hurt anybody.”
Garrison made a scoffing sound, his usual attitude returning. “I don’t think you knew your ‘friend’ all that well.”
“What do you mean?”
“All those people definitely weren’t a family,” he said in an almost gleeful tone, as if he enjoyed the possibility that he’d horrify me with his revelation. “And they were mixed up in all kinds of shady shit. Human trafficking would be at the top of the list.”
“Garrison,” Julius said with a warning in his voice, and the younger guy had the decency to look chagrinned.
I was too busy reeling from his comment to appreciate seeing him chided. Human trafficking? The household? In all the work I’d done for them and with my trainers, I’d never seen any hint of that kind of activity.
“That’s ridiculous,” I couldn’t help saying. It must have been stories made up by our enemies, the ones we’d been working so hard to protect ourselves against. Maybe even the same pricks who’d ended up slaughtering everyone else in the house.
Garrison just grunted. I’d cut off the information supply instead of opening it up. I had to turn the momentum of the conversation around quick.
“If you think that, you must have found out a bunch about them and who they supposedly worked with or whatever, right?” I said. They’d said someone was sniffing around about missing items from the house. “You must have an idea already of who did it.”
“Not something we can share with a bystander,” Julius said, his tone firm. “That sort of information is classified.”
They definitely had suspects. “I’m hardly just a bystander anymore,” I pointed out. “I might not have known much about what went on around Anna, but I talked with her pretty often. Sometimes she mentioned people who’d come around. If you give me a description or a—”
“What part of ‘it’s not happening’ do you not understand?” Garrison snapped.
I was pretty sure he was just sore about the fact that Julius had laid down the law. “I’m trying to help.”
“And we’ll let you know if you can offer more assistance than you already have,” Julius insisted.
We were getting close to the corner of the property. “This is the spot,” Talon remarked in his cool, deep voice, the first time he’d spoken since we’d left the car. Maybe even since we’d gotten into it. I was way too aware of his muscular frame just inches from my own body. His voice wasn’t as commanding as Julius’s, but it drew my attention all the same. My mind kept tripping back to the startling hunger he’d stirred low in my belly when he’d leaned over me in the chair.
“The spot for what?” I asked, refusing to let his presence distract me.
As we kept walking, our pace slowing just a little, Julius fished a plastic bag out of the leather messenger bag he was carrying. “I know you were in a tough spot, but you have plenty of cash. I don’t think you need the jewelry you grabbed. My suggestion is that you leave it here so that there’s no chance of the murderers tracking you down. If they are looking for those items, you’re better off without them.”
My hackles rose. “You went through my things again?”
“Only to give them back to you.” He handed the plastic bag to me. “I don’t see any cameras right here. No one but us would know how the jewelry ended up in the yard. It’s your decision, but I recommend you take my advice. It’ll also mean we have no evidence we could bring against you in court.”
He’d promised they wouldn’t arrest me for robbery—but of course I couldn’t trust a promise from cops, especially ones who played as fast and loose with the law as this bunch did.
My fingers tightened around the plastic. But the necklaces inside meant nothing to me. I didn’t even know who they all belonged to. I did still have the cash, currently tucked into my pockets.
And that point about no evidence against me was pretty compelling.
We’d almost reached the corner. I met Julius’s eyes, and could see plainly in them that I had to do this if I ever hoped to get them on my side.
Let this gesture buy me a sliver of trust.
I lowered my hand and swung my arm upward at just the right angle to send the bag sailing over the wall without the gesture being too obvious. Because maybe there were cameras even I hadn’t spotted. My loot thumped to the ground on the other side.
“There,” I said, picking up my stride and forcing the men to walk a little faster around me. “Now let’s catch the assholes who killed my friend.”