by Maisey Yates
Quinn chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, he’s actually right. Except on one score.” He leveled his gaze on her, and even in the dark, she could feel the intensity of it. “I’ll let you guess which one it is.”
Her face burned hotter and her eyes drifted to the point below his waistband, which was, thankfully, obscured by the darkness. She only hoped that lapse, that moment when she’d looked, without thinking of course, had gone unnoticed by him. “I can’t think of what it might be.”
“Do I seem nice to you?”
“No.”
“Humble?”
“Not in the least.”
“How’s my attitude?”
She swallowed. “Bad.”
“Then I think you know the answer.”
“Sick. Men are sick,” she said.
“You said it, honey, not me. I don’t have very much in the way of honor, but I’ll defend what I’ve got.”
“Well, congratulations on your penis.”
He laughed, and not that kind of superior chuckle, but a real laugh. “Thank you kindly, ma’am. I expect I ought to let you get back home now.”
“Yeah. I expect. Look, we’ll be able to do this as long as I don’t have to deal with you very much. I do like what you’re doing here, but I don’t like you. I can’t. I suppose you understand that.”
He nodded once. “Sure. See you tomorrow.”
“Right. Well.” She waved and turned away from him.
Quinn shoved his hands in his pockets and watched Lark walk back to her car. The conviction in her voice when she’d been talking about Cade had been a surprise. It made him wonder if everything about the injury was true. If it really had been that bad.
But he had to find out for himself. Cade had been so willing to chuck Quinn under the wagon that it made him suspicious. Blame like that was only useful when you were trying to cover your own ass.
Otherwise, why point the finger so vehemently? He would find out for sure and go from there. He knew one thing. He knew that no matter his physical state, he was going to make Cade clear his name.
And if he wouldn’t, Quinn wasn’t above making the other man’s life a little more hellish.
Sure, it was petty. Sure, Cade had already lost a lot. But he’d stripped everything from Quinn, for no reason at all. He’d left him with nothing. Because the rodeo had truly been his whole life.
And a man with nothing but time on his hands was a very dangerous thing.
Cade Mitchell would discover that soon enough.
Lark put her car in drive and pulled away from the property, skidding on the gravel, in a hurry to put him behind her.
She had a smart mouth on her. When Cade had talked about his little sister in the circuit, he hadn’t mentioned that. He’d made her sound like a girl. Sweet and vulnerable. But she was a woman who packed a punch. A woman with some pretty intense loyalty.
If it came to it, loyalty like that could always be turned. Twisted.
And at the moment, he wasn’t feeling like that was too far beneath him.
Hell, very few people seemed to think anything was beneath him. Might as well prove them all right.
***
“How was work?”
Lark jumped while closing the front door and ended up slamming it a lot harder than necessary. Cole was standing there looking fatherly. So annoying.
“Good,” she said. She would leave out the part about Quinn Parker being her boss. It was a big part, but it was the one that made her look stupid and a little like a turncoat, so she was keeping that on the down low. “I set up an entire computer lab. I’ll be working on getting all the right things installed on all the computers over the next week. It’s a ranch for troubled youth, so I need to get a lot of safeguards on the computers, and I’m just going to assume the little punks are computer hackers. It will make my life more interesting, and it will keep there from being any breaches in security once things get going.”
“No porn on the premises?”
“That’s the idea. And no unauthorized contact via computer. Which seems archaic, but these kids have been removed from bad influences by their parents, by and large, so contact through email, text, whatever, that’s not happening.”
“Smart. Are you sure you’re going to be safe over there with a bunch of hooligan-type kids?”
“Hooligans? Really?”
“Riffraff.”
She rolled her eyes. “If anyone offers me a cigarette, I’ll say no.”
“I am kind of serious, though. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
“I’ll be safe. Actually, I met most of the staff tonight. There are cowboys that are going to guide the kids through the ins and outs of ranch work—teachers. One is a survival guide, and he’ll be taking them on hikes.”
“Sounds . . . good.”
“Yes. It does. And legitimate. Nothing sketchy. I did a good job.” She wasn’t just lying by omission; she was lying like a rug. And she hadn’t really intended to do that, but it had kind of come out, and now it was too late to take it back. Anyway, she deserved a little respect from Cole. She was a grown-ass woman and all that.
“I’m sure you did.”
“You are not. That’s why you were waiting by the door to pounce and ask about my day.”
“You are late. You’re not getting worked too hard, are you?”
“Nope. I got fed. I ate with the teachers.”
“Sounds . . . good,” he said again.
“It is.”
“What’s good?” Cade was standing in the kitchen doorway, a bottle of beer in his hand.
“My job,” she said, her face heating. Because she felt like a jerk. Because what had seemed okay a moment ago didn’t seem so easily justified with her brother standing there. “It’s going well. Everything is legit. Cole was sure I’d done something really stupid.”
“I never said that.”
