13. Julian #2
Corbin rolled his eyes. “I just heard all about that. Lance is impulsive as fuck, but he was right not to leave you alone. I wouldn’t have either.” Corbin held out his hand for me to shake, and I accepted it.
“Are you done plotting?” Henri asked.
“I am. I decided not to stay for the tell-Lance-off portion of the meeting.”
Henri smiled. “Wise decision.”
“Will he… Is everything okay?”
Corbin laughed. “As much as it ever is around here.”
I wondered what it would have been like growing up in their family. “Do they argue a lot?”
“They’re brothers, so yeah. We all fight.”
I’d never experienced that. “I was an only child.”
“Me too,” Henri said.
Corbin snorted. “You were lucky.”
“You love your brothers,” Henri insisted.
“I know. Overall, they’re pretty great, but they’re obnoxious as fuck.”
“That I have noticed,” I said.
I heard a door slam, and Lance appeared in the kitchen. “Let’s go.”
“Oh no,” Henri said. “You need to stay and settle this. I hate dealing with Remy’s pouting after you leave.”
“Henri, you’re probably the only one he’ll be willing to talk to right now.”
“Hey,” Corbin said, holding his hands up in a surrender posture. “I didn’t do anything.”
“He’ll find something to argue with you about. He’s in that kind of mood.”
“He’s worried about the necklace,” Corbin said.
Lance ran a hand through his hair. “I know.”
Their tension was only making mine worse. I wanted to finish my cake, but I wasn’t sure I could swallow anymore. “What are you doing with the necklace?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Then take me home.”
Lance frowned. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
“No. I want to go to my own home whether I’m part of this or not.”
“You’re in danger, and you’re staying with me.”
Henri stepped between us. “Lance, why don’t you?—”
“Henri, I appreciate you entertaining Julian while we talked, but it’s time for us to go.” Lance grabbed my arm and started tugging me toward the door.
A screech behind us stopped him in his tracks.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Corbin asked.
We turned to see Tony jumping up and down on the counter, looking as angry as he had when I’d taken his snack at the library.
Corbin whistled. “Damn, Lance. You really are messed up over Julian. You almost forgot your monkey.
“Shut up.” He pointed a finger at Corbin. Henri and Corbin both snickered as he scooped Tony up and grabbed me again.
“Watch yourself, Lance,” Corbin said. “You don’t want to screw this up.”
Was he talking about the situation with the necklace, or was he talking about me?
When we got to the car, Lance seemed confused about how to keep control over me while also giving Tony the attention he wanted. Knowing that going with him was inevitable, I simply got into the car. Tony settled on the console between me and Lance and poked Lance’s arm to get his attention.
“Tony’s not going to like it if you have to spend all your time subduing me,” I said.
“I’ll tie you up if I need to. You’re not leaving my house.”
Fear froze me in place. I really was at his mercy. I had no doubt he was armed, and Tony would likely obey his commands in a serious situation. I could try to escape, but what were my chances? How the hell did I really know anything he said was true?
He didn’t pull that necklace out of the air.
No, but he could be working with the person who’d hidden it there.
“Look at me,” Lance ordered.
I did. It was dark in the interior of the car, so even when I faced him, I couldn’t see his face clearly enough to read anything there.
“You need to stay with me to be safe. I wish…” He shook his head.
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I had a feeling it really did. The air was charged with emotion. I no longer wanted to run. I wanted to reach out and touch him like he was the one that needed to be soothed.
“I need you to promise me you’ll stay put, and you’ll do what I say.”
“I understand I’m in danger, or at least you sincerely believe that, but?—”
He gripped my shoulders hard. “This isn’t some idea I have in my head.
I’m not blowing this out of proportion. The men that want this necklace would kill you on sight without a second thought, and if they think you know something useful, they will take you and torture it out of you, and they’ll enjoy it. ”
I swallowed hard. Tears burned behind my eyes. “Why is this happening?”
“Because I was a fucking idiot and didn’t just handle things the way I should.”
I stared at him for a moment. Had he really said that?
I wanted to blame him, but I didn’t really. “Even if I’d cooperated from the beginning, they still might suspect I knew something.”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t supposed to call any attention to the operation.”
“Then your brother should’ve gotten someone else to do the job.”
Lance smiled. “That’s exactly what I told him.”
I leaned slightly closer and reached up to turn on one of the overhead lights.
He blinked at the brightness. “What’s that for?”
“I needed to see you.” Tony looked back and forth between us as if he also wanted an explanation. Lance looked at the little monkey with affection.
I wasn’t wrong about Lance, was I? I wanted so badly to trust him. I didn’t think he was lying to me, at least not about the danger or his involvement in the theft of the necklace. As to what else he might be involved in that would scare me, offend me, repulse me…
I wouldn’t think about that. I looked into his eyes, and the intensity I saw there sent heat rushing through me. Please don’t let me be a fool to trust him .
I lifted my hand and brushed the backs of my fingers over his cheek. “I’m scared.”
He laid his hand over mine. “I will keep you safe.”
“There’s no way I can promise to do exactly what you say. I need my job. I have to go to work, and you can’t lock me up in your house and not involve me in any of this.”
“The more you’re involved, the more danger you’ll be in.”
“I’m used to taking care of things myself.”
“Maybe it’s time you weren’t alone anymore.” He pulled my hand down to his mouth and brushed his lips over my palm, making me shiver. “Let’s go home.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t start thinking of his home as mine.
I wouldn’t let myself pretend there was anything more going on than Lance wanting to protect me and ordering me around with his high-handed demands.
I might fantasize about a man who told me what to do, who took charge, who did everything for me, but that wasn’t real life. I knew better.
Though maybe…
If I was going to be stuck with him for however long, I could at least indulge in a few fantasies. I might as well get something out of the situation.