Page 7 of Love Over Time

“Enough about me.” I jiggled his car keys in front of him, and he snatched them. For a split second, he pressed his lips together. “Now that we’ve established I have skills you could use, tell me about you. What do you want with this place?”

“We haven’t established anything.” He put his keys back in his front pocket. “I’m just an architect. And I happen to be good at poker.”

I nodded. That explained a lot—why he could read me like some sort of FBI agent. Whatever he was, I didn’t care. I was done here. “Fine. Five hundred Gs and the place is all yours.” Lisa would have to listen to me. We never should’ve strayed from our original plan of winning her appeal and getting her out of jail. The money from my last con was supposed to pay for that. Instead, Lisa had struck a deal with that old-dude lawyer to purchase this place.

“Right. Except that’s not how much you paid for your half of the hotel.” He shook his head, a half smile pulling on his lip.

I crossed my arms. How did he know that? “How can you tell?”

He tapped my nose, and my breath hitched. “You scratch your nose when you lie.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Do too.”

What the hell? Did I scratch my nose? “Four hundred.”

He grinned, crossing his arms. “Is it really that hard to tell the truth?”

“I didn’t touch my nose.” I was sure I hadn’t that time.

His chuckle sent an electric current through my body. “Your hand twitched…because you wanted to touch your nose.”

I took a deep calming breath. “Two hundred fifty.”

“Was that so hard?” A little wrinkle appeared around his right eye when he smiled this time.

“You have no idea.” I grabbed my purse and took out my phone. “When can I get my money?”

He glanced at the hotel, biting the inside of his lip. “About that.”

“You don’t have the money, do you?”

“Not with me, no. I need a few days.”

I stared at him, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell if he spoke the truth. “You have two days to come up with the money, or I’ll find a new buyer.”

“I’ll have your money.” He cursed under his breath when his phone rang. “Yeah.” He answered on his way back to the construction site.

This day was the worst ever. I walked to the end of the street and leaned on one of the barricades. Closing my eyes, I faced the sky, soaking in the sun rays. A little monsoon rain would be nice; this heat was reaching an unbearable record high. My nose tingled, and I rubbed it.Henry.Okay, so maybe this day wasn’t the worst ever. Smiling, I tapped on my phone and scrolled to the number of the man who would know what to do.

Dom picked up on the first ring. “How you doin’, doll? How’s Paris?”

“Not there yet. Took a little detour. I need a favor, darling.”

He gave me a loud sigh. Here was a guy who knew how to play the game and enjoyed it.

“For you, anything. What is it?”

“My sister’s in jail,” I said bluntly. I’d met Dom recently, on my last con, actually. He was a fancy lawyer from New York, one of the best and our last hope.

“Holy shit. What happened?”

“She killed a man.” Static filled the air. “Or rather, she’s serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. I promise you she didn’t do it.”

“What do you need, babe?”

Tears welled in my eyes at his words. I missed Lisa. I missed having a family. I missed having someone in my corner, sharing the load with me.

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