Page 19 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

He stopped in the kitchen doorway, and she’d been right. The bastard really did look amazing first thing in the morning, seemingly without even combing his hair, which was windswept and still sexy as hell. And as if that wasn’t hot enough, his black T-shirt was showing off his biceps in an absolutelypornographicway.

Even hotter, though, was the way he looked at her. Those dark eyes of his locked on her, and it made her feel like the only woman in the world, even with Tenley sitting right there. It felt…nice. Warm, even. Comforting.

Not how she should feel before she’d had a chance to break up with her fiancé. Or how she should be feeling with someone who, you know, might have kidnapped her.

Good Lord, she was messed up.

“Are your cameras safe, or did Skynet become self-aware and take down your network?” Tenley asked.

His gaze shifted to hers. “That’s not funny,” he said with absolutely zero humor in his tone.

Tenley held up her thumb and index finger a smidge apart. “It’s alittlefunny.”

He rolled his eyes and took a seat next to Lark. She triedreallyhard not to notice when his thigh brushed against hers under the table. Truly, she did. But it was pretty freakin’ difficult to ignore something that gave her a full body tingle.

“Are you cold?” he asked, eyes narrowing on the goosebumps that were now creeping up her arm. “Should I turn the heat up? Didn’t Tenley bring you a sweater?”

Tenley held up her hands in supplication when he shifted accusing eyes her way. “I brought her a sweater. Geez, man, quit glaring. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Truly, I’m fine,” Lark rushed to admit. “There’re s a few really nice sweaters and a hoodie in the bag. I’m not cold. I promise.”

Her response seemed to take him from a DEFCON 1 to maybe a 3, which was good. No need to start a war over a sweater. “If you change your mind, I can set you up with a password for the thermostat. You can set it to whatever you want.”

Tenley frowned at him. “You never gave me a password for the thermostat. Or asked me if I was cold, for that matter.”

“You’re not my guest,” he grumbled. “You’re family.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet!” She reached over and pinched his cheek, then laughed when he swatted her hand away.

Seeing the two of them interact made Lark feel better. They really did behave like brother and sister. There was absolutely zero sexual chemistry between them.

The reasonswhythat made her feel better were much more complicated, she feared. Developing a crush on the potential psycho who kidnapped you would be bad…right?

She cleared her throat. “So, um…what do we need to do today?”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “There’s a lot to do. My priority, though, is making sure Sherry and your parents make it out of town. Can’t have our contract killer thinking he can get to you through them.”

Lark blinked at him. Shit. She hadn’t even thought of that. “Where…what…I mean, how…”

Tenley laid a hand over hers. “It’s going to be fine, OK? Deep breaths. Ren’s got this under control. Right, Ren?”

He nodded. “It’s not a problem. I sent Sherry a ticket to Vegas. She’s flying out right after she delivers those wedding flowers. I’ll have eyes on her the whole time. I booked her a week in the presidential suite at the Bellagio.”

Tenley sighed dreamily. “I used to love the Bellagio. All the free drinks they gave out on the casino floor…you could rob thirty people blind in ten minutes and no one had a clue what was going on. Then they got that new security system, started charging even the high rollers for their cocktails, and everything went to shit.”

They both stared at her for a second or two before Ren turned back to Lark and said, “Anyway, she was happy to shut down the shop for the week and accept.”

Lark snorted. “I can imagine she was. She loves Vegas. I hope you didn’t leave a credit card on file for her.”

He shrugged, telling her without words that he had indeed left a card on file for a known gambler and didn’t care. “What about my parents?”

“They were a little tougher,” he admitted. “I figured they wouldn’t leave if they knew you were in danger. So, a few days ago, when I first realized where this thing was going to go, I sent your dad a series of very targeted ads for a contest.”

She cocked her head to the side. “I can really only think of one thing that would get my dad to enter an online contest.”

“The prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Ecuador to visit Galapagos and Cloud Forest.”

“Giant sea turtles and sloths. That’d do it.”

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