Page 58 of His to Burn

“No, he lives alone. The sports car is for day-to-day. The Tahoe is his bug-out vehicle,” I said.

Jack relaxed at those words. He didn’t smile, but his posture seemed a little lighter, a little looser.

That put me on edge.

I told myself he was just reacting to the relative safety of the garage and the fact that no one else should be in the house, not that he was thinking about the SUV and how he could use it to get where he was going.

I wasn’t ready to confront that reality yet.

But the truth?

Jack might leave.

I needed to prepare for that, to expect it.

First things first, though…

“The house should be empty,” I said, wanting to fill the dead air.

Better to talk than let my thoughts overtake me.

“Well let’s go make sure,” he said.

“I’ll go first,” I responded, walking toward the door that led into Judge Hanlon’s house.

“No.”

There were several feet between us, but Jack closed them without any effort. He blocked the door and seemingly expected me to argue.

I didn’t.

Instead, I gestured toward the door. “As you wish.”

I watched as he cautiously opened the door.

FOURTEEN

Asia

It struckme that this position was familiar now—me standing behind Jack, on alert, waiting for God only knew what, telling myself I was ready for it.

Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t, but I put on a brave front and clenched my fists as Jack moved quickly up the stairs.

These were also familiar to me.

Officially, I was Judge Hanlon’s clerk, but unofficially, I was responsible for all manner of tasks, which included maintaining his stockpile. So I had run of his house.

In truth, it was kind of bullshit and the type of thing that shouldn’t have been tolerated. But Judge Hanlon had taught me invaluable lessons about the practice, how to communicate with juries, how to manage prosecutors and the police. So while he’d taken his liberties, he repaid them tenfold.

Plus, I now knew his house like the back of my hand.

The garage stairs led up to the main floor with the kitchen, study, dining and living areas, and a guest bed and bathroom. The second floor had three bedroom-bathroom combinations, and the third floor was technically the attic but it contained Judge Hanlon’s stockpile.

We covered the first two floors quickly.

Nothing was out of place.

Judge Hanlon had even loaded and run the dishwasher, something he was notoriously bad at.