Page 68 of The Love Bandits

“I said I didn’t feel worthy of it. He told me to think it over, and I called the guy we were working with and said I was done. I’d been working on a freelance business. Designing websites. I had some money in the bank, and I figured I could try doing that full time.” I shake my head. “But he didn’t want to let me walk away. If Ryan hadn’t taken the watch, he would have found another reason to pull me back in.”

“How’d you get mixed up with him in the first place?”

My mouth hitches up. “Ryan. I told you he was an idiot. We were teenagers, living with our foster parents. We didn’t have a pot to piss in, but at least the state kept us together. He startedstealing so we could save up some money, maybe get ourselves emancipated, and he took something from the wrong person.”

“The man who has him now,” she says, catching on quickly, not that I’m surprised.Give her two and two, and she’ll get four every time.

I nod. “He told Ryan he had to pay the price for stealing from him.”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t a hand in the beginning?”

I smile and shake my head. “No, we both had to learn from him, that was the price. So that’s what we did.”

She calls him names under her breath.

“Sure. He was a lowlife,” I agree. “But it was also the only real attention we’d ever gotten from an adult. It felt pretty good at the time. The money did too.”

Her expression hardens, and for a moment I think I’ve lost her. “He took advantage of you,” she finally says. “My parents were like that too. I was a tool for them. A way they could get what they wanted for the price of their approval. That’s not a real family.”

I nod in agreement. I’d learned that lesson too. I’d learned it when I’d told Roark that I’d had a change of heart and I couldn’t do it anymore. He’d looked me in the eye and told me to do what he’d sent me to do or someone else would.

And then he’d arranged for my own brother to do it to really twist the knife.

“Why won’t you let Damien and Nicole help you?”

I shrug, feeling the weight of the situation. Even if I find the necklace, even if Lainey and her friends allow me to bring it to Roark instead of returning it to the old woman, is he really going to leave us alone? Ryan and I have been working together as a pair, earning him money since we were teenagers. Why would he give that up?

“Maybe,” I demur, turning her palm over in my lap to trace my fingers over it. Which is when I notice it’s bleeding. Concern rips through me, stronger than it should be over a couple of scrapes. “Shit, you’ve got splinters from the bat. We’re going to have to treat that. My brother got a wicked infection from a bunch of splinters in his hand.”

“How’d he get them, from scaling someone’s fence?”

A laugh escapes me. “Please. We’re more professional than that. It was from punching a tree.”

“I’m guessing the tree won?”

“Hot tip, Elaine,” I say, getting up and pulling her with me. “The tree always wins.” I glance at the splintered bat on the ground. “Unless it’s turned into a bat and beaten into splinters by a hellcat.”

Her laughter fills me up, and the moment feels as near to perfect as I’m likely to get it.

Except that I didn’t get her to come. Yet.

I’m going to, before I have to leave her.

I want that almost as bad as I want the necklace.

No, the truth is that I want it more, because this is something I want for myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

LAINEY

“Do you need a distraction?” Jake asks after he pulls out the first one. From the look of his hooded eyes, he probably means a sexy distraction—and yes, Ireallywant one.

“We can’t dothatagain,” I say, even though I want to. Out there, for a brief moment, I felt so deliciously powerful and strong. I felt the pleasure waiting for me, ready to wrap me up in its grasp, but I couldn’t give myself over to it—to him—even though I wanted to. Now, I feel lost. Confused. Burned, even though I’m the one who was wielding the flame.

Jake’s being good to me—so freaking good to me—and that’s even more confusing. Now, I’m sitting on top of the closed toilet in the downstairs bathroom while he kneels in front of me and removes the splinters from my hand with a set of tweezers, the overhead lights beaming down on us.

“You don’t have any more cars for us to beat into submission?” He plucks out another splinter while I’m distracted, then adds, “It’s like I told you before. I’m not going to touch you unless you ask me for it.”

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