Chapter Fourteen
“I need to ask you something.”
Nate hadn’t been going to. He never intended to. But he hadn’t been able to get Phil’s words out of his head. Did he trust her?
They were in bed at his place. She’d come over on her way back from her cousin’s—debriefing from a job she’d done for him. They’d made love, and now Regan lay sprawled across him, drawing patterns on his chest.
At his words, she rolled onto her side, then rested her head on her hand and looked at him. “That sounds serious.”
“It is…sort of.”
Why the hell had he started this? He had a really bad feeling that he was about to majorly fuck up the best thing in his life right now. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
“Go on, then.”
“We’re working a case. Getting nowhere. A robbery in Hatton Garden about six weeks ago. The safe was cracked, same MO as you.”
He risked a look at her face; her expression had closed in on itself. She dragged the sheet over her breasts and sat up. “So? I was still inside at the time. You can’t think I was involved.”
“Of course I don’t think you were involved. But my partner thought that you might know who is.”
Christ, he didn’t even have the guts to take the blame himself. Pass it on to his partner.
“Let me get this straight. You want me to snitch?”
She sounded…pissed. But was what he was asking so bad?
“If you have any information, then I want you to do your duty as an upstanding citizen and tell the police what you know.”
“Yeah, right.” She slipped out of bed and stood for a moment, hands on her hips, naked and beautiful and pissed as hell. “You are so out of line here. How could you even ask me? What happened to keeping our lives separate?” Shaking her head, she turned away. She searched the room for a second and found her black lace thong on the floor by the door. She pulled it on, then proceeded to grab her cutoffs and tank top. She didn’t speak again until she was fully dressed.
“Tell me… Did you plan this all along? Get me into bed, pretend you liked me, and then get your own little personal snitch?”
“Hell, no.” He dragged himself up and scrubbed a hand through his hair. This was worse than he’d expected. What had he thought? That she’d just smile sweetly and say she knew nothing? Or smile sweetly and give him up the names of her friends and family? Whatever she was, “sweet” didn’t come into it. “Look, forget I asked.” Like that was going to happen. “It was a stupid thing to say.”
“Too right.” She headed for the door, then swung around and came back to stand over him, glaring down. “You’ve never really believed in me, have you? Always at the back of your mind, you’ve thought of me as one of the bad guys.”
Why couldn’t she just forget it like he asked? His own anger was rising. Hell, she was one of the bad guys. He believed she was doing her best to change, but how could she really, when she lived on the fringe of that life? She would always get sucked back in. “Well, what the hell do you expect, considering—?”
“Nothing,” she snapped. “I expect nothing. And what do you mean considering? Considering what?”
“Your family. The fact that you never gave up the proceeds of the robbery. Is that what’s funding your new business, Regan?”
“You know what? Mind your own fucking business.”
She slammed the door on her way out, and a few seconds later, he heard Trixie bark and then the crash of the front door. He got up and crossed to the window, looking down onto the street.
She was walking quickly. And she was crying. Regan never cried. She was tough and hard as nails, and he’d done this to her.
His head hurt and his chest ached, and he felt like the biggest shit in the whole world.
…
Regan dashed her hand over her face as she hurried, head down, along the street.
She should be angry. Hell, she was angry, but that was swamped beneath a flood of hurt. How could he have asked her that?
She didn’t for a second believe that he’d set her up for this. That had been her anger talking.
Yesterday, when they’d visited his dad, he’d been so sweet, and afterward, when they’d talked, she’d felt a real connection. It had scared her a little. The last thing she needed was to care about Nate. This was a physical relationship only. She’d always known that. Had he felt the connection, too?
Was this what his question had been about? Forcing her away?
God, she was an idiot.
She should get out before it was too late. Except it was already too late. It had been from the moment she gave in to her baser urges and picked him up in that bar all those weeks ago. Or maybe even before that. The day she was sentenced in court. She’d done such a great job of avoiding looking at him all through the case, and then, as she was leaving, she hadn’t been able to resist one last glance. And they’d gazed into each other’s eyes and—
Ugh!
Nothing good ever came of looking back.
She caught the bus home and sat huddled in the rear seat, trying to persuade herself to end it. Send him a text message saying it was over.
Never see him again.
Was he right? If she was an upstanding member of the public, did she have a duty to tell the police everything she knew? She couldn’t do it. Did that mean that she’d never be a good person?
She wanted to be good.
But she couldn’t betray people she had known all her life.
The fact was that while she didn’t know who had done the robbery he’d spoken of—hadn’t even heard of the job until he’d mentioned it—that didn’t mean to say she knew nothing. She could probably narrow it down to two or three people capable of cracking a safe like that. That would be enough for the police to find whoever was responsible.
Well, she wouldn’t do it.
And if that made her a bad person, she would just have to learn to live with it.
And did Nate really believe that she had kept the proceeds of her robbery? When she could have given them up and reduced her sentence? Except she hadn’t had that option, because her weasel of a boyfriend had taken the diamonds and run. Bobby hadn’t been seen in London since. Which made sense; her family had put out the word they were looking for him. And he must know he’d be in for a beating if they found him.
