“I had shitty parents too. Most of us do. So, you sling pizzas by day and steal by night?”
I rub a hand over my face, then notice the ibuprofen on my desk. I swallow three of them dry.
His forehead wrinkles as he takes me in, like he’s trying to see below the surface. “Was I your first?”
I don’t want to answer, but I don’t have the energy to fight with him.Andhe has a gun.
“Yes and no.”
“It can only be one.”
“I’ve hurt people before, I’ve stolen before, but I’ve never staked out a place in the hopes to rob a random guy.”
“But now you’ve done it again after me.”
“Jesus. Yes. You’re giving me a fucking headache.”
“You liked it.” He grins, but it’s one that makes me shift uncomfortably…and one I want to dissect. He said he finds me intriguing, and clearly, I do with him as well. I wish I didn’t, wish I was disgusted by him, but the truth is, I’m not. “Were you hard too? When you stole from me and I wasn’t afraid? When I told you I would kill you?”
I shake my head. I want to throw this guy out of my trailer and never see him again. I want to fight him, and God, I think I want to fuck him too.
“Who are you?”
“Rory Fitzpatrick.” He holds his hand out. “Nice to meet you.”
I swat it away, and he chuckles.
“Why did Shai Burrows appear out of thin air?”
“New start. Different last name.”
“You’re running from someone?” His leg bounces up and down.
“You change the subject so often, I’m getting whiplash.”
“Yeah, my mind is an interesting place. Are you?”
“None of your business.”
“That means yes. Is Bunny in trouble if he spends time with you?”
I shake my head. “No.” I have nothing to hide, and I have a feeling he could find out whatever he wanted—hell, he could probably ask my mom, and she would tell him, if she hasn’t already, so I answer truthfully. “My sperm donor…he’s a pimp. Sells women and sex.”
“Your mom?”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t like it? The selling sex, I mean.”
Interesting question. “I don’t know. She still does it, but at least it’s on her terms now, when and how she wants. She gets to keep the money, and she doesn’t have a pimp beating her ass every other day.”
His pupils blow wide. Huh. He doesn’t like that. He didn’t strike me as the type who’d give a fuck about a woman being hit.
“I don’t think he cares enough to come looking for us. There are a hundred more to take my mom’s place. Plus, I never made life easy on him, so he fucking hates me.” I don’t mean that as in our relationship as father and son; we’ve never had that. But when he hurt her, he had to deal with me, and he didn’t like that.
“You should have killed him,” Rory says, and it’s one of the few things we’ve agreed on.
“I know.” I’ve answered plenty of his questions, and now I have some of my own. “Who are you? Don’t just say your name. You’re fuckingsomeone, and if you want toplay with me, whatever the fuck that means, I want to know.”
