Page 35 of Stolen Goods
“Seduced by the Scoundrel.”
“Oh,” she snapped and finally whipped her head around, features growing angrier the second she saw the wide smile on his lips.
He was close to breaking through her defense, so close. He blurted one more. “Setting Sail with the Scallywag.”
The change was subtle at first. Her lips pressed together. Her cheeks puffed. The gleam in her eye shifted from fury to joy and the corners of her eyes crinkled. Then she burst. “That one… That one was too much.”
“We’re drawing the line at scallywag?” Thad commented with a shrug as he turned the car on and pulled out of the lot. “But I have so many more. Miscreant. Bounder. Rascal. Cad. Ooh, blackguard! That’s a good one.”
“How do you even know all those words?”
“I’ve read a bodice ripper or two in my day.”
Addison gaped at him. “You have?”
“Jo and I used to have this summer book club.” He paused and shook his head at the memories flooding to the surface. “Well, I should start from the beginning. Jo’s mom passed away when she was, oh, fourteen? And after that, she and her father moved to this private island, and I used to live there during the summers. We’d get into all sorts of trouble, most of it encouraged by our fathers. Anyway, she used to complain all the time that she had no one to talk to but me, and I didn’t like any of the things she liked, so she roped me into this whole book club thing. At first, I begrudgingly agreed. But then I got into it. Let me just say, reading a romance novel as a fifteen-year-old boy is an eye-opening experience.”
Addison giggled, a sweet, melodic sound. “Learn a thing or two?”
Thad turned, waiting until he caught her eye before tossing her a wink. “You bet.”
Addison drew her lower lip into her mouth and spun away, trying to hide her reaction, not realizing her modesty was what he found so intriguing, so refreshing and so different from his norm. He’d told himself not to flirt with her—making her comfortable and acting flirtatious were two very different things. But she made it so damn easy…and so damn entertaining.
Reluctant to end the game, Thad pulled over onto a quiet side street.Time to get back to work.“Stay in the car.”
Addison nodded, watching him curiously.
Thad glanced left, then right, searching for onlookers, but the street appeared to be empty for the moment.Perfect.He jumped into action and opened the pack of permanent markers he’d bought at the store. Kneeling before the hood of the car, he colored in the open side of the3on the license plate, making it look like an8instead, then drew over theF, turning it into anE. After running around to the trunk, he repeated the process on the rear plates and then took a few steps back, gaze sharp. The alterations wouldn’t hold up upon close inspection, but from a distance they looked legit. Step one complete, he grabbed the tool kit, knelt beneath the open driver’s side door, and unscrewed the cover on the dash to reveal the wires underneath.
“What are you doing?” Addison asked, peering over to look at him.
“Disabling the GPS,” Thad murmured, scrutinizing the wires, searching for the little tracking device hidden inside every modern car.There. He followed two of the wires to the antennas, removed them, and crushed them beneath his heel. Then he snipped the remaining wires and reassembled the car. “I don’t think anyone will report the car missing for a few days, so we should be fine. The house I took it from looked empty—I’m guessing whoever owned it was on vacation. But I don’t want to take the chance, just in case.” He hopped back into the car and revved the engine. Luckily, the radio was an AM/FM, so there was no satellite feed he needed to worry about. Things were finally looking up. “So, food?”
“Food?” Addison asked, amazed, as though he were speaking a foreign language and this was the first time she’d ever heard the word.
“Yeah, food.” He turned toward her, confused. As soon as he looked at her face, he understood his mistake. For a moment, he’d forgotten who she was, who he was. He’d forgotten that normal people, good people, didn’t talk about stolen cars as though they were nothing, didn’t act as though disabling a GPS or evading the police were an average, everyday occurrence. Now, he remembered. One glance at her shocked, scared face and he remembered exactly who he was.
The bad guy.
“I’m, uh, starving,” he continued, softer this time, staring straight ahead as he pulled the car back onto the street. To remind himself a little more, to dig his grave a little deeper, he added, “Besides, this might be our last chance at a hot meal for a while. Once your face hits the newsreel, we won’t be able to risk being seen.”
Addison didn’t respond. She pressed her fingers to her lips and turned toward the window, silent. The absence of her smile left a hollow feeling in his chest.
Good, he thought, returning his attention to the road.You don’t deserve anything else.
- 12 -
Addison
It was as though he were two different people—one was kind and charming, the other cunning and hard. One was someone she could grow fond of, and the other was someone she feared. Addy didn’t understand him or his life.
Despite herself, she wanted to.
So she studied him, as they drove aimlessly around Atlanta, as he pulled into a diner, as they got out of the car and sat down. She silently observed the way his lips shifted from tight to relaxed, how his gray eyes oscillated between a dark summer storm and a soft downy wool, the way the muscles in his cheek ticked, how he curled his fingers into fists as though trying to squeeze some inner demon out. Sometimes, being quiet had its advantages. She’d never been the life of the party growing up, more of an outsider looking in, but that had taught her the power of observation. Sometimes, silence spoke far louder than words. Right now, his silence had told her that he was a man at war with himself, and she was dying to know why.
“What can I get you?” A cheery waitress interrupted the quiet and put two glasses of water on the table. Attention jumping between the two of them, she waited for someone to go first.
Thad’s head was tilted down, buried behind the rim of a baseball cap as he studied the menu. Addy looked up, meeting the woman’s eyes. Thad kneed her beneath the table.Shoot, right. No eye contact.She jerked her head down, but wasn’t that more noticeable? So she glanced up, staring straight ahead, torn in a sort of in-between.
