Page 28 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

He glanced back out the window. “You know that job offer your dad got the week after I left town?”

She sat up straighter. “Yeah. Why?”

“I might’ve…hacked that firm’s employment system and got his resume pushed to the top of the interview list.”

“That job turned everything around for us,” she said. “Got us to a better house, better neighborhood, better school district.”

He nodded. “And…”

Jesus, there was more? “What else did you do?”

He bit his lip. “The lottery win.”

Her jaw dropped. “You rigged thelotteryso that I’d win?”

“No one got hurt,” he said defensively. “It wasn’t hard. And you needed the money to buy your house and figure out what kind of job you wanted after college.”

She choked out a laugh. “Did you have something to do with the great deal I got on the house, too?”

She’d been joking, of course. So, imagine her surprise when he said defensively, “Just a little. But that was their fault more than mine. They wanted a ridiculous amount, considering the work you needed to put in.”

After another moment of stunned silence, she asked, “Why? Even if something I did was a catalyst to get you out of that trailer park, you long ago repaid that debt. You barely knew me. Why would you do so much for a stranger?”

He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a tiny friendship bracelet.Herfriendship bracelet. “You weren’t a stranger. You were my friend. The first one I’d ever had. You stood up for me and didn’t abandon me when I needed you. So, I’m never going to abandon you when you need me—no matter what.”

Ren extended the bracelet to her. “But I’d understand if after learning all this, you didn’t want to be my friend anymore. And if that’s the case, when all this is over and I know you’re safe, I’ll leave you alone.”

He offered that, all while sounding like it’d kill him to let her go. This was a make it or break it moment for them. Logic told her to take the bracelet back. This man had stalked her for years, after all.

Her heart, however, was telling her something else entirely.

And what herbodywas telling her was something that she did not intend to explore. Not yet, anyway.

Ren had never had an opportunity to learn what being in a family or having friends was actually like. Stalking was the only way he knew to communicate how much he cared. Sure, it was…unconventional. But could she really afford to condemn him when he’d given her so much over the years without asking for a single thing in return—not even recognition or a thank you?

She glanced from the bracelet to his beautiful face, then back again. “You keep it,” she whispered.

He let out a deep breath, as if he’d been holding it until she replied. “Yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

That’s when he did something that made her realize just how powerless she was with this man. Something she’d tried her hardest to get him to do the day they met, but had failed miserably. Something diabolical.

He smiled at her.

It was the most beautiful, open smile she’d ever had aimed at her, and it made her weak in the knees (and the heart).

Was it possible that her stalker/fake boyfriend/protector/old childhood friend was a bigger danger to her peace of mind than the assassin who’d accepted a contract on her life?

Guess she was about to find out…

CHAPTER 14

Ren had never told so much of the truth in…well…had he ever told as much truth as he’d just told Lark? He didn’t think so. And she hadn’t thrown herself out of the truck and run away screaming. If that wasn’t a win, he didn’t know what was.

Wait until he told Tenley that telling the truth could be so rewarding. She probably had no idea!

He’d like to say he’d planned to tell Lark the truth because it was the right thing to do and she deserved it. But if he was going to be honest withhimself, he’d have to admit he’d only spilled his guts because of that kiss. One taste of Lark—even though it had been a ploy to shut down her idiot ex—and every brain cell he had went on an extended vacation. Hestillwasn’t sure he was thinking clearly, and they’d been in the car for at least twenty minutes. Which was probably why he was still answering all her questions instead of shutting up and not pressing his luck.

---