17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Shaun
I'm not stupid enough to trick myself into believing that I'm in love, but I am stupid enough to allow myself to become invested. I'm definitely stupid enough to be pissed off. I can't remember the last time I was this goddamn mad.
That fuck has been playing her this entire time. I don't need to see proof that he's responsible for her father's death, I don't even want it. The fact that Wyatt's high-strung ass is ready to go to war is enough. I don't know Wyatt well, but sometimes you don't need to. He's one of those guys who figures something out and then takes action without looking back. He's going to do terrible, terrible things to Larken's husband, and I'm going to help him.
No, I'm not in love with Larken. Not yet anyway. I might end up loving her, but right now I just want her to be okay. She needs to be loved. She needs it more than anything else. Wyatt obviously doesn't realize it yet because he's dumber than I am, but he's on his way to loving her. It's wild. It's like when I met Darcy I met Darcy when I was seventeen. I fell hard for her. I was head over heels in love with her within an hour. Sometimes your heart just knows. It happens like that. Everyone said it was just a crush, but it wasn't. You don't grieve like I did over a crush. When Darcy left, part of me died and I think that's why I am the way I am now. Some people get bitter about it. They get mean and jaded. Not me. I can see love from miles away and I'll do anything I can to see it win.
Wyatt might not love Larken yet, but it's there. It just needs time. And after we get rid of the husband, he'll have plenty of it. If he needs a little nudge along the way, well, I'm good at shoving.
I know Wyatt has more questions for her. He's a thinker. A planner. He needs all the information so he can calculate a plan. I don't think Larken would have had any trouble spilling her guts to begin with, but now she's going to be a wealth of information. I'm sure part of that information will lead to us getting paid for a job that stopped being a job, too.
The phone rings, startling Wyatt and making Larken's entire body jerk almost off of his lap. He motions for her to still and digs into his pocket for his phone.
“Yes?” he answers on speaker.
“Is she still alive?” The husband sounds all kinds of upset.
“Obviously.”
“I'll get your money.”
“Mmhmm.”
“I'll bring it tomorrow. I'll meet you anywhere. Just give me an address.”
Larken opens her mouth to say something, but Wyatt shakes his head and shushes her. “Tomorrow. Cash. I'll send the address for the drop. Be there within an hour of my text,” he says. “Oh, and if you aren't alone, if you're followed, you won't be getting her back.” Then he hangs up.
Larken jumps away from Wyatt and starts backing for the door. “I'm not going back.”
“Calm down,” Wyatt orders. Idiot. Telling someone to calm down never gets them to calm down and Larken is no different.
She turns and rushes the rest of the way to the front door, but I'm fast and I'm up and pressing my weight against the door just as she twists the knob. “I'm not going back,” she hisses through her teeth. “I won't.”
“Nobody's sending you back, baby,” I say. “Let's go sit back down. You can sit with me if you want to. I won't bite unless you ask me to.”
She huffs but takes her hand off the doorknob and ducks under my arm to go back to the couch. I sit next to her and put my arm on the back of the couch behind her. Wyatt's going to have to do better than this. His mouth is drawn up in a little jealous line and I'm sure it has way more to do with the fact that she's sitting next to me than my arm being around her or the pet names. I smile at him and reach down to lift her feet into my lap.
“Stop it,” he snaps, glaring at me.
“You stop it,” I return with a smirk.
Larken pulls her feet away from me and tucks them underneath her. “Both of you stop it. Adrian doesn't have access to that kind of money,” she trails off, looking up and to the side, “unless he made me sign something that would grant him access.”
Wyatt leans forward and props his elbows on his knees. “Exactly how long has it been since you've been to work, Larken? Physically.”
She shrugs. “Months. Not since I lost Dad. I had a nervous breakdown or something and couldn't handle going back.”
Yeah. I'll just bet she couldn't handle going back. I'm sure whatever Adrian did to her had nothing to do with it.
“And none of the people you worked with bothered to check in on you?” Wyatt continues.
Larken shakes her head. “If anyone checked in on me I was never made aware of it. How does this work, anyway? In movies they always have this big bag of money and they walk across a big park or bus station.”
That makes me smile. She's probably been comparing all of this to what she's seen in the movies this whole time. Almost all that stuff is inaccurate, but I love that she's been imagining herself in those situations.
