Steal The CEO's Daughter - A Carny Bad Boy Romance

by Layla Valentine

  Laughter, then: “Jesus Christ. You’re actually here, Jake. You crazy motherfucker!”

  The speaker, a beefy man sporting an old black T-shirt with a smiley face and middle finger on it, sauntered in, casting a look around the place.

  “Saw the news, even had several guys tell me themselves, and still I couldn’t believe it. Had to see for myself.”

  He flopped onto the couch, which gave a sort of gasp at its new hefty occupant.

  “Well, here the fuck you are,” he said, throwing a tan, beefy arm out.

  “Hey, Jake.”

  At the door was a blonde with a cleavage-baring plaid top and a familiar smirk.

  “Dalia,” Jake said in a strained voice. “You came too?”

  Sauntering in, Dalia stopped in front of him, too close.

  “‘Course I did. Miss a chance to see Jake Harker, the famous dangerous criminal?” She put a hand on his chest. “Never.”

  Jake stepped back, shooting a glance at me. Dalia’s black-rimmed gaze followed his and stopped on me.

  “Oh. My. God. The billionaire’s daughter! She’s actually here, just like… Hang on. Should she just be out like this?”

  Now her long pink talon was pointing at me. Shaking his head, Jake took a step toward me.

  “No, actually, it’s not like—”

  I walked to the stairs.

  “I’ll let you all catch up.”

  Jake was one step behind me. His hand on my back, he said, “Let me explain it to them, babe.”

  But I continued up the stairs.

  “No, really. I have to go to the bathroom.”

  And then I left. Inside the little wooden box of the bathroom, I stared into the cracked mirror and noticed how the crack ran perfectly through the center of my face.

  Right now, what was it I was feeling?

  I inhaled, then exhaled, just how Donna had taught me to do when I was trying to reflect on what was going on inside me at our useless therapy sessions. That too-familiar blonde down there—was that what was bothering me? Or was it the dumpy gangster?

  I stared back into my reflection’s eyes. It was that, a bit, but it was more than that. It was that they had talked to Jake in a way I never had, had known him in a way I never had. They had been crass and familiar.

  Absently, I ran my second finger over the crack in the mirror. My finger came away bloody.

  What if these people, these rude, trashy people, knew Jake better than I did, knew the real Jake? What if this—how Jake had been acting—was all a temporary put-on? What if even Jake wasn’t sure who he really was?

  I stood there, but being stuck in the wooden box didn’t solve anything; it only made the questions descend upon me with a new fury.

  Once I opened the door and walked out, I heard voices from downstairs.

  “No. She’s not like that, okay? She could’ve turned me in a ton of times already and hasn’t. I’m telling you, Alice isn’t like that.”

  I walked over to the top of the stairs, and from his spot in the middle of the couch, Jake threw me a forced smile.

  “I was just telling Tom and Dalia how we bonded, being stuck here together due to my ill-advised crime.”

  Tom and Dalia swapped a knowing smile. Then a harsh laugh burst out of Dalia.

  Patting Jake’s chest, she said, “Oh, you dog you. I sure bet ya did.”

  Tossing me a sneer, she added, “Me and Jake have really bonded a few times too, ya know.”

  During the awkward silence in which I stood frozen, Jake rose.

  “How many girls exactly is it that you’ve bonded with here, Jake? Twenty? Thirty? More?” Dalia asked in a shrill voice.

  On the bottom stair, Jake froze.

  “Fuck off, Dalia,” he said quietly.

  Now Tom was rising, blood coming to his cheeks in red splotches.

  “Hey, man, we’re just trying to look out for you. This girl—look at her—she doesn’t know shit, okay? She doesn’t care about you. Her type, the rich superior ones—they look down on us like we’re a different species, like some sort of sub-humans. I mean, yeah, I know you told me you guys had your whole swimming romantic animal experience, but, Jake, listen to me, man. Dalia? She knows you. Me? I’ve known you how long? This girl, she’s playing you so she can go back to daddy, get you locked up for good, and post your pretty face in all the papers along with how mean and ruthless you were to ruin her perfect wedding.”

