I Burned Down His House (Love at First Crime Book 3)

by Jessica Frances

  Harvey looks pained as he puts up with this. Meanwhile, I keep biting my lip to stop myself from breaking out into hysterics. Suffice to say, I can’t stop laughing on the way back home.

  I try to stop myself, but as soon as I think about Harvey in a bright yellow dress, his grouchy features still settled over his expression, I lose it. Well, until I see my house as I’m driving down my street, as well as Joey’s new and borrowed clothes spewed out across my lawn and driveway. My light mood instantly changes.

  What the hell?

  I park, hoping to not run over any of his things, as a sliver of unease skates through me. What is going on?

  “Stay behind me,” Harvey says, suddenly appearing as I exit my car. He usually just follows me home, hovering on the street. Then once I’m inside, he either continues driving or parks and we take Karma on our walk early. Today, he has obviously seen what I have.

  He places his hand on my arm to steer me behind him before making his way to the front door. It’s unlocked, and when we enter, I half-expect to see a tornado has blown through. Instead, I see not a thing out of place.

  Grayson is pacing my living room, though, and he does not look happy.

  “Grayson? What’s going on?”

  “That asshole is outta here,” he thunders, slicing his arm through the air to emphasize his point.

  “What asshole? What are you talking about?” I step past Harvey, who is scanning the rest of the room and my hallway, but if there was something seriously wrong, Grayson wouldn’t let me be in here.

  Grayson steps up to me, placing his hands heavily on my shoulders, his gaze more serious than I have ever seen. “I’m so sorry, Teagan.” He pulls me in for a hug.

  Now I’m more worried than ever.

  “Grayson, tell me right now what the fuck is going on here,” I demand, my voice muffled against his chest.

  “You just gotta trust me. You don’t want to see this.”

  “See what?”

  He nods at a large envelope on the coffee table, but before I can move to look, Harvey steps forward and grabs it.

  “Who the hell is this?” Grayson snaps, finally noticing I’m not alone.

  “This is Harvey. He’s my best friend,” I say absentmindedly, watching Harvey’s gaze skim over the pages, his facial expressions giving nothing away.

  “What’s going on? Why is my stuff outside?” Joey’s voice booms from the hallway.

  He barely gets a step inside the living room before Grayson drops his arms from around me, charges at Joey, and smashes a fist into his shocked face. Joey crashes against the wall before they both fall to the floor, tackling each other, arms waving with punches as they go.

  Harvey quickly attempts to step in, dropping the envelope back onto the coffee table.

  I’m torn between helping him stop the fight and looking over what has Grayson so riled up.

  When I see the corner of a photo, the envelope wins out. Joey can handle himself. Besides, he has Harvey on his side.

  I pull the pile of photos out of the large envelope and sit my ass on the couch, comically ignoring the chaos around me as my eyes zero in on the photos.

  Each one is of Joey with a different woman, and each one has him and the woman in a compromising position.

  My first thought is that I feel ill. Looking at these photos, seeing Joey with so many women like this is burning into my brain. Suddenly, my lunch from earlier isn’t sitting right.

  Then I realize a couple of them look familiar. In my neighborly stalker-ish ways, I have seen some of these women exiting Joey’s home, most of them a while ago. Then I realize Joey cut his hair shorter a couple months ago. None of these photos has his hair that short.

  These are all old photos.

  It’s clear these photos are showing something incredibly personal, something Joey and these women doubtlessly had no idea was being seen and photographed by the real asshole here. The asshole who thought it was okay to invade their privacy before sending them to me like they were perhaps doing me a favor.

  Not Joey.

  I look over at the boys, seeing Harvey is now rolling around the floor, too, somehow tangled up in this mess.

  I stand over them, my hands on my hips. “For shit’s sake, stop fighting!” I scream, my voice thankfully jolting the men enough to make them freeze. “Will you all get up before you destroy more of my house?”

  They all slowly stand. Granted, I notice a few shoves from Grayson delivered to Joey.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Joey seethes, blood dripping from his nose.

  “Apparently, I was sent these today.” I hold up the envelope. “And since Grayson has no concept of privacy, he decided to open it.”

  “You should be thanking me. You didn’t need to see that!” Grayson complains, his eyes taking in the fact that the photos he was protecting me from are already in my hands.

  “See what?” Joey snaps, stepping forward to look at the photos I shove his way.

  What color he has left in his face dissipates, only to be replaced by anger. “Where did you get these?”

  “The envelope,” I remind him. “I assume this is a gift from Hart.”

  His thunderous look doesn’t leave, but I do notice a small bit of panic enter his eyes. “You have to believe me; these—”

  “I know they aren’t recent, and I’m not angry at you. I’m angry that your privacy, and those women’s privacy, was invaded.”

  He gapes at me for a moment. Grayson mirrors his expression from the other side of the room before he seems to come to enough sense to speak.

  “You’re not mad?” Joey confirms carefully, some of the anger being replaced by suspicion.

  “Teagan, how can you trust this guy? He’s—”

  “Shut up! I know you’re overprotective, and I appreciate that you think you’re looking out for me, but jumping to conclusions and beating up my boyfriend is not helpful! How about, after some idiot beats you up, after someone takes photos of your many hookups, because you are no saint, Grayson Travis Bevon, then we’ll talk?”