“You pretty much did. Because let’s be honest, Cole—you think I can’t make my own decisions.”
“I never said that either.”
“But you think it.”
He let out a heavy breath. “Lark, I’m sorry, but you’re my baby sister—”
“Who is twenty-damn-two, thank you very much.”
“And you live at home.”
She winced. “And you want that to change?”
“Hell. No. I’m just saying, you’re still under my protection, Lark, and I take that very seriously.”
“Cole.” Cade shook his head. “She’s not a kid. You have to ease up.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Cole pushed his hat back on his head and scowled. “If you want to act like I’m a tyrant, then give me a chance to act like a tyrant. Fine, I don’t think you know a damn thing about the real world. I said it. So I worry about you now that you think you’re just going to go out into it.”
“I’m down the street,” Lark said. She was angry, angrier probably because she’d effed up and gotten tricked by Quinn. Because in some ways, Cole had been right, and she should have asked for his help, but because she hadn’t she was in an impossible situation. “And anyway, I deal with people online all the time for the business. I know how to conduct myself.”
“Virtually,” Cole said.
“Knock it off, asshole,” Cade said, coming to stand beside Lark. She almost laughed. Because Cade had given her a hard time about the same thing not that long ago, but obviously he wouldn’t let Cole do it too. And because she didn’t deserve to have Cade defending her.
“It’s fine.” She looked at Cole. “It’s fine. Cade, Rockstar me.”
Cade rolled his eyes and went back into the kitchen, returning a moment later with her favorite energy drink in hand. She lifted it and smiled. “Thanks. Now I’m going upstairs to recede into my virtual world like the little soc
ially challenged creature I am. Feel free to hang out down here and talk about how incapable I am. I’ll be resting up. For that job thing I have that I got on my own and that rocks. Oh, and did I mention that I’m making really good money? Because I am.”
She turned and started to head up the stairs.
“Lark.”
She turned and looked down at Cole. “What?”
“Sorry. I’m overprotective. I can’t turn it off that easily.”
She flicked the tab on the soda can. “Right. I know. Thanks.”
“Seriously, don’t be mad at me, please. Or I will send in the baby to give you kisses.”
“Ohhhh . . . fine,” she said. “But I’ll take kisses from my niece any time.”
“I knew I would get you.” He smiled, a little sheepishly, and some of her annoyance disappeared.
“Yeah, yeah. Fine. I’m going now.” She continued up the stairs and into her room, closing the door behind her and pressing her computer’s on button while sinking into her chair.
She knew Cole meant well, but honestly. She wasn’t a kid. She put her feet up on her desk and grimaced. Okay, maybe she still acted a little like a kid sometimes. She slowly lowered her feet back to the floor.
But then, there were a lot of people in her particular field who were like her. She was a computer geek, but she also made her money with computers, so it was acceptable. She clicked the icon for her favorite game and started loading up a campaign that was already in progress. Before she was able to transition from the waiting room to the map, there was a knock on her door. “Come in.”
The door opened and Cade was there, leaning against the frame. “Hey.”
“Hi.” She looked down. She didn’t really want to talk to Cade right now. It would only stab her conscience. But he was being nice, and she didn’t want to be a jerk during the rare moment when he wasn’t.
“Sorry about Cole. You know how he gets.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“And while I tend to express it more by busting your chops, I understand how he feels.”
“You?”
“You’re our baby sister. I know it was scary as hell for you to lose mom like we did. And I know it was scarier to lose dad too. To have no one. You were so young, and . . . and I can’t imagine what it felt like being left with just . . . us. But from our point of view? We were all you had and we were just a couple of dumbass guys. Me, a skanky rodeo cowboy, and Cole, with the dysfunctional marriage and do-gooder complex. We weren’t fit for you, Lark. And we knew it. And you have no idea how terrifying that is. So we tried to compensate.”
“You were hardly ever here.”
“I was making good money, and you know it wasn’t just for me.”
She nodded mutely.
“And Cole . . . Cole stayed married to that witch way longer than he should have because he was trying to do the right thing. Because he was trying to be enough.”
“He should have asked me. Because I would have told him to ditch the bitch.”
Cade laughed. “Yeah. Thank God he finally did.”
“And thank God for Kelsey, who generally keeps Cole’s focus off of me.”
“The point is, I know Cole is a pain, but I know how he feels too. You were our responsibility starting at a young age, and sort of like obnoxious parents, it’s hard for us to let go.”
Lark bit her lip, guilt rolling through her. “Yeah, I know . . . I do know that it’s hard. You guys are all I have too. I know how suddenly you can lose family. I know how quickly life can get upended. Something happens and everything changes. That’s one reason I’ve been happy staying here. One reason I haven’t wanted to leave. Because I know family is precious, and you guys are all the family I have.” Her throat tightened.
She felt like a worm. A gross, slimy, sibling-betraying worm.
