Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
C onsidering everything she’d been through the day before, and the fact that she was wearing a stranger’s underwear and spooning with a stranger’s dog, Lark slept better than she had in, well, ever .
Or maybe Ren’s high-end mattress and sexily scented clothes just worked better on her than melatonin gummies. All she knew for sure was that her head hit the pillow and her memory for the past twelve hours ended there. She woke up sweaty (Dammit George was like a furnace), drooling into the pillow, and more well rested than she’d ever felt in her life.
But as good as she felt and as much as she would’ve loved to roll over and go back to sleep, her bladder just simply wouldn’t allow it. So, she staggered out from under a disgruntled Dammit George and made her way to the bathroom. Thankfully, she managed to avoid peeing herself.
Her relief was short-lived, though, once she caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror.
Sweet baby Jesus on a purple pony !
She looked like Night of the Living Dead had vomited all over her. Her mascara had migrated from her eyelashes nearly all the way down to her cheekbones. Her bun had passed messy hours ago and was now living in rat’s nest territory. And there was a sleep crease on one of her cheeks that was deep enough to make her wonder if it would ever go away.
All in all, she figured corpses that had been floating in the river for a week looked better than she did in that moment.
Lark took a few moments to scrub her face and wrangle her hair back into a decent-looking messy bun. There wasn’t anything she could do about the pillow crease other than pray it’d go away, so that’s what she did as she mentally prepared herself for seeing Ren again.
He probably looked phenomenal, the bastard. He just had the look of a man who rolled out of bed, brushed his teeth, and was ready to tackle the day as a solid ten out of ten.
But when she padded out to Ren’s kitchen, Dammit George hot on her heels, it wasn’t Ren she found sitting at the table, nursing a cup of coffee.
It was the most beautiful woman Lark had ever seen in real life.
Lark had always assumed that women who looked like this one were creatures of myth and legend and simply didn’t exist outside of Hollywood. But here was such a creature in all her glory.
She had a flawless peaches-and-cream complexion that Lark would need a shit ton of makeup to replicate, but this woman didn’t even look like she was wearing anything other than lip gloss on her fully, pouty lips and mascara to highlight her icy eyes. She also had a heart-shaped face, which was something Lark had only read about in romance novels up until that point. And framing all that gorgeous natural beauty was a headful of shiny, bouncy, shampoo-commercial-worthy auburn curls.
Then there was her body.
She had a perfect hourglass figure—the kind that artists would probably fistfight each other to win the privilege of painting or sculpting. She looked tiny, too, which didn’t usually make Lark self-conscious, but in this case, kind of made her feel huge and ungainly in comparison.
“Hi,” Perfect Curves Barbie (or PCB, as Lark decided to refer to her in her mind) chirped. “Sleep good?”
“Um…yes. Who are?—”
But her question was drowned out as PCB caught sight of Dammit George. “There’s my perfect, handsome boy,” she said in a baby talk voice that seemed to enthrall Dammit George if his full-body wiggle was any indication. “How are you doing, sweet baby?”
Dammit George flopped over and exposed his belly to the newcomer, and she provided the requisite scritches with her perfectly manicured, blood-red fingernails.
After a few more moments of chitchat with the dog, PCB turned back to Lark with a sunny smile. “Sorry. I haven’t seen this boy in a minute. I’m Tenley, by the way. It’s very nice to meet you.”
Wait… this was Ren’s friend? The one he mentioned last night? He was just friends with this woman? How the hell was that possible?
Tenley smirked. “I’m married. Very happily married, I swear. Ren is like a brother to me.”
Lark blinked at her. Could she read minds, too?
She snorted. “I’m really good at reading people, but your face is an open book.”
That’s when Lark’s manners woke up. Her grandmother would’ve whoopped her ass if she’d seen her being so rude. “I’m really sorry. I was just surprised to find you here. It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Tenley stood up and grabbed a cup of coffee, then slid it across the table to Lark. “Here. Have a seat and get a little caffeine in your system.”
That sounded so good it almost brought tears to her eyes. “Oh, bless you.”
Tenley grinned at her as she downed half her coffee in one deep swallow. “Ren went out to fix one of his cameras.”
She nodded. “That’s probably a full-time job. He seems to have lots of cameras.”
“Not really. The list of people he’s looking out for is pretty small.”
Lark narrowed her eyes on Tenley. “You mean his security company clients?”
“Of course,” she said smoothly, not missing a beat.
She sighed. “Well, you’re a much better liar than he is.”
