Page 35 of Pay the Price

I knew exactly how it would feel to brush the long lock of blond hair away from his forehead, knew how his smooth cheek would feel under my fingers.

He looked just as good in faded jeans and no shirt as he’d looked naked.

I turned my attention to Jace, who was leaning on the windowsill.

So that was who’d been watching when I pulled up. Had it been because he wanted me home or because he dreaded it?

With Jace I could never be sure.

I wished I could say he didn’t affect me, that I didn’t feel exposed by the green-eyed gaze that seemed to see through all the artifice I wore for the world, that his huge arms and the bulge between his even huger thighs didn’t turn me on.

But that would be a lie.

I didn’t know if I’d stay after they told me the truth about what had happened with Blake, but I was past the point of lying to myself about how they made me feel.

I moved into the room and sat on one of the wing chairs near the fireplace, trying to keep my distance, knowing that the closer I got to them, the more likely I’d be to throw caution to the wind, abandon reason in favor of the powerful feelings they stirred in me.

“I’m here,” I said. “Start talking.”

Wolf set aside the guitar, then met my gaze. “What do you want to know?”

I sat back in the chair. “Everything.”

Chapter 22

Daisy

“Blake always had money,” Wolf started. “We understood that. But money was boring to Blake. He’d always had it, so it didn’t have a lot of novelty for him. He had other reasons for wanting in on the stuff we were doing in high school.”

“What kind of stuff?” I asked.

“Illegal stuff.” There was a challenge in Jace’s voice, like he was daring me to judge him.

Wolf shot him a look, then returned his gaze to me. “Drugs, guns. We started by taking some of the small jobs the Blades didn’t want to do.”

“And Blake was in on that with you?” I asked.

“He was all in,” Otis clarified. “And not because of the money.”

“Then why?” I asked, because they were right: Blake didn’t need money. Our dad had been generous with us all, as evidenced by the credit cards Calvin had demanded when he’d dropped my stuff off at the house.

As Hammonds, we’d gotten used to a certain kind of lifestyle — expensive clothes, box seats at sporting events and front-row concert tickets, five-star restaurants — and our dad was more than happy to perpetuate it, probably because it all made him look even richer.

“Jace and Wolf did it for the money,” Otis said. “I did it to see if we could get away with it. Blake did it for fun.”

I nodded because I could see it. Blake liked pushing the envelope, doing increasingly risky things, seeing how far he could go before someone told him he’d gone too far, mostly because no one ever told him he’d gone too far.

“And then what?” I asked.

“Then…” Wolf hesitated, like he was searching for the right words. “Then Blake got… shady.”

“Shady how?” I asked.

“He started keeping things from us,” Jace said. “Doing his own thing, making his own money.”

“And that’s why you killed him?”

“We’re getting there, sunshine,” Wolf said. “Bear with us.”

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