“You’re into them, though? Or the one guy? Thehotguy?”
Could his glare get any more intense? I was surprisedit hadn’t sliced me in two by now. “I’m not into him. Geez, I don’t even knowhim.”
Sayer stepped closer to me and it wasn’t sweet orprotective or nice. He was trying to be intimidating. He was trying to be thetough guy our bosses paid him to be. “And that’s what you want?” he pushed.“You want to get to know this prep school kid?”
I glared up at him briefly before I turned back to thezipper, struggling to get it down the frustrating seam. Argh! I was only ever afumbling idiot around him. And right now it was pissing me off! “Maybe. Heseemed nice. And bonus, I’m pretty sure his plans tonight don’t include breakingand entering or grand theft.”
Sayer grabbed my wrist in a tight grip, stalling mefrom ripping his coat off and throwing it in his face. “Yeah, but yours do.Don’t forget that when you’re playing rich kid in the city.”
I was so mad I could have sworn I was about to breathefire. He had hit all my insecurities. All of them. I wasn’t even interested inthat stupid prep school kid. To be honest, he’d been a pretentious asshole andI didn’t like the way he leered at me. That’s why I hadn’t given him my number.Or even my name. Frankie had only brought him up to get a rise out of Sayer.
Only it had backfired on all of us.
“Don’t worry about me, Sayer. I can handle myself. Thejob comes first, right? Always?”
His jaw ticked, the silent anger vibrating through him.Everybody knew Sayer was thepakhan’serrand boy. He would do anything for them. This jobwas his life.
This job was all he cared about.
Not Frankie. Not Gus. And certainly not me.
“You better be there tonight, Six. On time. Or so helpme god, I’ll—”
My chin wobbled, betraying me. “What? Tell on me?Report me? Maybe they’ll fire me and I’ll finally be free of this godforsakenplace.”
“Don’t fucking talk like that. You know theconsequences.”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying something Iregretted. I did know the consequences.
Death.
A bullet between the eyes.
“I’ll be there tonight,” I hissed. “You don’t have tobe such an asshole about it though.” I finally got the zipper free of thefabric surrounding it and yanked it down. “Here, take your coat.”
Sayer stepped back, the dragon inside him retreating.“Go to the mall. But you better wear that fucking coat.” He took another stepback. “Frankie, don’t let her take it off.”
“That’s the dumbest—”
He ignored my outrage. “See you tonight, Six.”
“I hate him,” I told Frankie when he’d walked away.“And I hate his nickname for me.”
She jumped down from the wall and bumped her shoulderwith mine. “You’re such a liar.”
I sighed, hating the most that she was right. “Whydoes he have to make things so difficult though? Why can’t he just be a niceguy and ask me out?”
“Because you would be bored by a nice guy. You’d neverwaste your time with someone uncomplicated or upright. You can fight it all youwant, Caro, but you were born for this life.”
I turned to my friend. She had a baseball cap on overher braided long hair. “Yeah, well that makes two of us.”
Her expression flattened. “Let’s go find those prepschool guys. We’ll stash his jacket in a locker. I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Smiling at her idea, we headed for the mall. We evenstashed the jacket and found some guys to hang out with. They weren’t the sameprep school kids, but they might as well have been. Because the outcome was thesame.
I didn’t give out my number.
I didn’t find anyone capable of keeping my attention.