She’d be quite happy if she never saw the bastard again. But she hated that he’d gotten away with her diamonds.
That brought her back to Nate. How could he believe she’d bankroll her legitimate business with the proceeds of the robbery? Was he just trying to think the worst of her? To put some distance between them? Was he running scared?
She got off the bus and walked the last half mile home, still not knowing what she would do, but quite aware of what she should do.
She’d never see Trixie again.
Maybe Nate would give her the little dog as a good-bye present. He wasn’t really in any position to look after a pet.
A man leaned against the wall of the alley next to her door. She gritted her teeth as she recognized his tall figure. Had she conjured the fucker up? She glanced around to see if there was anyone with him, but it looked like he was alone.
He was as good-looking as he’d always been. Growing up, she’d had a crush on Bobby for as long as she could remember. Her best friend’s brother, he was two years older than her. He’d taken what she was so obviously offering when she’d turned sixteen, and they were in an on-off relationship from that time forward. “Off” whenever she realized what an ass he was. “On” when she’d been seduced by his dark good looks. But then, with his olive skin and black hair, eyes like bitter chocolate, and a plethora of tattoos and piercings, he was the epitome of the bad boy.
Today, he did absolutely nothing for her. Thank God.
Though actually, that wasn’t quite true. She could feel her blood pressure rising.
Maybe this was exactly what she needed.
Stalking up to him, she noted the lazy smile that curled his lips. She’d get rid of that soon enough. She came to a halt in front of him, drew back her fist, and punched him in the nose. It broke with a lovely crunch. While he was still dazed, she spun around, kicked out, and knocked him on his sorry ass.
Thank you, Darcy.
She stood over him, staring down, waiting for the shock to clear from his face. He coughed, put a hand to his nose, and stared at the blood that stained his fingers as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She gave in to the urge and kicked him in the side.
“Unless you’ve come to give me my goddamn diamonds, you can crawl out of this alley and disappear into whatever hole you’ve been hiding in for the last three years.”
“You hit me.”
“Yeah, and it’s going to happen again if you don’t get the fuck out of my way.”
He pushed himself onto his elbows. “Aw, Regan, come on, forgive and forget.”
“You lied to me, you slimy piece of shit. You told me Alicia was goddamned dying. I did that fucking job to save her worthless life. And there was nothing goddamned wrong with her. And then you ran off and left me in the lurch. And you stole my goddamned diamonds.”
Ugh.
Her foot moved—all on its own—and he was flat on his back once more. All the frustrations of the morning rose up inside her. If she’d had a gun, she would have shot him. Just as well she didn’t—she wasn’t going to spend another day in prison. Certainly not on account of this piece of shit.
He lay on his back, staring up at the sky. “I came to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“I thought we had something special, Regan.”
How had she never noticed what a whiner he was? She wasn’t even going to dignify that comment with an answer. When she remained silent, he slowly pushed himself to his feet, keeping a wary eye on her, as though she were a rabid dog that might turn on him any moment.
She curled her upper lip, growled, and he stepped back.
Then she heaved a huge sigh. He clearly had something he wanted to say and wasn’t going to go until he’d said it. “What do you want, Bobby?”
“I’ve missed you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Try again, asshole.”
He glanced around the alley. “Can we go inside?”
While she wanted to say no, at the same time she was interested to know why he’d risked serious physical harm by coming to London. So she shrugged. “Why not?”
She unlocked the door, then led the way up to the apartment and into the kitchen. After running a towel under the cold tap, she threw it at him. She didn’t want him bleeding all over her floor.
He held the towel to his face. “You broke my nose.”
“There are a few other things I’d like to break, so just get on with what you have to say and get out of here.”
“You’ve turned into a hard woman, Regan.”
“Prison will do that to you. Come on, Bobby, what is it you want?”
“I thought we might try again. I love you, Regan. You’ve always been the one girl for me.”
He was unbelievable. She shook her head. “Try again.”
She crossed to the fridge, got herself a bottle of beer, opened it, and took a sip. Leaning her hip against the counter, she waited for him to speak. He appeared a little lost. She’d always fallen over herself to please him. She’d been so stupid. Never again.
What did I see in him?
She studied him over the top of her beer bottle. She’d been blinded by his good looks at an age when she didn’t know any better. And she’d always been drawn to bad boys, and to her teenage mind, he’d appeared so bad. But actually, he was weak.
Next to Nate, he still seemed like a boy.
Nate was all man.
And despite being on the right side of the law, Nate had an edginess to him, a sense of danger. It was part of what drew her to him. She’d never be the sort of person who would go for the safe route. It wasn’t who she was.
All the same, Nate wasn’t for her. She’d known that all along. She just clearly had appalling taste in men. But she still wanted to prove him wrong. Prove that she was good. He wasn’t going to make her doubt herself just because she didn’t fit in with his rigid views of right and wrong.
She scowled, and Bobby took a step back, eyes widening. He was scared of her. Good. “Hey, I haven’t got all day.”
