The Vengeful Thief (Stolen Hearts Book 5)

by Mallory Crowe

  “So you have changed your mind?”

  “I’m late for work.”

  “But you haven’t answered my question.”

  “What does it matter?” she snapped. “You’re here. You’re his father, so what you want trumps what I want. What does my opinion matter?”

  He met her eyes. On some level, he knew she was right, but it didn’t change his pressing need to know for sure. “It matters to me.”

  She tightened her lips and tugged the door away from him until he wasn’t leaning on her car at all. “I’m going to work, Slade. I’ll talk to you later.”

  He let her sit down and shut the door on him. Why did her opinion matter so much? He knew she had no reason to like him. No reason to accept him. If she were smart, she’d take Josh and run far and fast away from him and all the problems he brought.

  That would be a mistake, of course. If she took his son, he’d hunt her down to the ends of the earth to bring them both back. It didn’t matter what she thought. He was back in Josh’s life, either way.

  She drove off and he watched her go. He was bringing nothing but shit to her doorstep, but somehow he still wanted her to like him. Damn, he was messed up in the head.

  “Stop it.” Gage walked next to him.

  Slade stared at the fading taillights as Liv drove down the street. “Stop what?” he said even as he knew full well what his friend was talking about.

  “You think me smoking is a distraction? What the fuck would you call that? Keep your head in the game. Josh deserves that.”

  “Josh deserves a hell of a lot more than me.”

  “Maybe, but you’re what he’s got. So do what you have to do. Leave the womanizing to me.”

  Slade turned on Gage and grabbed the man’s collar. “You stay away from Liv,” he snapped, shoving Gage back until he ran his friend into the garage door.

  Gage’s eyes narrowed and he tilted his head, seeming unconcerned about Slade’s hands right under his neck. “Never knew you to get so worked up over a skirt before. Did I miss something?”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss anything.” Gage pulled Slade’s hands off his clothes and then smoothed his collar down.

  Slade kept his cool and tried not to let on how embarrassed he was about his reaction. Gage was good, but if he slipped up like that in front of anyone else, he didn’t know what would happen.

  “Careful,” warned Gage.

  “Aren’t I always?”

  “Maybe. But you have guys going after your son to hurt you. What do you think they’re going to do to Liv if they think you’re into her?”

  Slade thought back to that afternoon when he’d seen Ken and Ray. How he’d put his arm protectively around her waist and held her back as he stared down his former cohorts.

  It was already too late. “Fuck,” he muttered. And then he was running for his bike.

  Liv scrolled through the screens on her phone as she looked for something to entertain her. In some ways, she loved her job. It gave her the days to spend with Josh and get errands done. Because it was the night shift, she didn’t have to work with many of the townsfolk. Not to mention that she got to spend the entire night with animals. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the locals in Laurie Falls. It was just that half the women would come up and tell her that they were “okay with her lifestyle” because they assumed she and Melissa were a couple. The other half would try to set her up with their male family members. She couldn’t win with them.

  Jackson, the terrier mix who was there overnight for observation, was curled up at her feet and snoring away. As sweet as he was, at the moment he was giving her precious little in entertainment value, which meant her cell phone was her only option. She’d tried to talk Armstrong, the local vet, into letting her set up a television in the small back room to keep her entertained during the long night, but he was adamant that a small-town vet office shouldn’t have a television, even in the back where no one could see it.

  At least there was an animal here. Because there were no emergency vets in a fifty-mile radius of where they were, she was in charge of assessing any late-night emergencies and determining whether it was worth dragging him out of bed to deal with.

  It didn’t pay much, but as she finished up her school, it would look great on a resume and eventually get her a real veterinary job. She might not have any benefits, but considering she didn’t have a lot of living expenses thanks to Melissa, she was pretty secure in the arrangement.

  And, in all truth, she was happy to be here right now. Away from the house. Away from Slade. She was almost guilty for thinking it. She should want to be around Josh in this hard time. But she was so stressed from dealing with Slade and the uncertainty of what was going to happen. Being able to be here and just sit down in peace and quiet for a few hours was great. She would deal with the havoc Slade had caused later. This moment right now was just for her.

  She let her head fall back and closed her eyes. Not sleeping. She wasn’t allowed to sleep on the job. But she could relax. She took a deep breath and enjoyed the silence for a fraction of a second before the pounding reached through the night.

  Her eyes popped open and she sat up in her chair. Jackson was also immediately at attention and he let out a deep bark as he stood up. He was only about sixty pounds, but his deep bark made him sound like a bigger, badder dog. Good. She wanted whoever was there to think that she was well protected.

  Liv stood and poked her head out of the door to the back room. Luckily, the front of the office was framed by two large windows so she could look out at the parking lot, which was lit by one dim bulb. There were no cars besides her own she could see out there, but she was sure she hadn’t imagined it.

  Was there finally an emergency that she needed to call Dr. Armstrong for? Why wouldn’t they bring a car? In this town, things were so close that not everyone had a car, but usually pet owners bringing dogs or cats to the vet wouldn’t arrive via a bike.

