Chapter 52

A couple hours later, we were sprawled in his penthouse, watching the city lights through the open window-blinds. We had showered together and thrown on some lounging clothes. For him, it was running pants with no shirt. For me, it was new lace panties and another oversized T-shirt from Jake's closet.

Snuggled against him on the sofa, I looked down at our clothes. "Hey look," I said, pointing downward. "Together, we make up a full outfit."

Jake gave me a sleepy smile. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," I said. "You have the pants. I have the shirt. See?"

"Maybe I should have both," Jake said.

I laughed. "Now you're just being selfish."

"Selfish?" he said, running a hand over my hips. "Or smart?"

I burrowed against him and heard myself sigh.

"What?" he said.

I groaned. "Tomorrow's Monday."

"So?"

"Well for me," I said, "that means I've gotta start looking for a new job." Actually, I needed to find two jobs, but that was beside the point. I pulled back to look at him. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"I don't want to fight or anything," I said, "but why did you quit my jobs? I mean, they weren't my dream jobs, but still…"

"Screw those jobs," he said. "Come work for me."

I practically laughed. "Doing what?"

"For one thing," he said, "It looks like I need a new event planner."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you talking about Bianca's job? Technically, she wasn't even your employee."

"She was close enough," Jake said. "And your degree's in the same thing, right? Come on. I could use the help."

Liar. I was the one who needed help, and he damn well knew it. Still, the offer was way too tempting for my comfort. In one fell swoop, I'd regain almost everything I'd lost over the last few weeks.

As if sensing weakness, Jake added, "And one thing about Bianca, she wasn't cheap."

I stiffened. Had Jake and Bianca lain across this very same sofa? Had he offered her the exact same deal? Had she been bought and paid for, only to be discarded the moment someone new came along?

The old Luna would have jumped at this chance. The new, mostly reformed Luna, was a little more cautious, and with good reason. If I agreed, Jake would practically own me. Even now, I had nearly nothing to my name except the things he had purchased.

I bit my lip. "That's a really nice offer."

"So take it."

"I can't," I said. "I need to find my own job, and besides, you never answered my question. Why would you burn my bridges like that?"

"Maybe I wanted to keep an eye on you."

"But why?" I said. "Because of my stupid ex-boyfriend?"

"Hell no," he said, "Rango's a pussy."

I almost laughed. Rango was no pussy. I didn't bother to hide my amusement. "Is that so?"

He cradled me closer. "Maybe I just want you nice and close. Is that so bad?"

"Jake, I'm not stupid," I said. "You showed up at Maddie's place out of the blue and practically dragged me out of there. I think I deserve to know why."

He said nothing.

"Be honest," I said, "Is this all because Rango sent you those crazy texts?"

"Which ones?

"You know which ones. The ones where he said he was looking for me."

Jake still said nothing.

"Come on. Tell me," I said. "I'm not going to stop asking."

After a long silence, Jake said, "Alright, here's the thing. Those messages weren't from Rango."

I felt my brow wrinkle. "They weren't."

"No."

"Wait a minute," I said, "You knew that's what I thought. Didn't you?"

He said nothing.

"Seriously," I said, "why didn't you correct me?"

"Maybe I didn't want to scare you."

I caught my breath. "Scare me? Why would I be scared?" My voice rose. "So who, exactly, was texting you about me?"

He stroked my hair. "Baby, let it go. Everything's fine."

"No, it's not," I said. "Tell me. Who was it?"

Jake blew out a long breath. "It was a friend of mine, some guy who works for Rango's boss."

"Rango has a boss?" I said. "Who?"

"You don’t wanna know."

"Yes, I do."

"No," he said. "You don't. But I'll tell you this. That little black book you 'borrowed'? It's not Rango's, and it's not just some random notebook the guy had lying around."

"Yeah, you mentioned that," I said, "but I still don't know what you meant."

"I meant," Jake said, "that the book belongs to Rango's boss. Who is not a pussy, by the way. And he's not happy it's missing. "

"What?" I stammered. "Why?"

"The way it sounds," Jake said, "it's got account numbers, passwords, financial notes, things the guy doesn't exactly want passed around. You looked at the thing, right?"

"Not really," I said. "Mostly, I just copied down a couple of Rango's passwords and left the book hidden away."

"Is that why you took it?" Jake said. "For Rango's passwords?"

"It's one of the reasons." I cleared my throat. "But, uh, mostly it was because he took my car."

"You have a car?" Jake said. "The way I heard it, you were taking the bus."

"I was. But I had a car. You see, something happened where I needed some money fast—"

"What?" Jake said. "Why?"

"That's not important," I said. "The point is, Rango gave me this title-loan. And after we broke up, he wouldn't give me the title back." I winced. "Or the car."

"You serious?" Jake said. "What kind of asshole-boyfriend makes his girl sign over the damn car title?"

"It wasn't like that," I said. "When this first started, he wasn't my boyfriend."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah," I said. "But he was part-owner of this title-loan place near my old apartment. It was fine. More or less. But after the breakup, the whole loan thing went to crap. The car was gone, and the title wasn't mine anymore."

"I'm surprised you didn't sue him," Jake said.

"Why?" I said. "The lawyer would cost more than the car. And the car wasn't exactly new. The whole thing was a total mess."

"So you took that notebook?"

"Hell yeah, I took it," I said. "Rango was practically in love with the thing. He looked at it all the time. That's why I wouldn’t give it back, even after all those weird things started happening." My voice grew misty. "I loved that car. It was the first one I ever owned. And Rango wouldn't give that back, so…" I swallowed. "Anyway, that's the story."

"Tomorrow," Jake said, "we'll get you a new car."

I had to smile. "No," I said. "We won't. I'm done with that sort of thing."

"I wasn't talking about some title-loan," Jake said.

"Jake, seriously," I said, "you can't get me a car. You've done too much already."

"No such thing," he said.

"Thanks," I said, "but the answers still no." Maybe I didn't have a lot of things, but I still had my self-respect. And there were limits on what kind of help I'd be willing to accept, even from him.

Still, it was a sweet offer. I smiled against his chest. All things considered, it had been a good day. An amazing day, actually.

Looking back, I'm glad I enjoyed it, because less than twenty-four hours later, everything started going to crap.