Finders Keepers Edie Baylis (phonics readers .TXT) 📖

‘He knows a lot about the firm and we can still use his expertise, but I won’t have him in my house to lie to me and disrespect women.’

Nero nodded in agreement. ‘Where is he now?’

‘I left him working at the house.’

Gwen stood up, furious. ‘Well, if no one minds, I’ll go there now in case he’s taken it upon himself to lay into Teagan again. I won’t have her spoken to like that, Jonah. She’s lovely and for him to have said... Urgh, I can’t bear it.’

Jonah also rose from his chair. ‘No, I’ll go. While I’m there, I’ll tell him about his change of living arrangements that are to take immediate effect.’ He shrugged on his jacket. ‘Then I’ll sit down and work out where we go next with O’Hara. Whatever happens we’ll need to think about stepping up the security both here and at the house. He’s bound to turn up at some point when Lena remains silent.’

ENTERING HIS OFFICE after having firstly checked Robert was not causing any problems, finding him utterly entranced with lines of code on his laptop as usual, Jonah shook his head with a combination of bemusement and irritation and began sifting through the folder containing his properties.

There weren’t too many empty at this present time, but there were a couple which would be both suitable, as well as being close enough to keep tabs on Robert.

Flicking through the paperwork, Jonah stopped at one of his smaller townhouses. The latest tenants had vacated this one almost a month ago and he’d kept meaning to phone the estate agents to get it back on the rental market, but what with everything, it had worked its way to the back of the priority queue.

Checking the reference number, Jonah retrieved the cashbox containing all the keys for his properties, when there was a tap on the door. He glanced up. Robert had clearly saved him the journey of going all the way down the other end of the house to tell him the ‘good news’ about his move. ‘Come in,’ he muttered.

Surprised to see Teagan standing in the doorway, he raised an eyebrow. ‘Teagan! What can I do for you?’

‘I don’t want to disturb you,’ Teagan said, warily glancing around the study.

Jonah pushed himself away from the desk and crossing his ankles, beckoned Teagan into the room. ‘You’re not, providing you’re not planning to launch more accusations!’

‘That’s why I’m here, ‘Teagan said, making her way into the room. She perched uncomfortably on the chair the opposite side of Jonah’s desk. ‘I wanted to apologise. I lashed out at you yesterday and I shouldn’t have... You’ve been very good to me and I had no right to say the things I said.’

Jonah studied Teagan. She really was a beautiful creature. ‘I hope you know that Robert was wrong with what he said to you?’

Getting up from the chair, Teagan walked over to stare out of the study window, hurt washing over her. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with him,’ she said quietly. ‘He’s changed.’

‘You won’t have to be around him anymore. I’m letting him know that he’s moving to one of my other properties away from here.’

‘Oh, you don’t need to do that!’ Teagan protested, swinging around.

‘I do,’ Jonah muttered. ‘Weird shit does stuff to some people, but regardless of his reasons, they’re not good enough. He’s not staying here anymore.’

Teagan fidgeted nervously. ‘I know it’s none of my business, but you don’t say the sort of things he did... And, well, with the stuff you’ve done...’

Getting up, Jonah placed the box of keys back in the filing cabinet, then turned to Teagan. ‘Not all of us feel the need to throw shit because of situations, Teagan. And by the way, I didn’t kill Lena. I wanted to, but I didn’t. Saul did.’

Teagan blinked. ‘B-But they said...’

Jonah moved towards Teagan. ‘Who said?’

Teagan faltered. Who had told her? No one had actually said... She’d just presumed...

‘Come on. Who told you that I killed her? I didn’t kill my brother either!’ Jonah laughed, amused by the surprise on Teagan’s face. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’d have happily killed Saul, but someone beat me to it.’

His eyes dropped to Teagan’s mouth. ‘Amongst a whole host of other reasons, my main reason for wanting to slowly slit his throat was for what he did to you. You should never have got dragged into it. Listen, I may have killed a lot of people and hurt more, which I’m sure you already ‘presumed’, but my only regret is that I didn’t get to Saul first.’

Just hearing Saul’s name made Teagan blanch. But if Jonah hadn’t killed Saul, who had?

Jonah was far too close for comfort. Flustered, Teagan stared at the smattering of dark hair underneath his open collar. Moving back to his eyes, she saw it. It was there, loud and clear. And she felt it too.

Desire.

Feeling the invisible pull from the man in front of her, Teagan felt faint. Regardless of what Jonah said about his brother and Lena, the man was still a murderer. A lunatic... He’d just admitted he’d killed others...

‘I should have killed Saul a long ago because if I had, then he wouldn’t have hurt you. I’m sorry I didn’t.’

Suddenly a thought dropped into Teagan’s head like a brick. Christ, it all made sense now. ‘I-It was Robert, wasn’t it?’ she whimpered. Her eyes moved to Jonah’s mouth, his full lips and her breathing quickened. ‘Tell me, was it him?’

A ghost of a smile formed on Jonah’s mouth. ‘What does it matter?’

Without thinking too much about what he was doing, Jonah brushed a tendril of Teagan’s dark hair away from her eye and then traced his thumb slowly along her bottom lip, just as he’d wanted to the other day. ‘And nothing has ruined you. Nothing can, unless you allow it to. You’re beautiful and let no one tell you otherwise.’

Putting one hand on