Page 76 of Things We Hide from the Light
“I’ll take that under advisement,” he said dryly. “Now assure me Nash won’t come to further harm because of you.”
Feeling oddly protective of the man in question, I put my fork down.
“For the record, I had nothing to do with Nash’s shooting or Naomi and Waylay’s abduction. If Iamin town looking for something, it’s none of your damn business or anyone else’s. And finally, Nash is a big boy. He can handle himself.”
“Is that what you told Lewis Levy?”
I was officially pissed off.
I smiled. “You’re like a little kid showing off the terrible finger painting you did at school expecting me to be impressed. If I hang it on the refrigerator, will you go away?”
“Sooner or later, someone else in your circle is going to get hurt and it better not be Nash.”
“What are you going to do about it? Give him a bodyguard to go with his U.S. marshal?” I suggested flippantly.
“If that’s what it takes. I know you spent the night at his place.”
“Don’t worry,Dad. We’re both consenting adults. I’ll have him home before curfew.”
Lucian slammed a palm down on the table, rattling the spoon on his saucer and sloshing coffee over the rim. “Donotmake light of this,” he said coldly.
“Finally. Geez, how far under the ice do you hide the human in you? I thought I was going to have to threaten an ‘accidental’ pregnancy to get you to crack.”
He swiped my napkin and mopped up the spill with it before returning it to me. “Congratulations. If my team was here, you’d have won someone a lot of money.”
“A how-long-before-he-cracks pool? Don’t tell me Lucian Rollins has a sense of humor.”
“I do not.”
I leaned back in the booth. “Here’s what I’m seeing. You either think that I’d be the easier target to manipulate, oryou’re afraid to have an open, honest conversation with your friend. Either way, your bad judgment is showing, Lucian.”
He let out what sounded like a low growl. But the man knew I was right.
“Look. You’re right to be worried about your friend. He’s not telling you or anyone everything about what he’s going through. That includes me, because we barely know each other. And what hehastold me stays between me and him, because unlike someothers at this table, I know how to respect the privacy of others. Yes, I spent the night at his place last night. No, we didn’t have sex. I’m not telling you that because I think it’s your business. Because it’s not.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because I know what it’s like to have people so worried about you they do stupid things behind your back.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed and I wondered what sore spot I’d just prodded.
“Nash is a good guy, which automatically makes him not my type. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make an exception.”
“You’re not helping your case.”
“I’m not building a case,” I told him. “I don’t give a shit what you think about me. You think I’m the problem in the situation but it’s not me. It’s you.”
“I’m not the one positioning myself to take advantage—”
“I’ll stop you there before you make me angry. If you think that I’m taking advantage of your friend or that he’s keeping things from you, you have two choices.”
“And what might those be?”
“You either trust your friend to handle himself or you have this conversation with him. At the very least, have the decency to have his back to his face.”
Lucian’s frown was downright chilling, but I had the heat of temper to protect me.
“You couldn’t possibly understand our history,” he said coolly.