“It will be sort of like that,” Wyatt nods. “Your husband will leave the money at the location I give him. If this were a true ransom situation, you would be waiting at another location and once the right amount of money has been determined to be in the bag, he would be given your location or you would be delivered to him. But, like I said, this isn't a real ransom situation. We are basically going to take the money and run.”
“Won't that put you at risk?” Larken asks.
I reach over and pat her knee. “Don't you worry about us, baby. We're professional criminals. We'll be alright.”
She's quiet for a minute or two and Wyatt takes a breath to say something else but she sits up abruptly, her eyes wide and her brows drawn. “I need to file for divorce.”
Divorce. What a good girl she truly is. Divorce. She's going to just file for divorce from the guy who had her dragged out of her bed after he tried to steal her company. “Just divorce? Surely you want to do more than divorce him.”
Wyatt looks every bit as intrigued as I am. “Yes, Larken. I'm sure you can think of something a little more aggressive than divorce.”
She sits back again, shrugging. “What else can I do?”
Wyatt and I exchange a look. There's a long list of things she could do, and we would be more than happy to accomplish them.
“He hasn't really done anything,” she continues.
“He had you kidnapped,” Wyatt reminds her.
She nods. “He did. And what will I do? Go to the police? With what proof? It isn't like I'm going to hand you and Shaun over to the authorities. You two saved me, regardless of how it looks to the rest of the world.”
Wyatt sighs. He's good at that. He does it all the time. I smile at her, and I suppose I'm good at that because I do it as much as he sighs. “Still,” I say, “I think he needs a little more than a simple divorce.”
“I'll fire him, too.”
Alimony and severance. I swear the people who deserve the worst end up not paying for any of the bullshit they put other people through.
“Well,” Wyatt tilts his head with narrowed eyes, “I suppose we'll have to wait and see about that. We have to get through the immediate burden he presents before you can get around to firing and divorcing him.”
Wyatt has another fun announcement for her when it's time for bed and I enjoy every syllable of it.
“Tomorrow is going to be a feat so I think we all need to get some sleep. Sleep that I don't have to stress myself out about.” He cocks a brow at me.
“What?” I clutch my heart, feigning shock and innocence.
His lips press into my favorite little line as he blinks slowly at me. “I apologize in advance, Larken, but I think you might actually be a flight risk now.”
“I'm not,” she interrupts.
“I believe that you think that's true, but a fair amount of people don't think they're flight risks until they're out the door and running. If you can let Shaun cuff you underneath his bed without holding it against him, then you'll be alright with how tonight is going to go.”
Well, this should be loads of fun.
For them. Not me. I'm going to enjoy watching the show of whatever he has in mind and then I'm going to go tuck myself in for a good night's sleep.
Turns out, it is fun and I might be a little jealous, myself.
“Do you snore?” Larken asks.
I laugh. “God, I hope so.”
“To my knowledge,” Wyatt replies diplomatically, “I do not snore.”
“I bet you do,” I laugh. “I bet you suck the paint off the walls.” Then I cackle when Larken narrows her eyes, giving him a lethal glare.
“I have never been told by anyone that I snore,” Wyatt counters. “And even if I did, this is still happening. I need to sleep and I can't do it if I'm dreading waking up to whatever claptrap sleeping arrangement you'd come up with.”
“Your vocabulary is a claptrap,” I tease.
“You don't even know what it means,” Wyatt says. “I'm giving you the key. Don't lose it.”
I slide the key safely into my pocket. “I'll have you know that I have never lost an important key.” This is a lie. I have lost many keys. The majority of them were probably important. “Do you need me to tuck you kids in?”
Wyatt rolls his eyes. “We'll be fine. Just don't lose the key.”
“What if I don't give it back?”
“Shaun.”
“Wyatt.”
“Larken,” she says her name in the same tone we're using. “Now that we all know our names, we can go to bed. I'm going to be honest, Wyatt. I'm a little nervous about sleeping in bed next to you, handcuffed or not.”
“Why?” he asks. “I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to make sure you don't run out in the middle of the night.”
“Because the only person I've slept next to is Adrian and I have nightmares about him. I might kick you or something.”
He offers her a patient, even kind, smile. “I can handle being kicked.”
“What about a nightlight?” I ask. “I could pull up some relaxing music. I'm sure there's a teddy bear somewhere in this outdated dump.”
“Go to bed, Shaun.”