Page 56 of The Bet
“No one. Interesting that because,” he opened his palm and showed her. “It’s been raining money on your doorstep.”
She stared at the dollar bills in his hand. The bastard had left it for her. She still didn’t want it, but if she said anything now, Xavier would have questions.
“Thanks.” She plucked it out of his hands, and placed it in the pocket of her jeans. She would figure out what to do with it later.
She braced herself for the questions, because the way he looked at her, the way his stare reached down into her soul and held there, told her he didn’t believe her.
“What’s your explanation for that?”
She stared back at him. “I was wondering where my rent money had gone. It must have slipped out of my back pocket.”
“Yeah?” He bent down and picked up the pepper spray can from the floor. “Then what’s this?”
She struggled to swallow. “It’s—uh.” She was stuck. And he was more than imposing, more than nosey, more than interfering.
“Something you want to tell me, Laronde?”
She exhaled out slowly. Something about Shoemoney coming here, about him wanting to buy her off, about him getting this close to her, had made her nauseous. And she hated being in a place of weakness. Weak enough that Xavier could sense it.
“There’s nothing to tell,” she said, forcing a laugh.
“You don’t look too good.” Xavier moved so close to her she could feel the heat from his body. She gawked at him, and this time without her usual steely armor. The rising panic inside her, that he might find out her dirty little secret, made her want to implode.
“In fact,” he peered at her, “you’re looking paler than usual. You sure you want to go to the movies?”
“Jacob wants to go.”
“We can watch something here, or we can go back to their apartment, or you could both come to mine,” he said quickly.
It seemed like a better option all of a sudden, being away from the crowds in the movie theater. She was so shaken up, she wanted to withdraw into herself.
“What’s going on, Laronde? I know something went down just now.”
“Nothing went down,” she managed to say. Her body was stiff, every muscle in her body clenched. “Nothing, Stone.” She managed another grin, a tiny laugh.
“That’s twice you’ve attempted to laugh, and you’ve never needed to do that before, not with me. You’re always your usual defensive self.”
His eyes bore down on her, the weight of his stare heavy. She tried to push everything away, his probing, his questioning, his need to discover and get down to the truth. For a moment, she wished the playboy seductor was back, the one who was so wrapped in himself, that he had no awareness of others. This new version of Xavier unnerved her, because he seemed to read her like a book.
“I’m not the pig you seem to think I am. You can tell me. I’m looking after things while Tobias is away.”
“He left you in charge?” It came out as if she was being sarcastic.
He didn’t seem to like that, judging by the way his brows squeezed together. She hadn’t meant to say it like that, why did it come so easily to her, throwing words at him like poisoned blades, and the guy was only trying to be nice to her?
“You are looking after his step-son, and it’s obvious to me that some shit went down. I’d be remiss to turn a blind eye to it.” His voice was hard again, and she couldn’t blame him. “We’ve got a change of plan, kid,” he told Jacob when he returned.
The boy’s face crumpled.
Wait, what? She stepped forward. “No, no. You can’t just walk in and change our plans be—”
He’d turned his back to her and was addressing Jacob.
“We’re going to the movies later on, or maybe even tomorrow,” Xavier said, “but Izzy isn’t feeling so well, so how about you both come over to mine and you can play in my media room? I’ve got better game consoles than Tobias.”
She was about to stab him in the back with her finger when she heard Jacob’s excited “Really?”
“Really.”
“Cool!”
She bit her tongue. How dare Xavier change their plans? He turned around, and gave her a smile that made her want to slap him. “We’re going to my place.”
“Yours?” And now she really did want to slap him.
“Yay!” But an ecstatic Jacob kept that plan at bay.
