Page 32 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

Ren shook his head, looking at her like she’d just lapsed into a language he didn’t speak. “Nothing special? Are you kidding? You’re open and honest with your feelings in a way that Tenley and I just…aren’t. You care about people. Not just the people close to you, butallpeople. While Tenley and I were stealing, you were volunteering your time to every good cause you came across. Hell, you kept dating a stupid fucker who was so far beneath you it waslaughablebecause you didn’t want to hurt him. You’ve never passed by an animal in need without rescuing it. You’ve got an IQ higher than seventy-five percent of the population and you never use it to make anyone feel small. From where I’m standing, all that makes you pretty damn special.”

She blinked at him, wondering if anyone had ever said something that nice to her. If they had, she couldn’t remember. Other than her parents, of course. “But Tenley is?—”

“Tenley’s amazing,” he admitted. “But she’s seen the worst mankind has to offer. When you see that kind of shit as a young person, it shapes you—and not always in a good way. She’s amazingdespitehow she was raised. You had a great childhood. Saw that mankind isn’t always shitty. You had choices. Way more than Tenley had. And you chose to be a person who cares about, well,everyone.” He shrugged. “You didn’t have to, though. You could’ve grown up to be a rich entitled asshole. I wish Tenley could’ve had the option to become a rich entitled asshole, too.”

Lark had been wishing for years, maybe even her whole life, for the type of butterflies-in-the-stomach, overwhelming, heart-pounding, rush of emotion that the characters in her favorite romance novels seemed to always have for each other. She’d never experienced it. Not with anyone she’d ever dated.

She’d even brought it up with Neal once. It had concerned her that she didn’t get butterflies thinking about him, and she wondered if he felt that way about her. He’d laughed off her concerns, telling her she just had unrealistic expectations. That people simply never wanted anyone as much as characters in her books. She’d believed him, too, because it made sense.

Untilthismoment, inthiscar, withthisman.

She was sitting in a surveillance van with a man who had admitted to being a career criminal, a man who’d stalked her for half her life and had kidnapped her (kind of). And she wanted him with a fierceness that was equal parts thrilling and terrifying.

“I wish you’d had that option too,” she admitted quietly.

And she meant that with her whole heart. The scared, mistreated little boy he’d been when she met him deserved the kind of childhood she’d had.

The kind of childhoodhe’dhelped facilitate for her.

Without him, she wasn’t sure what would’ve happened. Would her father have gotten a new job and gotten them out of that trailer park? Probably. But she couldn’t be sure. She definitely wouldn’t have won the lottery without him and been able to pay off her parents’ house or buy one of her own. She’d had a great childhood and an even better young adulthood because of him.

Even now, he was risking his life to protect her. And he hadn’t asked foranythingfrom her. Hell, if Neal had done for herhalfof what Ren had, he’d probably expect blowjobs every night for the rest of his life. But all Ren seemed to want was her safety. If the death threat hadn’t popped up, she was 100% confident Ren never would’ve even let her know he existed.

Shit…was it weird that she was now a tiny bit grateful to a contract killer for bringing her face-to-face with Ren again for the first time since they were kids? Probably. But that wasn’t even the biggest, most pressing issue on her mind at the moment.

Because as she sat here, feeling all these big feelings, she hadnoidea what Mr. Stone Face over there was feeling forher.

She cleared her throat. “Ren, what do you?—”

Dammit George stood up and his butt started wiggling so ferociously that it shook the entire van. Lark had no idea whathe was so excited about until Tenley slid the van door open and hopped in.

The hopping was actually impressive. Lark was fairly certain she wouldn’t be able to walk a straight line in Tenley’s heels, let alone hop into a van.

She handed Ren the coffee cup and slammed the door shut behind her. “That was even easier than I thought. Guess I’m lucky he wasn’t gay. Thenyouwould’ve had to get close to him and I would’ve had to work the computer. That would’ve been weird.”

Ren snorted as he dusted the cup for prints, found one, and scanned it into his computer. “That guy would’ve taken one look at me and known something was up.”

Lark figured that was true. A predator was bound to be able to identify abiggerpredator on sight.

Tenley jerked her chin toward Ren’s computer. “I assume you now know everything there is to know about our friendly neighborhood assassin?”

Ren glanced over at Lark, and it took her a second or two, but she realized he was hesitant to talk about the killer in front of her. She gave him a wry smile. “I think we’re past the point where you can protect me from the truth. Might as well spill it.”

He sighed. “I figured out who he was based on the data I pulled from his laptop, and the fingerprint confirmed it. Our guy is named Nico Fortunato. Known on the dark web as Lucky. Has a reputation for being…” he trailed off, glancing back at Lark somewhat regretfully before adding, “…thorough.”

Well,thoroughcouldn’t possibly be good in this instance.

“Mafia?” Tenley asked.

“Yeah.”

Lark blinked a few times at that. She thought the mafia only existed in, like, Vegas and New York. Maybe Chicago. But in this smallish Midwestern suburb? “There’s mafia here?”

“Yes,” Tenley and Ren said in stereo. Tenley added, “They aren’t based here, but the mafia is branching out to the suburbs all over the country these days. Lots of money here. Russians, Italians, Irish…you can find them all around here.”

Lark digested that info as best she could, but still felt like she was living in some kind of weird fever dream. “Why would the mafia want me dead?”

“Not necessarily the mafia,” Ren said. “He might’ve taken the contract on the side.”

---