Page 93 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

JULIA:Josh is on his way over for the night. Make yourself scarce.

MATT:No worries, that’s not a sight I wish to see

MATT:Let me know when he’s gone in the morning, I’ll be working most of the night and crashing here.

JULIA:Cindy better not be there with you.

JULIE:I’ve warned you.

My sister was always warning me off that chick, but Cindy was harmless to our plans. She wasn’t smart enough to figure out a parking meter, let alone our cons. When it came to her, we were safe. Besides, I had a lot of work to catch up on tonight, Jessa had been a bit demanding with my time. If I didn’t pull an all-nighter, I’d risk pissing off some pretty wicked people, and I tried never to do that. Which meant tonight I would unfortunately be alone.

It was the middle of the night when I awoke to pounding on the door from the floor above.

Julia’s door.

‘Jordanna, open the fucking door.’

I sat straight up in bed. My internal alarms were not only ringing, they were strobing lights and vibrating me to the core of my being. No one ever used her given name anymore, not even myself or my brother. Everyone we knew now called her Julia.

Hairs rose on my neck when I realized who it was, and that person had bad news inked all over his body.

Jean-Luc was a drug dealer, a big-time dealer. He was an old friend of my father’s from back in the day, one of the men he flew drugs for. A man he worked for in Montreal and the man who we tried to stay as far away from as possible. We had our own hustle, we didn’t want to get caught up in drugs.

We laundered his money, but that was the extent of our interactions with him. However, that didn’t happen at four in the morning on a Thursday. I heard the floorboards creak above my head, the sound of two sets of feet, and that was when I remembered that Josh was up there with my sister.

If I went up there, my cover would be blown.

I put on my pants and shoes as I cracked the backdoor slightly with all the lights off to hear what was going on. The fire escape stairs that lead up to her apartment on the second floor were right outside the back door that opened onto the alley.

I saw a black SUV parked at the bottom of the stairs. There was one guy in the driver’s seat and the passenger door was open, illuminating the rest of the car that appeared to be empty.

I walked back to my desk and got out my gun. I’d never had to use it before, but my father made sure we all knew how to use one.

‘Dude, you have the wrong house,’ I heard Josh’s annoyed voice.

Jean-Luc laughed. ‘Who the fuck are you?’

‘I’m the boyfriend, and there’s no Jordanna here, you have the wrong house,’ Josh sounded angry, a tone that was foreign to me.

‘No, I don’t, you tell your girlfriend, Jordanna, or Jessica or Jasmin, or whatever fucking identity she’s using at the moment, to get her perky ass out of bed. I’m cashing in on a favor.’

‘You need to go before I call the cops.’

I heard the distinct sound of a gun being primed. ‘Dead men can’t make calls.’

I knew my sister heard it too, because I heard footsteps hurry across the floor above my head to the direction of where I assumed Josh was still standing in the doorway shitting his pants.

‘And there she is,’ Jean-Luc mused.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ my sister hissed.

‘Cashing in a favor.’

‘But…’

‘But nothing, you’ve already made me wait long enough. I don't have time for you playing house with this coward.’ I heard a thump of something hitting the floor followed by another. ‘I have two more bags in the car, send your errand boy down to help me.’

Jean-Luc made his way down the stairs, my sister hot on his heels.

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