Page 126 of Love Me Reckless

My blood fizzles under my skin. I point a finger at him. “I’ll get you the ten grand, and then you’ll be on your way.”

“How do you think she’d take the news? She seems like a sweetheart. Maybe she’d stay with you out of pity. After all, it was only one night. One mistake.”

My anger is a growing inferno, ready to explode. “We settled this, remember? And I ended up homeless because of it.”

“That was before you hooked up with a catch like her.”

I hit him with my right hook to the jaw before I know I’m in motion. The force of it knocks him backward, and he stumbles. Ipounce, wrenching his right arm behind his back and shoving him face down onto the workbench. “It was you outside the lake house on Saturday night, wasn’t it?”

He gasps in pain as I wrench his arm up higher.

“How long have you been in Finn River?”

He grits his teeth. “A few days.”

“You been following me?”

“No.”

I jerk his arm up and his face crimps in agony. “You’re going to dislocate my fucking shoulder!”

“Let’s try the truth this time.”

“Yes, okay!”

“What are you mixed up in?”

“It’s not my fault! This guy I met inside.” He pauses to pant a series of breaths. “his brother runs a chop shop in Daytona, said he could cut me in.” His voice has turned panicky and he’s stammering, which he only does when he’s truly scared.

“That’s the twenty-five grand?”

“No.”

“Damn it, Shel.”

“I needed some cash to get down there. I was feeling lucky. I thought I could win it. And… and… I almost did. I wasup, Sawyer. You should have seen it. It was… the biggest score I’ve ever raked in. I… I… I was a fuckingking.”

I know all too well what happened next. He lost it, but the toxic gambler’s voice in his head eclipsed all rational thought, and he kept playing, betting more than he could lose to reclaim that rush, getting deeper and deeper into the hole.

“You could fight.” It comes out desperate, his voice whiny and high, like when we were little.

“No fucking way.”

“Come on,” Shel says, his voice strained. “You’re so good. Don’t you miss it?”

I let go of him and step back.

He’s pathetic.

“I’ll get you the money,” I say.Somehow. I don’t have a choice—his threat has made that crystal clear. “I might need a few days.”

“That’s fine,” he says, spinning around, still huffing hard. “I can wait.”

The door from the mudroom opens, and Kirilee peeks out. “Everything okay? We heard a thud.”

I shoot a warning glance to Sheldon. “Everything’s great.”

“Totally,” Sheldon says, his lying eyes brightening so fast, like he didn’t just threaten to obliterate my world. The unease tightening my gut makes me feel sick.

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