Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"Are we waiting for Aria and Zane to get here?" Jonas asked.

Like me, he was staring at the attic door in the ceiling.

The police were lingering downstairs waiting for Aria to arrive, seeing as she was the homeowner. They'd taken their pictures of the damage to the door. They were also curious as to why someone would break in, bypass all of the expensive tools she had in the house, and instead spend their time trying to get into the attic. The police weren't alone in their curiosity. Today's plan had been for Jonas and me to find a way to get into the attic while minimizing damage that Aria would have to repair.

Whoever broke in didn't share in our concern. They'd yanked on the door hard enough to break the molding around the frame and crack the drywall. The fuck of it was they could've damaged the rafter boards as well and if that damage was structural, Aria was facing another inspection.

"How'd he know to run?" I wondered out loud.

"Police scanner?" Jonas suggested.

"Motherfucker."

"Bet your woman's gonna be saying the same thing when she sees this ceiling."

No doubt .

"Grab the ladder, we're not waiting."

Twenty minutes later the sheetrock surrounding the attic door had been neatly cut away. The insulation wouldn't be reusable but nonetheless that too had been taken down with the least amount of damage as possible. Now we were faced with remnants of lap board that hadn't been fully removed when the plaster was replaced.

The good news was the door hinges were accessible.

"Motherfucker did us a favor," Jonas muttered as he used a crowbar to pry the hinge apart.

"How's that?" I asked opposite of him, holding my side of the door in place so the ladder folded up inside wouldn't fall open when Jonas forced the hinge to open.

"Your woman can't get mad?—"

"Oh yes she can," Aria said from the two steps from the top of the stairs, staring up at the ceiling.

"Rephase. You can't get pissed at us," Jonas amended then grunted. "There."

The joint on his side gave way with a sound I wished Aria wasn't there to hear.

"Was that a header board cracking?" She groaned.

Fuck .

"No, darlin', that sound was my superior strength snapping a shear pin."

Christ, he was lucky I was still on a ladder without a free hand to nut-punch him.

Jonas jumped down, moved under the door, and said, "Let her down."

I slowly lowered the door. Jonas caught the wood ladder and pulled it out.

"Voila." He beamed.

Prick .

"What happened to the ceiling?" Aria asked.

"Your asshole broke the trim and cracked the drywall."

At Jonas's declaration, Aria's gaze came to me.

"I don't know why you're looking at me. I'm not your asshole."

"I'm looking at you for confirmation. Jonas seems the type to exaggerate."

"I'm wounded," Jonas put in.

"No you're not," Aria countered. "Your ego doesn't allow for that. But you like fucking with me and I don't know if you're doing that now."

"I like?—"

"He's telling the truth," I cut in before Jonas could bring forth further any murderous tendency that had already started simmering. "We just cut out the damage."

Aria's shoulders slouched.

"Thank you."

"Where's Zane?" Jonas asked.

"Talking to police."

Good Christ, that wasn't smart. Zane out in the wild was always a gamble. Zane without a chaperone, dicey. Him speaking to police, well, depending on the answers he was getting or if he was being met with resistance, things could turn bad in the blink of an eye.

"You wanna handle that?" I asked Jonas as I climbed off the ladder.

"I hate blood," he muttered, but scooted by Aria to get down the stairs.

The look on Aria's face would've been comical if we weren't once again in crisis mode.

"Why did he mention blood?"

"Come here, baby."

Woodenly, she took the last two stairs, then the three steps needed for her to be close enough for me to reach out and pull her the rest of the way up. Once I had her in my arms I felt my body relax. The residual anger from my conversation with Jonas ebbed, leaving me with nothing but the feel of Aria pressed close.

"I'm tired of this house," Aria grumbled. "I would seriously consider dumping it if that didn't mean admitting defeat and taking a loss. I'm not a quitter, but damn if this house isn't the closest I've ever been to throwing in the towel."

I understood where she was coming from, probably should've offered her some words of encouragement, but I was struck by her not being a quitter.

At least that made one of us.

"Thanks again for taking care of me."

Good fuck .

She'd landed a punch to the gut she didn't know she was delivering. Once I absorbed the pain, I gave her a squeeze.

An hour later, Aria was rethinking her previous declaration.

"I bought a sex house," she bit out.

"Baby—"

"A. Sex. House," she asserted. "Complete with a murder weapon."

The gun we'd found in the corner of the attic, wrapped in an AC/DC shirt and tucked way back in the eves, was more problematic than the new box of pictures Jonas had found. These were of fully dressed girls. The issue was it looked like they didn't know they were being photographed. And with this, a new issue arose, Aria had identified one of the girls as a young Brittney.

Further from that, Layla and Cash had met with George in Newport News, Virginia, meaning he couldn't have been in Maryland trying to collect his teenage stash of self-made porn. George Senior was dead, so it wasn't him breaking in collecting the evidence he was a sick fuck who took pictures of nude teenagers.

But with the latest break-in's focus being on the attic—and a gun found in that attic—there was no doubt someone was coming back to collect everything.

