Page 53 of Web of Lies
The kid working the front desk may not have paid much attention to him when he came in, but making him stop to get a brochure will ensure that someone here sees his face and could more easily identify him since he's not a regular. I want him to understand that he's being watched and that he's been seen at an exact time at an exact location. People are less likely to do silly, foolish things when they know they aren't invisible.
He must have come directly from work. He's wearing a business suit and an overcoat and looks so out of place walking among the work out machines, mats, and the people dressed in gym clothes. He gets a few strange looks as he makes his way to the locker room, but nobody pays him any real attention. He's in and out of the locker room inside of a minute, and he dutifully picks up the brochure. I wait until his car leaves the parking lot and has been gone for a few minutes before I climb down the stairs from the track that runs around the inside of the building. I stop by the fountain and fill my water bottle before I go into the locker room.
The lock springs open after I put in the combination and I pull out the bag. It feels heavy enough. I carry it into one of the bigger toilet stalls to see if there are bricks or actual money inside. Color me shocked, it's all here.
I transfer the money into my shoulder bag and toss the one Adrian carried in into the garbage on my way out of the bathroom. He seems like the type of guy to put a location tag on a gym bag full of money, or the money itself, and I don't need that worry following me around.
The plan is for me to stay gone for most of the day. One might argue that it's a bad idea to ride around with a large sum of money casually resting in the trunk of your car, but I think it would be a far worse idea to drive directly back to what's supposed to be a safe house. All anyone would have to do is follow me to Larken, then they could possibly take herandthe money. The money is one thing; there's always more money to be had. She's another. I'm not going to do anything that would make it easy for anyone to hurt her again.
And now I'm right back to the beginning of my thought process. I have no business being protective over her. None. But here I sit, ready to fight the world to keep her safe.
She was worried about me when I left this morning. She told me to be careful. Either she vastly overestimates Adrian, or I heavily underestimate him, and I'm betting on the former. I've dealt with men who could eat Adrian for breakfast, I'm not worried about him.
I send a text to Shaun to let him know that the drop has been made. I didn't tell either of them the location of the drop. I didn't want anybody to get any wild ideas of coming to my rescue. I wait until Shaun texts me back to leave. I've got a full tank of gas and hours to fill. The idea is to give the impression of running errands to anyone paying attention. People get curious if their neighbors are constantly coming and going. They also get curious if they never leave the house. Taking the day to run a nonexistent list of errands is a completely normal occurrence.
Shaun has a full day of god awful movies and junk food planned. He doesn't take anything seriously, but this is one distraction tactic of his that I can agree on. Larken will have a much better time of it if she spends the day killing brain cells with whatever rom-com cringe fest Shaun has lined up than she will sitting on the couch in a ball of anxiety. I just hope he doesn't make her sick with all the candy and chips he tried to convince me I didn't see hidden under a tea towel beside the microwave.
Chapter Twenty
Shaun
I knew she'd like rom-coms. Sometimes girls will surprise you and they'll be into horror or action, but I knew Larken was a rom-com girl. I raided the entertainment center that time forgot and found a VCRandseveral VHS tapes last night. There was another collection of movies in the short cabinet-end-table-thing beside the couch. If she gets tired of the funny romantic stuff, we have a few sappy romantic choices and the entire National Geographic VHS collection, up to date as of 1989.
When I went out for a few last minute breakfast ingredients this morning, I also got us popcorn and a decent selection of candies, but I don't know how much of that she's going to want. She's only really had a few days of a mostly normal diet and the breakfast I made was pretty heavy on the sugar.
She's curled up beside me right now, tucked under a blanket with her eyes glued to the TV. It's nice. It's actually more than nice. It's comfortable, and it's got all kinds of warm and cozy thoughts running through my head. Thoughts that guys like me have no business, or right, thinking.
Wyatt said the husband would bring the money. I didn't think he would, or at least that he wouldn't bring all of it, but he brought the full amount. He's expecting Larken to be delivered to his doorstep by dinner time, which is what we'd be doing if we weren't keeping her. Now we can begin the process of making the husband regret most of his life choices and I'm looking forward to it.
Back to my warm and cozy thoughts. Larken smiles at me. Real ones. She smiles at Wyatt, too. Even when she's scared she smiles at us. She thinks I'm funny even though I'm just full of shit and an asshole. Most importantly, though, she feels safe with us. I've done absolutely awful things. Completely terrible, mean, disgusting things. She's smart enough to know that, but she still feels safer curled up next to me on this couch than she did with her bitch husband. I don't know if that says more about her current state of mind or about the consistency of shit her husband is, but I'm choosing to take it as a personal compliment. If Wyatt can manage to pull his head out of his ass, he should also take it as a compliment.
I have never met someone so high-strung in my entire life. I do think he's starting to come around, though. Handcuffs aside, he held her all night long. I looked in on them this morning before I ran out to the store and they were cuddled up nice and intimate. And the way he's been looking at her is positively scandalous. Ultra possessive, even without me giving him shit. He's falling for her. Hell, I'm falling for her. It's only been a few days. I don't even know her birthday. Is that important? Is knowing when someone's birthday is a requirement for falling for them?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
But just in case things start going the way I think they should …
“Hey, Larken.”
“Hmm?”
“My birthday is May 29.”
She sits up straighter to look at me. “A Gemini?”
I grin at her.
“So you’re a May Gemini.”
“Is that different from a June Gemini?” I ask.
“May Geminis are supposed to be very social and friendly. Do you have a lot of friends?” she asks curiously.
My brow furrows as I think about all the friends I used to have and all the friends that I don't fuck with anymore. “I used to.”
She reaches up to smooth one of my brows. “Oh no. A jaded May Gemini is enough to make anyone sad. Want to tell me about it?”
