The Cunning

81

Jase was half cut when the girls entered the living room a few hours after they had started getting ready. He was slowing down on his consumption, swapping the brandy for beers. He intended on keeping his word to make sure that no one touched her, and he needed to be almost sober for that. But the cocaine was still being served in mini mountains. He had a line ready for her when she came over.

"Do you want to sit down?" Kieran asked, already half standing up from the chair next to Jase. She tried to suppress her giggle at his politeness, it was stark against the surrounding environment and its occupants.

"She's alright," Jase answered for her, "she can sit with me," He pulled Madison onto his lap, lacing an arm around her waist and handing her the rolled-up note.

"Do you ever run out of this stuff?" she laughed, rather merry herself after sharing half a bottle of vodka with Janine when they were getting ready. Madison had never drank much before being in the house but inebriation both numbed and distanced her from everything going on around them.

Jase smiled, "I'm a drug dealer, remember? I have copious amounts of cocaine. As much as your little heart could desire." She rolled her eyes, taking the note. Jase held her hair back whilst she inhaled the little line he had delicately arranged on his phone screen. Wincing at the chemical burn in her sinuses. "I like this," Jase said, running his hand up her side and plucking the shoulder of the one-piece. Madison smiled shyly, trying not to appear too conscious of the exposed cleavage the deep plunge neckline bared.

"It's Janine's. Cute, isn't it?" Madison replied, tilting her head forward again and shivering. Jase watched her, an upwards quirk at one corner of his mouth. There was no denying Madison impressed him. She'd barely flinched at the Harvey ordeal and to his surprise, and relief, there were no guilty shadows darkening her mood.

"You'll have to ask her where it's from, I'll get you one." A vertical crease formed between her brows. She leaned over him to pick up the empty tumbler glass he'd been using, half-filling it with the brandy.

"You'll get me one?" she repeated.

"You can't wear my t-shirts all the time," he replied, his eyes flickering down to her cleavage as he took a sip from his beer, making it obvious that it wasn't about having her own clothes. She turned her attention to Janine, forcing down the heat that engulfed her every time he looked at her that way. Like he saw more than everyone else.

"Where did you get this from?" she asked. Janine's brows wrinkled. "The bodysuit?" Madison elaborated.

"Oh, online somewhere." She nudged Sam with her elbow, "Babe, where's that top from?" His face scrunched at the stupidity of the question.

"Fucked if I know," he replied. Janine rolled her eyes, it had been a leap to expect him to remember something so irrelevant.

Jase chuckled, tapping Madison's thigh to get her attention. "It's fine. I'll find it."

The four of them continued to drink and consume cocaine over the course of an hour before they were approached by Ricardo, the tall, black man Madison recalled from the last party. He was sniffing profusely, and if it weren't for his eyes being so naturally dark, they would have seen his pupils were the size of pinheads.

"Jase, you got any gear?" he asked. Jase looked at Madison.

"Under that armchair, there's a box, not the green one, the grey one. Can you grab it for me?" he asked.

Happy to help, Madison pushed through the people that were dancing, crouching by Jase's armchair. She made a mental note of the boxes under the furniture. The green one under Benny's was the lockbox they'd taken out the night Annabelle was given an overdose. She could safely assume the grey one contained drugs for distribution, which left the green one. The one that had been on the coffee table when Harvey was being dealt with. She was willing to bet her life that was the one that held weapons. The lock was not complex. Sliding it back under, she returned to Jase with the grey container.