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She stood, fisting and unfisting her hands. Her face turned that adorable shade of red that showed off her freckles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He released a sigh of relief. Again, he believed her. “Good.” He stood, took her hand, and sat down on the bed, pulling her down next to him. Then he gently held her bandaged hand. “I need to tell you something.”
She grimaced and pulled her hand out of his. “I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
He took back her hand and kissed each knuckle. “I know your father has a fifty thousand dollar bounty on your head.”
She swallowed, but stayed silent.
“I know you took something when you ran away from him. Something the Black Jacks are willing to kill for.”
She looked toward the window, and he saw tears in her eyes. “I can’t tell you, Hawk. It’s too dangerous.”
That was the truth as well.
“Can you tell mewhyyou ran away from a life I can only imagine was filled with beautiful homes, expensive cars, and well-connected people?”
“Because I learned those things don’t matter.” She sighed and threw herself back on the bed. Then she draped an arm over her eyes. “I discovered my stepfather was funding the IRA by selling their guns. He used the Black Jacks MC club to move the weapons once they arrived.”
“I know.”
She dropped her arms and met his gaze. “How could you know that?”
“I know criminals who know things about criminals who work with criminals.”
A small smile appeared, and he laid down next to her. Their heads were only a few inches apart, but they held hands and stared up at the ceiling.
“Not everyone who is in jail should be,” she said softly. “And there are people walking around free who should be incarcerated.”
The pain in her voice surprised him, and he turned to watch her profile. Her beauty always took his breath away, and her lavender scent made his dick hard. “Oh, darlin’. It’s been that way for the entire history of the world.”
“I guess.” She wiped her eyes with her free hand. “Anyway, I was dating one of the family lawyers—”
“Tell me he sucked in bed.”
She turned her head to meet his gaze. Her green eyes sparkled, and she stared at his lips. “I’ve had very few lovers, Hawk. Two before you. And neither of them can begin to compare to what we had together.”
An unexpected happiness filled his chest, and he reached over with his free hand to wipe away a tear. “I’m not too proud to admit that means a lot to me.”
She watched him for a long time before turning her head back to the ceiling. “One night, I was in my boyfriend’s house and discovered some of my stepfather’s papers. They outlined a plan he had that included selling an old Irish artifact to a Mexican cartel for an obscene amount of money. Except the IRA found out he had this artifact and blackmailed my boyfriend into betraying my stepfather to get this artifact back. When my boyfriend discovered that I knew what was going on—something I didn’t realize at the time—he tried to kill me.”
Heat flooded Hawk’s body and he raised himself up on his elbow to look down at her. “How?” The word came out as a growl.
“He brought me a bottle of my favorite champagne to toast my promotion at work.” Her loud exhale filled the room with sadness. “He poisoned the wine.”
“When did you find out?”
She met his gaze again, and this time there were no tears. Just a resolute calmness. “I drank it and ended up in the hospital. I was in a coma for a few days and in the ICU for over a month.”
It took every ounce of willpower not to tear his bedroom apart and then drive up to Boston and commit murder. The fact her lover had tried to kill her not only shocked him. It left him cold and rigid with rage. The kind of rage that had gotten him thrown out of the army. “What happened after you were released?”
“When I came home from the hospital, I discovered my stepfather had paid off the police and my boyfriend had disappeared—until his body was fished out of the Mystic River.” She closed her eyes and squeezed his fingers. “I suspect the Black Jacks took care of my boyfriend, but I have no proof. After I realized the power my stepfather had, and how dangerous his world truly was, I made the plan to disappear. While I was pretending to return to work, I took out as much cash as I could and bought a used car under an assumed name. Then, when I was ready, I took off. Except instead of searching for a new life, I ended up running from my old one.”
“Because you stole the artifact.” He had no reason to state it as a question. It was obvious from the story that she’d taken the artifact when she left home.
She nodded. “Now I’m stuck. I can’t go home. I can’t sell the artifact. And I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” She opened her eyes and met his gaze again. “I don’t know what to do.”
He touched her chin, remembering the woman he’d made love to with such abandon. He’d originally thought his attraction stemmed from the fact he knew nothing about her. But now that he was learning about the woman she was, his desire increased tenfold. “Izzy, what did you do for a living before you ran away?”
