Baddest Bad Boys (13 page)

This was so much more dangerous than she’d ever dreamed.

 

Julia let the field glasses drop. She could hardly believe what she’d just seen. Her hands shook, she was so horrified.

She had to shake herself back into action. She scrambled to her feet and made her way down the hill to Robin’s car. The girl hadn’t bothered to lock it. How convenient. Easy enough to set something up just in case she did.

Julia took a length of fishing twine from her bag, tied a noose and slipped the thing around the knob lock on the passenger’s side. Then she threaded it through the top of the window, and closed it, leaving a near invisible filament with a knot hanging out the top. She tested it with a gentle tug.

The lock popped open. Brilliant in its low tech simplicity. William would be proud of her. It would be nothing to just lean over the car as if she were unlocking it, give the thread a yank, and voilà.

Headlights sliced through the woods. She scrambled back up to her hiding place, yanked up her hood over the beacon of her fair hair, and peered towards the window through the glasses again. She saw only Amendola this time, sitting on the bed, looking thick and brutish.

She felt as sickened as if she herself had been raped. That poor girl. She must be shattered. But pain had a purpose. Always.

Julia had learned that lesson well. It was her guiding principle.

William had made sure of it.

 

Jon sat on the bed, head dangling. Exhausted. An apology seemed lame after all that drama. She’d spit in his face anyway.

It made him crazy. Like some shining thing was being held out to him, but there was a sheet of soundproof, bulletproof glass between him and it. And now he’d made her hate him. His chest burned.

He headed towards the bathroom. No idea what he was going to do. What could he say to her? Don’t go. Don’t listen to the stupid trash I talk. Don’t believe a word I say. Don’t disappear into the dark.

And under it, the hollow suck of fear, pulling at his insides. He was afraid, as if some evil thing were lurking out there, hungry for her sweet flesh. He was flat-out paranoid. He’d never been this bad before. Just the normal bad attitude of a guy who saw too much violence.

He stood outside the bathroom door for minutes before he mustered the nerve to speak. “Hey. Robin.”

“I’m not speaking to you.” Her voice floated through the door. She’d latched it, but a smack of his shoulder ripped the latch loose.

Robin stood in the tub, her eyes huge. The detachable shower head was in her hands. She’d been sudsing up her muff. Clumps of shower foam slid down her long, perfect, gleaming thighs.

“Jon! For God’s sake!” Her voice was crisp with outrage.

He gulped hard, having entirely forgotten everything he’d had in mind to say. Mesmerized by how beautiful her body was dripping wet.

She rolled her eyes and briskly finished rinsing herself. “Go put that thing of yours away before it gets you in any more trouble than you’re already in,” she said, with a significant glance at his crotch.

He glanced down at his lengthening dick, and walked in, letting the door swing shut behind him. What needed to be said had to be said right now, this moment. Before he froze up again.

He opened his mouth—and stopped, hearing a sound that congealed his blood. The warped front door made a loud, rasping squeal over the scarred linoleum. “Hey? Jon? You in here?”

Holy screaming fuck. It was Danny. He and Robin exchanged glances of naked panic. He stared wildly around the tiny bathroom.

“There’s no towels,” Robin whispered. “I left the bathrobe outside!”

Great. His balls hanging out, a bullseye painted on them. He took a deep breath. “Yo, Danny,” he called out dully. “I’m in the john.”

“I see dinner for two,” Danny said suspiciously. “You got company in there?”

“We might as well get it over with,” Robin said. She flung the door open. Back straight, chin high, tits up, she marched right on out.

 

One would think being naked as a jaybird in front of a big brother who had changed one’s diapers when one was an infant wouldn’t be such a big hairy deal. One would be dead wrong. The look on her brother’s face morphed from astonishment to fury when he looked past her and saw Jon in the bathroom. “What the fuck is this, Robin?”

She flinched at the punch in his voice. “Trust your instincts, Danny. It’s exactly what it looks like.”

Jon followed her out, his face taut and unhappy. Danny looked him over, and zapped him with a vicious uppercut that knocked him off his feet and onto the kitchen table. Beers tipped, food slopped, salad scattered, dishes clattered to the ground.

Jon hadn’t even tried to block that punch. And she knew that he could. She’d watched them spar since she was a kid. They were well matched. A couple of ninja fiends.

Jon pulled himself to his feet and just stood there, waiting.

“Fight back, you bozo!” she yelled. “Don’t just stand there!”

He shook his head without replying.

Danny moved towards him again, winding up for another blow, but Robin grabbed his arm. “Don’t touch him!”

Danny shook her off. “Get your clothes on. I’ll deal with you later.”

“No. You don’t understand.” She grabbed his arm again. “I overheard you talking. I knew he was up here. He had no idea. I wanted this, so I came up here and got it. End of story.”

“Like hell it is,” Danny snarled.

“I begged him, you brainless clod!” she yelled. “I literally tore off my clothes and jumped his bones!”

Danny looked at her, then at Jon’s big, muscular body. “Oh, yeah. I’m sure he fought like a fucking demon,” he said bitterly.

“He did, goddammit! It was my choice!” she hollered.

“It’s not anymore. Get your clothes on. I’m taking you home.”

She swallowed. “No, Danny,” she said quietly. “You’re not.”

Her brother shot her a steely glance. “That’s an order, Robin.”

A strange calm had settled over her. “I don’t take orders anymore,” she replied. “Not from you, not from Mac, not from anyone. And not from you, either.” She shot the last remark in Jon’s direction, for good measure.

“I’d figured that much out all by myself,” Jon said.

“You,” Danny snarled. “Keep your goddamn mouth shut.”

