The Cunning

75

The living room was lit up in luminous green from Sam's football game. Jase trudged in, running a hand through his hair. Kieran and Harvey were on the sofa.

"What's this about then?" he asked, sitting down in his armchair, still half asleep. He turned the lamp on.

"He drives a BMW, three series. We're working on getting the numbers for it," Harvey said. They were talking about Mitch. Jase nodded, feeling slightly better about things now they had something. Janine walked into the room with a cup of tea.

"Can Madison come down?" she asked in the same manner a child asked a parent if their friend could visit.

"If she's awake," he yawned. She put her mug on the coffee table and went upstairs, grabbing several nail polishes from her room on her way.

The girls sat on the floor by the coffee table back downstairs and Janine painted Madison's nails. The smell of weed and varnish overpowered the room. Madison was blowing her new red manicure when Sam got up to answer the door, letting in a vaguely familiar young man. She had seen him in attendance at the parties, something about him instantly put her off.

"Fucking gun's jammed," he said, placing aforementioned gun on the coffee table.

Jase asked, "how?"

The guy shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't even know they could jam."

Madison scoffed at his words. Heads whipped around to the source of the sound and the heat deepened in her cheeks. "You probably shouldn't be carrying a gun then," she mumbled. Jase smirked, and the guy turned his lip up at her,

"Yeah? And what the fuck would you know?" he grunted. Madison raised her brows and looked at Jase, nodding to the gun.

"I can fix that," she said. He shrugged one shoulder and lazily gestured to it with his hand, inviting her to go ahead. Sam's hand hovered over his own gun tucked into his waistband in her peripherals. She refrained from rolling her eyes and proceeded to reach for the weapon.

The metal was cold and heavy in her hold. It had been years since she'd held a Glock but her hands never forgot. She removed the magazine, careful not to put her finger near the trigger and tested the slide. It wasn't budging. With one hand on top of the gun, she used the butt of her free hand to smack the handle of the gun twice. It clicked, allowing the slide to be pulled back, and the bullet that had caused the jam dislodged, falling into her lap.

In seconds, she had slotted the magazine back into the gun, ensured the safety was on and pushed it back across the coffee table.

"If you're going to carry a gun, you should get to know how they work before you hurt yourself," she said bluntly. Jase laughed at the irritation written all over the guys' face. She may as well have slapped him.

"She's right, Tommy. They aren't toys," Jase said.

"Whatever," Tommy huffed, picking the gun up and concealing it under his hoodie.

Jase sent the girls upstairs shortly after, the men had business to discuss.

"How the fuck did Madison know how to fix the gun?" Sam questioned when they were out of earshot. She had held it far too comfortably for his liking.

Jase rolled his shoulders. "It's not difficult to search things up on YouTube," he said, brushing it off. Though he knew what Sam meant, it didn't look like Madison had learned how to fix guns on YouTube. For a start, she was too familiar with the model, anyone could see that by the way she hadn't searched around for the safety or the magazine release. There was unwavering confidence in how she handled the weapon. Jase didn't care so much that she knew how to fix the gun, he wanted to know why she knew how to fix the gun.

"There's something sexy about a girl being able to handle a gun," Harvey said, leaning over to Sam to pass the joint. "Makes you wonder what else they can handle." Jase raised his brows, amused. It was such an eighteen-year-old thing to say.

"A girl that can handle a gun is dangerous. She's an accident waiting to happen," Tommy said, still nursing the bruised pride from Madison calling him out on his incompetence.

"Madison's already dangerous," Kieran said.

"How?" Jase asked, slouching in the chair in that way only men slouched, knees as far apart as humanly possible without damaging the ball and sockets of their hip joints, one hand in his jogger pocket.

Kieran grinned, picking his beer up from the coffee table. "Because she's got you watching her every move." Harvey looked surprised at Kieran's words, taking on the expression of a goldfish.

"Jase is fucking a house girl?" he asked, looking at the other faces for confirmation. Everyone looked at Jase. He blew thick smoke from his joint up at the ceiling, considering the pros and cons of admitting to anything between them. If there were going to be rumours, he wanted to have a modicum of control over what the rumours were.

He shrugged casually. "She isn't working yet. May as well have some fun before Peter comes and ruins her."