Thick As Thieves: An Enemies-To-Lovers Romance (Paths To Love Book 5)

by Grahame Claire

  “Skip to the end, Sonya,” he growled.

  “But I was just getting to the good stuff,” I protested, fighting a grin.

  “I beg to differ.” In all honesty, I hadn’t thought Dad had wanted me to sleep with the man. Just tempt. Surely, no father prostituted his daughter to make a buck. Most didn’t anyway.

  I huffed out a long breath. “Fine. Did I mention he was married? Well, he was. So it didn’t take but a few compromising pictures. The business associate agreed to forget about what my dad had done as long as he made it right, which he did. And we forgot our little affair.”

  “You loved the thrill,” he surmised.

  Where was the judgmental look? The grimace of disgust? I’d just told him I seduced a married man for blackmail, and Drew almost looked . . . proud? “I did,” I admitted. “I think that’s why my dad did it too. It was the possibility of getting caught, and when he didn’t, it just snowballed.”

  “So he knows what you’re up to? A chip off the old block?” I frowned. “I’m not judging either of you.”

  “I know.” Picking up my drink, I poured some down my throat. “He can’t live with what he asked me to do—feels guilty about it even now—so we don’t really talk that much.” I shrugged. “Probably better that way.” That sounded hollow, even to my ears.

  “What about your mom?”

  Pain stabbed at the already open wounds of my past. “Dad made me promise not to tell her what he’d done. I can’t lie to her about it, so we don’t speak either. She thinks I’m busy with work.”

  I missed her, especially after seeing Drew with his mother and the way she forgave him. But hope was a dangerous thing, something I could ill afford.

  “What did you really want to do?” he pressed, moving on, and I sat back, contemplating if I wanted to go there. It was like I’d had one orgasm, and I owed him the farm. But he could be my big prize. That care facility his mother was in was no state-run hospital. Everything was posh, expensive. Lying would get me nowhere with Drew. I needed to make him work for the answers, keep him interested, but I was going to need to be more honest with him. “Tell me why your brother and sister-in-law don’t like you.”

  “That obvious, huh?” His posture stiffened, and he immediately went for his drink, then his second crutch . . . cigarettes.

  “That’s a no-no in here,” I said.

  “We have no rights anymore,” he lamented, shoving them back in his pocket.

  “Stop avoiding the question.”

  Drew stared into his nearly empty glass. When his eyes rose to mine, they were hard, callous, and unyielding. “For starters, I shifted over a billion dollars of company money into offshore accounts. I haven’t admitted that to them yet, so I’d appreciate you keeping that little gem between us.” He tossed back the remaining liquor. “Give me a hundred. I’m going to get us another round.”

  Drew stood and held out his palm expectantly. I handed over a bill with a slap and an irritated glare. It wasn’t him that had me frustrated. Actually, it was, but I was finding it exceedingly hard to say no to him.

  “He is one cocky bastard,” I said to Sam.

  He raised his head, looked toward Drew, and put his chin back on his paws.

  “Tell you something you don’t know, huh?” I bent and tugged lightly on his ear. “Why does it have to be such a turn-on?”

  That reminded me . . . I zipped up the fly of my jeans and fought the urge to drag him out of this bar so we could go for round two. I imagined, with a little more time and room to work with, Drew could make me come for days, but I had to watch myself. Giving up the one power I had over him because I couldn’t get my hormones under control would lead to problems.

  He had a billion dollars. I could suck it up for that kind of money. I was going to have to play this right. Drew had stolen over a billion dollars.

  And I thought I was good. It wasn’t just money I could get from him. There was plenty I could learn. Expand my knowledge base. Do something new.

  “Should I be scared of that look?” he asked, depositing a fresh drink in front of me.

  I was already feeling the effects of the others I’d consumed, but I was in no hurry to get back to Paths of Purpose. I wasn’t ready for our field trip to end. “Definitely,” I confirmed.