"My money's on Billy Rice," Jonas shared.

So was mine.

The patrol officers had called in a detective who'd taken possession of the gun, but not before Zane had taken a picture of the serial number. Kira was already running the 9mm to see if it could be tied to Billy.

The final change in circumstance was now that the police were involved, Zane very reluctantly agreed to bring the images we had at the office to the station. It was Cooper's fancy cop-talk that had gotten Z Corps out of hot water for withholding evidence. Of course the pictures, as well as all evidence we found, would've been turned over…when Zane was ready. The problem was, we were no longer free to build our case unencumbered. Cooper had promised to keep the detective up to speed—daily. He'd also promised without Aria's consent that work would be halted.

That contributed to her justified ranting.

"You know whose money I care about? Mine. I'm gonna lose my mind if I lose my ass on this house."

She looked like she was already losing her mind.

"You can hit a beach, baby," I reminded her.

"Don't tempt me," she girly-growled.

It was cute as fuck.

"I'm being serious."

"No way am I leaving you here to deal with all of this all by yourself. So unless you're offering to accompany me and not make fun of me downing pink drinks with umbrellas, I'm staying here with you."

I'm not a quitter.

I couldn't deal with how that made me feel so I gave her shit.

"Pink umbrella drinks?"

"Don't be cute, Smith."

"Unless it has bourbon in it I can't drink it."

"As fascinating as I find your alpha male drink rules, I'm sorry to inform you I've never met a rule I liked, so I tend to break them and I expect my friends to break them with me. Either you're in or you're out."

All of the men standing in the living room stared at me. Cooper's stare stated plain he was amused. Jonas's was thoughtful. But it was Zane's that was the most concerning. He looked almost smug. Zane smug was never a good thing. No, scratch that—Zane smug was categorically frightening. It meant he'd plotted and whatever scheme he'd set in motion was going to plan. Alternately, it meant he was right about something. Neither scenario meant good things to come.

"A bad influence," Jonas piped up. "I knew I liked you."

Aria's gaze skidded around the room until it landed on Zane. With an ominous squint of her eyes she declared, "If you even think about calling my father?—"

"We've already had this discussion," he interrupted her.

"Zane!"

"Aria."

They went into a stare down, and since I knew both the participants I knew this shit could last an hour. Which was fifty-nine minutes longer than I was willing to wait them out.

Today was supposed to be Aria's day away from the house to clear her head. A much-needed break that was shot to shit. With the latest trauma over, I decided we were leaving.

"Sucks, baby, but you need to call your dad. Grab your bag and you can do that in the car."

Aria transferred her glare to me with a look that told me she was getting ready to blow her stack.

"We're going to your house, we're checking your mail, you're taking a moment to look around all that you created and remember why you love what you do. After that we're headed to Libbey's, sitting out on the deck, sharing a bucket of oysters and a basket of wings while you drink something fruity. Between here and your house you can call your dad, give him the latest news, then enjoy the rest of the day."

She'd lost the hostile out of her gaze after I told her she was going to her house and why. Her pretty eyes turned soft when I told her she was drinking fruity cocktails. The glittering hardness crept back in when I told her she was calling her dad.

"Finally," she announced. "A time when I don't think your bossy is hot."

That meant all the other times I was bossy she thought I was hot, therefore I could live with her assessment.

"Good to know. Now get a move on it."

Her eyes narrowed.

I didn't hide my sigh of impatience.

"Aria, what part of what I said isn't good for you?"

"The part where you told me to call my father."

"Yeah, that part was high-handed," Jonas unhelpfully commented. "You should've made it more of a suggestion. Like…" He cleared his throat then did a horrible impersonation of me. "You should really think about calling your father on the way to your house."

First, I sounded nothing like his impression. Second, who the fuck said shit like that?

I took Cooper's shocked laugh he agreed with me.

"You're an idiot."

Jonas shrugged off my insult. "I could use some oysters and a mai tai. Not pink, but close enough."

"You're not—" I started, then Aria cut her eyes at me.

Fucking shit .

"Fine," I grumbled.

"Welcome, friend." Zane chuckled.

What the hell was he saying?

"Welcome?"

"To the club. The puss?—"

"Ugh, why do men say pussy-whipped?" Aria complained.

"Because we're not creative enough to come up with anything else," Cooper told her.

I figured he was correct and had nothing to add to a conversation that would likely dig a hole I didn't want to be in.

Christ .

I was pussy-whipped.

"Realization has set in. Enjoy your balls while you still have them. One day she'll be telling you no more kids. Then snip-snip, your balls are gone."

The thought of that made my stomach roll and my balls crawl up to safety.

"I get why your wife puts up with you, but seriously, she deserves a gold medal," Aria pointed out.

"My wife deserves more than I could ever give her," Zane said.

But when he said it he was staring me dead in my eyes, saying something else.

Bastard had gone from ‘touch her and die' to playing commando cupid. I suddenly missed him threatening to pull my intestines out through my throat.