Consumed(48)

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe they are strippers?” His gaze slides past me to Lucas, who’s closing the trunk of his BMW rental. He cups his hands over his mouth. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Sinjin shouts, and Lucas shouts for him to screw himself. When he looks at me again, he looks pleased with himself.

“Be careful, Sinjin. And be . . . safe.” I start for the rental car, but he hooks his fingers around my shoulder. He nudges me around to face him, his green eyes suddenly serious and no longer teasing. “Okay, you’re freaking me out,” I say.

“Then I guess I’ll cut through the bullshit and give it to you straight. I’m not going to play dumb like I haven’t seen some of the shit that’s been posted online about you.”

Shuffling my feet on the asphalt, I release a laugh that feels and sounds like jagged nails being scraped over a chalkboard. “Scouring the gossip sites to look for yourself?”

The corners of his lips tighten. “Cute, but no. You left your computer open in the galley last night.” When my mouth drops open, he adds, “Look, it’s a f*cking invitation to look and, besides, I didn’t click on anything.”

I believe him when he says that. He’d probably looked up that awful website on his own computer.

“Thanks for going through my shit,” I snap. Across the parking lot, Lucas honks the BMW’s horn, and I spin around halfway to hold up my finger. Sinjin responds with an entirely different finger. “Okay, so what’s your point? Aren’t you the one who told me I needed to suck it the f*ck up?”

“I told you that you needed to suck the f*cking jealousy up. Dealing with crazy f*cks is a whole other ball game. Whenever we have a beautiful woman around, we’ll always have the crazies coming out right behind her. Case in point, Cilla’s alleged stalker several years ago.” He doesn’t expand on Cilla but instead shoves his hand deep into his pocket. When he withdraws it, he slips something long and slim that feels like a miniature flashlight into the palm of my hand.

“Bitches are crazy. Especially bitches that think they’re in love with Lucas-Fucking-Wolfe,” he says.

Opening my hand, I look down. “You want me to pepper spray someone?”

He smiles serenely. “Like I said, bitches are crazy. They know Lucas is in town and they go seeking him out.”

Gripping the pepper spray, I run my teeth over my bottom lip. This . . . gift from Sinjin tells me two things: That, even though it’s highly unlikely, the shit talking on the YTS message boards could always make a nasty turn into real life. And that Sinjin, in all of his sulky glares and rude comments, has been worrying over me.

When I open my mouth to speak, I choose to focus on the latter. “I’m touched.”

Narrowing his green eyes, Sin snorts. “If you get all sentimental on me, I’ll skip the hotel and take Scarlet and Bella to your compartment on the bus.”

“Ugh.” I drop the pepper spray into the bag that’s slung around my shoulder. “You are foul.” I clear my throat and in a sincere voice add, “Have an amazing day off, Sinjin.”

His expression goes slack, and I pull back in surprise. “It’ll be the best birthday eve I’ve ever had.”

As I back up to the BMW, which Lucas has driven closer to us, I can’t help but watch Sin as he returns to the bus for his belongings. I’m quiet as we leave the parking lot, but after driving for a few minutes, Lucas’s hand slides across my thigh, stopping to rest between my legs.

“Tell me about Sinjin,” I say.

“What about him?”

“Why he’s so . . .”

“Fucked up?” Lucas asks.

Rubbing my hand over the column of my throat, I nod. “I guess that’s the best way to put it.”

The corners of Lucas’s mouth tighten. “Because he came from a f*cked up family. An abusive stepfather. A drug addict mom.” He pauses as the dashboard GPS tells him to take a left. “He didn’t have someone like your grandmother to look out for him. Even after they lost custody, shit didn’t get any better for him or his sisters.”

“Is Zoe one of his sisters?”

Lucas’s head whips around, startling me. “Why do you ask that?” When I don’t immediately answer, he shakes his head slowly. “She’s a woman he met in rehab.”

My mouth drops open into a silent “Oh.” “So, she’s still there, then?”