The Beautiful Thief (The Stolen Hearts #2)

by Mallory Crowe

  As soon as they were out, the guy lowered his gun and ran for a shiny black sedan. Since he was in a fuck-it mode, Adam followed and got in the passenger seat right as the car peeled off.

  “You’re a fake drinker,” said Adam as soon as he knew they were out of shooting range.

  “Trust me, it was real drinking. I have an astronomical tolerance. Want to tell me why you didn’t shoot that guy in the face? I didn’t think anything would get you out of there alive.”

  Adam held up the gun. “Not loaded.” He ejected the empty clip and pulled back the slide to reveal nothing was there.

  “You could tell by the weight?”

  “I know my guns. Now do you want to tell me who the hell you are?”

  “My name is Scott Hart. And if you have a death wish, I might have a better use for you.”

  Melody crumpled up the paper and threw it into the trash. “This is pointless.” She and Toni had been through about a hundred different scenarios, but there was no trap they could think of for Forbes.

  That was wrong. There were plenty of traps. But every single plan they thought of ended up with all of them dead. Forbes had an entire police force after her, ready to shoot to kill.

  “Don’t sound so defeated.” Toni’s fingers worked rapidly over the keyboard of her laptop.

  “Why? Do you have any better ideas?”

  Toni didn’t get the cocky smile she got whenever she used her skills to solve some puzzle, so Melody knew the answer already. “You know this town better than me,” she said. “Isn’t there somewhere we can trap or corner Forbes?”

  “Nowhere private. There are abandoned factories and warehouses all over, but they’re all wide open spaces.”

  Toni pulled the hair tie out of her braid and pulled at the strands of hair. A nervous habit that Melody recognized. Toni had only put her hair in the braid about twenty minutes ago. She’d probably wear it down for half an hour before doing something else with it. “Jennifer and Austin are just—”

  “No,” said Melody, making sure her tone conveyed exactly how strongly she felt about it. “Forbes knows what they look like. The officers at the roadblocks have to have their pictures. I’m not going to put Jennifer at risk for this. If we have to get our revenge later, we will.”

  There was a knock on the door. Toni jumped off the bed, perfectly balancing her laptop and power cord before Melody could even move. “That had better be Scott. That stupid cop should’ve been here hours ago.”

  Melody stayed in the chair as Toni ran to the door. It seemed as if she was jumpy but considering the circumstances, it was understandable. Toni checked the peephole before she pulled the door open. “What the hell, Hart? What took you so long and who is this?”

  Melody leaned forward to see who she was talking to and the notebook fell out of her hand when she saw Adam walk in with Scott. It was her turn to jump up as Adam’s eyes found hers. Before she could get sucked into the ice-blue, the red on his arm got her attention. “Oh my God, what happened?”

  “You ditched me and I found trouble.”

  “Come on.” Scott walked straight back to the bathroom area. “I have a first-aid kit.” He held up the black briefcase-sized box. Obviously it wasn’t just some Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment.

  “A first-aid kit! He needs to go to the hospital.”

  “I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Adam winced immediately after as Scott poured something over the gaping wound on his arm.

  Toni went pale as the blood and alcohol mixed in the sink. “What the hell happened?”

  “Forbes found Smith, and I found them both.”

  “Bastard is traveling with bodyguards,” muttered Adam as Scott twisted his arm around. Adam jerked his arm free and drops of blood spilled on the counter. “I got this,” he snapped. “Go empty the mini bar or something.”

  “The mini bar?” asked Toni. “Where exactly did you find him?”

  “The bigger bar,” said Scott dryly as he backed up to let Adam take over. “What did I miss?”

  “A failed brainstorm session about how to kill Forbes. Which is even harder now that he knows what you look like. Which makes exactly zero people he doesn’t know about who are here. You were off ruining our one chance of surprising this guy and you’re supposed to be the one who is so good at all this strategy stuff. So, yeah, that about sums up what you missed.”

  Adam scoffed. “Didn’t realize I was stepping in the middle of something.”

  “You’re not even supposed to be here,” said Melody. It sounded harsh, but here he was, bleeding all over the place while Scott and Toni bickered and she just wasn’t at a spot she could handle this.

  Adam motioned with his head to Scott. “He thought I could help. Some people think I’m useful.”

  “What name is this room under?” asked Scott, ignoring Adam.

  “I got into the computers first thing,” said Toni. “As far as they know, this room is rented by long-term tenants. If they’re looking for Melody, they’d only look for short-term stays.”

  “I think you’re going to need to get another room. It’s feeling a little crowded.”

  “Easy. I just need to get into the lobby to access the employee Wi-Fi. Their router is shit.”

  “Good. Let’s go. We can strategize. As it happens, I do have ideas.”

  “Ideas I need to know too,” pointed out Melody.

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure Toni will be the first person to tell me if I have any stupid ones. We’ll be back in a few.”

  Toni started to collect her laptop.

  “Wait!” called Melody as they reached the door

  They both stopped and looked at her. “Why?” asked Toni.

  Melody’s mouth opened and closed. “Never mind,” she murmured. “Just go.”

