Page 47 of Princess of Thieves

Will shoots him a look that saysdon’t push your luck,and Rob draws back just a bit.

“But,” Will prompts me. “You were saying?”

I chew my lip, stare at the ceiling, trying to reason through it, figure out why I just can’t quite do it.

“Because I don’t want to be weak,” I say at last. “I don’t want to be a pushover. The dumb girl who just, you know. Swoons back into your arms.”

“Weak? The woman who hotwired a car, broke into government property, and stole her own identity back?” Rob blinks, dares a half-smile. “I don’t think anyone would ever think that aboutyou,pretty lady.”

“Hey.” Will says, and presses a hand to Rob’s chest, warning in his voice. Again, a look passes between them. Something like,don’t invalidate her emotional experience,if they had the vocabulary for that.

“Look,” Rob says, his voice skirting back towards serious. “You name it, I’ll do it. Whatever proof you need that I’m really fucked up over what I did. I’ll walk through the desert. I’ll whip myself bloody. I’ll throw myself on hot coals—”

“Whip yourself bloody?” Will asks, breaking the tension. “Hot coals? Come on, man, what fun would that be for her?”

None of this is funny, and yet I’m so relieved that Will has relaxed a bit that I smile. Then I wince.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t really...like any of that.”

Rob shakes his head. “But I’ve gotta do something, Maren. Something to make you feel like...not a pushover.”

I purse my lips. “I’m...listening. But I’m not into causing pain just to feel retribution.”

I can’t help it; my mind flashes to Guy.

I’d flay them like animals.

I shiver.

“And that’s the right attitude,” Will says. He puts his hands on his hips, thinking. “Ask me, it should be more about what she wants than what youdon’twant. More discipline than just swinging your dick around,” he adds, coughing, “so to speak.”

Rob rolls his eyes. “Here I am, trying to be sincere, and you’ve gotta make it into some kind of joke. Anyway, you got a better idea?”

Will says nothing. He just shoves his hands in his pockets, looks at Rob, then at me—a long look. I feel the heat creeping up from my collarbone before I even register what’s happening, before my mind clicks into what’s going on here.

Because in the last few seconds, Will’s gaze has changed. It’s intensified, ratcheted up.

There are wheels turning behind those eyes, but in a different direction than before.

“I might,” he says in a gravelly voice, “if Maren trusts me.”

My hands are shaking a little. When did that start? I fold them in my lap and try to ignore it.

“Depends on what you’re thinking,” I answer.

Will stares at Rob, long and hard. There’s a lifetime in that stare, a fierce kind of knowing that goes beyond anything I could ever be privy to. And Rob feels it, too, because for once he doesn’t crack another joke, doesn’t even move. Just lifts both eyebrows, waiting.

Finally, Will swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“I’m thinking...I’m thinking...” He rubs his jaw, sighs. “Let me put it this way.” He drops to a knee front of me. “You’ve got a key to this place now, Maren, right? You can leave anytime you want and come back in whenever you want. And none of us can stop you, because the key’s in your hands.”

“Sure,” I say, unsure of where this is going. “That’s how keys work.”

The corner of Will’s mouth goes up. “Right. So you get power that way. Control. No pushover there.”

I nod.Sure. Keep going.

“Right. So, that’s the feeling you want to feel. That you’ve got the power now, and...” His eyes flick to Rob. “Maybe that he doesn’t, so much.”

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