Page 15 of Sugar Coated

I had the feeling Harvey wouldn’t shut the fuck up unless I talked to him, so I sighed and said, “It’s been a long night.”

Harvey’s gaze flicked to Fang’s building. “Yeah, but she’s all right, right?” When I didn’t say a word more, he clarified, “The girl, I mean? The one Lola sent you here to protect? That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

“I guess.”

“You guess? What’s there to guess about? If she’s safe, you did your job.”

Shaking my head once, I muttered, “There are people out there who want to use her. Who don’t care about hurting her. She—” I stopped when I realized I was saying too much; Harvey didn’t need to know these things.

It was too late. Harvey, the man whose job it was to overhear a lot of sensitive information, was intuitive. He could put things together better than most. The smile he gave me after that was different than his first: bigger, wider, with a flash of his white teeth. “Ah, I get it.”

Maybe I was just ticked off, but I growled out, “Get what?”

“The girl, what’s her name? Lainey?”

“Laina.”

“Right. Laina. She means a lot to you. If things wouldn’t have gone well tonight, it wouldn’t have been just a job you failed. You would’ve failed her, too.”

My jaw ground as I flexed my hands in an effort to keep myself calm. Talking about her really riled me up. “She is the job. Nothing else.”

Harvey leaned on my car as he cocked his head at me. “Who are you trying to convince here, you or me? Because I think you know the truth, and I think, maybe, you just don’t want to admit it to anybody yet.”

A sound that was akin to a growl left my chest.

But he didn’t seem to hear it—or if he did, he acted like he didn’t care. He plowed on, “I think, sometimes, a job doesn’t stay a job. Sometimes it becomes more, and there’s nothing wrong with it. The heart wants what the heart wants.” He paused, his gaze shifting away from me as he momentarily stared off into space.

But the moment was over quickly, and soon enough his stare was back on me as he grinned and said, “It’s how your brother ended up with Lola, isn’t it?”

“This isn’t like that.”

“Of course it’s not. It’s always different.”

To get him to shut up, I gave him my back as I opened my trunk and showed him the man hog-tied in it. I put a piece of tape on his face, over his mouth, and so he wouldn’t be able to say a word.

As he moved to stand beside me, Harvey studied the man. “My package. Lola will have some fun with him, I’m sure. She’ll get more information out of him than anyone will know what to do with.” The way he talked about her, his admiration for Lola was evident.

Maybe even more than admiration.

After a few seconds, Harvey added, “Do you want me to grab him or…” His awkwardness knew no bounds, apparently; it was his way of telling me to pick the asshole up.

I grabbed the man and threw him over my shoulder like he was a piece of bedding and not a human being. As far as I was concerned, he was as good as dead, so there was no reason for me to treat him like royalty. Honestly? He deserved more than two bullets in him for kidnapping Laina.

Harvey hurried around me. By the time I walked around his car, he had the trunk open and waiting, and I deposited the man with a thud. Harvey’s trunk was a little more cramped than mine; the man better pray no one rear-ended him while he made the delivery.

Harvey shut his trunk as he gave me another grin. “No one can throw around a human body like you, huh? Seriously, though, for what it’s worth, I don’t think Lola would care if she becomes more than a job to you. The world’s a lonely place, this city especially. Everybody needs somebody.”

That was some Hallmark shit, and I barely stopped myself from grinding my teeth and rolling my eyes at him. I did say, “Get the fuck out of here.” Just to shut him up.

He gave me a nod and a mock-salute, and then he wandered around to the driver’s seat and got inside. I watched him back the car out of the alley and disappear out of sight shortly after.

Getting advice from Harvey wasn’t something I ever thought I’d do. Granted, I never asked for the goddamned advice; it was wholly unwelcome.

And the worst part? The worst part was Harvey probably wasn’t wrong. Lola wouldn’t care if Laina became more than a job to me. Lola would probably be my personal cheerleader, hooting and hollering if she knew I was finally getting some. It’d been so long since I’d been with someone that she’d even joked about letting me have a go at her.

Don’t get me wrong. Lola was gorgeous. It was her main weapon, along with her brand of crazy. Beyond a fun time, though, she couldn’t offer me anything else. With how many times I’d stared death in the face, I wanted more than that.

I wanted more.

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