Jaden (Jaded 3)

Not good. I spoke up, “He has security, too, Dad.” Fuck. I’d called him that a second time. Cringing, gritting my teeth, I saw how his eyes widened and added, “My relationship with him isn’t that known. No one will look for us there.”

I was lying. People did know I was friendly with Denton, but I was hoping my dad didn’t know that fact. Corrigan and Bryce turned to me. They were thinking the same thing. People did know. I shook my head at them, the slightest of movements. I wanted it known. I wanted people to look for me there. No, I wanted Grace’s murderer to know exactly where I was going to be, then maybe they’d come to me.

Maybe I could find out who was trying to make my life hell and exact some of my own revenge.

“Denton Steele, huh?” My dad was mulling it over. He sighed, shaking his head. “We were good friends with his parents. It’ll be nice to catch up with him, see how they’re doing.”

“They divorced.”

My dad gave me a regretful look, pinching the top of his nose. “I’m aware, Sheldon, but I’m sure their son keeps in contact with his own parents.”

A retort was at the tip of my tongue. Corrigan squeezed my hand, and I knew he was telling me to shut up. Don’t rock the boat, Jeneve. Let us count this one a win. Hearing my own thoughts, I swallowed it and gave Neil a smile instead.

“You’re right.” I tried to deliver that with a cherry on top, all the while holding off from rolling my eyes at myself. Be fake. Be fake and let’s catch this fucker. I took a breath. That was more like it.

“Fine. Let’s head to the Steele household.”

The security guard nodded and reached for his radio again to relay his instructions.

Beth looked over herself and grimaced. “My. I’m going to meet a superstar like this. Neil, we’ll need to send for clothes.”

My dad lifted his arm and placed it around her shoulders. She snuggled into him as he murmured, rubbing a hand up and down her arm, “I’m sure that can be arranged. We’ll get everything sorted out.”

As those two got comfortable for the long drive to the city, I was anything but. The closer we got, the closer we were getting to Grace’s killer. Ignoring Bryce, ignoring Corrigan, and even ignoring that same-old tension that’s always there between the two, I needed to keep thinking. I would find this fucker, and I would make them pay.

The closer we got to the city, the more focused I became.

CHAPTER SEVEN

We had to be flagged through a gate for the community and then again when we got to Denton’s house. I was impressed. There’d been no security measures like that when we lived in the neighborhood, but I was even more impressed because Denton had his own private one installed. A lot of the other houses didn’t. When we were flagged through and drove up the driveway to Denton’s house¸ the car in front of us and the car behind us stopped. Security guards swept out and immediately began canvassing the area.

I asked my dad, “How many staff members do you have?”

He didn’t bat an eyelid. “As many as it takes.”

Oh-kay then. “Good to know.”

Denton opened the door and leaned against his porch’s railing as he waited for us to come up. Crossing his arms over his chest, he tilted his head back with a smirk appearing on his face.

I shook my head. Only Denton could get away with wearing red khaki pants, loafers, and a buttoned-down white and red striped shirt with sunglasses on top of his head. As I went up the stairs to him, I said, “You know it’s one in the morning. You got paparazzi skulking around in your bushes? You need to look cool at all times?”

“Didn’t you hear from the tabloids? I’m so vain that I have mirrors on the backs of every door? I constantly have to reassure myself that I’m still good-looking enough.” He laughed, raking a hand through his dark hair and dislodging his sunglasses. Taking them in his hand¸ he held his arm out and gestured for me to come closer. I did and he wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. “Damn. It’s good to see you, Jeneve. I thought the next time I saw you would be with you behind bars.”

I laughed, but stepped back and delivered a strong punch to his chest. “Not funny, douche bag.”

“Oh, come on.” He made a show of looking me up and down. “Orange could be your color. It brings out those precious lips of yours.” He flicked a hand to my lips and shot me a grin. “And really. You should be thanking me. I normally have a butler open the door. Good for you that I figured out how to let you through the gates or you would’ve been sitting in those very securely-looking and heavily guarded cars of yours.” He frowned over my shoulder. “Do they have guns?”

“Don’t worry about them. I think they’re more for show than actual harm. They won’t murder any of the paparazzi you pay to take your pictures.”

Denton barked out another laugh. “Damn, Sheldon. Just like always, you got cutting remarks.”

“I try.” A slow grin was forming the longer we traded jokes and jabs. I agreed with him. It was good to see him, too. It felt like too long. Then the reminder of why it’d been so long since we last saw each other filtered in—nope, not going to the last night I saw him. It was too serious. I needed to bring the light-hearted banter back so I made a show of looking around.

“And are you serious?” Not only had he added a security gate, but skimming over his house, I saw he had added almost an entire house onto his. It was a mansion now. I waved a hand at the renovations. “Did your house birth another home?”

He burst out laughing. “No, I’m not serious about the butler. I have no staff except a chef that comes in, and yeah, my house got pregnant.” He turned to look at the outside of his home. “Once the community put up the gate out there, I decided to add my own. I figured it was time to expand. I didn’t want to move and find a new home so there you have it. I did my own expansion. It was a bitch to plan, though. Some of the pictures were sold to a celebrity gossip website. They didn’t run the story. Nothing there, but still pissed me off. I had to fire half the construction crew to weed out the freeloader.”

I was still grinning that his house got pregnant. Feeling the rest waiting behind us, being polite, I allowed myself one more joke. “Your house got pregnant? All your orgies do that? Too much sperm flying all around?”