JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Aug 11, 2022 14:53:45 GMT
You didn’t cross the wire until you were ready. Every grunt and his great nan knew that. Rushing out across it put your arse in danger and everybody else’s too. Alright, in this case it was probably only his own career that could get gutted by it, but the idiom still stood. You didn’t go sticking your neck out unless you were prepared for your head to be lopped off.
JJ felt that squirminess worm through him as he pictured Destiny heading into her office. She’d warned him not to do it the first time he’d wiggled the toe of one boot across the line. The story had no legs, it fact it was both libellous and utter bullshit - worded only slightly more politely than that. It wasn’t running, people weren’t being lied to by the Daily - like their sense of integrity was the right sticking point here. Simply put, don’t. Only he had and it wasn’t until he’d felt that real vacuum of her not being there that he’d realised there was a bigger reason for not starting into that minefield.
The bulk of a belly approaching popping point wasn’t there.. Fuck.
He’d juggled those pros and cons before he’d sent the story on to the printers - bypassing Destiny’s email and the editor altogether - what this was going to cost, what he’d get out of it (certainly not a Pulitzer, even if it was a story worthy of some Hollywood melodrama with one of those pretty boy heartthrobs playing Maddox), how far the ripples were going to flow before something stopped them. The squirming got worse, like snakes writhing around in his gut. Really he hadn’t wanted to let the blame fall too squarely on his shoulders but now it was a weight that almost held him down in his chair.
Nope, wasn’t all him. She’d gone off sick before he’d even dug the story back out to start adding another layer of proof to it. Maybe Maddox had put his hands on her the way he’d done to the sister. A man who hadn’t entirely reinvented himself when he’d hopped across the pond. Maybe it had just been a tragedy, one of those horrible things that happened. He’d compounded it though and that was what had driven him with the desk. He wasn’t getting to step back over the wire when he’d been vindicated here and someone had Maddox locked up for what he’d done, he’d be swinging from it.
Eye make-up perfect, her arms across her chest, Destiny looked perfectly poised to wrap it around his neck as she glared down at him. Not like a woman broken by a man, or a grieving mother, although it was there, he fully believed that given what she’d been like with her bump before. JJ stood slowly, shoving his chair back under his desk as he trailed her out of the room, her order dragging him along. Blue eyes swept the bullpen as he turned to close the door behind him. He might’ve been getting his just desserts but he wasn’t letting the bloody vultures watch while it happened.
He eased himself down in the chair she’d indicated. The pastries and juice were now lined up like little soldiers ready for the firing squad, and there he was, the bigger target just behind them. ”Wanted to get you a little welcome back …” he muttered, running his tongue along his lower lip as he jerked his chin towards them. Wanted to apologise in what was now obviously a piss poor way.
Wearily, JJ dragged his hand over the bottom half of his face as Destiny started in on him - as civil as you liked, despite the screaming he probably deserved. He rolled one foot, set the other on top of it, all the better to have his knee jiggling up and down. ”Do you think I’d have done it if I didn’t?” he asked, his hand automatically going up like he’d have to ward the answer off. ”Oi. There was no making up about it, partner or not. I don’t fabricate stories just for a headline.” He’d never been one of those vultures, even when a little gilding would’ve got a story the added attention it deserved. The truth had been his Holy Grail for too long for that.
JJ pressed his lips together for a minute before he looked up at her from the regiment of viennoiserie, his brow furrowed. She still thought she knew exactly where he’d gotten it, she was maybe wrong, at the very least she was underestimating it. ”Needs an S. Sources.” He emphasised the end of the word with a little hiss. ”There’s more than one. You didn’t hire me because I was a shitty journalist - not backing up my sources with evidence would’ve been sloppy and I’m not. Multiple people - including the coppers back home - backed up what I heard. You going to tell me they’re all liars?” Leah maybe had it out for the bloke - he hadn’t gone into the reasons as much as he should’ve done, but Lucky and his connections in the Met had no reason to go trying to bury the hatchet in the bloke’s back.
And there it was, the bite of the wire around his throat as he slipped and strangled himself with it. Destiny didn’t have to physically garrote him, her emotions were gonna do it for her. JJ scooted forward, his elbows pressed to the edge of the desk. ”I had a duty to protect people. You read the story, obviously, you knew how many bodies had dropped or ‘vanished’ around him. Would you want more on your conscience? Did I want you on my conscience if something happened and I hadn’t spoken up? I’m … sorry that it did.” There was a sincerity there in his voice, one that almost pained him on its way out of his throat. He didn’t have to look down at the flat plane of her stomach to make his point. Destiny Baccari might’ve been blind when it came to the bloke she’d tangled herself up with but she wasn’t stupid.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jul 18, 2022 19:57:50 GMT
It woulda been better if she had just kicked the shit out of him. He’d take a broken rib or having to sit on an ice pack for a week to take down the swelling over a broken woman any day of the week. Spoiler alert: juice and some phenomenal berry croissants hadn’t done a damn thing as an apology.
JJ slammed the car door shut after himself, thumbing the locks closed before he headed for the club with his head down and his heart the only part of him that felt like it’d gone ten rounds with Rocky. He wasn’t used to an ounce of guilt over what he wrote – they were exposés for a reason – this time it had been a sledge hammer wielded by one of those delicate little fists.
Maybe he should’ve believed a little more of what Lucky had told him at the benefit, instead of clinging on to the belief that Destiny and the baby she’d lost were the real victims in all of this. Might’ve made it easier, at least up until the moment her flat stomach had slipped into view next to his desk. All bets were off then, no matter what part Destiny’d had in it all, the baby had been innocent and it getting caught in the centre of all of this was a bloody tragedy.
The burning desire to seer the mental image of the look on Destiny’s face out of his head had his throat like the Sahara as he slid up the side of the queue outside the Ruby Slipper. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in there, although usually it was just in search of a little female company, tonight wasn’t about a quick tumble in the sheets, or a quicker fumble in the alley at the side of the building, it was about the booze. A whole shelf of it if he had his way, maybe enough to have the control he had over his mouth – and he did have a little self-control, contrary to popular opinion – slipping and some arseholes ugly mug appearing right at the end of his swinging fist.
Shooting the bouncer a sour smile, JJ slipped in ahead of some brunette whose acid green dress stopped high enough up her thighs that a sneeze would’ve had everyone seeing what she’d had for breakfast. She squawked, although that stopped when he cut a look in her direction. There was no interest there on his part, not unless the liquor did nothing for him, but there was on hers. He hissed out a sigh and shouldered his way through the crowds in the bar. ”Bad boys ain’t all they’re made out to be love. Go find yourself a vicar instead, at least they’d interested in a little redemption.” It was doubtful the crooned words would get back to her with the music pouring out.
The rumble of the speakers washed over his skin, a thudding bass beat that would rattle your bones if you stood too close. Now it was a blessing, he wouldn’t hear a word any limpet in the place tried to whimper in his ear. JJ ducked across a corner of the dance floor, eyes squarely on the glitter of bottles behind the bar. Top shelf, fucking bucket of slop under it, as long as it had some alcohol in it, he didn’t care. Not tonight.
Like he was Moses pulling off a sodding miracle, the crowd at the bar parted as he approached. A petit brunette held her hands above her head, what looked like at least four or five glasses clutched between them, and shimmied past him. JJ skirted her, diving straight into a pocket that contained an empty barstool. For a minute the hairy bugger who usually manned the bar up here was there on his right, serving another brunette, one with pale eyes – although they weren’t cold in the freeze your balls off sense, they glittered with something hot as she took one look and dismissed him – the next he’d vanished like he was David Fucking Copperfield pulling off the trick of the century.