  Jake still wasn’t moving. His face looked like he’d been hit. And, in a way, he had. Tom’s words were ridiculous to me, but if Jake’s stricken expression was any indication, they had been the very fears that had been playing at the edge of his mind.

  Well, I wasn’t just going to stand there and let Tom pretend he knew the first thing about me.

  “Jake, don’t listen to him,” I said.

  Tom’s voice rose to a boom as he said, “Okay, let’s just say both of you are as bat-shit in love as you say you are.”

  Looking from one of us to the other, he continued. “Your plan of escape and eluding the police is completely idiotic. You’re gonna drive around who knows where for who knows how long, trying to escape the biggest manhunt Colorado’s had since that prison escape, like, twenty years ago?”

  Jake and I exchanged a worried look. Hearing our plans laid out like that, they did sound pretty idiotic.

  “You have any better ideas?” Jake growled.

  Tom collapsed back onto the couch with a sigh, the furniture groaning under his weight.

  “Always knew you were a crazy son of a bitch,” he muttered.

  Now it was Dalia’s turn to rise, saying, “I think—”

  “Fuck off, Dal,” Tom muttered, shoving a hand in his pocket.

  His pudgy tan hand reappeared with a wad of bills.

  “You’re gonna need this if you’re gonna get anywhere.”

  He chucked it at Jake, who caught it easily. To both of our blank stares, Tom snorted.

  “You guys really didn’t fuckin’ think this over, did you?”

  Sweeping a hand through his long greasy hair, he continued, looking at Jake.

  “Here’s the story: You’re on the run for that shit-tacular bank robbery you pulled. So, you can’t show your face most places or you’re done for, and you definitely can’t use any cards or any of that kind of shit unless you want a nice visit from some officers of the law.”

  He turned his beady dark gaze on me.

  “You’re supposed to be kidnapped, so if your cards get used or if you get recognized, you’re fucked too. I’d suggest some hair dye, some ugly shit you buy at the grocery store like Dalia does.”

  “Fuck you, Tom,” Dalia hissed.

  Unfazed, Tom turned to Jake again and said, “I still have that smelly Rasta wig in my truck, and that ugly-ass shirt you bought me as a joke. You want ‘em?”

  Despite the circumstances, one corner of Jake’s lips raised in a half smile.

  “Let me look at them.”

  Tom disappeared through the front door, leaving us with Dalia, whose hatred made Jake’s cabin—which I had once thought surprisingly roomy—feel suffocatingly stuffy. Her black-rimmed glare was directed at me, although she took breaks to flick it at Jake, who had his arm around me.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he whispered in my ear.

  I nodded instead of admitting that, after Tom’s rant, I didn’t believe him.

  Luckily, Tom was back in a door-slammed flash. Dumping the items on the floor, he said, “Enjoy.”

  As Tom flopped back onto the couch, Jake went over and crouched before the strange pile.

  After lifting what looked like a giant series of spider legs, which turned out to be the wig, he dropped it and coughed.

  “Shit, that thing is still potent as hell.”

  Tom laughed.

  “Yeah. Check out your shirt, too.”

  Jake lifted the tie-dyed, hippie-esque button-down less gingerly.

  “Nah… I mean, you really think so?”r />
  Tom nodded.

  “Do you want to end up in the Colorado state prison or not?”

  Jake shrugged.

  “Fine, whatever. But what’s this?”

  Now he was holding a bright pink and yellow flowery piece of clothing that definitely didn’t look like it was intended for males.

  “Chill, bro. Thought Alice could use it, maybe. It was Dalia’s, but she’s too fat now.”

  As Dalia elbowed Tom, Jake lifted the teeny, flamboyant dress to get a better look at it. With a laugh, he shook his head.

  “Thanks for trying, man, but Alice would never wear this—it’s not her style.”

  Tom snorted.

  “That’s the goddam point, dipshit.”

  Silence while all eyes flicked to me. With a sigh and a wave of my hand, I said, “Fine. I’ll try it.”

  As the others cheered and exchanged high fives, I smiled a little myself. There. That should show them that I wasn’t some stuck-up princess unwilling to do anything for anyone other than herself.