  She stepped carefully out into the lobby and looked around. The pounding started again. Liv took a calming breath until she reached the door and looked through the little peephole. Stupid small towns and their inability to have any concern for their well-being.

  She held her breath as she saw the outline of a man on the other side of the door, but then the shape clarified and she realized who it was. Son of a—

  She pulled the door open and glared at the man on the other side. “You’d better have a damn good reason for following me,” she said as Slade pushed past her and shut the door, locking it for good measure. He didn’t say anything, so she continued. “You already broke into my house last night and now you’re here? I’m waiting to hear some sort of—”

  He took her hand in his and started to lead her toward the back. Jackson, who was still barking, fell silent the second Slade came inside. The terrier backed away and sat down silently.

  Liv narrowed her eyes at the dog. “Coward,” she muttered as she pulled her wrist free from Slade’s grip. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He glanced around at the mostly empty cages and then went to each of the doors around them and checked to see whether they were locked. “I wanted to check on you,” he said offhandedly, as though what he was doing was perfectly normal.

  “Have you considered calling? Maybe texting. I’m not sure if we’re on a calling basis.”

  “Texts can be faked. People can lie on the phone. I trust my eyes.”

  “I’m glad you can trust your eyes because you and me are about to have some real trust issues. You can’t just come around me whenever you want and—”

  “Lacey was murdered.”

  She clamped her mouth shut and swallowed. What the hell did that mean? What was she supposed to say to that? “I’m not Lacey.”

  “But you were seen with me today. I was... protective of you. I was so focused on Josh being the target. Now I need to worry about you too.”

  Liv ran her hand over her mouth
as she tried to center her jumbled thoughts. “You can’t be serious. Thurrond doesn’t care about me. He’s never cared about me. But he’s proved that he’s willing to go after Josh. If you have to choose which one of us to watch over, the answer is Josh. The answer is always Josh.”

  “Melissa and Josh don’t want me around, remember? You were there. You’re the one who recommended Gage stay there.”

  “Well, I figured you’d do your creepy hide in the bushes thing.”

  “You want me to hide in the bushes from Melissa and Josh?”

  “No! I mean, if they need someone to, then yes. I want them to be safe!”

  “Gage can handle it.”

  “He’s only one guy.”

  “One guy I trained. He can more than handle whatever Thurrond has to throw at him.”

  She frowned at that. “That’s a lot of faith to put on one guy.”

  “Depends on the guy. After the things we’ve been through together, you learn to trust.”

  “What kind of things? What exactly have you been doing together?”

  “You interested in my personal life, Liv?”

  Well, it wasn’t as if there was anything else to talk about and for the moment, she seemed stuck with him. “Natural curiosity.”

  “Gage, like me, was blackmailed into working with Sterling.”

  “Sterling.... He’s the guy who faked your death.”

  “And if I ever stopped working for him, he’d tell Thurrond I was still alive. So I was stuck with him.”

  “What did he have on Gage?”

  Slade shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  “You never bothered to ask?”

  “It was personal. I sure as hell didn’t want to tell Gage what happened to me. If Gage wanted to come clean, he could’ve.”

  “You have a weird definition of trust.”

  “Gage is smart. He thinks on his feet and usually thinks outside the box. Sometimes you don’t need to be stronger or faster than your opponent. You just need to surprise them.”

  That did seem rather formidable, because Gage also seemed pretty damn strong and fast. So did Slade, for that matter. She wasn’t used to being surrounded by so many scary men. Considering this one wanted to protect her, that should be a plus, but she’d never needed protecting before....

  “You can’t stay here all night,” she suddenly blurted.

  Slade folded his arms over his chest. His leather jacket scrunched with the motion as he leaned back against the counter of supplies. “Why can’t I stay?”

  “Because you aren’t allowed,” she said, knowing exactly how prudish she sounded.

  “I won’t tell your boss if you don’t.”

  “But you aren’t allowed!”

  “How about you tell me if you want me to leave or if you want me to stay. Because I don’t give a damn if I’m allowed. You say the word and I’ll break every law I have to in order to be around you.”

  Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out. The offer was so unexpected and... hot. From the moment Slade had come to town, he’d been set on getting Josh to safety and reconnecting with him. She’d just been an obstacle to him getting what he wanted.

  But now here he was for her. Her surprise was immediately replaced with skepticism. She folded her arms in front of her and they each stared at each other. “What do you really want?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

  “I want everyone I care about safe.”

  “Okay. Then go back to your house and protect the people you care about. Stop bothering me.”

  “The people I care about kicked me out, remember?”

  “Then find a bar to crawl into or something. The point is, you can’t just follow me around.”

  “I’m not just following you around like a lost puppy. I was kicked out of the house and decided to come here.”

  “But why?”

  “I thought I told you.”

  “You told me you thought I was in danger. This is me, telling you, that if I’m in danger, it’s not your problem. So go ahead and ride your high horse right on out of here, okay?”

  Slade frowned and shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  For the love of— “I’m not in danger, okay? I’ve never been the one in danger. Go home and focus on Josh and leave me alone.”

  “Have I bothered you in some way?”