JJ stood on the rail of the stool, elbows planted on the bar to lever himself up. The guy was down at the other end, already serving a bunch of trust fund fuckheads. ”Anybody ever tell you how shit a bartender you are mate? Oi. Ah, come on.” There was a faint whine to it, a desperation that might’ve pushed him to slide over the bar if he already had a couple percolating in his system, but in an attempt at professionality, he’d kept all of that out of his office at the Daily.
Flopping back down, JJ cursed. He could’ve thrown something, an empty glass off the bar would’ve done, btu that also would’ve been the quickest route out of here, at the end of one of those knuckle dragging overly long arms of the bouncer on the door. ”You think I’d get better service if I had her cleavage to shake at Cousin Itt down there?” JJ griped to an equally hairy lump sitting next to him. Maybe him and Itt were brothers, if they were that’d sealed the shitty deal on his night. He frowned at the bloke, studying that rough-hewn mug. ”What’s put that smile on your face?” Now that was the dumbest fucking move he could’ve made. Blokes like this one didn’t typically cry on your shoulder, but every now and then you got one ready to spill and with his luck, this’d be the time.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jul 18, 2022 19:01:03 GMT
Frowning, JJ pinched the corner of the brown paper bag again and tugged it an inch to the right. Like there was an angle that just screamed ‘I’m so sorry I might have been part of the reason you lost your baby.’ He wasn’t taking the full blame for it, no sodding way – he hadn’t even published the article until Destiny had been on ‘leave’ for more then two weeks. Grunting low, he gave it another tug and just left it lined up with the front edge of her desk instead. It didn’t matter, Destiny wasn’t likely to take this as a mea culpa and forgive him in an instant. She’d lost her child after all and there was no making up for that.
For a moment he stood with his head down, his lips pressed together. It was what he’d worried about the first time he’d put the story forward. Destiny had pressed her hands to her bump then, like she was holding it together as the tears had started running. He’d passed her tissues, offered up his chair, all the useless shit that didn’t help a bit.
Fuck. He turned away, shutting the door quietly behind him as he scurried out of her office. A dozen set of eyes were on him, nosy, judgy, probably disgusted in some cases, although most of the assholes in the office would’ve sold their own grandmothers for a story like the one he’d gotten on Grey Maddox.
JJ scowled, lifting his chin towards them all in encouragement to keep their beaks out of it all. ”You’ve all got something to do, haven’t you? There’s still a newspaper to publish.” It’d carried on without Destiny at the helm, although there’d been that shift in mood while she’d been gone. The whispers growing every day, some of the gossip bad enough to have his gorge burning its way up the back of his throat. It wasn’t just his diet of black coffee and take out either. Guilt was a bitch.
It had his shoulders creeping up around his ears as he retreated to his office and shut the door to. When Destiny arrived the shit was gonna hit the fan anyway, there wouldn’t be a door or wall thick enough to block out the yelling then – hers, not his, he didn’t have a leg to stand on this time around. He’d defied a direct order, one that had gotten Destiny’s blood up the first time, this time JJ knew he’d be lucky if he could walk out of here without his balls being lodged somewhere up around his larynx. Pride would have him walking straight though, he might’ve been an asshole, but he was one who stood by his beliefs at least. Mystic Falls had needed to know about the threat Grey Maddox posed to people here – Destiny had needed to know.
The chair squeaked as he settled back in it. Yesterday, hearing that the boss lady would be back in the day after, he’d started to box his things back up – his files, the chipped enamel mug he’d dragged across the world and back, the weathered Goethite he’d picked up in the Sahara, the brass pen that bore his teeth marks from that time he’d had a splinter the length of his whole hand picked up out of one cheek in Sri Lanka when he’d gone scrambling into a half downed house during a monsoon to try and get the two kids buried in it out. All that really mattered, least as much as he’d admit did.
If the ding of the elevator wouldn’t have sounded like as Big Ben, he would’ve known Destiny was back anyway. As the elevator doors swooshed open the whole place went silent. The calm before the storm. For all of five minutes it felt like he was at the centre of it. Was she in her office, opening up the bag of pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice he’d left – it’d been a ham fisted attempt at something nutritious, like that’d make all the difference – or tossing it straight in the trash? Was the printer in her office rattling away to produce official walking papers? Maybe she was composing herself to storm in here and claw his eyes out.
When the door swung open again JJ didn’t turn. He stared at the blank screened laptop on his desk – the one that had come with the job, not his personal one with the NASA level encryption on it that he kept in his apartment. Teeth raked over his lower lip, waiting for the blow to come. ”Welcome back,” he rasped tightly. The sigh that slipped out of his nose was heavy, his shoulders dropping like a huge weight had just come down on them, as he crossed his arms. He could see her flatter stomach in his peripheral vision. It’d been an easy bet before, but seeing the lack of bump for himself just added to the weight and that sick feeling.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jul 17, 2022 16:25:04 GMT
Being dragged around the army’s stuffiest dog and pony shows had been a misery, but they’d been a training ground for things like this. The misery of immediately being tagged as General Hart’s boy, patted on the head like a well behaved puppy when he kept his manners, his dad’s fingers biting in his shoulder as a reminder to watch his tongue when he wasn’t. That same question over and over and over – are you going to be just like your father when you grow up? God no, although JJ knew none of them had wanted to hear that. That sort always wanted their sons to enlist just like they had, stuffing themselves into uniforms, dancing straight towards Sandhurst, ‘cause who wanted their kid in the trenches. Their daughters now, JJ cast a glance aside as his ‘wife’ took a gulp from the glass he’d handed her, they were meant to be married off to blokes just like their sons. Keeping it in the family, instead of bolting outside of it first chance they’d got.
This little shindig was skulking back just as far as he had to, no closer, although his old man would see it as some sort of proof that he hadn’t run as far as he’d liked to think he had. Head dipped close to his ‘wife’s’ ear JJ had pushed that distance at her opinion of him, as malformed as hers had been. Close enough to start giving him bloody hives if he stayed too long.
He scowled at her now, the delicate line of her cheekbone, the twitch under that pearl like curve of pale skin as her teeth clenched down on whatever popped into her pretty little head at the idea of biting. JJ gave a light grunt, his lips pursing til that smile took on an edge of something sharper. ”For now,” he said, a faint hint of grumble to his voice. The closest thing he was going to get to a proper mouthful in this town at the moment was the big balls himself – Grey Maddox. Blue eyes narrowed faintly at her, his head dipping a hair closer. ”Just what sort of career do you think’s really got teeth?” His own gritted then, his lips a twitching frame around them. He doubted there was much room for whatever it was in a town like this.
JJ sighed at the thought, cursing his brother lightly. He had followed in the old man’s footsteps and that still weren’t enough for the General’s liking. Now he was washed up here somewhere, keeping shtum … and out of trouble, unlike his younger half brother who was looking to stick his finger into every hornet’s nest he could find in this ugly little fish bowl.
At least he had company in it, sympathetic company who pressed warm against his side. His thumb trailed over the curve of her hip as he snorted at her mutter. Maddox did reek, although he probably had that scent of bullshit covered up with something expensive. He had to have some sort of charm to have his boss curled up around him, tight enough that his little tell all was probably gonna have Destiny slapping a termination of employment notice on his desk, after she smacked him round the chops. ”Enough that you’d wanna share?” he crooned. He hummed lightly in question, sweeping the crowd for some sign of the bloke … or Destiny, as the waiter came crawling through the crowd towards them.
