Page 60 of Kill Me Sweetly

“I said no! You go, and we all get exposed.”

I raised my brows and walked up to my room, where JJ was just coming out of the shower.

“Oh wow, you’re up before eleven,” I joked, earning myself a glare.

“Funny, thanks for the coffee.” He grabbed it out of my hand and moved to the dresser for his clothes.

“Not yours.”

He sipped it and winked. “Yum, is now.”

I sat on the bed in a huff. “Well, I’m not going back down there to get another cup. Max is trying to leave again, and Angel and Gabe are trying to calm him.” I explained what happened.

“I get why he’d want to go and see her, but he has to understand what they’re doing.” He pulled on a black shirt and jeans.

“That’s what they’re trying to make him see.”

JJ whipped around. “Shit, I almost forgot. Lizzy texted last night. She needs you to call her.”

I had seen her texts to me but they were all, “Hey, you available? Got a question.” I hadn’t rushed, but now with JJ saying to call her, maybe I should have.

“I’ll call her now.” I took out my cell and dialed her number.

“Hey, Bossman,” she answered in greeting.

“Hi, Lizzy. Sorry it took so long to get back to you, it’s been pretty crazy here.”

She snorted. “I bet. I’m not gonna ask. Look, something weird happened.”

With everything going on with us, weird was alarming. “What’s up?”

“So I told Wes and Darby that the shop was going to be closed for a few days or a week, that you weren’t sure since it was a family emergency. Let them know about pay and all that. They were cool about it.”

“Nothing weird yet, Lizzy.”

She sighed. “Right. I’m getting there.”

There was a knock on the bedroom door. JJ whispered he’d get it but before he could, Nick stormed in.

“We found something.”

“Lizzy, I have an emergency. Can you by any chance give me a sped-up version?”

“Nah, go deal with your shit. I’ll figure it out. I’m likely wrong or misunderstood. Nothing life-changing, go deal with your emergency.”

I got up and followed JJ and Nick down the hall, cell in hand. “Just tell me, Lizzy. Be quick—I could have already known by now.”

We were led to the living room, where Nick had hooked up his laptop with the television.

“Fine, I was doing bookkeeping because I had all this downtime, and there was a discrepancy in an application versus the employment forms and stuff filled out, so I made a call,” she explained at the same time Noel started talking. I did my best to listen to both.

“We got the MAC address, and were able to build a pattern of behavior.” Nick tapped a key.

“We’re talking about the cell number that texted Max, right?” Mason asked.

“Yeah, now quiet.” Noel rolled his eyes.

“Shep?” Lizzy said.

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