Page 29 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

“What happened to Dave and Yvette?” Lark asked.

“They were both arrested for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.”

He didn’t tell her that he’d stolen the drugs from a local dealer (the idiot had tested his own product and was passed out cold when Ren took them off his hands), planted them in Dave and Yvette’s trailer, and called in the anonymous tip to the cops to get them arrested.

After all, there was telling the truth, and there was delivering TMI, and he was pretty sure the details of how he’d framed his former foster parents and got them sent to prison fell into the latter category.

“And how did you learn so much…stuff?”

Given how she’d hesitated on the wordstuff, he had to assume she meant to ask, “How’d you get so good at being a criminal?”

He shrugged. “All it takes to learn whatever you want to know these days is a computer and a healthy curiosity about how things work. And once you figure out how the computer works, you can access anything.”

He did meananything, too. After learning how to hack, he’d accessed coursework for everything that interested him at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. He’d hacked into several of NASA’s training programs and learned what they had to offer. The FBI training he’d hacked into had been super informative. The local law enforcement stuff was OK, but it was all so easy to master that it hadn’t been as fun. He’d still done it, though. And all of it had taught him to be the best criminal he could be, because it had also taught him not to trust any of those agencies enough to become a legitimate part of them.

Lark’s nose wrinkled up. “I know how to use a computer, and I doubt I’d ever be able to do what you can do.”

“You could if you wanted to.” He knew because in all her years of schooling, Ren had never once had to change any of her grades. She’d always worked hard and had earned straight A’s across the board. Her IQ wasn’t genius level, but it was way above average. “But you’re a good person. There’s no reason for you to become a criminal.”

She frowned at him. “You’re not a bad person just because you’ve committed some crimes. Neither is Tenley. You just had…bad circumstances. If either of you had the kind of upbringing I had, you’d probably be doctors or lawyers or something.”

He’d never really thought of it that way. Would he have grown into less of a suspicious, conspiracy-loving criminal if he’d had a family that actually gave a crap about him? Maybe. But did it matter? He didn’t see how. He’d made his choices, and he had to live with them.

Even if living with them meantnotliving with someone like Lark.

And, no, he didn’t care onebitfor the ache in his chest caused by the thought of leaving Lark alone when this mess was all said and done.

“Maybe,” he admitted quietly, wishing he could steer his thoughts in a different direction. Thinking about all the choices he’d made that might lead him away from Lark was just too damn depressing.

“So…what now?” Lark asked. “My parents are safe, Sherry is safe, and Neal is out of the way. What’s our next move?”

Our. Like they were a team. He liked that. “Well, I need to check in on the hitman. I jammed up his discharge from the hospital, but he should be getting out any time now, and he’ll start trying to track you down again. I need to find him and stop him.”

He could feel her stare boring into the side of his head for several seconds before she asked, “How do we stop him?”

“I’m not going to kill him, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ren said, side-eyeing her briefly before turning his attention back to the road. He couldn’t blame her for asking, though. It’s not like he hadn’t demonstrated his complete disregard for laws a million times up until this point. “That’s not my style. What I’d like to do is track him and figure out who hired him. Convincing them to call off the hit would most likely be much easier than convincinghimnot to collect his money.”

“How do you track a hitman?”

Ren didn’t want to admit it, but the fact that she sounded interested instead of scared was a big turn on. What did that say about him? Nothing good, he imagined. “He needed a computer to accept the hit. If I can get close enough to his computer, I can hack it.”

He didn’t see the need to explain that he’d created an app for his phone that allowed him to clone data from any computer within a certain radius. It would either sound braggy or scary, and he wasn’t thrilled about either option.

“No offense, but there’s no way you’re going to sneak up on him and get close enough to hack his computer. You’re,” she paused, gesturing to, well,allof him, “huge. And not in any way inconspicuous.”

Ren didn’t disagree. “Plus, he might’ve seen me at the flower shop. But don’t worry. I have a plan.”

“That should probably make me nervous,” Lark grumbled. “But for some reason, it doesn’t.”

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “You have nothing to worry about. If you want to worry about someone, worry about the hitman. Because he doesn’t stand a chance against the person I’m sending in.”

CHAPTER 15

An hour later, Lark chewed on her thumbnail as she sat in the back of the white panel van Ren used as a mobile surveillance unit, trying to ignore the spot where her shoulder was pressed up against his.

His focus was on the computer screen in front of him. He probably had no idea every molecule in her body was tuned in to where she was touching him.

She could feel the warmth of his body through her sweatshirt. It feltsogood.

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