Page 10 of Bad Boy Next Door
Keagan set his beer onto the mantle with a clank. “You fucked up tonight,” he said to Shane. “What the hell were you doing, anyway?”
“I—” Shane stared at his beer bottle.
“And Nick.” Keagan glared at me. “Don’t act like you don’t owe Shane.”
I clenched my jaw. Shane had done three years because of me. And he’d done the time, swearing I’d been nowhere near the shipyard that night, even after the judge offered Shane a lighter sentence if he gave up his partner—gave up me—not six months after I’d been released from juvie at eighteen.
Shane could have put me inside. But he hadn’t.
“Listen,” Keagan said nodding toward me. “Let’s put tonight behind us, okay? It’s over. Done.”
Shane glanced up, and I turned away.
“Shake.” Mac stood. “Come on, Nicky. Shane won’t bring his trouble—or a gun!—to your work again. That right, Shane?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Shane walked toward me, but I didn’t look up until he was directly in front of my chair, hand extended. Still pissed, I shook anyway, and he grinned the same goofy grin that had worked on me since I could remember.
My anger got wiped. Only eleven months different in age, Shane and I were what they used to call Irish twins, and we’d been inseparable as kids. I stood and clapped his back as we hugged it out.
“Good,” Keagan said. “And as long as you’re here, Nick, I need to talk to you.”
“What about?”
“The place next to you. It’s still vacant, right?”
“Someone moved in yesterday.” All five of us had places in Shady Oaks, the cheapest decent place to live in the entire Bay area. The full-of-fire woman who’d moved in yesterday had taken a rare vacancy. They never lasted long.
“Was it a chick?” Keagan asked.
“Yeah.”
He crossed his long legs and leaned back. “Keep an eye on her, okay? Take note of who comes and goes, whoever visits.”
I shrugged. “Why would I do that?”
“Come on. Just keep an eye out. My friend will pay you.”
“What friend?”
Keagan shrugged. “Jesse’s brother.”
“Sounds shady. I don’t want his money, even if he is Jesse’s brother.”
Keagan raised his hands. “Fine. No money. But do this. For me, okay? It’s important.”
I shrugged.
Keagan raised his beer. “No one,nothingcomes between the Downey brothers.”
“To family.” Mac stood and raised his beer.
“To family,” the rest of us said in unison. Then we drank.
