Page 46 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

“I was so nervous!” she said.

“No one could tell. You did great.”

“It was weirdly exciting, though,” Lark admitted.

Tenley let Dammit George into the back seat and crawled in after him. Putting her hand over her heart, she said, “Aw, baby’s first con and she’s already hooked. That’s how it starts, peaches. Next thing you know, you’ll be asking me to teach you how to lift a wallet, and that’s only a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from a jewel heist.”

“Shut up, Tenley,” Ren said as Lark settled back into the passenger seat.

He was about to grab his laptop to pull data from the device Lark had dropped in Neal’s office when a blaring ring tone snagged his attention.

Lark frowned. “Is that my old phone?”

“Not exactly,” he murmured. “I ditched your old phone. That’s an untraceable phone I used to route your calls—other than spam—through. No one has tried reaching you until now.”

And for some reason, that ring tone was sending shivers down his spine. Tenley would call it bad juju.

Ren grabbed the phone from his go bag and glanced down to see what number the call was coming from.Private.

Fucking great.

Tenley must’ve sensed his discomfort because she gave him a hard look and snagged the phone from his hand and hit the speaker button. “What do you want?” she demanded coldly.

The chuckle on the other end of the line was the most sinister thing Ren had ever heard. “What kind of greeting is that,bambina?”

Lark’s eyes widened at the same time Ren’s narrowed. He’d recognize that voice anywhere.

Well, he guessed their plan had worked. Nico Fortunato had made himself known. And he thought he was talking to Lark.

“How did you get this number?” Tenley asked.

“The whiny little blond man gave it to me. I didn’t have to ask twice.”

Ren bit back a dozen curses. Fucking Neal. He should’ve known having Lark break up with the guy wouldn’t be enough to keep him out of the way.

“Let’s discuss this in person, Lark,” Nico said. “Alone.”

Tenley snorted. “Why on earth would I agree to meet with a man who tried to kill me?”

“You would let this man, thisNeal,” he said, sounding as disgusted by Neal as Ren was, “die for you?”

Lark slapped a hand over her mouth when they heard a pitiful whimpering sound in the background. So, Nico hadn’t just asked Neal for Lark’s number. He’d probably grabbed the little turd on his way to work that morning.

The horror on Lark’s face let him know she wouldn’t be OK with letting Nico kill Neal. That was a pity. Because it meant he was probably going to have to rescue him.

Fucking. Hell.

“What makes you think I give a shit what happens to him?” Tenley asked. “We’re not even together anymore.”

More whimpering on the other end of the line before Nico replied, “If everything I’ve learned about you is correct, you care about everyone.”

Well, shit. Nico was apparently a good stalker, too, because he wasnotwrong. Lark would risk herself to save anyone. She was justthatgood of a person.

“Look,” Nico went on, “Killing this man would give me no joy. There’s no honor in his death. But Iwillkill him, and if you refuse to speak to me, I might feel spiteful enough to frame you for it.”

“Speakwith you? What do we possibly have to talk about?” Tenley asked.

“I’m a fair man. There’s no reasonanyonehas to die. I’m sure we can come to an arrangement that suits us both.”

---