The shudder that ran through her had him running his hand further up her ribs – a husband warming his wife up in the chill of this mausoleum. If she really was his wife he’d have taken that grin as far more promising, maybe even tugging her off out of sight, some broom closet in here somewhere to celebrate his luck in just who’d agreed to put up with his bullshit. As it was, not-Catia was suddenly his shield. Hands newly full, the cool glass pressed to the small of her back as he dipped his hand. Not to her ear this time either. JJ felt the brush of her fingertips through his hair, the tingle it brought running down his neck and waking parts of him up he hadn’t expected to have to employ tonight. She tasted like the champagne, sweet, maybe a little fizzy before she drew back and caught a glimpse over his shoulder of Maddox.
JJ had the good grace to wince faintly. He brought his free hand up to cup her cheek, his thumb gently tracing the line of her cheekbone – wise enough not to go smearing her make up, he was better trained that that. ”I wouldn’t call that ill-mannered. It’s a compliment if I can’t.” She hadn’t said no, hadn’t kneed him in his delicates or threatened to rip anything off. Swaying faintly, JJ pouted before he snorted. ”Dipped mine into his woman? I don’t think I’d still be strolling around town if I did. People who piss Maddox off have a tendency to do a midnight flit, if you get my meaning.” And never be seen again. He hadn’t taken those sorts of liberties with Destiny, maybe he respected her too much to do that.
There she went again. JJ frowned faintly as she tipped straight into giving him a hint of what Leah had. Little images of Maddox overlaid on top of one another, filling in just enough to have him pissed off that he couldn’t see more yet. ”You know what he’s been up to,” he said matter of factly. ”And that the baby’s got his Mrs tied in to whatever he’s doing.” Destiny hadn’t been involved in whatever had happened to Maddox back home, in fact their paths didn’t seem to have crossed until Mystic Falls. ”How about we forget the dancing and find a quiet corner to talk things through. Those evil things are exactly why I’m looking at him. She, as you called her, doesn’t seem to have a fucking clue what he’s up to … and she needs to. I get it on the front page of the paper and at the very least he’s running out of town with his tail between his legs.” Leaving Destiny broken hearted, but safe at least. A kid like that was better off growing up without a dick of a dad in the picture.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jun 24, 2022 20:36:31 GMT
He’d met plenty of women in his time who just used the tears as a tactic. Let a few fat ones out – probably a poor choice of words given the bump that’d slowly been nudging her clothes out further and further until … he swallowed hard – and most men would back off immediately, too scared of the sobbing to push things any further. Eve had probably used the same trick on Adam back in the day and men had been falling for it ever since, most, anyway. Destiny wasn’t one of them, these tears were genuine frustration and not just crocodile like, and he wasn’t one of them either. The sobbing wasn’t gonna get him tossing the story out. Call it an immunity.
Or being an asshole somewhere deep down inside. You had to be one if you slept with your source for a story. Reason 2 why he wasn’t telling the boss just how he came across everything he’d put into the article.
JJ’s pursed lips twitched as Destiny let that sarcastic bite, which had him trusting in her newly minted skills when she’d first taken the big seat, roll through her question. Was it really gossip when it was his sister who’d done the telling? He made a small sound in his throat, tilting his head as he nodded a couple of times. ”If I stooped far enough to go rakin’ shit with gossip, nope, but I’m better than that.” Sometimes. It wasn’t really his dad he was accused of killing anyway, although some suspicion had apparently fallen on him with that since. The story was apparently about some local girl he’d torn up with a knife. Her dad was still pissed about it all, especially since his nibs had run off to America, like they wouldn’t be able to extradite him from there.
His brows hitched as she snatched the tissues out of his hands. The ’you’re welcome’ went unsaid, he wouldn’t want them shoved down his neck after all. JJ flicked a finger in her direction before he propped his elbow back on the arm of the chair and curled it around his chin. ”So he’s told you about everything and you know what’s right and what’s bullshit in what I wrote. How ‘bout you tell me what’s what and we can get it all squared away?” That offer was gonna go down like a lead balloon, just like the insult that had followed up her chastisement. ”Oi.” There was some genuine hurt in his tone, that one had hit a bit too close. He’d prided himself on being trustworthy his entire career, even if it had lost him some contracts. ”I’ve never twisted anything just to get my opinion out there. I thought you appreciated that.” She’d seemed to, putting up with his quirks until he’d tippy-toed a little too close to her baby daddy here.
The arsehole wasn’t about to let his heavy footedness affect the littl’un at least. He was an arsehole but not a total arsehole. JJ grumbled under his breath, nudging the chair at her again. One hand was still rubbing over her stomach in that seemingly restless way pregnant woman had when their blood was up – not that he’d had much experience of it. ”That’s another cheap shot, love. I wasn’t lookin’ to do anything to you or the kid. If I’d known it was gonna set you off like a roman candle I’d have waited until there was nothin’ likely to explode. Come on, just … sit and have a breather.” And stop worrying that your man’s gonna run out of town cause a little gossip came his way. It wasn’t like they hadn’t written things just as bad about others in the town, it was just none of them was sleeping in their beds at night.
Grunting, JJ peeled his hands off the back of the seat and rubbed a hand over his chest. Did he? Yeah, yeah, he wasn’t like that, if he had been he wouldn’t have been employable anywhere now. ”All the time,” he promised without that much conviction in it. And there was the no. JJ sighed, scratching at the dip between his pecs. ”That’s it? You’re squashing the whole thing. Can’t say I didn’t expect it. Well … I guess I better go and find myself another story there, one that’s not gonna shine an ugly light on that one’s dad before they get here.” Hopefully not that much sooner rather than later. He hissed out a breath, punching the shut down for the laptop before he slipped around Destiny and headed for the exit. Back to the drawing board, but not exactly to start over again. A bloke like that would fuck up in the end and then he’d get his chance to watch the boss lady’s back.
With maybe just a touch of the ‘I told you so, love’.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on May 30, 2022 19:53:05 GMT
Bullshitted connections was how most people got themselves some upward mobility in the army. You pulled on those tenuous links to move up, or sideways if you had to slide out from under some super shady shit. JJ had watched his old man do it a half dozen times, General Hart’s abilities tended towards the particularly greasy. He could’ve said he’d learned from the master but he’d surpassed him years ago. The General wouldn’t have thought to slip into something like this uninvited – the bastard would’ve had an invite in the first place, but that was neither here or there – he might’ve charmed her though.
JJ’s lips curled into an automatic smile, shoulders rolling under the tuxedo jacket he wore at the question she avoided his statement with. His fingers squeezed hers lightly, his nose wrinkling as he leaned in far enough that he could avoid raising his voice and letting everybody into the place in on their secret business. ”Not in the Biblical sense of course,” he admitted, po faced, as she pressed in closer, her hand slipping from his to press to his back, the other there against his stomach in a way that had him sucking in a breath. ”Let’s say I prefer avoiding frostbite when I can, ‘specially in delicate places.” The ice maiden Maddox had employed had certainly been an effective gate keeper, not an ounce of warmth in her for him to go to work on. Unlike this one.
The hum that rolled out of him was low, considering, until it broke off with a chuckle. This one was spicy, like a vindaloo at the Rajdoot, hot enough to take the roof off your mouth if you weren’t careful. JJ studied her profile as she looked out at the room. ”Well, when you’re half dust already you’ve gotta go for what reflects on the inside, hey? Dusty, out of date, decrepit, and just rich enough to pay for the good stuff.” It was how his family had gotten the blue blood in their veins to start with and it was the ones who’d had too much fun who’d put a dent in the finances. It explained by the General was tight enough to make a duck’s arse look the size of the Bermuda triangle.