  He offered a small bowl of water to Sam, who perked up and lapped at the clear liquid. I blinked at Drew like I’d never seen him. Considerate wasn’t a word I’d ever use to describe him. Yet maybe he was.

  He slid in next to me. “Explain to me why I can’t keep my mouth off you,” he demanded huskily, nibbling my ear.

  “Because I’m the most interesting person you’ve ever met.”

  “You might be right. But, sugar, I intrigue you as much as you do me.” It was true. I wouldn’t deny it. “Now tell me what little Sonya wanted to do when she grew up.”

  “I wanted to be a professional skier. After that, own a sporting goods store.” I looked down, wishing I had something to wrap my hands around, like a napkin or a skirt. But these jeans were painted on, and all I could do was rub my thighs to the point where I was getting denim burn.

  Drew caught one of my hands, and I jerked my head toward him. “What went wrong?”

  “I grew up.” I was behaving as if it were nothing, that I didn’t care I hadn’t accomplished either goal, but I did. Very, very much.

  He stroked my cheek. “We should make a deal,” he said resolutely, and the tops of my ears tingled.

  “What kind of deal?” I asked.

  “No lies to each other. We do that so much with everyone else that we hardly know the truth anymore.”

  I froze, my throat working on a hard swallow. I should be well past the point of being surprised by this man, but he’d done it again. “Just because you have difficulty with the truth doesn’t mean I do.”

  His expression softened, and there was pity—pity—in his eyes. No way would I accept that. He could take his truth and shove it up his ass.

  “Come on. We’ll do it like the honest people we’re not.” He rifled in the pocket of his jeans, producing a Swiss Army knife.

  “By stabbing me?” I asked.

  Drew grinned, flipping out a blade and turning my hand over, palm up. “Blood brothers.”

  “I’m not a man.”

  “Fine. Blood people. What do you say? Only truth?”

  “You’ve already lied. There’s no way you could steal that much money from under someone’s nose, and they wouldn’t know it,” I argued. His little smirk said it all. He had, and his family had been none the wiser.

  “They still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t allowed it,” he said smugly.

  “How will I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “You’ll have to trust me.”

  “I don’t trust anyone.”

  “Neither do I.”

  He watched me with infinite patience as I debated. Total truth? It would be a relief with at least somebody, but what if it spilled over into all aspects of my life? I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the real Sonya Hughes.

  “I don’t know if I’m capable of being totally honest.”

  “That sounds like a pretty good start to me.”

  I had never met anyone like Drew Carter before. His family had seemed decent. Distant and angry, but from what I had gathered, he probably deserved their disdain. Yet here I was. About to commit to being honest for the first time in . . . a long time. What has he done to me? And why am I allowing that?

  I thrust my palm toward him, and he beamed, then made a small cut in the center before slicing a matching one in his own. We shook. I gazed at the crimson smears on my palm.

  “Some Kind of Wonderful” by The Drifters began to play, and I threaded our fingers together, our wounds pressed together. Drew eased out of the booth and tugged me to my feet. Sam jolted up, but when he saw we weren’t going anywhere, he relaxed again.

  We rocked to the music, quiet, as if the moment was sacred. Maybe it was.

&n
bsp; Chapter Twenty-Three

  Drew

  “Let’s go. Now.” Sonya shoved me with a lot of force for a woman.

  “What the hell?”

  “Stop talking and go. There’s a back exit off that corridor to your right.”

  I glanced at it, seeing an overhead sign pointing toward the restrooms. “Do you always scope out the exits?”

  Apparently, I didn’t get the urgency of the situation because the lethal look she gave me got my feet moving. “Hurry, but don’t draw attention to us.”

  “Who are you? GI Jane?”

  “Shut up, Carter, and get me out of here,” she hissed, maneuvering in front of me. She grabbed Sam’s leash in a panic, but more than that, she was excited. We burst out the back door into an alley, and she looked both ways. One end was closed off, so we were forced to the street. Sonya poked her head out, checked both ways, and decided it was clear. We took off, traveling away from the bar. We’d made it about a block before a man in a suit and his goon stepped out from a side street, blocking our path. Sam stood in front of her and snarled.