  “Teagan,” Joey murmurs, reaching out to rest his hand on my shoulder.

  I take a deep breath, trying to relax. “Why don’t we all take a second to calm down?” I suggest. “This got intense fast. I need some fresh air.” I hold my breath, waiting for someone to disagree, but thankfully, no one does.

  I step around Joey, over the new mess the boys have made, and without making eye contact with Grayson, because I’m still angry with him, I step outside, only to be visually bombarded by Joey’s things sprawled across my front yard, just as it begins to sprinkle.

  Fucking Grayson!

  I huff in anger as I make my way around, picking up his things and placing them by my front door.

  Harvey comes out a couple minutes later and starts to help.

  “So, this has been a pretty weird day,” he finally utters, grabbing some of Joey’s briefs and carefully dropping them down onto the pile I made.

  “Sure, let’s go with the word weird,” I offhandedly snap, still feeling too wound up to gentle my tone.

  “Teagan,” he mutters, watching as I keep stomping around the lawn. “Teagan, take a breath. That’s what you said you wanted to do, right?”

  I nod, but I can’t stop myself from bending over and grabbing everything I see in sight. It isn’t until Harvey grabs my arms that I allow the tears to come.

  Why is it that my life only has two speeds? Completely and utterly boring, or full throttle?

  Harvey holds me as I cry a little into his shoulder. Then, when I’m finished with my small pity party, I just lean against him and try to gather my strength.

  “I really want this all to be over. Please tell me you guys are getting closer,” I mumble into his shirt.

  “We’re getting a lot of information, but other than that asshole from a week ago, nothing has panned out,” he says gently, doing little to soften the blow.

  “I don’t get it. Is he toying with us, then
? How can nothing be coming from this?”

  “I don’t know. Look, let’s get back inside, order something to eat, and then we’ll figure this all out, okay?”

  I nod, not sure I really want to go back inside and see the mess Joey and Grayson made, but I can’t stay outside forever, especially not when Hart’s house is directly in front of me.

  Maybe I need to think about moving if this doesn’t clear up soon. I don’t like the idea of living so close to someone like him.

  Harvey quickly leaves me to gather up the rest of Joey’s things that are now wet and dirty from being outside.

  As soon as I walk back indoors, I listen in the hallway as the guys clean up.

  “I’m sorry, but you know what she’s been through. I saw red as soon as I saw those photos,” Grayson explains.

  “I get that, and if I actually did something so stupid, then I would expect a beating. But fucking get your facts straight first next time, all right?” Joey growls, just as what sounds like glass is swept up.

  “There better not be a fucking next time, asshat.”

  “Look, I know your sister has been fucked over. I get your concern. But I’m not that type of guy. I would rather chew off my arm than put her through something like that. So back off.”

  My heart warms a little, thawing out what my anger has hardened.

  While I have learned to trust Joey, and I know he isn’t the type of man to cheat, it’s still nice to hear it being said so vehemently.

  I finally make my entrance, moving into the kitchen where I place some cubes of ice into tea towels, tying them off and handing one to Joey for his nose, and one to Grayson for his fist.

  “Sorry, Teagan,” Grayson mumbles, looking properly chastised for a good few seconds.

  “You can explain to Mom when she wants to video chat as to why Joey has a busted nose and two black eyes,” I retort, getting satisfaction when he looks terrified.

  Mom might be on the other side of the country, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t damn scary. Grayson may have to consider moving to Canada or Mexico.

  “No.” Grayson shakes his head fervently. “I’ll do anything except explain that. She will kill me.”

  “She probably will,” I mercilessly agree.

  “Teagan, please …” Grayson moves to my side, forcing me to hug him. I soon feel my anger dissipating.

  It isn’t really me who needs to forgive him. That honor goes to Joey, who is currently collapsed on the couch, his head tilted back and the bag of ice resting over his face.

  “Can you take Karma out for a walk? Joey and I need to talk, and I would like some privacy for that.”

  “Yes, of course. Anything!” Grayson jumps on the chance to be helpful. “When I get back, we can discuss food options. I’ll pick us all up something. My treat.”

  I nod, thinking that’s the least he can offer Joey, and then I watch as he nearly plows into Harvey in his haste to get Karma out the door, only remembering to grab the leash when Karma bolts across the street, sniffing Ms. Asher’s front porch again.

  If she catches him, that will be more than enough punishment.

  Harvey dumps Joey’s wet clothes in the corner. I wince at what my brother has done.

  “Sorry about that,” I say, sitting next to Joey.

  He eyes the pile of clothes. However, if the man couldn’t muster much care about his whole house burning down, a few damp and muddied clothes isn’t going to faze him.

  “It’s okay,” he mumbles behind the tea towel, moving his hand to rest on my thigh.

  I lean into his side carefully in case he has other injuries I can’t see.

  “So, what the fuck is that about?” Harvey asks, pointing at the spilled photos before he collapses down on my other side, making this a pretty cozy couch.

