Either way, she didn’t call him when she was ready to go downstairs. She knew this place was safeguarded up to the sidewalk. How was she planning on moving out if she was going to be too scared to walk out the door by herself?
She grabbed her phone and her purse and stiffened her spine. A couple of minutes later she walked into Dead Ink, determined to be pleasant, no matter what. She might feel like a discarded ragdoll but she refused to act like one.
***
Lars glanced up in acknowledgment when Faith walked into the room, expecting hell to follow. Faith smiled his way and when their eyes met, he nodded in greeting then looked back down at his client. She was smiling, like nothing was wrong. As if he hadn’t abandoned the bed last night or left without saying a word this morning.
It was a good thing. She wasn’t a teary eyed mess. She realized it was just sex and wasn’t going to make a big thing about it. It was exactly what he wanted. It was. He was positive it was.
“Ow,” the client he was working on said.
“Toughen up, you wuss,” Lars said but did lighten up the pressure of the tattoo gun, realizing he’d drawn a sizable amount of blood with the force he’d just applied.
He kept sneaking glances at her as she moved about the place. She pulled a stool over to the counter and appeared to be settling in. She flipped open the books, which had been left there from the other day, and started tapping away at the calculator.
She sat like that for the next two hours, not once looking over at him. As one client left and another replaced them, she’d look up and offer a friendly greeting but it was as if he weren’t in the shop. She didn’t look when he dropped a tray of supplies on the ground or cursed his client loudly. When he accidentally knocked into a large bottle that crashed loudly, breaking into a million little bits, she finally turned and said, “You need some help over there?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
She walked over and swept up the little pieces while he grabbed the larger chunks but still didn’t look at him. Then she started humming. She had to be faking this Cinderella act but if she was, she was damn good at it. And the more she hummed, the more he wanted to growl.
Didn’t she know how normal women acted? He had just snubbed her right after they’d had sex. Why wasn’t she throwing a fit like the rest of them? Making him have to call in Cutty, his emergency backup for chicks out of control? She’d pitched a bigger fit over him checking out her phone messages.
She walked away after she’d helped him clean up his mess. She stashed the broom back in the closet and settled down in front of the mound of papers. She leaned on the table and all he could think of was the way she was arching her back.
Her phone vibrated on the counter beside her and he watched her answer.
“Hi,” she said then leaned her elbows on the counter as she listened. “That sounds great. I’ll see you later,” she said and hung up a second later.
It was one of the guys. He knew that.
“We’re done,” he said to his client. The guy looked at the rough sketched lines.
“We are?”
“What, are you deaf? That’s what I just said.” Lars stood up and walked out of the shop, letting the door slam as he did, leaving the client to his own devices.
He guessed she didn’t care as much as he feared she would. That was a good thing. The fact that he cared so much wasn’t.
***
Lars was over at Fate’s, helping watch his place, which she’d been told was a prime target at the moment. She knew this because it was one of the handful of words they’d said to each other today before she’d left with Cutty to go have dinner with the guys.
She had the feeling that his disappearance tonight had much more to do with what had happened last night than Fate needing him there. She wasn’t sure what his problem was. She should be the one who was angry.
As it was, she had to force herself to stay present while she sat around the table with Cutty, Bic and Angus.
“I thought we were going to lose this food for sure after you moved in with Lars,” Angus said in between shoveling bites of lasagna into his mouth.
“No, I like cooking for you guys.” She toyed with her own plate of food, losing her normal enthusiasm for the dish she loved.
“Or just refuse to cook for us, considering,” Angus rattled on.
Faith wouldn’t have thought anything of that statement if she hadn’t seen a guilty look pass between Cutty and Bic for just a fraction of a second.
“Considering what?” Faith asked. “Why would I all of a sudden stop cooking for you guys?”
Angus looked at Cutty and Bic, who shrugged in innocence, leaving Angus to fend for himself. “Um, you know, just the little things.”
“Like what?” she pressed.
“Well, I mean considering Lars and Fate still act like you might somehow be with Keith or working for Malokin.”
“I know, Fate thinks I’m evil incarnate,” she said, trying to laugh off the sting she felt.
Faith had no delusions about what Fate thought of her. She could see his distrust every time she had the unlikely pleasure of running into him. Malokin only had interest in the lowest of the low. If you had anything to do with him, you were pure evil—except for Karma, who seemed to have reached some exempt status when she fell into Fate’s bed.
And she knew that Lars hadn’t trusted her but the timeline was off. They didn’t know he’d just slept with her. He wouldn’t have done that if he thought so poorly of her. Would he?
Her mind ran back over her recent memories with him. She tried to think of anything he’d done that might have seemed untrusting, but there was nothing that came to mind, not since their lunch and silent truce.
She took a bite of lasagna and was just starting to feel better about things until Angus spoke again. “When you think about it, it’s only natural that he’d want to hire someone to check out your past. No one could blame him for that.”
Cutty dipped his head down and Faith heard his audible sigh.
“Who hired someone?”
Angus cleared his throat like his lasagna wasn’t going down so hot. “Um, Lars?”
She got out of her chair and dug out her phone on a hunch. She looked at installed programs but didn’t see anything but she knew it was there.
They all avoided her gaze when she turned back to them.
“You’ve got spyware on my phone, too, don’t you?”
“You have to understand where it’s coming from,” Cutty said.
“I do.” And she wasn’t lying. But it still hurt like hell. And they didn’t know she’d just slept with Lars. The guy didn’t trust her enough to not track her phone and she’d just slept with him? It was humiliating.
And right now, she was stuck with them—with him. She didn’t have anywhere else to go, and as much as she’d like to let her pride dictate her actions, Keith was still out there.
She sat back down at the table but the mood had gone south like a plane into the Bermuda triangle, not knowing for sure if they’d make it out in one piece.
She forced a couple more bites down, trying to keep up appearances, until she just couldn’t do it another moment. “When you’re done, can one of you guys give me a lift back?”
Cutty stood right away. “I’ll take you now.”
She nodded and thanked him as he went and grabbed the keys.
“Faith…you know—” Angus said, shaking his head.
“Shut up, you moron, you already did enough damage. Who knows what stupid shit you’ll say next,” Bic said.
“I don’t have a beef with you guys. I get it.” And she didn’t. If she were them, she wouldn’t trust her either. What did they have to go on? But they hadn’t slept with her.
She said goodbye to Bic and Angus as she followed Cutty out towards his car.
She rode back to Lars’ with her head still reeling from the recent revelation. How the hell could Lars sleep with her if he thought she was such a horrible person? He was kissing her, putting his dick in her, and the whole time he thought she was the scum of the Earth? Who could do something like that?
Chapter 27