  “Well, well, Gwennie. I know you aren’t trying to escape me,” he said with a sinister smile as if the dog wasn’t there. The man had a few years on me, but I recognized our similarities in an instant. The suit was tailored, as was the shirt. Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. Matching Hermes tie and pocket square. Glittering diamond cuff links. And finally, the tell-tale signature of status: a Rolex.

  The goon reached out for Sonya, and I immediately moved her behind me. Sam bared his teeth and lunged, but the man jumped out of the way. He scowled, and I dared him to make a move.

  “This doesn’t concern you,” he said to me. “Believe me, if you walk away and leave her to me, you’ll be better off.”

  “I could say the same to you.”

  “You work quickly, don’t you, darling? Already found someone else to manipulate. Come now, sweetheart. Don’t hide behind this nice gentleman. It would be a shame to let him be pummeled on your behalf.”

  “I don’t know who you are. Gwennie is sweet. Did you know she looks after her dog? Works really hard so he has the best care.” What the fuck was I doing? Apparently learning by osmosis.

  The man gave me a look of mock pity. “She is not sweet. The only person she looks out for is herself.”

  “Oh, you can’t mean that,” I said, turning on my Texas drawl. It usually helped to disarm.

  “I do. Now kindly move so Gwen and I can have a chat.”

  “I can’t do that.” If I’d had on my cowboy hat, I would’ve flicked the brim up, a sign that I wasn’t afraid and sure as hell wasn’t backing down.

  “She has something that belongs to me, and I want it back. If she returns it, we’ll call it even,” he said. Not believing him for a minute, I narrowed my eyes, enjoying this little charade. “You the one who gave her the shiner?” The answering sneer told me all I needed to know. “I don’t give a damn if she did take something of yours. A man never lays a hand on a woman.” I nudged Sonya with my ass, urging her to start distancing herself. I was about to get in a fight, and damn if I didn’t look forward to it. The only thing that would make it any better was if Easton were here to help me take these two motherfuckers out.

  The goon was solid muscle, but his boss would be easy enough to eliminate. Without waiting, I smashed the woman-beater in the nose, the sound of bone crunching a prelude to the blood that sprayed like a geyser. He doubled over, holding his beak, and I focused on the muscle, landing a jab to his kidneys. An oof escaped him, but he was barely deterred. I shoved him into his boss, who fell to the ground with a shriek.

  A woman pushing a baby stroller toward us crossed the otherwise quiet street without making eye contact. A face peered out the window of the bar, but the few other people around pretended not to notice the fight going on.

  An uppercut, a blow to the jaw, and another to his nose had him staggering. He still landed a punch square on my cheek, which only pissed me off more. Sam got in on the action, biting at his pants leg and ripping them. I gripped the giant’s shoulders and kneed him in the stomach while he was distracted, using a leg to sweep his out from under him. He landed on the sidewalk with a thud, and I put my boot on his throat.

  “Let’s call this even. What do you say, boys?” The suit wheezed as the muscle gasped for air. One hard shove, and it would be all over. “Do you want to keep this guy? He’s shit at being a bodyguard,” I said, the suit looking up at me, blood covering his face and hands. “A broken nose hurts like a motherfucker.” I pretended to be sympathetic as a whimper escaped him. “Forget you ever knew her. If you even think about her, I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you do.”

  I applied pressure to the goon’s throat, and he gasped for a few seconds before I let up. When I turned my back and walked away, I whistled as though I hadn’t just beat the shit out of the two of them. Sonya was nowhere in sight, which was both a relief and a concern. If those two found her before I did, that black eye she’d had would be nothing. I whistled for Sam and headed in the direction of Paths of Purpose, half convinced she’d never show up there, but about six blocks into my trek, a hand darted out and dragged me into an alley.

  “Fuck me,” she demanded breathlessly. Sam jumped on her, his paws on her stomach. She kissed his nose. I snapped, and he sat beside us.

