Zach blinked at Lauren’s profile as a splotchy redness crept up her neck. That was the first time she’d actually lashed out at him, and she was kinda terrifying. She pressed on his fresh bruise without looking the least bit sorry.
“I won’t help you,” Zach said very plainly. “And you need to forget about this.”
“Fine. We’ll just act like this conversation never happened and continue to be friends.”
What did she say? Friends?
“No.” Zach shook his head. “Nuh-uh.”
“No what?” Lauren asked. “I didn’t ask you a question.”
Friends with Lauren Vincent? She had to be kidding.
“I can’t be friends with someone like you,” Zach said firmly. There wasn’t any way she’d misinterpret his words or intentions.
Because Zach’s intentions had to stay far, far away from Lauren. He had walls bigger than the ones surrounding the prison, and they were all to keep Lauren Vincent out of his life.
Lauren’s shoulders sank. Hold on, why was she upset? She had plenty of friends and needed him like she needed a lobotomy. In fact, she might need a brain transplant if she was worrying about Anthony and trying to be friends with Zach.
Her jaw shifted from one side to the other before she spoke softly. “What does that mean? Someone like me.”
How could he say he couldn’t be friends with a hot female? At least, he couldn’t without wanting more, and more was not something he could ever have with Lauren. “We aren’t anything. Just leave it at that.”
She glanced at him with an expression he couldn’t read. She almost looked hurt, but if his words didn’t do the trick now, his actions would later. There was some old saying about expectations and heartache or something, and that’s what he was preventing. Lauren probably had good friends. Zach, on the other hand, was not a good friend. He wasn’t even a good person.
“We aren’t anything? Not even friends?” she asked again.
That wide-eyed pouty face she had going on was powerful. He almost wanted to give in and let thoseexpectations take root, but Lauren was a beautiful flower that he wouldn’t crush under his boot.
“No. We’re not friends.”
There weren’t any words to explain the effect she’d had on him these last few years. He couldn’t just come out and confess that waiting for her visits nearly wrecked him. He couldn’t tell her how much it killed him to walk away from her all those times. He couldn’t let her know that she was absolutely gorgeous and completely infuriating because he could never ever let her get too close. Everything he touched turned to ashes, and that couldn’t happen to Lauren. She was too good for him.
Zach propped his elbow on the door. “Do you have a cigarette?” He hadn’t smoked in over a year, but he’d be picking up the habit as soon as he could afford it. Giving her a taste of what she was getting into would only help in this case.
Lauren did a fantastic job of staring at the empty road and ignoring him. The lull in the conversation gave him a chance to study her. She was the kind of beautiful that could fly under the radar unless someone really looked at her. She never styled her long hair or wore flashy jewelry when she came to see him, yet she had a smile that punched him in the gut every time she flashed it his way.
She wasn’t his type, but for some reason, she was the only woman he’d thought about for years.
He had to check all the locks because Lauren could easily become just another casualty of his knack fordestroying things. “We don’t fit together. Our lifestyles don’t mix well. You get it, right?”
Lauren scoffed, and her words bit at him. “You haven’t exactly earned a friendship bracelet, but we’re going to be spending a lot of time together. We could become friends if you weren’t so stubborn. Besides, what kind of lifestyle do you have these days?”
“I’ll be back to my old self soon enough,” he promised.
Her jaw tightened. Whatever anger she had brewing toward him was good. He deserved it.
Instead of slicing him to the bone with some obvious truth about his character, she flipped on her turn signal. “I’m hungry. We’re stopping at this diner unless you have a hot date waiting in Blackwater.”
Finally, he could relax. She needed to stay mad at him. It was the best thing for both of them.
When she shifted the minivan into park, she turned to him. “Zach, why?—”
“Stop.” She’d already moved past their little tiff and was ready to make amends, but he couldn’t let that happen. With his elbow on the console, Zach leaned toward her, crowding her space and giving her a good look at the hardened man he’d become.
“You’re gonna wish you’d never met me. I’m a lot worse than whatever you’ve heard.”
Without missing a beat, Lauren lifted her chin until they were barely an inch apart. With narrowed eyes and breathing sharply through her nose, she leveled him with a look that had his stomach falling.