Money had never bothered him half as much. The trust fund was there, a good bloody thing when your employment opportunities came and went like the sodding tides. He’d been to enough of these things thanks to that fancy upbringing to know to get his hands on the champagne pretty fast, he wasn’t gonna be tossed out the door completely bloody sober. ”Make the most of it, love, they push out the boat for these things. It’s easier to get the big bucks out of the walking dead if you loosen ‘em up first.” JJ whistled low, tilting his head as it looked like not-Cat was trying to do the same. He grimaced faintly, setting the empty glass back on a passing tray, snagging himself another while his untouched glass was offered up to her.
JJ sipped now, brows hitching above the rim as he looked at her rather than the zombies trundling around in here. That china doll profile was deceptive, the cupid’s bow lips capable of cutting as surely as her tongue. ”Oi, less of that love. There’s the tedium of writing the obits for this lot, and then there’s the sort of news you get your teeth into … and I do like nibbling at things.” The last was said in a drawl that trailed off into a bright smile. He dipped his head then, eyes focused on the delicate shell of an ear as he spoke into it. ”I’ll let you into a little secret. His nibs who’s throwing this ain’t exactly my biggest fan…” And neither was her sister. Fuck.
Had the shit hit the proverbial? Nope. JJ cackled at her description of her sister. ”A truer word’s never been spoken,” he agreed with a hoot. ”Guess that explains where you pulled the name up from.” Swallowing the last of his champagne, JJ let it roll around on his tongue for a moment as almost-Catia snagged a couple of them devilled egg things off of one of the passing trays, stacking them like she had practice in how to strip a buffet dry.
Lifting his hand, JJ waved that bloke off but he did help himself to the next wave behind, tiny toast points with caviar neatly piled atop. Maddox wasn’t pulling his punches here. ”With your sister as his guard dog, you might not get within sniffing distance of the dipshit. He’s the one I’m here take a gander at. You know anything about him? Oi, mate!” Spotting the waiter with the tray of drinks JJ wiggled two fingers towards him. ”How about we take those out on the dance floor and while we’re getting … better acquainted …we have a little talk about Maddox?” The offer dripped with honey sweet as the champagne, the smile he aimed at her pure innocence. Not that there’d ever been an ounce of it in him.
It disappeared when he saw the crowd part and that same smug mug beamed across the room to someone just on the other side of them. Busted, fuck. Smooth as you like, JJ snagged two glasses of champagne from the now reachable tray and held both glasses at the small of her back as he turned into his company and bent his head to kiss her and pull his disguise back up all at the same time.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on May 12, 2022 21:28:58 GMT
The boss had some self-control, he’d give her that. There’d been this editor in Kabul at one point – blonde, stick thin, strung tight enough that it was a wonder she hadn’t snapped and tried to pogo home with the stick stuck up her arse two minutes after their flight had turned up – who’d finally snapped when he’d come rolling back with a patrol, blood smeared, his camera man wrapped up neck to crowd in bandages in the back. She’d screamed at him almost unintelligibly before she’d slapped him. Blood red nails, chipped after three weeks in country, raking across his cheek as that sting had struck. That was a total loss of control. JJ twitched a corner of his mouth up, almost feeling the crack of it still. She’d been back on a plane eight hours later and he’d spent the next week telling the blokes they were embedded with that it’d been some wild cat he’d faced down.
Destiny had the squall of one definitely, all hissing anger boiling out of that burgeoning form like the growing bump might deflate as all that temper spilled out, but she hadn’t hit him. That had to be a sign that he wasn’t immediately out, didn’t it? JJ frowned as she hissed at him, full lips pursing as he rocked back another inch in his chair. ”It wasn’t honestly trash, was it? I mean … the actual writing, not the laundry…” Lie was a little sharp when it seemed that lying was all that Grey Maddox had done since he’d rolled into town on a wave of charm and money (he still hadn’t found out exactly where Maddox had managed to pull all of that together from).
Maybe that was the problem. Destiny had believed his lies, gotten herself in far enough that she’d ended up with that little bun in the oven. You never wanted your sore spots poked when you were trying not to see them yourself. JJ sank his teeth into his tongue behind closed lips for a minute. He probably shouldn’t have carried on digging a nail in one when there was a little bundle stuck in the middle of it all, one who could take all this hubbub and use it as an excuse to try and make an early jailbreak. Nobody had ever accused him of being eminently sensible though.
Inching closer, one eye on the bump, JJ practically corkscrewed a finger right into that soft spot. He was probably hammering the nails into his coffin here in town one at a time but this was him doing the right thing here. The boss had to know, even if it meant blowing up the foundations of everything Grey Maddox had here. ”I’d saying ‘nothing’s’ a bit of a stretch. I found out plenty when I started raking the mud.” Asshole probably wasn’t half as much a stretch but he wasn’t gonna say he’d take that. The finger he’d been stabbing the edge of the desk with rose, pointed at her until she gasped and then JJ shoved it flat on the desk, like that jab that hadn’t even touched her had set her off. ”When you havin’ a pop at me’s gonna have you poppin’ in a minute? No, love. I didn’t mean for this.” Another wide eyed, worried look at the bump she was rubbing her hand over. God, he hoped he wasn’t gonna have to call an ambulance here.
The baby didn’t shoot out like a greyhound of a trap when she snapped upright at least. JJ craned back in the seat, feeling a little like he had indigestion as he met those glaring eyes. ”I was talkin’ about the pair of you. I’d say I’ve got more of one than you think I do, Destiny.” Wasn’t like his old man was a saint. Dumping his first wife and son to shack up with another, wiping them so far off the map that his boys hadn’t met until they were well into adulthood and fully capable of slagging off the General and his shitty life choices.
Indignation rolled out in his chuckle as he propped an elbow on the arm of his chair and lightly pinched his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger. So this was meant to be a case of glory hunting, better than sour grapes about the boss getting herself a rich boyfriend he supposed. ”Maybe he’s gonna be and you’ll both prove me wrong but I gave enough of a shit to back all of this up with plenty of evidence. Did you read it carefully enough to see where I dropped it in there? I ain’t a hack love, I know what I’m doin’.” He knew he wasn’t about to kick Leah under the bus too. You didn’t reveal your sources in situations like this for a reason, not even to your big boss – especially not when she was all tangled up with the subject of the story.
The murderer.
JJ nipped at his lip, considering pulling the reports up on the screen at least. It’d just take a couple of clicks of the mouse, they were all filed neatly on the system (and backed up on a separate drive at home, he wasn’t stupid after all). He sighed, shaking his head up at her. ”They’re more than that if there’s still a file on him as a ‘person of interest’ on a copper’s desk back home. Sorry, love … I’m not gonna drop a story like this just because the truth’s got you all … aw, did you have ta?” Yeah, she did. Making him feel like a fucking arsehole as the tears started to spill. He’d never been good with them, especially when he’d been the one wringing them out. Most of the time he retreated, hands up in the air, calling no foul as he high tailed it out of the situation but he couldn’t squeeze out of this one without trying to shimmy around that bump. Given the way she’d gasped earlier, that might just set something off.
Cursing under his breath he plucked a handful of tissues out of the box on his desk. JJ frowned as he held them up to her, keeping his head back out of face raking distance of course. Once bitten, forever shy with that. He sighed, grimacing before he shook his head at her. ”I didn’t exactly go out thinkin’ I was goin’ to have the boss sobbin’ at my desk by writin’ bad about her bloke. I was gonna do a profile on him but … you know, you’ve gotta go where the story takes you and there’s more to the eye with that bloke.” The laugh was bitter as he rocked back, his head shaking.
