The music blasted throughout the house, but my pounding head couldn’t take it anymore. For three days we’d been searching for Hut’s mom, but had zero luck. She’d disappeared off the face of the earth, but one good thing came from it—I now knew where he kept his stash.
Hut was in the middle of the living room, snorting up a storm with Quinn, Ted, and Jace, but Ford was missing. He was never anywhere Hut wasn’t, and if I weren’t sick and tired of attending these parties, I’d probably go and see where he was at, but as it stood, I needed out of this house, if only for a little while. I needed a reprieve from all the partying and the surveillance. I just needed a goddamn break.
I gave Hut a chin lift and pointed at the front door, silently telling him I was leaving, but he couldn’t even focus on me for three seconds. I’d worked nonstop on this case, so surely I was owed a Friday night to just chill the fuck out at my own place—the apartment where I was staying.
I yanked open the front door and jumped over the steps, not willing to stand on the rotten wood. The street was dark, half of the lights not working, but it didn’t bother me. I was used to walking in the dark, not wanting to be seen.
“Whoa,” a soft voice said, causing my head to turn in that direction.
Lola’s tired face was the first thing I saw, and my instinct was to ask if she was okay, but I couldn’t because things with her were already becoming murky in my mind. I was on this case for a reason—to bring Hut down—and if it meant using her to do it, then that was what I had to do. Even if part of me was telling me not to, I didn’t have a choice.
“You scared the shit out of me.” Her small hand landed on her chest, and my gaze zapped down to it.
Fuck. Don’t look there.
She chuckled, the soft tinkle making my skin buzz.
“Sorry,” I automatically replied, and moved past her.
Her hand snapped out and wrapped around my forearm, her fingers not able to meet. I wasn’t sure whether it was because her hands were so small or because my muscle was too big for her. Either way, I shouldn’t have liked the way her hand looked on me. Not one bit.
“Brody?” A car drove past, its lights illuminating the frown on her face. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I drew in a breath. “Just got a headache from the music.”
Her lips quirked on one side. “Your old body can’t take it, huh?”
A laugh burst out of me, so unexpected that I shocked myself. “Shit, Lola.” I shook my head as the laughter waned into chuckles. “You’re on it tonight, huh?”
She shrugged and let her hand slip off my arm. “What can I say? I’m badass.”
“Yeah?” My voice lowered, and I stepped closer to her. “I bet you say that to all the guys.”
“Maybe I do.” She bit down on her bottom lip, and fuck me if I didn’t want to yank her closer and do the exact same thing to it. “Or maybe there are no guys worth sayin' that to.”
Sadness echoed in her eyes, and all I wanted was to take that away, to have the look back that was displayed there not two seconds ago.
“You like pancakes?” I asked, the words slipping out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“Who doesn’t like pancakes?”
“Wanna come get some with me? I’m starving.”
Lola glanced over at the house, the pounding beat of the music now louder than it was when I was inside, and winced. “Fuck it.” She spun around and walked back to the sidewalk. “A girl should be treated to pancakes every once in a while, right?”
I followed her, pressing the fob on my keys so my car would light up and show her the way. “I agree.”
She halted at the passenger side, looked over at me, and smiled the brightest smile I’d ever seen. How the hell could one smile have that kind of effect on someone? I was meant to be a hard-ass, a guy who brought
down the biggest of criminals, and one smile from a nineteen-year-old girl had rendered me speechless.
Fuck.
Maybe asking her for pancakes wasn’t the best idea, but logically, I knew that if I wanted to use her to bring Hut down, I had to get to know her a little. I had to get her to trust me. I just had to remember where the line was drawn and not cross it.
Easy enough, right?
We both got inside, and I pulled out into the road, the radio station humming through the speakers filling the otherwise silent car. It was after midnight, but that didn’t mean shit in this neighborhood. People didn’t come out until dark around here and only ventured back into their houses when the sun was starting to come up.