  A few minutes later, Jake and I were all decked out in our hideous attire, both of us coughing from the horrendous smell emanating from Jake’s head, the pile of scraggly wool they kept affectionately calling his “Rasta hat.”

  As Tom surveyed our dismal condition, he forced his face into a smile.

  “Eh, not bad. I mean”—he leaned in, took a good whiff, and then coughed—“the smell’s pretty rank, but you only have to wear it when you’re going public places, not when you’re, like, fu—uh—bonding and stuff.”

  “Fuck you, Tom,” Jake said in a joking tone, ripping off the wig and chucking it at Tom, who leaped off the couch to escape the thing’s smelly path.

  “Well, at least you look hot,” Jake said to me, his gaze lingering on the low-cut neckline of the diminutive thing I was wearing.

  “And completely ridiculous,” I said.

  Tom chuckled.

  “Yeah. I mean, you could totally wear that on the run and while bonding.”

  At this, Jake tore off his shirt and, topless, began whipping it into Tom’s back, who howled as he ran away.

  Once they had made the rounds of the cabin a few times and finally collapsed, laughing, onto the couch, Jake asked, “Hey, wanna join us for my Last Supper?”

  Tom got up, sauntered over to the fridge, and yanked open the door.

  “Sure, only…your fridge ain’t got shit.”

  Jake rolled his eyes.

  “Thanks, man; I wasn’t aware.”

  Tom leaned on the counter and glanced at Gerald’s tank.

  “Ooh, that is, unless the furry friends you’re keeping—”

  “Hey, thanks for reminding me. You will look in on them while I’m gone, right?”

  Tom sank onto the floor with a sort of growled moan.

  “Don’t make me do that, Jake.”

  “C’mon, bring your sister, Adelaide. She’s in vet school, isn’t she? Perfect experience.”

  “She lives far as fuck, man. It would be such a hassle to drive her all the way up here.”

  “Dude, if you kill my animals, I will kill you.”

  “Not if you’re in jail.”

  “You know how many guys owe me favors?”

  Silence.

  “Shit. All right, all right. Fine.”

  Jake grinned and then took out his phone. “Speaking of dinner, I have some pizza to order.”

  As Tom and Dalia gaped at him in disbelief, Jake winked at me and, into the phone, said, “Yeah, Bob. Yeah, man, I know. One last time, then I’m out of your hair for good. Okay, for a few weeks, though. Yeah, yeah. Same place. You know it.”

  Jake hung up.

  “What?” he asked Tom and Dalia’s still surprised faces. “Some guy owes me a favor; I told you.”

  “Is there anybody who doesn’t owe you a favor?” Dalia asked.

  “Yep,” Jake said, walking over and slinging his arm around me. “Alice. I owe her, like, a hundred.”

  “A hundred and two,” I corrected, patting his cheek.

  He kissed me, and Tom ambled out the door.

  “Gross. I’m having a smoke!” he yelled over to Dalia. She hurried out to join him with a questioning glance at Jake, who shook his head.

  “Haven’t smoked for months now,” he said.

  I nodded and then joked, “Is there any bad habit you haven’t had?”

  “Yeah,” he said as he shot a sidelong look at me. “Being in love.”

  That called for more kissing, which neither of us was averse to.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jake

  Bob took his sweet-ass time delivering the pizza. Still, by the time his shining bald head appeared at my doorstep, Pip had had some time to appear and bark a greeting at Tom and Dalia. Seeing Bob carrying her next-favorite food after squirrels (ham and bacon pizza), Pip trotted up and barked a greeting at him too.

  Huddled in the corner of my porch, his face less than amused, Bob declared in a deadpan voice, “If your dog bites me, I’ll kill you.”

  To which I replied, “And?”

  A significant look in his eye, Bob retorted, “And then you won’t have any pizza.”

  Nodding, I called Pip off and then took the box.

  “Thanks, man.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Bob said, walking away already.

  “Hey, Bob?”

  He stopped but didn’t turn.

  “You want one?”

  Now he turned around, his bushy black brows raised in incredulity.