”This is it then? You hired an arsehole, knowin’ he was one but that was fine at long as he wasn’t arsin’ in your direction? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it. Probably won’t be the last. People like knowin’ the truth when it ain’t their life you’re shinin’ a light on.” Hissing out another sigh between pursed lips he pushed his way to his feet and nudged his chair in her direction. ”Would you sit down in that while you’re callin’ me every nasty thing under the son at least? You’re worryin’ me.” He cast another dubious look at her stomach, all round and ready to start heaving with the arrival of a kid who had no idea yet that his dad was just as big an arsehole as the man pissing his mum off at the moment.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on May 12, 2022 20:24:53 GMT
Nah. He wouldn’t say he lived a charmed fucking life. He got close to it at times though.
Disaster could’ve come calling for him tonight. The beefy hand of one of those knuckle dragging security guards who’d bracketed the door like bouncers outside a Walkabout Inn on a Saturday night clapping down on his shoulder. JJ imagined he’d bounce down them fancy stairs well enough, popping up at the bottom all scuffed up but still as complimentary about their inbred ancestry as they told him to politely go fuck himself. But …
He saw her look at him, a quick dart of those green eyes that had him grinning all the harder. Now, this one wouldn’t have the strength to knock him on his arse even – despite the fact that he weren’t exactly Herculean himself – but there was some backbone there. A little line sprung up between her eyebrows. Confusion? Calculation? Consideration of how she was gonna call bullshit right back at him? A little from all three … oop, no. Well now.
JJ folded his fingers around hers, squeezed lightly as he brought it up to his lips with a wink. A loving little touch that women of a particular sort woulda melted at. Now, she wasn’t that sort, swooning at a little attention, but she weren’t batting him away either. If they weren’t being watched he’d have whistled as she fell right into the role he’d needed her to without a word. A woman after his own heart. JJ chuckled lightly, shooting the woman behind the table a sideways look that had just a little wince to it. ”What are we like, eh? Both of us would lose our heads if they weren’t screwed on.” That sort of couple, utterly believable apparently, when they were both talking out of their arses.
The town might still have been holding on to its secrets but he’d found enough of them out already to know that she was not Catia McKenna. Catia had been the blonde bulldog at the front door of the Grey Haven who’d stopped him from meeting his nibs. JJ let his gaze rake surreptitiously over his company as the dragon here tried to shut them down. Whoever she was she had just as little access to the place as he did.
A sigh rolled out up from JJ’s chest, an apology written all over his face as Catia lobbed ice chips in the woman’s direction. Your screwup, not theirs, something to be figured out in those harsh whispers that’d undoubtedly fly around two minutes after they got inside. ”Do they ever get these things right?” he bit out wearily. He shook his head, a twitch of his mouth shooting that apology back over his shoulder again.
His own stream of excuses would’ve carried on thickening if she’d really been a guest, unprepared to do a bloke a solid and get him in. In the end he might’ve fallen on his sword, leaning in to whisper in that spray tanned ear, tolerating the cloying cloud of Poison that rolled up off of her and tossing out the offer of a night out of there after. It would’ve meant taking more than one for the team but he’d have scrambled out before she turned full octopus on him.
Not-Catia strolled alone beside him, heading for the double doors that led through into the museum proper. Ladies and gents in their black tie best glided in and out of view beyond them, not a single one turning in their direction as JJ chuckled down at that smirk she tipped up at him. ”I’d say we both were … you ain’t Catia McKenna.” And he hadn’t slipped a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand either. JJ shrugged his shoulders as he tugged her in with their joined hands. Dipping his head, he hummed lightly. ”You saying gate-crashin’ a shindig like this ain’t any fun?” he asked lifting his brows. Most of the time it wasn’t. Dusty artifacts on display, equally dusty old codgers paying up big bucks for more dusty shit to go on display. A never ending circle of dust transfer.
As they stepped into the open space of the museum’s grand foyer, JJ reached out with his free hand and neatly snared two glasses of champagne off of a tray. He smiled like a naughty schoolboy trying to convince his mum he hadn’t snuck out of class to have his first cigarette behind the bike sheds – all saccharine innocence and wide blue eyes. ”I’m here for a story, you know, for the local papers. What’s your excuse for bullshittin’ your way past Elvira out there?” Was this gonna be the real story here? One that’d shine the light on every woman in this town who was looking to stick a shiv in the back of the boss’ bloke.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Apr 16, 2022 20:40:37 GMT
The sun had barely been up when he’d let himself into the office. He’d been the first on there, slinking from one moonlit patch of industrial carpet to another like he shouldn’t have been there. Wasn’t exactly breaking and entering if you had a keycard to get in, was it? Of course, that didn’t stop that little pang of guilt as he’d flipped on a lamp and dropped into the chair behind his desk.
Others started to flood in around eight, the glances shot in his direction rolling off of him like water off a duck’s back. He’d looked up as a cup of coffee had clunked down lightly on the corner of his desk but JJ hadn’t spared more than a flicker of a grin for the redhead who’d been working the entertainment column since before he’d been employed by the Daily. There’d been the prick of her gaze between his shoulder blades as he’d gone back to pulling together the conclusion of the article about the boss’ bloke but he’d shrugged them off. There’d be plenty of time for office socialising once this was in … if he was still there.
An hour later he was scrolling down through it one last time, the knot in the pit of his stomach ratcheting tighter with each punch of the down arrow. If there was as much to Leah’s accusations as his research said there was then he was painting a target on his back with it but there’d been too much here for him to just throw his hands up and let Destiny get on with it. Chances were she’d be hitting delete on it five minutes after she got to the end of it, the whole thing lost not to an editor’s red pen but to the owner’s temper. It wouldn’t be good for the baby but neither would having a dad in his life who was practically washing his hands in blood on a daily basis either.
Maybe he winced as he printed it out and slipped into Destiny’s office while she was out in the bullpen talking to someone else but JJ was back in his usual relaxed slump at his desk five minutes after. It wouldn’t have been the first article he’d had that’d been pulled from press, wouldn’t be the first he’d waved around for someone else to pick up either. One way or another he’d get the truth out there and maybe one day Destiny would thank him for it.
Working his tongue into the pocket of his cheek JJ picked up the cold cup of coffee and downed it. Foul but it was fuel for throwing himself back into writing again. The gala that had been thrown at the museum. A half smile tugged at his lips as he got into it. Another example of Grey Maddox throwing his money around here like that wasn’t stained with blood too. He could smell enough of it in the water that he was prepared to circle like Jaws until he could sink his teeth into it.
Brows furrowed as he stared at the rapidly scrolling cursor, letters that were out of his head the minute he’d got them onto the street shooting past. How long it was between the article going down on Destiny’s desk and her smacking the crumpled remnants of it down on his he had no bloody clue.
JJ eased back in his chair, slowly swivelling it towards her. His fingers reached out to smooth the pages, running over his name on the by line. Aqua eyes rose to meet hers, sandy brows hitching above them. ”I woulda thought that was pretty obvious,” he said lightly, knowing it would probably only fan the flames. Lines sprung up around JJ’s mouth as he pressed his lips together. He shoved the pages away, crossing his arms over his chest. ”I’d beg to differ on the truth of it and you know I can’t tell you who I spoke to. I’m not ratting them out cause your boyfriend’s dirty laundry’s getting aired.” The evidence he’d gathered littered his inbox, each email kept for situations like this. He might’ve sent them to her but the minute she asked what was wrong with him JJ was letting out a protesting ”oi!”
