Polly didn’t so much as flinch. “Last night?”
Erin chuckled. “Okay, if that’s how you want to play it.” Another bite of pancake. Another long chew-filled pause. “I heard two sets of footsteps in the hallway last night and saw Austin carrying you inside. That’s the real reason I’m here so early. I was…worried. Not a good look for me, Banks.”
Every once in a while, Polly was reminded that Erin was far more astute than she allowed the world to believe. Usually, when Erin decided to drop that knowledge on someone, it amused Polly. Or gave her an odd sense of pride. But being on the receiving end of that perception sucked. It also made her wonder what else Erin knew. “Did you talk to him?”
A slim hesitation, before Erin started to sing under her breath. “Not last night, but the night before…twenty-four robbers came knocking at my door…”
“Erin, stop evading.”
She stabbed her fork into the pancakes, leaving it standing upright as she fell back against the leather booth. “This is why friendship is bullshit. I wish I’d never met you.”
“Fair enough. Just tell me what you know.”
“I didn’t mean that. It was the syrup talking.” Erin flipped the lighter over in her hand. “Austin made me set off your smoke alarm the other night. I don’t know why, so don’t quiz me. He said you were in trouble, so I did it. And it was fun, if you want to know the truth.”
Polly’s molars ground together until pain shot through her jaw. God, the embarrassment just kept on giving. After last night, how the hell hadn’t she put Austin at the scene of an unconscious Slim? Polly was bombarded with realizations, flying toward her from all corners. He’d been following her longer than one night. Did he really think she was in danger? How could he when no one was privy to Polly’s plans but herself? “What did he promise you in exchange?”
“A Ruger.” Erin pouted. “And thanks to my new, inconvenient conscience, I won’t be able to accept it. So thanks.”
“Forgive my lack of guilt.” Polly stuck her pinkie into the mug of tea, wishing it were hot enough to burn. “Next time you see an unknown man carrying my passed-out body down the hallway, alert the cavalry, will you?”
“It wasn’t an unknown man. It was Austin.”
“How did you know it was Austin? He was wearing a disguise.”
Erin ran her tongue across the front of her teeth. “The way he looked at you.”
Polly’s hand crept up to her throat before she forced it down into her lap. “How is tha— Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“Yes, you do.” Erin squished her lips together and wiggled them like a fish. “Remember prison?”
Discomfort invaded, but she squashed it back into her mental filing cabinet. “It’s hard to forget.”
“Iknowright?” Erin made a humming noise. “You know those days when other prisoners would get paroled? Everyone else has to stand in the yard and watch them get loaded onto the bus…on their way to freedom.”
“Yeah, I remember those days.”
Erin nodded as the waitress dropped off her to-go order. “That’s how Austin looks at you. Like maybe you are the freedom and he’s still stuck in the prison yard.”
Polly looked away quickly before Erin could see the alarm she felt transforming her features. She wished she could crack open her skull and remove that inconvenient information. She didn’t want to know. How could she ever feel him watching her again and not replay those words? They couldn’t be true, anyway. This was one of those times where Erin’s perceptiveness had failed and the crazy had crept in. “I’m no one’s freedom, except my own. From now on…” She reached over and took a forkful of Erin’s pancakes. “Please don’t aid Austin in ruining my plans.”
Erin’s expression was grave. “What are your plans? Why do they require those eyelashes? Are you moonlighting as a Liza Minnelli impersonator?” She ran a single finger over her own black lashes. “If so, it’s more serious than I thought.”
Polly was saved having to lie or even worse—spill the truth—when Connor blew into Denny’s like a category five hurricane. He grumbled something to the hostess and advanced on their table. Erin’s lips lifted into a smile, even though she hadn’t seen him, being that her back was to the entrance. “Saved by the SEAL.”
Connor stopped at the end of their table. “A note next time, Erin. I’m only asking for a note.”
“I left a lipstick kiss on the mirror.”
The surly ex-street enforcer was not impressed by his girlfriend’s statement. He crooked a slow finger at her. “We’re going.”