  The door shut behind them and Melody stared wistfully at her buffers as she was left alone with Adam.

  “Finally,” he said. “Maybe if they screw, it will keep your sister from killing me.”

  That snapped Melody out of it. “What?” she snapped as she turned around to where he had started to stitch himself together. Wow, that was fast. How many wounds had he stitched up in his time?

  “That was the infamous Toni and she didn’t stab me, shoot me, or scold me. I’m the last person to pick up on emotional subtleties, but trust me, those two want to bone.”

  “People don’t use the word ‘bone’ anymore.”

  Adam put another stitch in his arm. “Sorry I’m not much for conversation at the moment. I’m trying not to bleed out.”

  “It’s not bleeding that much.”

  “You’re really coming up short on the sympathy today, aren’t you?”

  “I told you to leave. If you had gotten out of town when I told you to—”

  “Don’t,” warned Adam as he put in the last stitch. He used his free hand to cut the needle end of the string off.

  Melody might not be trained to treat a field injury, but she knew the next step in giving stitches was easier with two hands.

  “Hold on.” The string was slick with blood but Melody forced herself to not think about what she was doing. Only the end result of what needed to get done. “You need to go to a doctor.”

  “I’ve had worse.”

  “Doesn’t mean you don’t need to see a doctor.”

  He let out a bitter laugh. “You see, when you say things like that, it almost makes me think you care.”

  Melody looked up at him through her lashes. “Don’t do this, Adam.”

  “That’s right. You wanted to just send me back to the swamp, didn’t you? You got everything you could out of me and now that your sister and rent-a-cop are here, I can wander back into the darkness.”

  “It’s easy to think that, isn’t it?”

  “Think it? It’s exactly what happened. I was there. I lived it.”

  “Adam, I—”

  The door to the motel room opened and Melody immediately jumped back a good foot. Adam was staring inten
sely in her direction, so Melody focused on Toni and Scott. Adam seemed to think there was something going on between them. Melody had never really considered it, but in fairness, in the time since she’d met Scott, her head hadn’t really been in the game.

  Toni took her laptop and set it in her bag, but Scott seemed to be paying more attention to Adam. “How’s the arm?” he asked.

  “Good as new,” he lied.

  “There are antibiotics in that case,” said Scott. “Make sure to use them.” As he spoke, he pulled his keys out of his jacket pocket.

  “Wait, are you going somewhere?”

  “Boy Scout actually had a good idea,” said Toni. “We’re going to the police station.”

  “That sounds like a horrible idea,” said Adam.

  “They framed Melody for murder. If we’re going to get her off those charges, we need to see what fabricated evidence they have,” said Scott.

  “But you’re not a cop anymore,” said Melody.

  “I can bullshit long enough for Toni to get what we need.”

  Great. So Toni was going to work her magic and Scott was going to put all his expertise to use and she was.... “And I’m supposed to sit here and do nothing?”

  Toni shot Melody a smile. “Well, you can’t very well walk into a police station, now can you?”

  “But I can—”

  “Just stay put,” said Scott. “We’ll be back in a few hours at most.”

  Toni walked out first and Scott shut the door behind them, leaving her and Adam alone.

  “So,” drawled Adam. “I guess you’re stuck with me again.”

  “Why are you here?” asked Melody. Damn it. There went her no-talking rule. Scott and Toni had left a whole ten minutes ago and she’d been sure that she could stick to her own rules. If she didn’t want to have any awkward conversations with Adam, she’d just refuse to have any conversations at all. Easy.

  But she’d underestimated how loud the silence could be. Which meant now she was back to yapping away.

  She sat back in her chair, with the motel notepad in front of her and the pen tapping against the blank page. Even though Toni wasn’t there, she’d planned to brainstorm ideas alone, but thanks to Adam sitting just a few feet away from her on the bed, she hadn’t been able to focus on anything but him.

  He’d kicked off his boots but was still in cargo pants and a gray t-shirt. His arm looked swollen, but he didn’t seem fazed by the injury at all. He sat back against the wall, his head tilted back and eyes closed, but she didn’t think for a second that he was asleep.

  “I told you why. I was drinking at a bar when Forbes came in and was being a dick. Scott pulled me out before I could kill him.”

  “You should’ve left.”

  “You never should’ve told me to leave.” His head was still back and eyes closed.

  “Stop saying that!” she snapped.

  Finally his eyes opened and he lifted his head to look at her. “I’ll stop saying it when it’s not true.”

  “Of course I should’ve asked you to leave! There is nothing here for you, Adam. This thing between Forbes and my family has nothing to do with you.”

  “It has to do with you. You’re my business.”

  She stood up. Suddenly the energy in the room was too much to just stay sitting. “No, I’m not your business. We’re just a thing that happened and now is over.”

  “Okay,” was all he said.

  Okay? What the hell was okay? He was giving her all this shit and now he was just backing down? “No. Not okay. Admit it, Adam. You barely know me.”

  “Yep.”

  “And you were never going to go after Forbes before you met me.”

  “Yep.”