  He had to be joking. “You’ve bothered me in every way! You broke into my bedroom and have thrown off all of my equilibrium since you came here. Yes, you bother me!”

  He blinked a few times. “Well, tough shit. I’m not leaving.”

  She would have more luck talking to a brick wall at this point. “Why? We’ve established that you don’t need to be here and that I don’t want you here. So why do you continuously torment me?”

  “Because I want to be here,” he said abruptly.

  Liv’s mouth snapped shut and he stayed quiet too. She had a feeling he hadn’t meant to say that exactly, but he wasn’t taking the words back either. He wanted to be here? That had to be about her, right? It wasn’t as if he wanted to be in the abandoned vet clinic, no matter how cute Jackson happened to be at that moment.

  Liv ran a hand over her forehead and tried to get some control back over the situation. Did that mean he wanted to be with her? That made even less sense than him wanting to hang out with Jackson. She was just in his way. He knew almost nothing about her, and he sure as hell had shown no interest in her in any other way besides getting past her and closer to Josh.

  But that wasn’t true. She remembered those tumultuous first few minutes after they met. The way his eyes had scanned her body. How easy it was to forget he’d already seen her mostly naked.

  Scratch that. It wasn’t easy at all. There had been a lot of willful repression that had gone into convincing herself that the whole exchange had never happened.

  “I... I need you to leave,” she finally said.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “If you don’t leave, I’m going to make you.”

  He let out a snort of laughter. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Son of a— She might not be physically imposing, but there were plenty of weapons she could use on him here. Wait, weapons? Was she going to be fighting him off? She wanted him to leave, but how badly did she want it? Well, how hard was he going to make this on her? “I don’t want to make you do anything. Why can’t you just do what I tell you?”

  “Because I’m here to keep you safe whether you agree to it or not.”

  “Fine,” she muttered. She closed the distance between them, grabbed his arm and started to pull him toward the door. To clarify, she tried to pull him toward the door. But when she wrapped her hand around his leather-clad bicep, Slade didn’t even budge. He just raised his brow as she continued with her futile efforts.

  “Do you think this is funny?” she snapped.

  “No. I’m a hundred percent serious.” He reached out and put a hand behind her neck.

  Liv’s breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, everything froze. He wasn’t holding her. If anything, he was barely touching her, only the smallest parts of the pads of his fingers touching the sensitive base of her neck. But it was enough to send every single nerve ending on alert, and she stayed right in place.

  “Serious about protecting me?” she said with a suddenly dry mouth. She swallowed and licked her lips, but when she saw his eyes dart down with the motion, she knew that was a mistake. No. She shouldn’t be doing anything to draw attention to her in any way. “What are you doing?” she squeaked out.

  “Why aren’t you running?” he asked.

  “Do I need to?”

  He let out what sounded like a laugh, but it never quite formed. His warm breath caressed her cheek and sent goose bumps down her arm; she was pretty sure he could feel them form along the back of her neck. “I think you should be running as far and fast away from here as possible.”

  “I didn’t think I needed protecting from you.”
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  “Neither did I. But now I don’t seem capable of letting you go. Which puts you in a precarious position. But if you don’t want to go, that would solve both our problems.”

  “What would happen if I stay?” Even as she asked the question, he inched closer to her. Or was she inching closer to him? It was hard to tell who was responsible for this strange magnetism.

  “Nothing good,” he whispered.

  Before she could manage any more pointless questions, he finally kissed her.

  For a moment, Liv didn’t react at all. The whole thing was so preposterous. If twenty minutes ago someone had asked her if she’d ever kiss Peter Slade, she’d laugh in their face. But now here she was, and of all the instant reactions she had, none was to push him away. His lips were oddly cold, but that changed fast as they moved over hers.

  Her initial frozen reaction also melted soon enough and she kissed him back. Odd, considering it had been so long since she kissed anyone, but it seemed to come back to her easy enough.

  She could barely feel his warmth under the thick leather, but she could feel his hardness and strength in his arms. It was, in some strange way, a reminder of how wrong this was.

  This was his town and she was in the middle of his family. In the middle of so many things she couldn’t begin to understand.

  But now, as his lips moved over hers, everything else seemed to fade away until there were no more questions. She let her eyes drift closed and allowed her lips to move against his. Instead of questioning and debating and telling herself how wrong this was, she focused on how good this felt. On how soft and hard Slade was at the same time. She ran her hand along his jaw and felt the rough stubble of a day’s worth of growth.

  He was so masculine. Everything about Slade seemed to scream alpha male. The way he walked. The way he talked. The way he kissed....

  Sanity briefly took over and she pulled back, blinking in confusion as she tried to understand what was happening. “Why?”

  He shook his head. The motion brought his forehead against hers. “I don’t care. I want you, Liv. I have from the second I saw you on that bed. I wanted to be the one between your legs. The one bringing you pleasure. I want you.” As he spoke, he moved forward and pushed her back with each step until the sharp edge of the counter pressed into the top of her hips. The sudden discomfort was immediately alleviated by the warmth of his body as he pressed into hers.