  “Thought you were at your limit for the day,” I teased, letting her touch me wherever she wanted. I never did that with other women. It felt good, like she was possessing me with every caress.

  “I didn’t say talk to me. I said fuck me.”

  “Sugar, I do believe you deserve better than an alley, and we’ve got a head start. We should take advantage.”

  “I intend to,” she said, moving toward the buttons of my shirt.

  I caught her wrists, and she glared at me, almost consumed in her mission to have me. I dragged her against me so she could feel just how much I wanted her too, hopefully softening the blow that we were not doing this here and now. “Tigress, when we get home, I promise you can have your way with me.”

  That didn’t placate her in the least. In fact, she seemed incensed. “I want you now.” She had my shirt half untucked from my jeans. Exhilaration shot through me that she wanted me this desperately.

  I pressed into her, halting all movement. “Is there anything you need from Paths of Purpose?” I asked darkly, praying to God she’d say no so I could take her back to the apartment and lose myself in her.

  Desire turned to anger, a defiant lift of her chin indicating she wasn’t going to make things easy.

  “You’re going home with me,” I informed her before she got any of her own ideas.

  “The hell I am,” she fired right back.

  This was going to be a monumental argument, but one I would win. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until I’m sure those two are no longer a threat.”

  “And how do you propose to do that?” She attempted to move her hands, but I still had her wrists shackled above her head.

  “Let me worry about that.”

  “I’m going back to the shelter.”

  “No.”

  “You have no say whatsoever. I’m safer there than with you.”

  We’d promised each other truth, and she was dishing out brutal honesty. It fucking stung. “I can’t protect you there.”

  “I don’t need your protection.”

  I swear the woman would argue with a fence post. “We’re not going to fight over this. You’re coming with me. That’s the end of it,” I said firmly. I had no idea what she was going to do next, but I covered my junk in case that was where we were headed.

  “When did you decide you were dictator of my life? Because you’re making a lot of decisions for me that aren’t yours to make.”

  “Such as?” I prompted.

  “Declaring we’re in some sort of relationship. This whole ridiculous honesty thing. Hell, meeting your mother.”

  “You could have said no to the trut
h pact,” I pointed out, and she growled. I brushed my lips across hers, which only seemed to anger her.

  “I’m going back to the shelter. Either you can escort me, or I’ll go alone.” She was a master at behaving like it made fuck-all difference what I did, but the flicker in her eyes warned me it mattered very much.

  “What do you have of that asshole’s?”

  She tried to recoil, but there was no place to escape. “It doesn’t matter.” I arched a brow, and she blew out a long breath through her nose. “Please don’t make me answer,” she said quietly.

  “Sugar . . .”

  “Stop calling me that,” she protested, pushing her hips off the wall to nudge me since her hands were otherwise occupied.

  “When I say that to you, it’s different than when I’ve called other women that,” I admitted. I’d asked for truth from her. It was only fair I gave her the same.

  Her mouth opened and then closed, then opened again, but nothing came out. She closed it again. I kissed the corner of it.

  “Let’s go home,” I murmured.

  “I’m going—”

  “I’ll walk you back.” I didn’t want to hear her rejection again. I released her wrists and backed out of her space.

  I strode out of the alley to the street, checking for the two I’d left in a heap on the sidewalk. I’d catered to Sonya more than I ever had to anyone. If she wanted to go back to Paths of Purpose, fine. But she couldn’t expect me to be a gentleman about it. I left her and headed in the direction of the shelter.

  She and Sam caught up to me, and she slipped her hand into mine. I glanced down in surprise but kept walking. “It’s a coin, and I think it’s pretty valuable.”

  “Think?”

  “I researched it on the internet. If it’s real, it’s worth about seven million.”

  “I can sort of sympathize with why he punched you.” I kept a smile on my face so she’d know I was teasing. What that bastard had done was unacceptable.

  “That’s why I’m not too upset over it.” She smiled back, and everything seemed right in the world.