  “Those photos are old. Old enough to not make sense why he has them,” Joey states, finally removing the towel and revealing his tender-looking nose.

  “What does this mean?” I ask when Harvey looks like he has gotten the significance when it has clearly gone over my head.

  “It means he’s likely been watching, at the very least me, for a while. It also means there is a good chance he knows I have been watching him. No other reason would explain why he would go to the expense of having me followed.”

  “You think Gemma has been compromised?” Harvey’s voice betrays his concern.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. We can’t risk it, either way.”

  “Fuck,” Harvey grumbles, looking more exhausted by the second.

  I can’t imagine what it’s like to feel so close to getting what you want, something you have been working on for over a year, only to realize that might not be the case at all.

  “How the fuck did he know about you? How long has he known? No fucking wonder we haven’t been able to get a thing on him. He’s been keeping his shit close knowing we’re watching him,” Harvey growls.

  “We don’t know that,” Joey interjects, his voice muffled again behind the tea towel. “It might only be me who is compromised.”

  “He’s been having you followed. Even if it is for some other reason and not because he knows you are looking into him, you would have been followed to the office. How hard do you think it is for him to figure out who else works there?” Harvey points out, his anger rising with every word.

  Joey groans, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his contacts, moving the tea towel away from his face again.

  “And these photos”—Harvey points to the pile scattered over the coffee table—“how did he get them? Some of these look public.” He leans forward and taps the bar and club shots. “But these other ones”—he gives me an apologetic glance—“they look like they were taken inside your home.”

  “Shit, you’re right.” Joey leans forward, too, slamming his fist down on the table as he looks closer. “He must have planted something in my home. That fucking asshole.”

  “Do you think there is something planted in here, too?” I gasp, glancing around, feeling paranoid, as if we are being watched right now.

  “You had no connection to me until recently, so there is no reason to think that. But to be safe, we’ll do a sweep.”

  I feel better knowing this. Still, this case has made me feel suspicious, unsafe, and freaked the hell out.

  “How did they get into your house in the first place without you realizing? I mean, we do this shit for a living. How do you fool one of us?” Harvey asks.

  “Are you kidding me? His place was a mess,” I retort, gaining two shocked faces. “Okay, I’m not some creep who looked around your house,” I say as a flash of me doing just that before I burned down his house hits me. Okay, I was a creep then, but Joey doesn’t need to know that! “But it was never the tidiest. And the night of the fire, it was definitely a mess.”

  “If you call a few dishes in the sink and some clothes hanging over chairs in my dining area a mess, then you must think this place is a pigsty since Grayson moved in.”

  “Well, Grayson is a mess,” I concede, but if he thinks the state of his place was neat, then we aren’t as evenly matched as I thought. “But your place was way worse than that.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “It was,” I argue. “Everything was a jumbled mess. You had stuff everywhere, and even your drawers in the kitchen were all open.”

  I wait for Joey’s response, not sure how to read his thoughtful expression. How did he not realize how he was living?

  “I didn’t leave my house like that,” he finally utters.

  “You think someone ransacked your place that night?” Harvey questions, his expression also turning thoughtful.

  “Maybe. Why did you say you went over there again?”

  “Karma was barking because she was hungry.” I don’t sound so sure now.

  “What if she was barking because someone was in there?” Harvey states the scary possibility.

  “You mean, I was in your house with an intruder?” I ask, shive
ring in fear at just the thought.

  What would have happened if Karma didn’t jump me, causing the fire? Was my life in danger before the fire started and I didn’t even know?

  “It’s possible,” Harvey continues to terrify me. “You either scared them off, or they were hiding somewhere, waiting for you to leave.”

  I almost mention that I checked his rooms out, finding them empty, but I don’t think that part is really all that important.

  “What were they hoping to find?”

  “I don’t know.” Joey shakes his head in frustration. “Maybe they wanted to see what information we had on Clayton? Maybe it was just an unrelated home invasion? Maybe Karma learned how to open some drawers? I don’t fucking know.” Joey sounds agitated by the end, his body tense as he connects his call to Zander, placing the cell to his ear before standing as he passes on the latest news.

  As soon as he is finished, he looks over to me. “Can you call your brother back? Zander wants us all to meet. You’ll need to pack a bag.”

  “We’re not coming back here?”

  “If we decide there is a serious threat, you won’t be coming back.” As he gazes at me, I know the second he sees my concern, because his stern features soften. “This could be nothing, but it’s better to be over-prepared than under, right?”

  I nod, hoping this is a time when we are definitely over-preparing.

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll text Grayson,” I say, sending a quick text, telling Grayson to get back here. The rain has picked up outside, making me question how stinky Karma is going to be. Wet dog hair is not my favorite stench.

  “What about Karma?” I ask, since there is no way we can leave her here alone.

  “We’re meeting at Sasha and Dec’s. They’re the only ones with a backyard and a place suitable for her.”

  I nod, agreeing, even if the car ride isn’t going to smell the best.

  “I need to change my clothes.” He motions to his bloodied shirt, and then I follow him into the spare bedroom, hoping to speak to him alone.

  “This is dangerous; are you sure you guys should be taking this on? The police should be involved in this—”