Page 98 of The Love Bandits

Or, maybe she’s realized she was making a mistake with me—that I’m not a man who could make her happy for the long haul.

“What did Anthony want?” she asks, her words clipped.

I nod to her car. “Let’s sit in there, and I’ll tell you.”

“Won’t it look suspicious?”

“I’ll give you a quick rundown.”

So we get in, and I tell her what I’ve learned about their engagement.

“So he knows,” she says once I’ve finished.

“That she’s marrying him for money? Yeah.”

“At leasthewas honest with her.”

I turn in my seat to more fully face her. “What are you talking about?”

I’ve been more truthful with Elaine than I should have been. More truthful than I’ve been with anyone else in my life.

“Why’d you turn down the guy who wanted to give you the watch, Jake?” she asks, studying me as if my answer might solve world hunger. “Why would you turn down someone who was offering you exactly what you wanted?”

It’s obviously a trick question, but I don’t hesitate to answer. “Because I didn’t deserve it. The person he thought he was giving it to didn’t exist. Taking it from him would have been wrong.”

Anthony’s grappling with similar truths, I guess. His situation hasn’t instrumentally changed since he asked Nina to marry him, but now he’s realizing that marrying for money feels like marrying for money.

“Youdidn’tdeserve it,” she says, her tone harsh as she stares out the windshield. “You fooled him into offering it to you. An old man.”

I can hear the accusation underlying her words.You’ve fooled me into helping you too.It’s like she just swung a tire iron into my stomach, and the pain won’t stop rippling through me.

I place my fingertips lightly under her chin, turning her head toward me, because I need her to look me in the eye right now. “What the fuck happened? Where is this coming from?”

But I already know what must have happened.

Damien and Nicole have both been gone.

One of them found Dale. They talked to him, and he told them that I came back for the watch. He must have told them that I’d accepted it and then turned my back on him. Disappeared.

The thought feels like an amoeba eating me up from the inside.

If I tell her…

“Damien had a very interesting conversation with the owner of that watch,” she confirms, sweeping her hair out of her face as if it offended her.

“You think you know everything,” I say, and in my voice I hear the same bitterness I heard from Anthony.

“What don’t I know?” she challenges.

My heart races, and there’s a voice inside that whispers I should tell her. Nicole and Damien are going to find out soon enough, so I might as well just say the words. But it hurts that she believed the worst, even though most thinking people would.

I’m not a man who should be trusted. I accept that. But I wantedherto trust me. I wanted it with every broken, jagged piece of my soul, and I thought we’d reached a place of trust and mutual regard. The past couple of nights, with Lainey curled up beside me, I felt like a new man. A man who suddenly had a lot to lose. But now it’s gone as easily as if it had been made of smoke or mist.

“Do you even have a brother?” she asks, her voice hard, her eyes as cold as chocolate chips left in the freezer.

“Wow,” I say, already getting out of the car. I need to move. I need togo. “Wow.”

“What are you doing?” she hisses. Seconds later, she’s clambering out of the driver’s side after me.

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