Free Dirty Little Secrets (Romantic Mystery) Book 1 in the J.J. Graves Series by Liliana Hart Page A

bratty Yorkie around the neighborhood with a pooper scooper. Candy wasn’t going to let a little thing like work interfere with her life.
    “I’ve got a couple of contacts I still have in D.C. working on tracing those bank account numbers. We might get lucky there if they can find anything.”
    I just grunted and headed to the nearest window. The snow was falling even harder if that was possible. Jack’s kitchen was at the back of the house and faced the Potomac. He had a view of hundreds of hardwood trees similar to what could be seen from my place. I looked out the bay window and knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t see any sign of the trees, much less the river, because of the snow.
    “Looks like you’re going to have to bunk here tonight,” Jack said.
I considered giving a token protest but decided against it. Jack’s place was warm, he had good food, and all the booze I could ask for. Why would I leave just to salvage my pride?
    “Did you give the lab tech this afternoon a similarly lame pick up line so you could get into her pants?” I asked as I headed towards the living room with the beer and sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. The fire was toasty warm and felt good against my still chilled skin. This was the kind of weather that made you feel like you’d never be warm again.
    “Darlin', I don’t have to say anything to get into a woman’s pants. I just have to be.”
    That was a sad fact but true. And I was thankful I was immune. “Let’s play Go-Fish,” I said, attempting to change the subject. “For money.”
    “I hope you play Go-Fish better than you play poker. The only reason I still hang out with you is because I feel guilty that I’ve taken all your money. You can’t even afford to hire some poor schmuck to take you out on a date. What are you up to, four years now?” He asked with a smile and a wicked glint in his eyes.
    “Shut up and deal the cards,” I said. I decided to keep Brody Collins to myself. There were some cards that needed to be held close to the vest.
     

Chapter Eight
    I woke up with the smell of a locker room permeating the inside of my nostrils, and it wasn’t until I felt the cottony softness of a sock caress my cheek that I realized there was a monstrous foot in my face. There was a hole in Jack’s sock so large I could see three of his toes. A finger ran down my instep and reflexes took over. The next thing I knew Jack had rolled to all fours and was wheezing through his teeth.
    “What the hell did you do that for?” he asked. His voice was graveled and sounded as if he’d just swallowed shards of glass.
    “You tickled my foot.”
    “Yes, but that is not a crime punishable by kneeing someone in the balls.”
    “Well, it’s a good thing you met the lab tech yesterday instead of today then. It serves you right for taking advantage of one of my weaknesses. They’ll bounce back in no time, and I’ll buy you lunch to make up for the damage.” The quickest way to get Jack to forget about the pain below his belt was to move his interest to something else. And we could both be swayed by a good meal.
    “Yeah, fine,” he agreed. “Let’s see if we can make it out of my driveway, and then you can buy me breakfast too.”
    “Okay, but it has to be fast food. I’m not made of money, you know.”
    “And it’s no wonder. How you managed to lose thirty-seven dollars playing Go-Fish last night is beyond me.”
    He was right. I wasn’t a gambler. I mentally scratched Las Vegas off my top-ten list of places to travel and followed Jack to the front door.
    “Looks like Harvey’s had the snow plow out this morning,” Jack said.
    Harvey Wallace rented cabins on the south side of the county during the tourist season. The other four months of the year he drove a snow plow when we needed one. And year round he held a seat on the King George County Council. It was a thankless job, but somebody had to do it.
    “What time is it?” I asked.
    “Quarter