Scooting towards her, coming disturbingly eye to eye with that bump that looked like surely it was gonna burst at any day now, JJ jabbed a finger on the edge of his desk as he looked up at her. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been honest about his past when he’d applied for the job here. ”There’s not half as much wrong with me as there is him. You’re a little biased with him, eh?” Each tap of his finger got a little louder, a metronome for his temper. ”There were articles over there about his dad’s death after he disappeared, you think all of them were based on just rumours? It’s not shit. Your fella’s got a shady past, Destiny, closing your eyes to it ain’t gonna do you or that one much good.” Lifting his chin towards her bump he winced faintly. Was it like a grenade, could you set it off just by pulling the pin?
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Mar 26, 2022 18:15:33 GMT
Cover the benefit, get some sort of feel good story for the front page, hmm? The suggestion had been given kindly enough, the bite of an order not coming through. JJ wasn’t sure if the expectation was that he wouldn’t have bothered or that he couldn’t have managed feel good if it walked up and squeezed him in a nuzzly hug.
He snorted as he handed the keys to the valet. His lips quirking into a grin as he winked at the bloke. Feel good wasn’t entirely out of his wheelhouse but he’d never been a fan of the candy sweetness of that sort of thing. He always needed some sort of salty or sour edge to it to find it satisfying. There were plenty of people who were happy to rot their teeth, he just wasn’t planning on being one of them. If Destiny expected anything else then she was gonna have to be disappointing, which was a little bit sad given that there was a little sponge growing in her belly these days, soaking up everything around it. That little’un didn’t need no more sour in a town like this one.
”Sorry son, you’re gonna have to get used to it.”
The woman in a shimmering column of silver that clung to her from throat to bony knee shot him a look as he trotted up the steps of the museum and past her. JJ shot her the smile too, enjoying the squawk of outrage as she got a wink an’ all. Lots of delicate sensibilities in this town. His dad would’ve said he couldn’t help but go prodding them on purpose but it’d never been about a sadistic enjoyment of watching people squawk and squirm. It was all about the truth and that was in short supply in this town.
What was this even in the name of?
JJ hitched his brows at the poster boards littering the hall into the museum’s event space. It was meant to be benefitting someone but given that it was being partially sponsored the boss’ bloke, it seemed muddier than ever who it was gonna be going to. Starving kids in Africa, the local library trying for some sort of literacy outreach, the local senator who was probably crooked as a donkey’s hind leg. That was one of the questions to ask, weren’t it.
Smoothing down his togs, JJ approached the check in table. The people inside probably needed no introductions to each other. When you lived in an area for more than five minutes and had enough money to buy half the town you got familiar real quick. If this had been an army base somewhere he probably wouldn’t have had to do more than say ‘General Hart’s boy’ and the doors would’ve opened. Names had those locks clicking and so did bank balances that probably crept into at least 10 figures. His own … well, that was gonna take a bit of a bashing in the immediately accessible category if he wasn’t subtle enough about what and who he was actually poking around here.
Another woman who looked like her permatanned skin had been boiled down over her bones looked up at him. She immediately started fluttering lashes long enough to look like they’d been chopped off of some exotic animal before they’d been superglued to her lids. ”Good evening. Do you have your invitation?” A scarlet painted nail scratched lightly over the list of names printed out on sheets in front of her. Too small for him to read from here, probably too well known for him to pluck something random off the top of his head.
JJ started patting himself down, the grin taking on a rueful edge as he fumbled in a pocket. ”Of course, it’s here somewhere. You know what it’s like, you get all dressed up for a night out and … I must’ve …” He trailed off, eyes shifting back along the hallway like inspiration was gonna come crawling out of the gilded wallpaper. A small brunette, the sort who would’ve looked delicate if it wasn’t for something harder in her face, swept in through the front doors the way he had. Immediately the wattage on his smile turned up as he held his hand out to her. No husband, maybe he’d get lucky here. No flash of a ring on her left hand either. ”There you are love,” he crooned. ”I thought I’d picked up the invitation on the way out. Please tell me you remembered it?” JJ wiggled his fingers at her, dipping his head to give her that naughty little boy smile, the one with just a hint of apology to it. If she didn’t play along then there was always sneaking in the back door.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Feb 6, 2022 17:12:40 GMT
If there was one thing people in this town had it was balls. None of them were too afraid to show you either. They walked around like they owned the place and alright, maybe, in a few cases they did, but they all acted like that. The Founding Families were above the law, it seemed, and although the boss’ bloke definitely hadn’t come from one of them – the estuary English accent was a dead giveaway – he still acted like he was. He’d watched Grey Maddox swagger into the news room, barely a glance cast at the rest of them before he disappeared into Destiny’s office. Hadn’t taken him five minutes to start digging into the bloke – he was only watching out for the boss lady, honest guv – to pin him down to here. And only five minutes for his major domo to kick him. J.J. Hart, formerly of the Beeb, gave him no more weight there than it had done in that tiny police station in South Sudan. Shame.
At least it looked like he wasn’t the only one. One sandy brow hitched as this one told him she hadn’t been inside the hotel to catch a look at the prettier version of Bib Fortuna. Blue eyes narrowing faintly beneath to show off the fan of fine lines at the corners of his eyes, scored there by years in places sunny and dusty enough to leave you looking like old Clint every time you stepped outside. If she hadn’t been able to talk her way in there then maybe he was truly screwed.
J.J. clucked his tongue, one corner of his mouth twitching. If the two of them was to stroll in there and drop a credit card on the glossy counter – his own black card and not the thing with a five hundred dollar limit the paper had issued him – was the manager likely to crack open a suite door for him or had he already been black balled? Maybe worth checking out at some point if this new little avenue failed.
He snorted, shaking his head as he settled back. Blue eyes ticked back up to her. J.J. tipped his chin up towards the place. ”Should try it, at least for a taste of the glorious customer service.” Would they recognise her if she did? Maybe the familiarity only went one way, just like his own. He’d have called the manager as pleasant as a dose of something antibiotic resistant but he kept that little comparison to himself. ”Just delightful,” he crooned instead. Maybe that was why Maddox had hired her. Although, if that was his type then what the hell was Destiny doing with him?
Was that a touch of protectiveness towards the elfin little boss woman? Jeebers. He tapped his knuckles against his chest just the once before he’d leaned in to the slightly friendlier blonde. Destiny could handle herself for the minute. If the story he was pulling together happened to have her seeing the bloke with different eyes then so be it. There was always the Courier if this got him in the shit.
He met the cold look his questions earned him with an added layer of warmth. In the short time he’d been in the hotel he hadn’t managed to melt the other ice maiden’s heart but this one was bitter towards Maddox, he had a chance here. J.J. hummed at her blunt response, tilting his head a moment. ”I imagine you do. I’m a pretty good listener, if you ever wanna unburden them.” He raised a hand, tapped his own shoulder. A decent place to lean on, if you didn’t mind what you said being stamped out in newsprint the next day. Chances with this one had been low but oh, maybe he had her on the line after all. J.J. tapped a finger against the back of the card as she spun it. ”Business up front, personal on the back,” he promised. Wasn’t much point in just directing them to the office when he was barely ever there.