  “You kidding me, man? I have that crap every day—morning, noon, night, dessert. Sick of the stuff.”

  Pip started to make her way back toward Bob as he continued to his little white ‘Sexy Pizza’ labeled car. He called over his shoulder, “Give my piece to your dog.”

  So I did. She carried it inside proudly.

  “Wow, looks delish,” Tom said sarcastically.

  Although after we’d opened the box and he’d had his first bite, Tom kept his mouth shut since he was enjoying the damn thing so much.

  It was an “idiotic” scene as Tom would say, or a “sweet” one as Alice would. All four of us crammed together on my crummy couch, stuffing our faces with Sexy Pizza that was actually yummy, the delicious tang of the ham and bacon mixing strangely with the ever-potent stench of the Rasta hat (which we had chucked outside fifteen minutes ago). Everyone smiling at pizza, or, more likely, nothing in particular.

  It was weird. Alice and I were about to go on the run for two crimes I’d made a mess of, and we could end up never seeing Tom or Dalia again. I should have been nervous, a little afraid, maybe exhilarated. Instead, I felt utterly at ease. Like finally I was on the right path somehow. A fucked-up, dangerous, and risky one, sure, but still, finally, one that felt right. Splat on the couch in the middle of everyone, with my past on one side of me and my future on the other, I felt like right here, right now, I could do anything.

  Tom was the one who broke my reverie.

  “Goddam, was that some sexy pizza.”

  “Only 12 dollars for a large,” I chirped.

  Then, silence. Tom slapped me on the back.

  “Christ, am I gonna miss you, you big fuckup.”

  I mussed up his hair and then rose. We hugged.

  “Thanks, Tom. For everything.”

  Tom shifted, and next thing I knew, Alice’s head was beside me, engulfed in Tom’s huge hug.

  “You take good care of this crazy man, you hear?” Tom said to her.

  She laughed.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Tom shifted again, and, after some scuffling, Dalia’s bitter, bleached head was between Tom and me.

  “Good luck, Jake,” she said. “You’re all right.”

  With this impressive remark setting the tone for our group hug, Tom gave everyone one more giant squeeze, and then we separated.

  “You want us to go first or you?” Tom asked.

  I shook my head.

  “You can stay h
ere for as long as you want to take care of everything, if you feel like it. Or just stop in every few days or so to feed the little shed guys.”

  Tom’s jaw actually dropped, showing a row of cigarette-ravaged lower teeth.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Just don’t do anything idiotic like blow it up or eat the toad.”

  “Shit, yeah—I mean no, of course not.” Tom shook his head so hard that some sticky strands of hair detached from his head and wagged along too. “Fuckers at my job just gave me the boot too, and—” His excited gaze flicked to me again. “Seriously?”

  I nodded, and Tom hugged me, whooped, and then hugged Dalia.

  “We got ourselves a regular old mountainside getaway, Dal!”

  As they whooped and raced around like kids on Christmas morning, Alice and I made our way to the door.

  “How do those two know each other exactly?” Alice asked.

  I turned back to survey them once more. I shrugged.

  “They never mentioned it, actually. Think some metal concert maybe.”

  “Ah.”

  Another silence. Then Alice asked, “Shouldn’t we pack?”

  I shook my head and explained. “I loaded in all our stuff while you were sleeping. Not like there was much anyway.”

  Her face went through an adorable sequence of surprise, confusion, and irritation before settling on a guarded sort of delight.

  “You knew we’d go together all this time?”

  I nodded.

  “I guess you could say that.”

  She kissed me, laughed, and then took my hand.

  “Well, we better get going then.”

  So we did. All decked out in our ridiculous costumes, our bellies full of delicious pizza, we got into the same black van Alice had been in the back of last time.

  Once I started the engine, Tom and Dalia, as well as Pip, ran to the doorway.

  As we drove off, they waved, whooped, and barked. In the rearview mirror, they shrank to tiny specks. Then we turned around a bend and they were gone.

  That was it. No more petty household or friend concerns. There was only the road, the cops, and us, and who was going to beat who.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alice