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“Well, that makes things really easy for the police officers if they know who they’re looking for.”
A tear ran down her cheek, and for whatever fucking reason, my chest squeezed.
Her eyes were tired, and I could see the sadness there, and it did something to me.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and reached for a tissue and handed it to her.
“I won’t tell them who it was, so there’s no need to call,” she whispered.
This shit was pissing me off. Even if she was trying to pretend that she wasn’t hurt or upset, I wasn’t okay with letting some fucker get away with shattering her window and breaking into the place.
“Where the fuck is your alarm, anyway? Are you telling me you don’t have one, and you live above this fucking coffee shop?”
She glared at me. “I have a fucking alarm, Romeo. I turned it off. I told you that I knew who it was, so I obviously wasn’t scared.”
“You turned off the alarm?” I repeated her words, my tone dry and laced with irritation.
“Did I stutter?” She pushed her shoulders back and tipped up her chin.
Like I was the fucking enemy.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on here. I’m just the dude who came over here to make sure you weren’t beaten up or—” I shook my head with frustration. “Or violated or something.”
Her eyes widened. “You thought I was violated?”
“Is this a fucking joke to you? Listen, I have a business next door. I’m not okay with some fucking asshole breaking into buildings on our street and not reporting it. I don’t have the kind of money that you have, so I don’t have some fancy alarm to warn me that someone is breaking in. And I sure as shit am not okay with the fact that you turned off the alarm and let him run off with God knows how much money, nor do I think any of the businesses on this street will be okay when I let them know what went down here tonight.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I had no intention of telling any other business owners, because I wasn’t a social guy, and I didn’t get involved in other people’s business.
But she was pissing me the fuck off.
Her bottom lip trembled, and I had to look away because I preferred when she was holding her own against me, not looking like a damsel in distress with her pouty fucking lips and those sexy-as-shit doe eyes of hers. Of course, my gaze landed on her bare legs that I couldn’t seem to turn away from.
“He won’t break into any other businesses. Please, don’t say anything. Can’t we just say that it was a teenager who threw a rock through my door? I’ll pay for the glass, and no one needs to know anything more. I wouldn’t be okay with it if I thought he’d do this to anyone else. Trust me, he won’t. I’m not a monster.” She swiped at her tears, and I reached for some more tissue and handed it to her.
Fuck me. I didn’t need this shit. Not to mention the fact that she was a fucking Crawford, and now I was mixed up in her shitstorm.
“You have two options, and you aren’t going to like either of them.”
“You really love this, don’t you? Sticking it to me when you don’t even know why you hate me.”
“Funny you should say that, because right now, I hate you for allowing some fucker to break into your place and letting him get away with it. That’s not how this works. So, we either call the police and report this, or you tell me who it was, and I’ll decide if we should call the police.”
“You’re such a power-hungry asshole,” she said, as she paced in a little circle in front of me. When she came to a stop and crossed her arms over her chest, her T-shirt pulled up the slightest bit, exposing more of her lean, tanned thighs. I felt like a creep as my eyes climbed her legs once again and moved slowly up her body before her gaze locked with mine.
“Call me what you want. That’s the deal.”
“And if I don’t take either option?”
“Then I call the police, and I tell them that you let the guy run off and refused to report it. You know how the people in Magnolia Falls are when it comes to crime. This will be the talk of the town. No one’s coming to get a coffee from a business owner who supports criminal behavior.” I was being a dick now, and it was difficult not to laugh at the way she was gaping at me.
She sighed. Her eyes fell to my mouth for a moment before they flickered back up to meet mine. And then she spoke, her voice low. “It was my brother.”
“Slade? I thought he was in some fancy rehab somewhere. He’s here, in Magnolia Falls?”
“He’s not supposed to be. I thought he was in Boston. But he never left after I saw him last week. He’s using again,” she said,her words shaking as the tears rolled faster down her cheeks. Hell, I knew this kind of pain. I’d grown up with an addict. I’d watched what it did to my mother and my sister. I knew what it was like to love someone who chose addiction over family. “I’m asking you not to report it, Romeo. My family has been through a lot. My parents don’t know he’s here right now. He said he needed the money to get back to Boston, and he’d go back into the program. He had a relapse.”
“You buy that?” I asked. I hated the dude. But I could see that she loved him, because it was impossible to miss the pain written all over her face.
It was a pain that was familiar to me.
