Page 39 of Under Their Watch
“It’s about five. They were running with me, Rowan, and Max. When we got back, Casey was here talking to Emma,” he explains.
“Wait. You just leave us in the house? Do you do that every morning?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he laughs. “You girls sleep like the fucking dead. We set the alarm and stay close by.”
“I tried exercising once. That just consisted of Marvin calling me fat while I cried and tried to do pushups,” I say.
“If you want to exercise, Max and Rowan are your guys. They are good teachers,” he says as we walk upstairs.
“I’ll have to ask them,” I say. When we get to the living room, everyone turns to us. “Morning.”
“Morning,” Casey says as Quinn pulls me to sit in his lap with my legs across Jace.
“You left me,” I say to Quinn and Jace.
“Didn’t think you’d want to run five miles at four in the morning,” Jace laughs.
“Maybe at six,” I smile. “Oh. Max. Rowan. I have a question.”
“It’s too early for you to start being a brat,” Max says. “What’s up?”
“Wanna help me not be fat?” I ask. Everyone bursts out laughing while Rowan and Max glare at me. “Theo said if I wanted to learn how to exercise, I should talk to y’all.”
“We can help you exercise,” Max says flatly.
“Great,” I smile. “Thanks.”
“This is great,” Anika laughs. “I love this for us.”
“What’s up, Casey?” Theo asks.
“David Miller was murdered,” she says simply.
“Damn. Beat me to it,” Jace says. “What happened?”
“He was shot in his sleep with a nine-millimeter,” she says. She is looking at me when she speaks and I don’t understand why until I remember Quinn has a nine-millimeter. That’s what he was going to shoot Marvin with. I keep my mouth shut because if Quinn did do it, I am not helping her take him away from me.
“Ah. I see where this is headed,” Quinn says, as he moves me to sit with Jace. “I assume you want it?”
“Please,” Casey says.
“Quinn,” Emma says.
“Give me some credit, Emma. I’m not going to hand it over if I shot him,” Quinn says and she nods. Jace wraps me in a hug while Quinn goes downstairs to get his pistol. When he returns, he hands it over to Casey.
“The lab will have it for a few days for ballistics, but I should have it back soon,” she says, having him sign a paper. “Guys, I can’t help you if you don’t own up to it. I can easily have this charged as something minor and no one sees jail time.”
“When was he killed?” Theo asks.
“Last night around ten,” she says.
“Oh. That’s an easy one,” Mia says. “We were all watching Theo fuck Rhea unconscious.”
“You could have said that so many different ways,” Theo says.
“Cameras can show we were all in the basement and there isn’t any other way out,” Rowan says.
“Woah. Is there a camera down there?” I ask.