Page 13 of Kill Me Sweetly

There was an industrial-sized refrigerator downstairs I’d be able to hold it in for the night, and then I’d drive it over in the morning.

Mason sat at the table between the two men, Four stock-still and Maxwell sweating and periodically checking his watch.

By the time eight rolled around, the cake was cooling so I opened the laptop and positioned it on the counter facing the table. I was able to get the five of us in the shot.

Noel came on the screen followed by Angel and Nick. They were doing The Brady Bunch boxes thing.

“You all couldn’t even be in the same room for this?” I asked.

“No,” was all Angel offered.

“Okay, then.” JJ chuckled. “Get Gabe on the line.”

Once all of us were connected, JJ did a fabulous job of going through the events of the day, leaving nothing out. Angel knew a bit, as did Mason and Gabe, but this was the first the twins were hearing of it. I noticed how Maxwell regarded Four as JJ explained all we’d seen and how we’d gotten him to talk. Sympathy played in his gaze. I didn’t think Max was a bad man, just someone who, like he’d said, had been desperate and wanting to help a friend.

“Did you make this consortium our problem?” Nick cocked his head, his tousled blond strands jerking to the side.

“We help people!” JJ argued. “Look at Four. Did you hear what I told you?”

“What’s done is done.” Gabe’s voice was low because he was in a hospital. “Move on. What’s the plan?”

“The vote is that we help Four and Maxwell by trying to take down this monster consortium with very little to no information and could possibly die, or we abandon the two men to fend for themselves and pretend this day never happened?” Noel’s brown eyes twinkled with mischief.

“I mean, we should help them, and it might come to taking apart this organization, and it may not.” Mason shrugged.

“Help them and destroy this consortium is one vote, and abandoning them is the other.” Angel motioned to Mason. “Go first.”

Mason stared at JJ, then sighed. “I vote yes, we help.”

JJ clapped. “Me too.”

I shrugged and lifted my chin in JJ’s direction. “Where he goes I go, so yes.”

JJ smiled and blew me a kiss.

“I’ll say yes but I stand by my, only as long as we’re safe. It gets bad, we bolt.” Gabe repeated his vote so we wouldn’t have to explain to Noel, Nick, and Angel what he’d said earlier.

“Doesn’t matter what we say, then.” Nick shrugged. “Four against three.”

“How would you have voted?” Mason wondered, lips pursed. “I’ve never known you twins to shy away from anything.”

Noel winked. “And you’ll never know. We like to be mysterious.”

Angel huffed. “We’ll be there soon. Keep a low profile in the meantime. Maxwell, call out of work and tell them you’re sick.”

Maxwell nodded, still sweating with nerves.

Once the calls were disconnected, Mason released a breath. “What do we do for three days?”

JJ jumped up. “Board games, binge-watching shows, par-tay!”

This was going to be a long few days.

CHAPTER SEVEN

JJ

Maxwell wasable to call out of work for the week, stating he was ill. He wasn’t married; his ex visited their daughter in the hospital and was staying at a hotel. We told him to inform her that he was sick and wouldn’t make it by to see her until his fever was gone.

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