Page 44 of Arran's Obsession
Then Genevieve showed up.
Fuck.
Every tiny speck of warmth I’d started to feel for the beautiful, treacherous woman who’d landed in my lap iced over so thickly it made my teeth clench. I’d been such a fool. I still wanted her like nothing else, but I couldn’t believe she was anything but a horrible liar.
A plant, probably, assuming Red or another gang leader wanted something from me they couldn’t get by sending someone into the club.
Her shoulders slumped. “Dad’s never had anything to do with the gangs. None of us ever would.”
More lies, and this one was on the nose because it paired with another fact I knew. I’d asked Shade to do some digging on her background, and he’d discovered that her brother was screwing a gang hanger-on. A woman named Moniqua whose brother was in the Four Milers, known for their gang tattoos of a spiderweb. I’d chosen to put that to one side as the guy held down a job and wasn’t on our radar as a problem.
I’d been a fucking idiot.
Everything I’d considered twisted into something different.
Genevieve drove her toe into the ground, kicking up dust. “You know the gangs. Can you help me find him?”
“No, I fucking can’t.”
She recoiled. “Why not? I just told you that I’m going to be made homeless. Not only that but I’m worried about my father,too. He’s not responded to me in all that time. What if they’ve caught him?”
“Gangs don’t hold prisoners for no reason. If they’ve had him for all this time, he’ll be dead.”
“Don’t say that!” Her eyes crinkled at the edges.
“Why not? It’s either that or he’s working for them.”
“It’s neither. Please, help me find him.”
“I said no. Stop asking.”
I started running again, anything not to look at her face. At the body I was rapidly growing obsessed with. I was furious at myself for hearing out her lies.
She dropped a few feet back. “Fine,” she muttered.
But it wasn’t. Life was anything but fine, and breaking my rules for a woman only proved that.
Shade arrived a few hours later.I locked the gang spy in my rooms and went out to meet him. It was after two AM now, but I’d slept all day, as was typical for one who worked at night.
He rested against his car’s bonnet, hands in his pockets, his gaze on me worried. “Ye okay?”
Not at all. Not the tiniest bit.
“Perfect. Did you bring what I asked?” I snarled.
“Drop the shite, man. It’s me.”
I took a breath, dropping my head back for a moment. My pulse still sped along, but he was right. He deserved my truths, plus I had something to ask him.
“I’m anything but okay. You know what I did.”
“Wish I knew why.”
“I needed the woman, and I knew the second I saw her in there that it was by mistake. She didn’t sign up for it. Plus if I lost her to some other guy, I’d lose the ability to question her on something important.”
He tilted his head, waiting.
“I was wrong about the mistake part,” I exhaled. “She’s not what she says she is. I was taken in.”