“And while I’m at it, I might as well let you know it all,” she went on. “I’m quitting Crowne Royale Group. I’m not going for a degree in hotel management. I’ve been accepted into the training program of the Circo della Luna Rossa. I’m leaving in three weeks. So now you know.”

Danny made a disgusted sound. “Robin, we’ve been through this before. Now is not the time to argue about your ridiculous—”

“I’m not arguing,” she cut in. “I’m informing you. And now, if you two would excuse me, I’ve had enough of both of you.”

She marched out of the room and started yanking on her clothes.

So. She’d done it. Abandoned her livelihood, alienated her brothers, lost her virginity, smashed her heart into tiny grotty bits, all in one blow. There wasn’t much of anything left in her life to demolish.

 

Jon and Danny avoided each other’s eyes for the forty-five seconds it took for Robin to wrench on her jeans and a T-shirt and sling her bag over her shoulder. She looked at Jon as she stalked to the door.

“I guess this is goodbye. Have a nice life, Jon. It was real.”

Danny scowled, bewildered. “What the hell?”

“I don’t have any designs on him, Danny,” she said. “I was just using him for sex. Girls have animal needs too. Deal with it.”

Silence followed the slam of the screen door shutting after her. Robin’s car coughed, protested, and finally started up and pulled away.

Danny cleared his throat. “Get your clothes on and your shit out of my place,” he said. “I do not want to see your face ever again.”

Jon turned away without speaking and did as he was told.

He felt oddly numb as he got his stuff together. Hell, he was used to worse case scenarios. He’d grown up right in the middle of one.

And that didn’t make it any easier to bear.

 

Julia peered through the infrared goggles as she coasted slowly down the switchbacks. As soon as she got off Horsetail Bluff, she could drop behind a curve and turn her headlights back on.

Robin signaled at the convenience store and Julia’s whole body tingled. Maybe her chance would come sooner than she’d dreamed. She pulled into the parking lot to the side, waited as Robin got out, got gas.

Robin reparked the car outside the store, and went inside. Yes. She’d locked it this time.

She had to be quick and decisive. There were people around, but it had been Julia’s experience that a pretty woman acting with confidence could get away with just about anything. William had used that trick often. Julia had been the perfect lure. Many times.

She strode over to the passenger’s side of Robin’s car and pretended to use a key while she yanked the filament that opened the lock. She slid inside, popped the hood. Once she’d ascertained that Robin was still in the bathroom, she lifted the hood, let the clippers slide out into her hand, reached in and severed the battery connection. Snip. She let the hood fall, and headed in to buy coffee. No one had blinked an eye.

Julia feigned drinking the nasty brew, using peripheral vision to observe Robin as she emerged from the bathroom. The girl hurried out to her car, eyes puffy. The car, of course, would not start.

Julia drifted to the window, watching obliquely as the girl cursed, yelled, pounded the steering wheel, and finally burst into tears.

Robin got out of the car and poked around under the hood, but she didn’t notice the severed battery line hidden under the manifest.

Robin finally came back into the store. “Excuse me,” she asked the tight-lipped lady behind the register whose nametag read Ruby. “Do you know of a mechanic around here that I could call at this hour?”

Ruby glanced at the clock, and looked dubious. “I don’t know. There’s Robbie, I guess, but he’s usually drunk by now.”

“Who’s Robbie?” Robin pleaded. “Where could I find him?”

“You could go ask Earl. He runs the bar next door,” Ruby said. “Robbie’s his half brother. If Robbie’s there, you can see for yourself if he’s too drunk to be any use. Other than that, hon, I don’t know.”

“Thanks.” Robin walked out, and stared forlornly at her car.

Julia followed the girl out. “Car trouble?” she asked gently.

Robin laughed, a bitter sound. “Hah. Life trouble, more like.”

“Do you need a phone? Could I call someone for you?”

“No, thanks,” Robin said. “I’ve got a phone. I could call my brother, but at the moment I think I’d rather stick needles in my eyes.”

“Ouch,” said Julia. “So you’re heading to that bar? Excuse me for butting in, but the place looks rough. You want some company?”

Robin seemed to actually see her for the first time. “Uh, thanks. That’s kind of you, but I don’t want to trouble you. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, no trouble at all. I insist. My name’s Kelly. And yours?”

Julia fell into step beside her, and produced some soothing chitchat. By the time they reached the bar, she’d developed a perfect plan.

7

When Robin’s eyes adjusted to the dimness, she was grateful that Kelly had insisted on accompanying her. It was a nice thing to do. In fact, the girl seemed almost too nice. Her niceness was so focused. Something she did, rather than something that she was. If she flipped a switch, that niceness could flip off like a light. Or maybe Robin was reading negativity into a helpful, pleasant girl. Pulling a Jon, in short.

The bar had bowls at intervals, heaped with multicolored dyed Easter eggs. Robin had forgotten about Easter. Not that she’d ever really noticed it. A person needed a mom to make Easter eggs and bonnets and baskets and bunny hunts happen. Busy older brothers couldn’t be bothered with stuff like that. She perched on a stool and tried to catch the eye of the bearded guy with the big belly who was tending bar.

He lumbered over, looking grumpy. “What can I get for ya?”

“Are you Earl?” Robin asked.

“Who wants to know?”

“Ruby at the store told me you might know where Robbie is,” Robin explained. “My car won’t start. I need a mechanic.”

Earl grunted. “He ain’t here.”

“Is he likely to drop by? Does he have a phone?”

“Nah. Deadbeat don’t pay his bills.”

Robin let out a slow, controlled breath. “Could I wait for him?”

“Gotta buy a drink if you want to take up bar space.”

“I’ll have a diet Coke,” Robin said.