Throwing his head back, J.J. bellowed out a laugh. The LG would’ve had a fit over that. He’d never really liked the idea, even if had opened some doors for him. The dutiful son was the one he’d had nothing to do with. ”Glad to hear it,” he assured her. J.J. let his hand linger a second longer, even if she’d pumped his hand with the sort of confidence few women mustered up. ”Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Leah.” He started to straighten up as their hands parted, fingers patting at his pocket to make sure his trusty notebook was there. ”That’s what I’m planning to find out. A man like that’s gotta stepped on a few toes building up his little empire. He seems the Howard Hughes type to me – you know, a real secret squirrel. Dirty business dealings, dodgy partners, money schemes, there’s gotta be something of the sort.” J.J. propped his elbows back on his knees, studying her sideways. ”You wanna get out of here and tell me a little bit about that business he don’t want people prying into, Leah?” Charm always seemed to work better when you didn’t have someone glaring at your from a mountain of glass and steel.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Jan 4, 2022 15:28:56 GMT
Sandy brows lifting, J.J. stared at Destiny, her smirk pinning his grin in place. Had that been another glimpse of a sense of humour? More strikes in the pro column for a boss who didn’t spend their days perched on the pointy end of a stick. Whether or not she’d stay that way once he’d started to stretch his wings here was another matter but she had time before he really did that. The LG’s lessons to at least be cautious at first had stuck if nothing much else had. You toed that line a bit before you dashed straight over it. J.J. held his hands up for a second. ”I started it, love,” he assured her, giving a faint chuckle. ”If I had heard about ‘em I might not’ve run straight here. Got a bit of an allergy to wildlife.” And a healthy dose of paranoia – rightly so, thank you very much. He was happy to be a Doubting Debbie if it got him to the truth.
He was a man who’d do what he had to in order to get something front page worthy. The pizza was the lesser of those evils, a little wiggle of cold mozzarella and pepperoni. J.J. grunted faintly, glad to see her tucking into it anyway. ”And that’s why I’m probably clueless about it,” he quipped. He peered at Destiny past his fingers, his smile growing as she fired one at him – hers dosed with that colour rising in her cheeks again. ”A woman after my own heart. Maybe next time it’ll be those on my desk, wouldn’t be a pay-off then, would it?” More a shared indulgence between boss and minion. Fuelling up for her picking over the story he’d likely be lurking here in the office until 2am pulling together.
J.J. frowned at his screen as he filled Destiny in on the possible story. Rumours had been swirling thick as fog about the good professor. If there was one thing he was sure of it was that Damasca had definitely disappeared. There wasn’t much of a difference between him and the brother – bloody identical twins were always sticky that way – but there’d been no definite sightings of Theo while he’d been lingering around the last couple of days questioning anybody on campus who’d talk to him. ”Fucking tragic if the whispers are right and the Prof was killed out in those woods.” His brows beetled further as he sighed and dropped his hand back into his lap.
The smile was back momentarily, his thumb drumming lightly against his thigh. That decency shining out of her as she met his eye. J.J. clucked his tongue, flipping the box open to grab himself another slice of pizza. His last. After this it was gonna be all focus as he tried to get something out of the video he might justa talked out of the security guard. ”You ain’t gotta worry about that,” he promised, tipping his slice up towards her. He chuckled low, toasting her with her slice of pizza as she went from not really tooting her own horn to definitely giving his a good squeeze. ”Don’t you worry boss, if I start going down, I ain’t gonna torpedo you with me. I been through this circus before and I always take care of the ring master, ‘specially when they’re willing to cheerlead me that way.” Another wink at her as she stood. Usually it was the editor chasing him off with the pitchforks and torches, raging about him.
J.J. laid the slice of pizza on his chest, not bothered by the grease marks that’d likely be left. He kicked his heels back up on the desk, tugging his keyboard into his lap. ”You do that, boss,” he said with a wink back. A squirm, a wiggle and he was back into the groove he’d started working into what was his seat here. ”And you tell that mate of yours to bring you some lunch next time he comes by. Can’t have you starving to death in there, eh?” Picking the pizza slice back up, he toasted her with it before he shoved the slice back into his mouth. The swipe of faintly greasy fingers down the thigh of his jeans and he began rattling noisily over the keys again.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Dec 8, 2021 19:37:11 GMT
Wasn’t often he went after anything without some major agenda. Wrongs to right in a world that felt all wrong some days. Blowing the lid off of things people foolishly thought best locked away. Revealing hidden tragedies to people who could do something about them. He’d thrown himself into all sorts of noble pursuits and had paid the price for it in those pink slips and days locked up in places that made the worst prisons here look like bloody club med.
’J.J., can’t you find something else to work on, how about Westminster, I’m sure there would be enough excitement in Parliament. Your father could…’
Put a word in? Maybe but he had no intention of sitting in the press gallery, bored to tears while he waited for one of the hypocritical pricks to be caught fumbling with one of his mistresses in a back hallway of the Houses or for one to end up with her hand in a cookie jar. That woulda been a death sentence. Just the thought was enough to J.J. grimacing faintly as he hung the phone up. His brother might not’ve minded it too much after the mess he’d still only half admitted to – the peaceful life here. A white picket fence, none of that argy-bargy in a dust bowl somewhere. Constant combat leaving everything inside of him shaking.
Alive though.
Too many more months here without a sniff of something more than a mountain lion with a taste for a little of the other white meat and they’d be putting his obituary in the Daily. Joshua J. Hart – dead of boredom. All too possible. Unless…
The smile had gotten him everywhere before, there’d been times it’d also bought the fury of a woman immune to his immeasurable charms down on him but who was gonna try and split that hair. Maybe this one’d take some work. Her jaw was stiffening, tension running through in a way that might’ve had him flinching faintly in anticipation of the crack of a palm or the burning score of nails across his face – if he was a lesser man.
J.J. hummed lightly, his head tilting bird like to regard her before he tipped his chin up in the direction of the hotel where the other blonde probably had her nose pressed to those shiny glass doors to watch out for him. ”’tween the plebs and his nibs in there. You met her? The blonde bulldog who’s got a hundred ways of saying ‘get lost mate’.” He’d seen women like that one on bases though. It might’ve been a cliché but they were formidable. You wouldn’t get close to the LG without going through his people first and they could have you cut off at the knees – or somewhere more delicate – in seconds flat.
This one would’ve fit right in, although not with Grey Maddox’s image of a pair of brawny security guards bracketing this scrawny little worm. She was giving him the time of day for one thing, perching on the step next to him. J.J. lifted his brows as he leaned in a couple of inches towards her. ”Sounds like you know him then,” he suggested cheekily. One blue eye winked. And if she knew him then he was gonna get to know her. Dirt was gonna pour out of this one, he could feel it in his bones.
He laced his hands between his knees, thumbs tapping restlessly against his knuckles. Coulda been a ploy he guessed. Find out when he knew and then turn everything that spilled out of his mouth against him. Would’ve been what he’d have tried had this been the other way around. ”I’m … oh really now?” Anybody who’d spent more than ten minutes around him would’ve been wary of the sudden shift in his posture. An edge cut into his blue eyes, the smile turning great white shark predatory. ”Related and bitter enough about it to tell someone all about it?” J.J. clucked his tongue lightly. He reached into his pocket, smirked as he extracted a card from his inside pocket and offered it up to her between two fingers like he had done with the other one. ”I’m a journalist. Was gonna write a puff peace on your relative for the Daily but it looks like he’s got a little something he don’t want me digging into. Stonewall a journalist and they’re always gonna come back with a sledge hammer. J.J. Hart.” He announced it almost like she should recognise the name, offering up his other hand to her to shake.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Nov 10, 2021 21:04:14 GMT
Like they were the heavenly host and he was some soul knocking on the doors asking to be let in he’d sat before the big wigs before. A semi-circle of them around him at the Beeb, solo editors behind desks that looked like they’d been dragged in off the street, head honchos who wouldn’t know a headline from a foot note and treated him like he was definitely the later. J.J. hadn’t let himself be intimidated by a single one, even though he knew his career was in their manicured hands. He mentally shrugged, feeling faintly skeevy even now about the whole thing. How the hell were you meant to be produce something good when the one picking it apart was someone who’d never written a word or even snapped a photo in their lives?
