Page 25 of Don't Let Go

Probably a damn good thing he had.

I licked my lips. “I did.”

I caught a flash of his smile from the corner of my eye.

“Thought I would deny it?” Was I really challenging him?

“Maybe,” he said, shrugging. He handled the big rig like he drove them every single day. In my experience, that wasn’t the case. He preferred fast cars, expensive suits, and even more expensive and rare items including art, wine, and jewels.

“That seems like a bad idea right now.” I folded my arms, fighting against the chill that seemed to expand from my core. “I am trusting all three of you. Probably a bad idea to make you not trust each other or me.”

“Agreed.” At least he wasn’t sugar-coating it. “While I probably should keep this part to myself, I find it a bad idea to also isolateallinformation from you.”

I stole another look at him.

“That wasn’t your first kiss with Remy.”

The flashes of his lips on mine. The words…for luck… hanging in the air. Was that Remy or…

“And in the interests of full transparency on the subject. When we kiss again, it won’t be our first one either.”

The wordagainseemed to clarify the answer before he said it wouldn’t be our first. “We’ve kissed before.”

“We did. You said it was for luck,” he told me. “I definitely felt lucky.”

The sentiment collided with the other memory and I lifted one hand to touch my lips. Had I said it to LockeandRemy? Or had I said it to Locke and then Remy said it to me? “I wish I remembered…”

“You and me both,” he said, then he was holding a hand out to me and I had to unlock my arms so I could accept it. When I glided my hand over his palm, he gripped my fingers tight. There was strength in his hold and he gave me a gentle squeeze. “Maybe you get back and maybe you don’t. Not going to stop me from treasuring that memory or making sure you know my hat is definitely in this ring.”

Emotion clogged my throat.

“Point of fact,” he continued, stroking his thumb over the back of my hand. “I’ve been planning how to seduce you for years, Patch. When you were just a voice on the line. The voice that saved my life over and over. More than once, you saved my sanity.”

“Justus…” Even saying his first name felt too intimate, and the world around us seemed to shrink until it was just the two of us in this cab.

“I know what I’m saying,” he continued. “I’ve been saving presents for you for years. I have a whole collection to give you.”

I stopped pretending he didn’t have every ounce of my attention. Instead, I just gawked at him.

“Diamonds. Emeralds. Gold. Platinum. Ancient. New. Paintings. Sculpture…”

He let out a little laugh that from anyone else might have sounded self-conscious. But Locke… Justus was the most coolly confident man I’d ever met. He walked into the craziest scenarios with only his wits and his skills and sauntered out the far side with the prize.

“So I’m kind of like the kid in school who wrote you notes about homework and asked for your help cause I wasn’t sure how to ask you for what I wanted.”

There was a brutally familiar feeling. “You’re not shy.”

“No,” he said, giving my hand another squeeze. “I am not. But when you don’t know what the lady likes and what the lady will respond to? You do a lot of fishing and finessing.”

I licked my lips. “I don’t?—”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he continued, then kissed my hand before he let me go. “You don’t. But I am telling you right now, Remy isn’t the only one interested. You have to know McQuade is too.”

“I had gotten that impression.” Hard to miss when he came in to soothe me out of nightmares regularly. “Have I kissed him?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Wouldn’t surprise me. McQuade’s pretty fucking direct.”

So was Remy… except, he definitely knew how to play a long game. McQuade was the guy who tore down the front door. You would always know when he was there.

---