Tenley laughed out loud. “Now that’s the truth. I’ll let him explain all that to you when he’s ready. But what I can tell you is that you’ll never be safer than you are with Ren.”
He certainly hadn’t given her any reason to doubt his sincerity so far. And he’d had plenty of opportunities. “This is all hard for me, you know? I’m just a florist.”
“In my experience, no one is just anything. But don’t worry. Ren will figure it out and you’ll be able to go back to work and your boyfriend in no time.”
Her lip curled up involuntarily at the mention of Neal. If there was a bright side to this whole mess, it was not having to deal with him. “I won’t be going back to my boyfriend,” she admitted, totally unsure why she felt like she could tell this woman her entire life story.
“He’s a dud, huh?” she asked sympathetically.
“Yeah.”
Tenley pulled her phone out, swiped on the screen, then turned it toward Lark. “That’s my husband, Knox.”
Lark nearly spit a mouthful of coffee at the image. It took a supernatural amount of strength to swallow before saying, “Holy hell! That’s the prettiest man I’ve ever seen in my life .”
She beamed. “Everyone says that. He’s rich, too.”
“Well, that’s just gratuitous,” she grumbled.
“I know, right? If I didn’t know better, I’d think I had good karma, but I’m definitely not a good enough person to deserve all that .”
Shit, was anyone? Lark had been a pretty good person her whole life, and she certainly didn’t deserve a man who looked like Knox.
Honestly, though, even if she was, she wouldn’t have picked a pretty guy. She was only recently discovering her type leaned more toward rugged, giant, muscle-y, tattooed and pierced, paranoid recluses who may or may not be crazy.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tenley said as she grabbed a giant shopping bag off the floor and handed it to Lark. “Ren asked me to pick up some stuff you might need. He, of course, had no clue what to buy. So, I got you some leggings, a couple tank tops, underwear, a hoodie, a couple sweaters, socks, and some toiletries—including shampoo and conditioner, because I’d hate for you to have to use that drug store, all-in-1 bullshit Ren uses. But I’m happy to get you anything else you might need if you just give me a list.”
Maybe she was experiencing an emotional hangover from almost being killed the previous day, or maybe she really was just that happy to have some clean underwear and a new pair of leggings, but Lark got a little misty-eyed as she took the bag from Tenley. “Thank you. I really appreciate this. What do I owe you?”
Tenley grinned at her. “As if Ren would let me take your money. Don’t worry about it. He gave me one of his black cards.”
One of his black cards . Lark didn’t know anyone who even had one black card. Somehow, knowing that Ren had a few made her feel a little better. At least he wasn’t doing any of this to get his hands on her money. She hated thinking that way, but if the Lifetime network had taught her anything, it was that overly handsome men who suddenly showed an intense interest in average women were generally up to no good.
Which did beg the question…if he didn’t want her money, what did he want from her?
She supposed she’d have to save that question for the man himself. Something told her Tenley was a vault when her friend’s secrets were on the line.
Lark peeked in the bag. Jesus. Tenley had high-end taste. The stuff in this shopping bag probably cost more than she made at the flower shop in a month.
She was about to thank Tenley again (without having much of an idea what to actually say, because how do you thank someone who just bought you three-hundred-dollar leggings and shampoo that Oprah had listed among her favorite things the prior year) when Ren came in.
He stopped in the kitchen doorway, and she’d been right. The bastard really did look amazing first thing in the morning, seemingly without even combing his hair, which was windswept and still sexy as hell. And as if that wasn’t hot enough, his black T-shirt was showing off his biceps in an absolutely pornographic way.
Even hotter, though, was the way he looked at her. Those dark eyes of his locked on her, and it made her feel like the only woman in the world, even with Tenley sitting right there. It felt…nice. Warm, even. Comforting.
Not how she should feel before she’d had a chance to break up with her fiancé. Or how she should be feeling with someone who, you know, might have kidnapped her.
Good Lord, she was messed up.
“Are your cameras safe, or did Skynet become self-aware and take down your network?” Tenley asked.
His gaze shifted to hers. “That’s not funny,” he said with absolutely zero humor in his tone.
Tenley held up her thumb and index finger a smidge apart. “It’s a little funny.”
He rolled his eyes and took a seat next to Lark. She tried really hard not to notice when his thigh brushed against hers under the table. Truly, she did. But it was pretty freakin’ difficult to ignore something that gave her a full body tingle.
