Page 21 of The Love Bandits

Besides, if itisa trap, then Mrs. Rosings thinks she has the ability to spring it.

Claire scratches her head. “I’d better warn Rosie about all of this. She can keep an eye out too. But how do Cleo and Jake fit in?”

“Great question. Let’s ask her.” Nicole pops the rest of the Bronut into her mouth. “Do we have the thumb screws ready?”

“Very funny,” I say.

Nicole’s gaze lifts above my head, to the clock mounted over the office door. “The moment of truth is upon us.”

“Should I go hide somewhere?” Claire asks, glancing around the office, empty other than the desk and chairs and a couple of bookcases aligned with the opposite wall.

“So you can pop out and freak her out?” Nicole says, weighing the possibility. “That might be cool.”

“Just stay,” I tell Claire with a sigh. “You can play good cop.”

“Oh,” she says, seeming excited by this. She tucks her hair behind her ear, straightens her shirt. “I think I can do that. Kill her with kindness.”

“Look at you,” Nicole puts in with a grin.

There’s a knock on the front door, and Claire’s eyes widen.

“Go get her, good cop,” Nicole says, cracking her knuckles.

I watch as Claire leaves the room, then shift my gaze to Nicole, who grins at me. “Watch and learn, baby bird.”

I smile back, even though it feels like someone’s been playing with my nerves with a rusted-out switchblade.

“Come in,” I hear Claire say, followed by the sounds of footsteps. The door closing. “Can I get you anything? Some coffee, maybe a Bronut? Oh, sorry, I’ve gotten used to the name. They’re a cross between brownies and donuts. I know the name’s a little…well, but they’re actually really good—”

“No thanks,” Cleo says, her voice tight.

More footsteps.

Then, right before they turn into the room, Nicole swivels my laptop so it’s facing the door and presses play. The computer starts booming on about the majestic Heart of the Mountain just as Cleo steps into the room, turning milk white. She swivels to leave, but Claire bars her path.

Nicole picks up the fake necklace and lets it dangle through the air, and Professor X leaps up in my lap to take a swipe at it.

Cleo’s eyes widen as she turns back around.

“Seems to me you have some explaining to do,” Nicole says, lifting the necklace higher to torment Professor X and possiblyCleo. “Because this isn’t a family heirloom, and I’m guessing that fine-ass man didn’t breakyourheart of the mountain.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

JAKE

It’s Saturday afternoon.

I no longer have the replica Roark gave me, which probably cost thousands to make, but Ididexpress order a shitty copy of the Heart of the Mountain off Etsy. It’s displayed on the coffee table right now. It’s…imperfect, but it would be worse to take the necklace without leaving any kind of replacement.

I glance again at the shitty copy and run a hand through my hair.

Oh, who the fuck am I kidding. It looks like it came out of a gumball machine in the 1980s. The “gem” might as well be a hunk of children’s slime dried out in the sun.

The only thing I’ve got going for me now is that Anthony’s mother is at least seventy, and her eyesight is probably not what it once was.

Things I do not have going for me?

Two people now know about the expensive replica: Chloe, the woman I brought back here two weeks ago, when I was drunk off my ass and too fucked up and sad to remember why I shouldn’t do that. I was also too messed up to recall anything about her other than her name and general appearance.

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