He swallowed. “I thought you might have a word with your dad. Get him off my back so I can come home.”
“Why would I do that?”
“For old times’ sake?”
Hah, he was clearly delusional. “Never going to happen.”
He licked his lips. “I still have the diamonds.”
That was a surprise, but then maybe out of the city, he hadn’t had the contacts to get a decent price for them. Or maybe he hadn’t wanted to alert anyone to his presence.
“Get your family to back off, promise to leave me alone, and you can have half.”
She didn’t want half, she wanted all of them. “Where are they?”
“Somewhere safe.”
She studied him for a moment longer. Maybe she should torture it out of him. She was so tempted. “I’ll consider it. Where are you staying?”
“You think I’m going to tell you?” He raised a hand and gingerly touched his broken nose. “You’ll send your dad around.”
God, he was pathetic. As if she needed her dad to sort him out. “Well, give me your phone number, and I’ll call you when I’ve decided.” She handed him her phone and waited, foot tapping, while he input his number.
Now she wanted him gone. In fact, she would be quite happy if she never saw him again as long as she lived. How could she have ever thought she was in love with him?
She led him out of the apartment and into the alley. “Bye, Bobby, don’t come back.”
“Aw, come on, Regan. We were good together.”
He turned to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, and from the look in his eye, he was about to kiss her, or attempt to kiss her. Her leg twitched as she considered kneeing him in the balls, but then curiosity took over. He’d once made her swoon with just a look. Was that all gone?
But as soon as his lips touched hers, she knew the answer was yes. There was nothing left except dislike. And she realized in that moment just what she had with Nate. What she was going to lose. The thought knocked her off balance, and it took Bobby’s hand on her ass to bring her to her senses.
“See, we could be good together, Regan.”
Oh no we couldn’t.
Pushing him away, she took a step back and only then noticed the man standing at the entrance to the alley, watching them. How much had he seen? Did it matter? He didn’t trust her anyway. Why should one more thing make a difference?
“Just go away, Bobby.”
He opened his mouth, and she glared. “You’ll call me?”
“Maybe.” But she doubted it. Already a plan was formulating in her mind, and it didn’t involve communicating with her ex ever again. She watched as he hurried by Nate, giving him a suspicious glance as he passed. Then she walked slowly toward him.
Nate nodded toward the disappearing man. “Bobby Dean?”
“So?”
“Your old boyfriend.”
“Yeah. ‘Old’ being the operative word.”
“You kissed him.”
Was he jealous? Did it matter? She knew he wanted her; that wasn’t the issue. That had never been the issue. “Actually, he kissed me.”
“I came to apologize. I didn’t know you had company.”
He’d come to apologize? For what? Asking her to be a snitch? Or suggesting she might have kept the diamonds for herself? Both, maybe. Or neither. Perhaps something else entirely. “I don’t. He’s gone.”
“You should be more careful about who you spend time with. What was he doing here?”
He sounded suspicious. “Planning our next job,” she snapped. “What do you think he was doing here?” She scowled. “If you came to apologize, you’re doing a crap job.”
He took a deep breath and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I should never have asked you for information. It was…inappropriate.”
“And insensitive and totally out of fucking order.”
“Maybe. I hadn’t meant to ask you. Phil mentioned it last night, and I told him no way. And then it kept eating into my mind, and I started thinking—why wouldn’t you tell me if you knew anything? Maybe I wanted you to choose which side you were on. Maybe I needed you to side with me.”
“But that didn’t happen, did it?” She reached out and touched him lightly, then dropped her hand to her side. “This is why we agreed to keep our lives separate. Why it can never really work between us.”
“You really believe that?”
Did he want things to work between them? Did he want more? Well, today had no doubt changed his mind about that. She guessed it had been some sort of test, albeit a subconscious one. And she had failed spectacularly. But if she had disappointed Nate, then he’d done the same to her.
“Yeah, I believe that. You’re always going to think the worst of me. Always going to believe I’m not good enough. And one day, you’ll make me choose between my family and you. And that will break me.”
“I do think you’re good enough. You’re one of the best people I’ve ever met.”
“We’re just on different sides.”
As he opened his mouth to answer, his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, turned away as he listened for a minute, his shoulders tense. He ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket. When he turned back to her, his face was expressionless. “That was the hospital. I have to go.”
“Is everything okay?”
“No. Nothing is okay. Everything is a fucking goddamn mess.”
She bit her lip. He was hurting, and she wanted to hug him better, but he was giving off keep-away vibes, as though he was holding himself in very tightly.
“You want me to come along?”
“And hold my hand? No. I have to do this alone. There is one thing you could do for me, though.”
“Anything.”
“Trixie is with my neighbor, but she works nights. Could you pick her up, keep her until…”
“Of course.” She searched for something else to say. She didn’t want him to go. Finally, she accepted defeat. “Good-bye then.”
“Good-bye.”
…
As soon as he walked away, he wished he’d taken her up on her offer. Because he really didn’t want to be alone right now. He turned, meaning to ask her to come along, be with him, make it better. Somehow.
But she’d already gone.