“Are you cold?” he asked, eyes narrowing on the goosebumps that were now creeping up her arm. “Should I turn the heat up? Didn’t Tenley bring you a sweater?”
Tenley held up her hands in supplication when he shifted accusing eyes her way. “I brought her a sweater. Geez, man, quit glaring. You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Truly, I’m fine,” Lark rushed to admit. “There’re s a few really nice sweaters and a hoodie in the bag. I’m not cold. I promise.”
Her response seemed to take him from a DEFCON 1 to maybe a 3, which was good. No need to start a war over a sweater. “If you change your mind, I can set you up with a password for the thermostat. You can set it to whatever you want.”
Tenley frowned at him. “You never gave me a password for the thermostat. Or asked me if I was cold, for that matter.”
“You’re not my guest,” he grumbled. “You’re family.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet!” She reached over and pinched his cheek, then laughed when he swatted her hand away.
Seeing the two of them interact made Lark feel better. They really did behave like brother and sister. There was absolutely zero sexual chemistry between them.
The reasons why that made her feel better were much more complicated, she feared. Developing a crush on the potential psycho who kidnapped you would be bad…right?
She cleared her throat. “So, um…what do we need to do today?”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “There’s a lot to do. My priority, though, is making sure Sherry and your parents make it out of town. Can’t have our contract killer thinking he can get to you through them.”
Lark blinked at him. Shit. She hadn’t even thought of that. “Where…what…I mean, how…”
Tenley laid a hand over hers. “It’s going to be fine, OK? Deep breaths. Ren’s got this under control. Right, Ren?”
He nodded. “It’s not a problem. I sent Sherry a ticket to Vegas. She’s flying out right after she delivers those wedding flowers. I’ll have eyes on her the whole time. I booked her a week in the presidential suite at the Bellagio.”
Tenley sighed dreamily. “I used to love the Bellagio. All the free drinks they gave out on the casino floor…you could rob thirty people blind in ten minutes and no one had a clue what was going on. Then they got that new security system, started charging even the high rollers for their cocktails, and everything went to shit.”
They both stared at her for a second or two before Ren turned back to Lark and said, “Anyway, she was happy to shut down the shop for the week and accept.”
Lark snorted. “I can imagine she was. She loves Vegas. I hope you didn’t leave a credit card on file for her.”
He shrugged, telling her without words that he had indeed left a card on file for a known gambler and didn’t care. “What about my parents?”
“They were a little tougher,” he admitted. “I figured they wouldn’t leave if they knew you were in danger. So, a few days ago, when I first realized where this thing was going to go, I sent your dad a series of very targeted ads for a contest.”
She cocked her head to the side. “I can really only think of one thing that would get my dad to enter an online contest.”
“The prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Ecuador to visit Galapagos and Cloud Forest.”
“Giant sea turtles and sloths. That’d do it.”
Ren gave her that crooked little smile that gave her all the stomach butterflies. “He entered twelve times. I notified him he won and sent him the tickets this morning. He already claimed them. I’m sure he’ll be calling you to give you their itinerary any minute now.”
Lark let out a relieved sigh. “OK, good. I’ll feel a lot better knowing they’re all safe.”
Tenley gave Ren a very pointed stare and asked, “What about the boyfriend? Did you make any plans for him?”
Guilt stabbed Lark’s heart. Not a big stab. More like a little prick. Which, heh, was kind of fitting. But still, she felt guilty for not even considering Neal’s safety in this whole fiasco.
A muscle in Ren’s jaw twitched. “No. I figured he could take care of himself.”
“I should at least try to keep him out of my house,” Lark said quietly. “You said the killer would be watching it, right?”
He got a look on his face like he was sniffing sour milk. “I’ll send someone to change the locks so he can’t get in. But what will make him keep his distance? A trip somewhere?”
She rubbed her temples. “No. He’d never leave town now. He just made partner at his firm.”
“Maybe if he thought you were going on a trip somewhere, he’d stay away,” Tenley suggested.
“I can make it look like you went anywhere,” Ren said eagerly.
Which was…not comforting. “That would work, but honestly, I’ve been meaning to break up with him.”
Ren sat up straighter. “You have?”
Was it her imagination, or did he sound inordinately pleased by that prospect? Or maybe it was just her own wishful thinking. She nodded. “I could just call him and tell him it’s over and ask him to stay away. ”
“Would that keep him away, though?” Tenley asked. “Is he the type that’d take the loss and move on?”
Ugh. “Actually…no. He’s not. He’s likely to have lots of questions. And he’ll argue with me.”
