“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“So says the woman who was just begging for my cock two minutes ago?”
“Temporary insanity,” I mutter.
He steps close and gently cups my face in his hands. “Is it so bad that you don’t want to tell me?”
No. I fucking don’t want to tell him.
I don’t want to think about it.
Definitely don’t want to have a conversation about it.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to pressure me to talk about it.”
“That was before.”
“Before what?”
“Before I realized you’re still in love with me too.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
BROOKS
Her lips part on a gasp.“That’s not?—”
“Don’t try to lie to me, baby. It’s always been that way, even when I was breaking your eggs,” I snag the pants from her hands, drop them to the floor. “I loved you from that first day, and though it took me a bit to break through those thick, icy walls of yours, you fell for me then too. So talk to me.Tellme. Don’t let the memories hold you hostage, don’t use them against us, not now.”
“There’s no point.”
“Why?”
“They probably already know where I am. And they’re not going to stop until they get what they want.” She shakes her head. “And if I don’t give it to them, they’ll…”
“They’ll what?”
“The Lyons will hurt me or you or—” Her knees buckle. “Oh God! What if they target one of the others? Chrissy and Rome have a baby?—”
“It’s going to be okay. Jean-Michel says they’re not particularly violent, and?—”
“Not violent?” She shoves out of my arms. “Were they notviolentwhen they lay in wait for me in my apartment and beat the shit out of me so I’d do a drop for them?”
“Baby—”
“Were they not violent when I ran and they tracked me down, dragged me back so I could pretend to be the girlfriend of a doddering old fuck they wanted to steal from?”
“Briar—”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t have to fuck him,” she snaps. “But only because I swapped his Viagra with fake pills and he couldn’t get it up.”
I clench my hands at my sides.
Fuck. I need to punch something.
Someone.
“I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d look at me like that, knew you think I’m…” She waves her hand. “I tried to ignore the letters—you know that doesn’t work. And then I tried to fight them—newsflash, that shit didn’t work either. So, I left. Again andagainand every time I ended up right back here! With a disembodied voice on the other end of the phone telling me what to do. Only each time I was dragged back it was with more bruises, more scars.”
