Page 103 of The Two Last Moments

Danny tilts my head and sucks gently at the pulsepoint on my neck. “But I need what’s mine. And I need to give you what’s yours.”

Chills of desire rush through me. It’s not easy to say no to him, especially because Danny rarely asks for much. “Everyone will know exactly what we’re doing in here.”

“You think I care?”

“No, I think the opposite. You’ll like it. Because you’re a very bad boy.” I slide my hands up the firm, etched curves of his biceps. “But we’re saving that for later. We’ll have all the time in the world.”

He drops his forehead onto my shoulder, grumbling. “There’s one more thing. Cam admitted he spied on you for your brother, and you found out. That’s why you broke up with him. He said he was sorry. Not sure what that’s worth, but I told him I’d pass it on. Even though I didn’t want to.”

I’m not sure what it’s worth, either. But it means something to me that Danny shared it.

The muscle in Danny’s jaw pops. “I told Cam not to contact you. But if you want to get in touch with him, you should.”

“I probably won’t. But thank you. I love you, Danny,” I murmur.

“I love you, too.”

We go to the living room, hand in hand.

35

“It’s really something to see you two together.” Travis’s gaze keeps bouncing from Lark to me. “You and my nephew. It’s doing a number on me.”

We’re sitting on the sofa across from him, hands clasped. Travis seems unsure of himself, and he’s trying to ease the tension.Sorry, Uncle Travis. It’s not flipping working.

On the drive to West Oaks, Travis tried a few times to ask me questions, especially about Nina, but I just couldn’t. I was so furious with my uncle that I could hardly see straight. My vision was feathering, and I worried I’d crash the car. So we traveled in silence that was thick enough to slice through.

But of course, seeing and talking to Lark calmed me down. She’s the perfect drug, making me euphoric and settling me at the same time. Loving her makes everything else more bearable. I guess she’s doing the same thing for me that I did for her in the hospital. Giving me an anchor in the middle of a storm.

“You look healthy, Lark,” Travis says. “Better than the last time I saw you.”

“Danny’s been taking care of me. Nina too.”

“That’s good. Really good.” His eyes are shining. Lark is returning Travis’s intent stare, and I wonder what she’s thinking.

In the hospital, she seemed mesmerized by my eyes. She seemed to know my eyes before anything else. Is that because of Travis? She was rememberinghim?She was like a daughter to me, my uncle said, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he sucked as a father. Just like my own.

But my eyes comforted her. That means she must have trusted him.

I told Lark I’d give him the benefit of the doubt, and I’m going to try. She’s got a kind, giving heart, and Lark has wanted to reunite Nina with her long-lost son since the moment she first heard Travis’s name.

But if Travis was a father figure to her, then why didn’t he protect her when she needed him? Why did she end up in West Oaks alone with a car bearing down on her?

“I used to wish the two of you could meet. Danny, I used to wonder how you were and—”

Anger flares in my stomach. “Don’t make this about me,” I snap. “Just start at the beginning. How did you meet Lark?”

“If you want the beginning forher, I should start before that.” Travis licks his lips, aiming a hesitant gaze at the carpet. “Lark, this is all stuff you told me. But if you lost your memory about everything, then I’ll try to give you back as much as possible.”

“Did I say anything about my parents?” she asks. “Someone told me they were hippies in a commune, but I don’t know if that’s true.”

“From what you told me, they were young when they had you, but they were just suburbanites in Northern California.” He clears his throat and rubs a hand over his gray-stippled beard. “You said your dad left early on, and your mom’s family had disowned her when she got pregnant. You were ten when she passed away, and you ended up in foster care. Those years weren’t easy for you. But eventually you got settled. You had a foster brother. Zander.”

“Z?”

“You called him that sometimes, yeah. The people you and Zander lived with weren’t as bad as the others. You felt like a family. But they had their own schemes, and it sounds like having foster kids was one of them. It was like Oliver Twist. You and Zander had to go out, picking pockets or conning people for money. You and your brother worked as a team. Your family would find an opportunity, a mark, and the two of you would go in to sell a story.”

Lark clutches my fingers like she’s holding on for dear life. “That’s close to what Cam told me. My ex-boyfriend. He said Z was my stepbrother, and I grew up in a family of con artists.”

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