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The necklace wasn’t giving me any reassurance now. I reached to my pocket instead, feeling the hard circle of the mirror I’d pocketed upstairs. I pulled it out and ran my thumb over the cool, polished surface. My nerves settled alittle.
I didn’t like to think about all the minor thefts I’d carried out when I was younger, but being able to justtakewhat I wanted, when I wanted, still gave me a sense of control. And I needed that sense badly rightnow.
A third car pulled up outside. My shoulders tensed. How many people were coming? When was Marco going to bring me into this gathering that was apparently all aboutme?
“You don’t think this is some kind of organized crime thing, do you?” Kylie asked. “Did your mom ever seem like she was into anythingshady?”
My stomach twisted at the thought. “I guess she could have been,” I said. “We were almost always together, but she did take those trips, and she could have arranged jobs over the phone.” She had always seemed tense, and a little sad, when she got back from the trips. More so with every one. “She was always super-careful about us keeping a low profile. Not doing anything that might attract attention. But she acted like she was more worried aboutmethanherself.”
And from what I could remember, she hadn’t given off that jaded vibe I’d gotten from every criminal I’d ever met. The one I probably gave off at least a little now, even though I’d left that part of my lifebehind.
Voices filtered through the sitting room door. I stuffed the mirror back into my pocket. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but at the same time the thrum of anticipation I’d felt when I’d first seen Marco raced through me, even stronger thanbefore.
It was time. It was finally time. For what, I couldn’t have said. But that was what my bodybelieved.
Marco opened the door. He dipped his head with a smile that looked apologetically self-deprecating. “The gang’s all here.” Then he stepped inside, leaving the door open for his guests to follow himin.
Just a few minutes ago I’d been commenting to Kylie that I’d never seen a guy as hot as Marco before. Now, suddenly, I was faced withfourstunningly gorgeousmen.
Marco ambled across the room and stopped behind an armchair, resting his muscular forearms on its arched back. The guy who came in after him was even more buff, with broad, well-built shoulders and a brawny chest that filled out his towering frame. His dark brown eyes were even more intense than the rich chestnut of hishair.
Mr. Buff’s gaze shot straight to me, and a warm smile curled his lips. An electric tingle raced over my skin. He crossed the room in a few deliberate, powerful strides and stopped a few feet from Marco, his eyes still trained onme.
The next guy walked in at a faster clip. He was stockier, but with equally broad shoulders and a devastatingly strong jaw. The regal grace of his strides made him seem just as tall as the others. The sunlight streaming through the window made his pale hair gleam gold as a Disney prince’s. He stopped in the middle of the room, fixing me with a crystal-clear blue gaze that felt hopeful and searching at the sametime.
The last guy stalked in with a wary air that drew my eyes to him. What didhehave to be worried about? He halted just inside and propped himself against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his leanly muscled chest. Even though he didn’t look any older than the others, mid-to-late twenties at most, strands of silver streaked his light auburn hair, which fell to just below his earlobes. They gave a slightly mystical quality to his otherwise gritty good looks. When he finally looked at me, his forest-green eyes were so penetrating I felt pinned inplace.
My heart beat even faster. They were here. I didn’t know why that mattered, but every nerve in my body was jittering with exhilaration. I could hardly catch mybreath.
Kylie shot me a glance that said,Can you believe theseguys?
No. No, I couldn’t. But here theywere.
And they weremine.
Where hadthatbizarre thought come from? I frowned, but before I could sort out the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions rushing through me, Marco straightened up. He gave me a knowing look, as if he could tell exactly what was going through myhead.
“Here we are,” he said in his languid drawl. “Happy, Dopey, Doc, and Grumpy, at yourservice.”
The wary guy by the door—who looked like he fit the title “Grumpy” just fine—turned his head to glare at Marco. Our host grinned back. “Excuse me. You already know my name, Ren. Let me introduce you to Nate, Aaron, andWest.”
“‘Ren’?” Grumpy-West repeated in an incredulous tone. Even so, my name in his low, throaty voice sent a shiver of pleasure down myspine.
“As she would prefer to be called,” Marcosaid.
Dopey-Nate nodded. “If that’s what she wants to go by, that’s what we’ll call her.” His deep baritone was just as warm as his smile. Which he aimed at me again. Damn. My chest was going all fluttery. All this hotness in one room was putting me on hormonaloverload.
My Disney prince, Aaron, took a careful step toward me. I wasn’t sure why Marco had assigned him Doc. Maybe because his bright blue gaze was so thoughtful I almost felt as if he was considering me through a pair ofglasses.
“From what Marco’s told us, there’s a lot you’re unsure of,” he said. His voice was even and faintly but pleasantly raspy. “Maybe you could start by telling us what you do know. What has your life been like? What have you been doing withit?”
“I can think of a lot of thingsI’dlike to know about now,” Kylie mumbled. But somehow having the four guys in the room made me feel more at ease instead of less. I didn’t know them—they were total strangers. Why did I feel as if there wasn’t anywhere safer in the world I could be than right here withthem?
That weird sense of belonging loosened mytongue.
“I’ve been living here—in New York, I mean—since I was five,” I said. “Mostly... Mostly with my mother. It was really just the two of us. She home-schooled me, and we’d go out around the city, but we never really talked to anyoneelse.”
“So you just ate, slept, learned, had a little fun here and there—nothing all that unusual?” Aaronsaid.