He returned Destiny’s grin, blue eyes sprouting lines at the corners as he did. A man not unaccustomed to the expression. J.J. dipped his head, winked one of those blue eyes at her in acknowledgement of the gratitude. Being a journalist who questioned everything he’d done his homework on her. Destiny Baccari wasn’t a journalist who’d cut her teeth in local media with boring stories about local fetes or the town’s new street lights, but she wasn’t one of those limp fingered manager sorts either. She’d worked here first before she’d taken that giant step most didn’t have the balls for. She was solid.
And he gave her more kudos for not giving him a bollocking in front of everyone for his walk of ‘I couldn’t care less what time is it’. J.J.’s smile turned innocent at the nod, fingers drumming on top of his head lightly. Ooops. Suspecting it might still be a nudge towards you’ve gotta get with the programme. Be in here at 8am, dressed like you work in an office like everybody else. Stiff shirts, ties a noose. Spit shined and polished.
Not him.
At her confirmation that she knew what had been going on J.J. shifted, squirmed upright as he nearly brought the place down. Manners had him offering up what was left of the pizza, fuel to listen to. A distraction as much as anything else, for her that was. His eyes narrowed as something pulled at her face as she nodded. ”Another right on the college campus, yeah,” he adjusted. J.J. snorted, lips surrounded by that sandy scruff curling again. ”You must have some real big bloody mountain lions around here if that’s honestly what every dropped body gets blamed on.” But, J.J. thought, sliding an inch towards her as big blue eyes flicking up to him, that wasn’t what she believed. What a bonus it was having a boss whose every thought showed on her face.
J.J. clucked his tongue, giving the pizza box another nudge. ”Sounds like too much fuss to me. You want something when it’s offered, take it. You’re not always gonna get asked again. Honestly, boss, help yourself.” He hadn’t done it as a bribe but when she half called it one he raised his hands, mock defensively. ”So no dropping off a half dozen doughnuts on your desk when I’m late again tomorrow then?” It was inevitable. He sighed, considering one last slice for himself before he nudged the thought aside and sprawled back in the chair, feet on the floor this time. ”It’s the way it should be eaten. No cheese burning your mouth, all that flavour’s had the time to mingle.” And it was perfect for people who trailed home at 4am, fired up chasing a story and too bloody starved to start cooking.
Hands on top of his head again J.J. slumped another couple of inches in the seat. He brushed the thanks off again with a smirking purse of his lips that turned practically vulpine. A faint hum building in his throat before he was tipping his chin up towards his computer screen. ”That it was. Seems like someone – sorry, something – in this town’s got a taste for the good and the virtuous. Most wouldn’t talk to me but some crazy bloke working in the biology department dropped the name of a professor who’s supposedly gone on some last minute sabbatical. Bollocks if you ask me. Professor Damasca was a choir boy by all accounts. Girlfriend, apartment here in town, grew up a military brat somewhere in Japan. If he’s pissed off someone then he’s hiding an arsehole side that I ain’t found yet. Everybody and their mother’s out in those woods poking around. Some a little too …” He narrowed his eyes, poking fingers at his own then flicking them out. ”If you get what I mean. If … say … a security video happened to fall into your lap, would you go trying to clean up what was on it?” That glimpse of the choir boy again. Blue eyes widening, lashes fluttering. Some were too ethical like that, don’t go poking without explicit permission and nothing in that grey area he tended to live in.
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JJ HART
Human
Posts: 53
Played by:
Ange
Last seen May 15, 2024 20:32:44 GMT
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Post by JJ HART on Oct 16, 2021 16:02:07 GMT
Be persistent.
The words had snapped out of his father’s mouth on a constant basis. Ground out at the dinner table – when he was there to command the head of it and not off in some corner of a ravaged company doing the same to his men – at his wife, spat at him as his dad had squatted on his level when he’d barely reached his hip, growled out at those same men as they’d stood in orderly ranks, sweating, muddied, exhausted.
Persistent, consistent, smart.
A hundred places worldwide he’d let the old man’s rhetoric rattle around in his head like a mantra. Wasn’t much else he’d said that’d stuck with him but those instructions had buried themselves deep, kept him going when his actions had everything beneath and around him falling apart.
J.J. kicked himself mentally now, letting them rattle around in his head again, knocking down his doubts and mental blocks like the tin ducks in one of those fairground games they had over here. Pew pew pew. Dropping with those tinny little pings as he spoke to his brother. He might not’ve spent more than a few scraps of time with the LG but that mind set had been tattooed into him, maybe even ground into their DNA. Inescapable as the sandy hair and aqua eyes.
”Why not do what she suggested? Rent a room. Go poking from there. It’s not like you haven’t gone sneaking around like that before.”
J.J. huffed out a breath before he paused. He weren’t that far off the mark. There’d been an American politician who’d landed in Baghdad. Set up in one of the faded jewels of the oldest part of the city. The hotel had been reserved for the big wigs, protected like it was Fort Knox not a battered stone barricading protecting the biggest bunch of assholes in a city that’d been ravaged by them. Wearing the LG’s name like a big bright shiny badge, he’d slipped in with a booking. Wide blue eyes and cow-towing promises to avoid the west wing of the place. Promises he’d shamelessly broken the first night and the second, before he’d been caught on the third, sitting in Junior Congressman Pincett’s room, peppering the bloke with questions like he was wielding a verbal version of the tactical shotgun he’d been shown the exit on the end of afterwards.
He’d hummed in consideration to that but it was the one mental point still standing when the shadow had fallen over him and revealed itself with a tumble of blonde hair and curves packed in to the point where he was staring up at the sort of thighs that could kill a bloke if he was so inclined.
Plucking the phone back out of the crook of his neck as she spat Maddox’s name back at him, J.J. pressed it back against his ear with a grin for her. ”Gonna have to call you back later, mate. The solution might just’ve strutted up to me.” He heard his brother laughing a ‘what?’ out down the phone but J.J. was already thumbing it off.
Didn’t matter that the woman was waiting for an answer, he took the time to slide it back into the hip pocket of his jeans and recline back on his elbows again – for the better angle of course. ”Hi.” The word crooned out, his grin stretching as he raised his brows at her. ”You his next line of defence? Gotta say if you are, he’s got stunning choice in bodyguards. You know, his type still usually go for the big and brawny, more muscles than brains.” Oh, but this one wasn’t. There was muscle there, he’d already admired that as she’d loomed over him but there was something else there behind those pale eyes.
J.J. clucked his tongue, slowly easing himself up until he was sitting again with his forearms propped on his knees. He tipped his head sideways in invite to pop herself down on the pew next to him. ”Just a little work thing. Want a chat with him after all, although I thought the one in there did plenty of the warning.” Next step probably woulda been Mystic Falls’ finest coming along to chivvy him outta town. ”Unless…” J.J. drawled, narrowing his eyes at her as that grin went all cat that got the cream. ”… you got something to do with him that don’t involve guarding his backside. That it love?” If it was then that edge of interest in her just got razor bloody sharp.
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