Page 34 of Tempting Little Thief

“Well played, Bastian.”

Well played.

Chapter 7

Bass

The metal fence presses at my back as I cut a quick glance at the curb. No Hayze, so I don’t bail on the new group home girl yet.

She’s trying to get back on the cards at the warehouse, in need of a quick buck for reasons that are none of my business, as all the girls at the home are, but she’s been the first one of them to step in that dirt ring and whoop ass like she’s bored, the shit comes so easy to her. It makes for good business for me, but my boss has taken an interest in the scrappy, sassy chick with two chips on her shoulders, and he wants her ass far away from there. And me.

I laugh on the inside at that.

“What’d they say?” She blows her black hair from her face, glaring at me, trying to hear from the horse’s mouth why I won’t let her back in the ring and knowing damn well the order came from the top.

I don’t entertain her shit, and she doesn’t expect me to. She comes from where I come from, not literally, but punk kids from the gutter are born understanding what these privileged pricks have to be taught.

“Come on now.” I bend my knee, pressing the bottom of my foot against the fence as I slide my eyes her way. “You know how this shit works.”

She nods, frowning forward. “No singers.”

“No fucking singers, Rae.”

The girl snags my cigarette from my hand and takes a drag, dropping her head back.

I frown her way as she blows the smoke into the air, watching it until it disappears.

She looks up. “Guess there’s no chance you’ll add me on then, huh?”

My phone beeps in my palm, and when I look toward the road this time, Hayze is pulling up at the edge of the school parking lot. I take my shit back, and with one final drag, I stomp it beneath my foot, pushing off the fence. “See you around, Carver.”

I don’t look back, and I’m out, sliding into the passenger seat a minute later.

“You know you could hit that, right? If you really wanted.” Hayze whips us around, heading toward the edge of the city.

He might be right.

Rae should be my type fromAto fuckingZ. She understands the world I come from, not as an eye on the outside, but from deep within. She’s tough as shit, jaded and pissed at the world, a self-sabotaging asshole with something to prove.

Too much like me.

“Rae’s good people. I’d have her back if she needed me to, but that’s where that dies.”

“Ain’t she fucking your boss anyway?”

“Probably.” I look in the rearview mirror, ensuring no one’s tailing us. “Turn right.”

He does, cutting me a quick glance. “So that girl’s too hard, but did my boy discover he likes something a little … softer?”

“And blonder.”

Hayze howls with laughter and my lips curve up on one side.

“Aye, eat that shit up, my boy. Rich girls love to play in the dark … until they realize we never step out of it.” He grins, turning the music up high.

He’s not lying. There’s a lot of money around here, and with that comes spoiled socialites who want a night with a guy they couldn’t—and wouldn’t—stand in the light with.

But Hayze said “something softer,” and when it comes to my new favorite blonde, I’m not convinced he’s right.

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