  “And there is no reason for you to be hanging around anymore.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes as he got off the bed. But Adam didn’t get off the bed like any run-of-the-mill guy. Every single muscle was controlled as he seemed to use the quickest and most efficient movements to get him from sitting back to standing. He slowly crossed the room with every ounce of his attention on her.

  The bravery that had been coursing through her veins a few moments ago suddenly fled, and she took a step back as he approached. She didn’t know why she felt the need to retreat. It wasn’t as if he was going to hurt her. At least not physically. He’d more than proved that by now.

  “Melody,” he finally said once he stood in front of her.

  She couldn’t bring herself to say anything else, but she was able to look back up at him again. Those blue eyes were so.... She didn’t even know. A few days ago, they had terrified her. She’d had nightmares about those eyes. Now she had this strange sense of comradery and the unshakable attraction she couldn’t seem to get over.

  She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I will admit a lot of things. I will be the first to say how stupid it was to get involved with you. I’ll be the first to say that you and I are two very different creatures. But don’t ask me to say that I have no reason to be here. You’re my reason. You know that. I know that. I’m not going to pretend to make you feel better.”

  “Fine. So you care about me. If you care about me, that gives you even more reason to go.”

  He looked genuinely confused. “What?”

  “If Forbes had—” She broke off as she realized the words were harder to say than she expected. “If you got hurt because of me, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

  She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stand in front of him and have this stupid talk about their feelings when they both knew this wasn’t the time or place. She tried to get past Adam, but he caught her arm and held her in place. “Say it again,” he said in a low voice.

  “Say what? That I care about you? That I might just be moronic enough to love you? Fine, Adam. I lo—”

  He leaned in and his lips touched hers.

  The contact was so unexpected that for a second she just stood there, her lips against his, like some strange deer in the headlights. But then her natural instincts to get as close to him as possible kicked in and she opened her mouth against his. She realized he wasn’t moving either. A strange realization hit her. “You didn’t think I liked you,” she breathed against his mouth.

  “You sent me away.”

  She reached up and brushed her fingertips over the side of his face and the stubble of his beard. “Forbes already took so much from me.”

  Their foreheads met and for a second they stood there, just breathing each other in and savoring the contact. She didn’t want him to know this. She didn’t want herself to know these things she felt. There wasn’t time for this.

  But telling herself she didn’t love Adam was pointless when she was still making decisions like a woman in love.

  Then Adam was kissing her and she was kissing him back. Although it had started with a simple touch, it became deeper, more passionate.

  He cupped her neck in his hand, holding her steady as his tongue probed and teased. But she kissed him right back, meeting him all the way.

  As he kissed her, her hands roamed over him. She avoided his injury and ran over the ridges of his shoulders and back. She would never get tired of the feel of him.

  She knew they should stop. Even though Toni and Scott would be gone for a while longer, they could still get back early if something went wrong. And there were a thousand other ways to be passing the time, but she didn’t know what was coming tomorrow. She didn’t know whether she’d make it out of this town, and she didn’t know whether Forbes would find them.

  She’d tried to send Adam away for his own protection and she failed. Might as well take advantage of having him here.

  Even as she started to lead him to the bed, she said, “This is a horrible idea.”

  He bent down and nipped at her neck before he soothed the sting with his tongue. “Terrible,” he agreed as one of his hands smoothed down the small of her back and cupped her ass, pulling her tightly against his erection. She rubbed against him, her bo
dy more than ready for him.

  Before he could push her back on the bed, she twisted around and gave him a little shove. Considering Adam needed a lot more than a little shove to move, he just stood there. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re injured.” She pushed him again and this time he sat on the bed. She rested one knee on each side of him, straddling him so her breasts were at his eye level and he was looking up at her. “Let me take care of you.”

  She reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head in one swift motion.

  Adam’s hands now ran up her back, his fingertips running along her spine, before his hands made their way down, settling on the curve of her hips and holding her tightly against him as she leaned in and kissed him. The kiss was blatantly sexual as she moved her hips against the ridge of his cock through their clothes.

  Melody was able to completely leave the present situation. There was no bounty on her name, there was no revenge plot, there was no history between her and Adam. All she could see, hear, feel, and breathe was the here and now. Adam’s hot skin. His groans as she moved against him. The sharp sting of his teeth as he moved from her lips to her jaw to her neck, which he seemed to love so much.

  Then he’d moved his attentions to her breasts, kissing the cleavage bared right above the cups. His beard brushed at the sensitive skin, but somehow it just made the sensation all the more erotic.

  Her fingers bit into his shoulders as he tugged the strap of her bra over her shoulder until he could push the black cup down and bare her to his gaze and mouth.

  He took the peak in his hot mouth and Melody let out a small gasp as she balanced on the edge of pain and pleasure. He pulled the other cup down and gave the other breast equal attention, all the while her hips moved faster. She curled her fingers in his hair and tugged his head back so she could kiss him again. Her eyes were closed now. She didn’t need sight to savor all these sensations. She was already in overdrive with just his heat.

  Abruptly, she was pushed off him and she stumbled back a few steps. “Wh—”