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“Big time.” She raps her long nails on the table. “Imagine what you could get out of this… relationship, we’ll call it… if you go along easy with some things. He would know you can see reason. He’d let you breathe.”
“Where do you get this stuff?”
“I’m a collector of relationship data. One of these days, I’m going to make someone one hell of a girlfriend.”
“You deserve that.” I swallow a too-big bite of burger. “But if we’re both single when we’re forty, we’ll just marry each other and have a family.”
She gives me an up and down, then wrinkles her nose. “I’m not big on kids, but you have nice boobs. I’ll have to think about it.”
I give her the finger. She gives me one back.
And for a moment, I can breathe again.
When I get home, the living room is empty. I can hear the clunk and rattle of Beck down in the home gym. He must be curling something or riding his spin bike through the digital forest on the screen in front of him. Or maybe he’s just watching porn.
I have bigger worries. Because my phone is ringing.
It’s the Bloodhound.
I lunge into the bathroom attached to the guest room and lock myself in. “What do you want? I gave the money to Monroe to give to you.”
“I don’t want to get my money from one of your little friends,” he drawls languidly. “My deal is withyou.”
“I can’t always get out to bring you the money. I have guards now, thanks to you.”
“Not my problem, darlin’. Figure it out. Next time, I want my delivery in person.”
“Why would I come anywhere near you? In case you forgot, you kidnapped me!”
“And I’ll do it again if you don’t follow the terms of our arrangement.” I can hear his sick grin. “Or is that what you’re hoping for?”
I hang up when there’s a knock on the door. “Sloan?”
“Yeah, just a second!” I call out, a little too loud. I flush the toilet then wash my hands, which are trembling.
When I open the door, I paste on my fake smile and look up at Beck. He’s shirtless, with a towel draped around his neck and little droplets of sweat dripping down his beautiful chest. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just…” I shrug. “You know. Lady stuff.”
He chuckles and looks down at me. “I was thinking we could watch a movie. You know, like, cozy up.”
I do a double-take. Never in my life did I think I would hear Beckett Daniels use the words “cozy up,” but here we are.
I kinda like it.
“That sounds good.”
“Cool.” He steps aside to let me slip out of the bathroom. “It’s a date, then.”
Roe was right: why am I fighting battles? There’s a gorgeous shirtless man who wants to “cozy up” with me and watch rom-coms. He wants to help me. He wants to save me.
So why fight him? I should do what she said to do: surrender. Submit. Let him be my hero.
I’d lose every battle if it meant keeping him.
15
BECK
