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He smirks. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
I snort a laugh. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”
Austin wavers, biting his bottom lip. “I’ll tell you what. We’ll make the deal, and then I’ll give you twenty-four hours to check and make sure the bags are located at the addresses. If they’re not, you can back out of the deal. If they are, though, you’ll have to follow through with it.”
Okay, that doesn’t sound too bad. At least not to me. Apparently, though, Blaise doesn’t agree.
He places a hand on my cheek, steering my face in his direction. Carrying my gaze, he says, “Don’t trust him. Even if the bags are located at those addresses, it’s not going to be worth whatever he wants.”
“You don’t even know what I want,” Austin chimes in.
Blaise’s gaze cuts to him. “Whatever it is, she’ll be in debt to you.”
“Only for a while,” Austin quips. “And being in debt to me is nowhere near as bad as being in debt to my father.”
Blaise shakes his head, his gaze returning to mine. “I don’t want you getting mixed up in this world.”
As sweet as his remark is …
“It’s already too late for that,” I utter. “And Austin’s right. I’d way rather be in debt to him than his father.”
Blaise smashes his lips together and shakes his head, his fingers stiffening on my cheek.
“Maybe one of us can make a deal with you,” Rhyland says to Austin.
“No way,” I quickly say. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know that,” Rhyland assures me. “But it might be better if Blaise or I did this for you.”
“Why?” I question.
He only shrugs.
I blow out a sigh then lean away from Blaise’s hand, even though the feel of his palm against my cheek brought me a tiny drop of comfort. “I’m going to make the deal,” I tell them. They both frown, but I disregard their looks of disapproval and turn back to Austin. “What do you want?”
He bites back a smile. “I want you to be my date to my sister’s party on Saturday.”
“That’s it?” I question in skepticism.
He nods. “And that’ll give you plenty of time to make sure these locations are where the bags are.”
Just a date with him? That doesn’t sound too awful. Or, well, it sounds better than what’s probably going to happen to me if I don’t get those bags to Axel.
“Had—” Blaise starts to protest, but I hold up my hand in his direction.
“Fine, it’s a deal,” I tell Austin then reach out to grab the paper from his hand, but he moves it out of my reach again.
“We need to shake on it first.”
I grimace, my lip twitching in annoyance. “Fine.” I stick out my hand, and he places his in mine. Instead of shaking it, though, he lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles.
“Gross,” I say, wiggling my hand from his. “I’m seriously going to need like a gallon of hand sanitizer now.”
Austin smirks as he backs away from the SUV. “Pretend all you want, Hadley Harlyton, but we both know you secretly like it.” With a wink, he tosses me the paper then spins around to leave, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll be in touch about the party. I’d like to coordinate our outfits beforehand.”
“No effing way!” I shout at him. “That wasn’t …” I trail off, grimacing as he climbs into the car and shuts the door.
“That’s why it’s a bad idea to make a deal with him,” Rhyland tells me, resting his arms on the console. “There’re always strings attached.”