Except what choice did she have? If she didn’t follow through, she had no doubt that Quinn would show up here, smug and jackassy and demanding payment for the broken deal. She would look like an idiot, and he would get money from her family.
At least this way he wasn’t taking money from the Mitchells, and he wasn’t giving money to them either. He would have to pay a Mitchell for doing damn fine work. That was something, anyway.
“And we love you and stuff, which is where the attitude comes from sometimes.”
“Thanks, Cade.”
He put his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, well. Don’t tell anyone about this little moment of sincerity. It’ll damage my rep.”
“I won’t let anyone know you were decent for five minutes, don’t worry.”
He winked. “Thanks.” Then he straightened and closed her door. She shut her eyes and listened to his footsteps, uneven and heavy thanks to his limp, as he went down the hall.
Yes, she was a worm. But a worm in a binding contract, so there was really nothing she could do about it.
Nothing but finish the job. And she would do it really, really well so he would have nothing to complain about. When she thought about it, he’d probably expected her to pitch a hissy fit when she found out who he was. Which she had. And he’d probably really like her to quit so he could do his broody, nasty bad-guy thing and come collect money from Cade.
Or at the very least, he’d probably love to find her in breach of contract due to her behavior.
Too bad. He wasn’t going to get the chance. Nope.
She might have made a mistake signing the contract, but he’d made a mistake thinking that she would be the easy way to get to Cade. There was a vague woman-in-the-refrigerator air about it all. Too bad for him, she wasn’t a passive, two-dimensional comic book woman. She was a real woman, and she was going to hold her ground.
She turned back to her computer and clicked into the map, adjusting the scope of her virtual gun and training the site onto a passing zombie.
Oh, yes. Quinn Parker had underestimated her. She squeezed the virtual trigger and leaned back in her chair.
She wasn’t weak. And she would prove it.
Chapter Four
When Lark showed up at work the next morning, she was dressed more casually than she’d been the day before. Dark blue jeans and a button-up top that looked like she’d bought it up at the general store.
Plaid with little silver-rimmed, pearl-centered snaps. Interesting. He couldn’t help but wonder how easy buttons like that would be to pop open.
Quinn redirected his thoughts and walked over to where Lark was standing, about to go into the computer room.
“Morning.”
“Good morning,” she said, her eyes dropping to just below his belt, her cheeks turning pink.
Remembering their exchange from last night, no doubt. She was a sharp woman, that was for sure, with an even sharper tongue. He kind of liked it. He was used to women who didn’t try to challenge him. Women who were a little tipsy and into feeling his muscles, and then some, back at the hotel. Women who got all breathless and wanted him to be rough and dirty and everything they imagined having a bad boy in their bed would be.
He had a feeling Lark would gut-punch him if he tried anything. And for some reason that made her buttons, and the thought of undoing them, more interesting.
There was something wrong with that. Something wrong with him. Well, that wasn’t new news. He’d known there was something wrong with him from day one. So had everyone in his family.
“Yeah, it is. Do you know what you’re doing today?”
“Getting everything online and building a porn fence those little bastards won’t be able to scale no matter how hot the boob-lust burns.”
“Good luck. Teenage boys are highly motivated by topless women. If ever one of them was going to become a hacker, that would be why.”
His eyes flickered down to those buttons again. It wasn’t only teenage boys who were motivated by breasts.
“It might lead to a job opportunity, because trust me, if they can bypass my security measures, then the future is bright in the computer industry for them.”
“You’re that good?”
“I’m going to build the Great Firewall. You’ll be able to see that sumbitch from space.”
“No alcohol. No naked women.” He paused. “We really are bringing them into hell for a reboot.”
“They need it, don’t they?” she asked.
Quinn nodded, trying to get his mind off of those buttons. “Yeah. They do. I wish I’d had a place like this. I might have got my head on straight a little sooner.”
“What was it that made you get your head on straight?”
“Jail sucks,” he said. “That and I wanted a career in the rodeo, which you can’t do from behind bars. You have to be around to ride. You have to be willing to bust your ass, and when you’re busy working hard, you’re too tired to get into trouble.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I’ve made some mistakes in my life, but trust me when I say most of them happened more than a decade ago.”
She bit her lip like she was trying to keep words from punching their way out of her mouth. Then she relaxed a little. “Well, great. Good for you. Good for you . . . I’m going to . . . build the Great Firewall.”
“Of course.”
She disappeared into the building and he shook his head, turning and heading back toward the house. He had some paperwork to deal with. Having Longhorn turned into a nonprofit meant there were a lot of Is to dot and Ts to cross.
And if his brain was occupied with all of that, then he couldn’t obsess about Lark and her buttons. He had way more important things to obsess about. Paperwork, for starters.
And what Sam would be reporting from Elk Haven Stables.
***
Jill looked around the cabin she would be staying in with her husband for the next week. Courtesy of his dickhead boss. She let out a breath and walked to the far wall of the cabin, then back again. It was a very small space to be sharing with Sam, all things considered.