Page 36 of The Love Bandits

I bury the thought as I reach for the Heart of the Mountain, taking the pendant in my hand. And the instant my fist closes around it, I know. The jewel feels all wrong.

“This is another fake,” I hiss, squeezing my legs around him reflexively.

He lets out a low sound, then says, “You should get a job working for a jeweler if the old lady fires you. You’ve got a real eye.”

“You were going to replace it withthis?” I ask skeptically. Because if I can tell it’s fake in the pitch-black room, it’s not passing any quality control tests. “Everyone would know instantly.”

“You took the other one,” he says tightly, not without resentment. “I didn’t have to fool them forever. Just for long enough…”

“For you to disappear. What a good pal you are to Anthony, huh?”

“Get off my back, would you?” he says, and it’s obvious he means it both ways.

“No,” I say, stuffing the fake into my empty pocket. “I’m keeping this.”

“Forming a collection?” he asks with a sigh. I’m still riding his back, one forearm pressed against his throat, but he surprises me by stepping away from the case and then lowering into the closest armchair. If I don’t release him, I’m about to be crushed by a two hundred pound man, so I do—and quickly get out my pepper spray as he pulls away.

“If you so much as touch my pinky finger, I swear to God,” I say in a heated undertone. “I will spray you in the face and then the nuts.”

“You’d have to pull my pants down to get to them,” he says, giving me a flat look. He’s standing in front of me, but just inches away—too close for me to stand up unless I want to be pressed against the wall of him.

“I’d do it.”

“I believe you,” he says. “But I’m not going to try to hurt you. I’dneverdo that.”

I shouldn’t buy it, but I do.

He’s physically powerful, but he’s never come off as threatening. He doesn’t have the air of banked violence some men do.

A bitter laugh escapes him. “You know, I’ve fucked over enough people that I shouldn’t be surprised karma’s coming for me. I guess I just didn’t think it would look like this.”

“That you’d be foiled by a woman who’s smarter than you?”

“If that’s how you want to put it. Are you going to call in the hounds?” His voice is resigned. Sad.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess why.

The authorities will assume he’s behind this. They’ll poke into his background, doing a much less cursory check than I did, and they’ll find it full of holes and fake necklaces. And then there’s me…

If I tell them what I know, they’ll arrest him tonight. He’ll be in a world of shit, and he didn’t even get to do the thing he obviously came here to do.

But why the fuck should I care if this man sinks or swims? He’s lied to all of us. And, yes, Ididlie to him too, but given everything that’s come to light, he probably deserved it. It’s like I’ve given him a taste of his own poison.

He didn’t take it, a voice says in my head.He didn’t take it, but someone else did.

And there’s a part of me that wants to find out who. Needs it. Six months ago, I was a desperate almost-housewife, who wanted to chew my own leg off to escape, and now…

Now, I’m the middle of something exciting. Something life-changing. Somethingdangerous.

“Why this necklace?” I ask, letting my mind chew over that thought. “Did you see the documentary?”

There’s murmuring from the direction of the hall. Maybe someone’s coming to check on us, or maybe they were deep within the house and are still on their way to the front room. When they pass the drawing room, I can summon them. I can tell them what happened. I can—

“Not me,” Jake says, peering down at me. He glances off, then meets my eyes, his expression more serious than I’ve ever seen it. Even though the room is dark, I can feel his gaze in every pore in my body. I’m glad its power is blunted by the dark because this is a man who knows how to act, and he’s like a prisoner on death row, making a final plea for his life. “Look, hellcat, you were right about me. I’m not a therapist, God knows, and I introduced myself to Anthony with bad intentions. That mess with Cleo was the result of my own poor decision-making. But you have my brother’s life in your hands. He pissed off the wrong person, and I was given the chance to make amends andsave him. By taking this necklace. If I don’t get the necklace, Ryan’s going to lose his hand. Maybe worse.”

“Is he the other boy in your sketchbook?” I ask, and his flinch confirms it before his words do. He didn’t want me to see inside of that book because it was personal. Special. It was a peek at the real Jake—if that’s even his name. And it contained the likeness of someone he’s protective of, someone he would prefer to keep to himself.

“Yeah,” he says slowly. “Yeah, he is. And he can be a dumb asshole, but he’s the only thing I’ve got.”

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