Page 26 of Lust
Hope was a tiny kernel of redemption growing inside her soul. A rush of warmth bloomed at the thought of Joe’s forgiveness.
“Is that what you think?” He stopped at his car. “That I don’t like them?”
She shrugged.
He made an incredulous sound as he opened the car door and slotted himself inside. When she joined him, he’d already shut down the conversation, choosing to focus on the driving.
She sighed softly. “If you drive to Heaven, there’s a private parking garage beneath. It will be easier.”
The only sign that he’d heard her was an almost imperceptible nod before he flattened his lips and turned silent and brooding. The temperature dropped to ice cold.
Thinking about it now, Liza was lost during those years Joe was gone. Somehow, she’d never connected the dots until he’d returned and she felt whole again. Finding out he was her mate was like the missing puzzle piece, the reason she could never quite get him out of her head. As it turned out, he must have felt somewhat the same, because when they parked in the garage beneath Lazarus House, he blurted, “Why did you stop taking my calls?”
“I don’t know,” she lied.
The truth was, after Wyatt’s ex had faked her death, the family had drifted apart. Liza was ashamed of both herself and her family. She threw herself into work. Then when the siblings started pairing up with their mates, things started to pick up, and her family ties grew stronger. The thing was, in that time, Liza had embedded herself in the law, in doing things the right way. The expectation to be a vigilante scared her. She didn’t want Joe to be part of that world. He was untainted and innocent. Loyal, righteous, good.
And she wasn’t. He was right when he said she’d become jaded. Mean. She couldn’t argue with that.
So instead of answering his question, she asked, “Do you like me, Joe?”
“Why are you wearing the gloves?” he deflected.
“They’re good for robbing banks,” she joked.
“In all my life, Liza, I’ve never known you to wear gloves.”
“We hardly know each other anymore, Joe.”
“Sometimes I wonder if I’ve ever known you.”
As usual, they slipped into old patterns, sparring verbally like old beat up boxers, neither willing to concede. She thought he would continue, but he surprised her. One minute, he was inside the car, the next he wasn’t. Liza blinked, trying to mentally catch up, but he already paced outside like a caged animal.
She got out and called over the roof, “Joe. We need to talk.”
Frenzied eyes met hers, then skated away.
“Joe,” she implored. “What happened? Why did you get out of the car? We were talking.”
“Because I can’t breathe,” he growled, still pacing. “I can’tthink.”
She crossed to his side. “What? Why?”
“This was a mistake. You and me working together. Bad idea.”
Hurt sliced her chest. She wanted to rub the sore spot but reached for him. She should have known not to startle the wild animal. He reacted, clamping her wrist and twisting until her arm locked behind her back. He pressed his body against her, forcing her against the car. Like a criminal. A cheat. A liar.
And she let him, just like she’d let him pull her pigtails.
This wasJoe.
Liza remembered when he’d been pinned like this by his father against their old Dodge pickup. It was the night before Liza had left for her seven years of training. At fifteen, she’d snuck out of home and ended up throwing pebbles at his second-level window pane. She’d wanted to give him the baseball for safekeeping. He was sixteen and growing out of his gangly stage, so when he’d climbed down the trellis from his room, he’d snapped the wooden planks and tumbled to the ground. The ivy came with him.
Looking back now, Liza realized Joe must have heard the screen door open because he’d pushed Liza into the back of the Dodge, and hid her under an old piece of canvas before his father came out to the yard, furious. Joe urged her to stay hidden. She couldn’t move as Joe’s arm was locked behind his back, and he was forced against the truck. She could still see the tears in his eyes as his arm was almost pulled from its socket, and fists boxed against his ears. Stupidly, Liza’s dumb thoughts were of Joe’s neat hair being messed up as his head snapped sideways like a rag doll.
And through it all, Joe’s eyes had locked onto Liza’s as though she was his lifeline. She saw not the cry for help, but the plea for her to stay hidden. So she had, knowing that Mary had lectured Liza to never show her strength in public.
Joe’s father stayed outside for a cigarette after he’d sent Joe limping back into the house.
