Page 107 of Lights Out

He dropped his arms and had the decency to look sheepish. “It was a misunderstanding.”

“Your face is about to have a misunderstanding with my fist,” I said, stalking forward.

Or at least I tried to. I made it one step before a yank on my jacket had me crashing backward into Josh’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me like he was hugging me, but I could tell from the way his muscles tensed that this was less about affection and more about restraint.

“Let me go,” I said.

“I could, but then what kind of example would I be setting for our son if I let you beat up a family member in front of him?”

I glanced past Junior and saw Fred padding out of the laundry room toward us. “That you shouldn’t take shit from anyone, not even relatives.”

Junior frowned, looking around the room. “Your son? I didn’t know you – ” He caught sight of Fred in his periphery and turned to stare at him. His confusion deepened as he looked back at us, jerking a thumb toward Fred. “You talking about the cat?”

“Yes,” Josh said. The “duh” was silent but heavily implied.

Junior grimaced. “Cat people are so fucking weird.”

Josh’s arms stiffened.

I sighed. “What do you want, Junior?”

“We need your boyfriend.”

“For what?”

“For the same thing as before,” Junior said. “To hack Brad’s computer.”

Josh made a low noise of contemplation. “Isn’t it a bit risky to return to the house so soon after the cops were there?”

Junior nodded. “Yeah, which is why we’re not going. We got another team for stealthy shit. They’ll sneak in tonight, and you can hack it remotely.” He raised his brows at Josh. “Right?”

“It’s not that simple,” Josh said. “Is Brad’s computer password locked? How secure is his network? What kind of software does he use?”

Junior shrugged. “How the fuck should I know?”

Josh’s arms eased around me. “They’re rhetorical questions, but depending on the answers, it could slow the work and require different tools to get the job done. It’ll be faster if I’m there.”

I stiffened. “I don’t like that option.”

My cousin looked troubled as he glanced past me to Josh. “Me neither.”

Josh huffed out an unamused laugh. “Trust me when I say this isn’t how I wanted my night to go.” His arms tightened again, pulling me into him so he could press a kiss to the top of my head.

I closed my eyes and leaned back, wishing we were alone, wishing this bullshit was over so Josh and I could get on with our lives. And maybe I should have felt guilty about that or selfish – a man was dead, and all I cared about was what an inconvenience it was – but I couldn’t bring myself to drum upanything more than a mild concern that this could blow up in our faces. What better way to ensure that didn’t happen than having a world-class hacker cover our tracks?

I let out a deep breath and opened my eyes. “Josh is right. He needs to be there, and I’m going with him.”

Junior shook his head. “No. Absolutely not. This isn’t a job for a woman.”

I reared back in Josh’s arms.

Overhead, I heard my boyfriend suck in a sharp breath and then let it out with the kind of ooh noise better suited for a playground. He let go of me with one hand and held it out in front of me. “This is the part where you take your earrings out, right?” he said. “I can hold them for you while you beat his ass.”

I craned sideways to look at him. “What about not resorting to violence in front of the baby?”

Josh’s expression was stoic. “I changed my mind. Sometimes, examples must be made.”

I turned back to my cousin just as Josh’s other arm fell away from me.

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