“You said he just made partner,” Tenley said. “Lawyer? Corporate, I’m guessing?”
“Yeah.”
She shifted her gaze to Ren. “She’s right. No way is he letting her go without a fight.”
Ren’s chin hit his chest. “OK. What kind of reason for a breakup would he not argue with?”
Lark looked to Tenley, because she’d been searching for a graceful way out of this relationship for at least a year now and hadn’t figured it out. Maybe graceful was the real problem. Maybe what she needed was a totally ungraceful, messy, ugly breakup reason. And something told her Tenley would know just how to get that done.
“You’ll have to wound his pride,” Tenley said. “Another man, maybe?”
Lark’s eyes slid to Ren, who met her gaze with a kind of unflinching intensity that gave her goosebumps. “He’d have questions,” she said. “It’s not like I go out a lot or meet a lot of eligible men at the flower shop.”
Tenley thought for a minute, then asked, “Is he hot? Like, stupid hot? Muscle-y or anything?”
“No,” Lark answered a little too quickly at the same time Ren pulled up one of his camera feeds on his phone and showed Tenley a picture of Neal.
“Oh, yeah,” Tenley said with a grin that could only be described as the Grinch about to steal Christmas from Cindy Lou Who. “Tell this guy Ren’s your new boyfriend. He’ll dissolve into a puddle of self-doubt that’ll last at least a week. It’ll buy you some time to get this all cleared up.”
Ren’s brow furrowed. “Why would he care about me?”
“Because he’s smart and successful and well educated, he thinks he’s going to rule the world one day,” Tenley said. “What he can never be, no matter how hard he tries, is as hot as you. Thinking that what she wants is a giant, tattooed, muscle-y guy that looks like he can take on John Wick with his bare hands will throw poor little Niles for an epic loop.”
“Neal,” Lark corrected.
Tenley cringed. “Like that’s any better.”
Lark bit her lower lip. “He saw Ren, though. He knows him as Bill the utilities guy.”
Ren shrugged. “That’s OK. I have a full identity built for Bill the utilities guy. You can tell him we’d been dating for a while behind his back, but weren’t ready to tell him. So, when I came to see you and he was home, we pretended I was there to check for a gas leak.”
She should not be feeling a little zing of excitement at the thought of even fake dating Ren. But she was. So much so that she was choosing to ignore how he’d built an entire identity for Bill the utilities guy just to gain access to her house. “I’d feel like a real jerk breaking up with him over the phone,” she admitted. “Is there any way I can do it in person? Maybe meet at a coffee shop, or something?”
The sigh Ren let out sounded like he’d conjured it up out of hell’s basement. He clearly wanted to say no. And she knew she was asking for something dumb. With an assassin after her (which even sounded weird when she was saying it in her own head), the safe play was to hang out here in Ren’s underground fortress with her French/German-speaking guard dog.
But hell, she’d dated Neal for years. Had agreed to marry him at one point. Even given her current circumstances, dumping him over text just seemed…wrong. Their relationship was at least worth an in-person goodbye. (Or, an in-person fuck off , as the case may be.)
Tenley nudged Ren with her shoulder. “Aw, come on. You can safeguard her in public for a few minutes while she breaks this poor loser’s heart, can’t you? I’ll even go in first and scope the place out if you want.”
He glared at her, but when his eyes turned back to Lark, they softened in a way that did nothing to quell the tingly feelings he inappropriately inspired in her. “I can make it work,” he eventually grumbled. “Our contract killer is still in the hospital under what I discovered is a fake name. He’ll probably be there until midday at least. I can jam up his release paperwork for at least another few hours. So, if we meet Neal—” he said her soon-to-be-ex fiancé’s name with the same enthusiasm most people reserved for ticks and bill collectors “—this morning, in public, at a place that’s not anywhere near any of the places you usually frequent, it should be fine.”
She swallowed hard at his use of the word we . They were actually going to do this. She was finally going to be rid of Neal, once and for all. And Ren was going to pretend to be her new boyfriend. “This is all kind of surreal,” she grumbled.
Tenley smirked at her. “Don’t you worry, cupcake. What’s surreal for most people is just…Tuesday for career criminals. You’re in good hands.”
Ren shot his friend a look sharp enough to separate flesh from bone, presumably because he didn’t want Lark to think of him as a career criminal. She assumed it was because he didn’t want her to be afraid of him. He needn’t worry. The fact that he was a criminal (with a criminal for a best friend) was the least of her concerns.
The crush she was developing on him was way scarier.