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“Your little boy band isn’t with you.”
“They’ve got a potential lead.”
“Yay, and you won’t need me. I’ll have a bath, and you can get me on the nearest flight. I won’t have to do anything bad.”
“We don’t want you to do anything bad anyway. We just need your help.”
“No, you want me to put my life in danger to help your nephew who has gone off the rails. You think it’s going to be easy for me. Do you want me to behave like that girl in that photo?” She already didn’t like the girl in the photo.
That girl got an easy life, and if what Rick said was true, her sister got a hell of a better life than the one she did. There was nothing to be happy about.
“I don’t want you to be the girl in the photo. I want you to be yourself.”
“Oh, right, because I’m so fucking charming.”
“No, it’s because you’re not charming at all,” he said. “Sarah was accommodating. She was easily told what was going to happen and never, not once, tried to make waves. I’m sure she was afraid but she kept it all to herself. She became a problem and my brother eliminated her.”
“You’re mistaking me for someone who cares.”
“No, that’s the point. Landon, he’s hurting. He’s confused and I think you’re going to be able to help him think straight by being yourself. Landon doesn’t need me to train you to say all the right words, or any of that shit. He needs the truth. No matter how scary it is for him.”
“Do you care about him?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then why not leave him be? In all my experience, if a person wants to be found, they will allow themselves to be found. They won’t cause this kind of trouble you said he’s causing. He doesn’t want to come home.”
“He’s got a bounty on his head,” Rick said. “By killing his father, my brother, there was a set of actions put in motion. My brother decided that if his death looked suspicious, someone would kill the person responsible.”
“Wow, you really do have a fucked-up family, don’t you?” she asked.
“Our problems aside, the only way we can protect him and put out the problem is bringing him in.”
“From the sounds of it, he can handle himself. You can’t find him. and you’re cleaning up all of his messes. Maybe it’s time you backed off and let him handle all the rest of the issues. He’s doing a better job than you.”
“True, but we have our reasoning. You will have a good life, Tulip. You won’t have to work in a shitty restaurant again. I know it sounds too good to be true.”
“It is. There is nothing to stop this Landon guy from killing me, is there?”
Rick stayed silent and she snorted.
“See, anything that’s too good to be true often is.”
“It’s a risk, but what else do you have to live for?” Rick asked.
“My life. It may not have been everything you could handle, but it’s mine. I like my life and just because you don’t see the attraction doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it.” She’d come a long way from a girl on the streets fighting for her life, and she wasn’t about to let anyone take it from her.
“I’m going to let you finish bathing now. You’ve already struck a deal with me. I consider it a promise, and you will uphold your end of the bargain. If not, I’ll kill you myself.”
Chapter Four
Days later
Tulip was bored … again.
They didn’t trust her.
Fine. She didn’t need to be trusted but being locked up in a room with nothing to do was starting to piss her off. They had no right to keep her here against her will and the longer they did it, the angrier she got.
