Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(125)

“Do you want to share what’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Don’t you have to brush your teeth?” he responded.

I smiled at him before I wrapped an arm around his abs, stuffing my face in his neck.

“I’d rather know what’s on your mind,” I said softly.

One of his arms was curled around my back, hand resting on my hip. The fingers of his other hand slid back and forth, from knee to tee, on my thigh. My only thought was that I could wake up like this every morning of my life.

Then Luke spoke. “What’s on my mind is that I’m responsible for what happened to you.”

All morning dewy softness flew out the window, my head jerked up and I stared at him.

“What?” I asked, somewhat loudly.

“I’m responsible,” he repeated.

I narrowed my eyes, not because I was angry, but because I didn’t have my contacts in or glasses on and I was trying to focus so I could read his face (this didn’t work).

“How on earth are you responsible?” I asked.

“I went after him, he retaliated. That’s how I’m responsible.”

Oh for goodness sakes.

“Luke, that’s just crazy.”

“It isn’t, Ava. I should have seen it coming and prepared, especially when the info started to come in on him.”

Uh-oh.

This didn’t sound good.

“What info?”

Luke didn’t hesitate before sharing. “His name isn’t Noah Dexter, he’s got a record, he’s wanted in two states and he’s been connin’ women, like he conned you, for a long time.”

I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I was surprised by it.

“I still don’t see how that makes you responsible,” I said.

“You didn’t tell me about the jewelry.” Was Luke’s strange reply.

“What about it?”

“It was worth over sixty-five K.”

I sucked in breath at another demonstration of his freaky ability to know everything.

“How did you find that out?” I asked.

“Your aunt’s will. The jewelry was worth over sixty-five K when appraised for the will, seven years ago.”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“Dexter didn’t steal five grand, he stole over seventy grand. That’s a big difference. You were a larger mark than I first thought. This guy isn’t a small time con man. Far as we could tell, he was running two cons simultaneously. The one with you and some other woman, much older, disabled, in her early seventies. He got her jewelry, stole her car and wiped out her retirement account. Between the two of you, he pulled in over three hundred large.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed, incapable of wrapping my mind around this news. I was, however, able to septuple my vow of revenge against Noah.

A disabled lady in her seventies? What a jerk!

“I underestimated him,” Luke went on, interrupting my mental tirade. “He gets caught, his picture hits the news, women come forward who didn’t report him and he’s f**ked even more than he was f**ked. He’s not gonna let that happen and he would be desperate enough to do about anything to make certain it doesn’t. Including f**kin’ with my woman, somethin’ not a lot of people in Denver would have the balls to do.”

Okay, so, it was safe to say this was not good news. I felt like an even bigger idiot now than I felt when Noah took off with my money.

Time to focus and not on me being an idiot.

“Luke, you aren’t responsible,” I said. “I’m responsible. I let him in my life in the first place.”

“Lotta women do.”

“That doesn’t make it any better.”

“Probably not but it’s the truth.”

There you go.

Time for a different tack.

“Okay then you want to know how I felt when you first said you were going to go after him?”

Luke just looked at me.

“I felt happy,” I shared. “My stomach got melty. I was glad someone wanted to take care of me.”

Silence.

I persevered even though doing so scared the shit out of me. We were in vulnerable territory here, way vulnerable.

“Last night, you were preparing to go gonzo. You didn’t because I needed you. Last night you also said you can’t say no to me. If I pushed it, that I didn’t want you to go after him, really pushed it, would you have?”

More silence.

Shit.

It was going to have to be all or nothing.

I put my hands to his neck and moved so I was facing him.

Do it, say it, the time is right, Good Ava urged.

Don’t! The time will NEVER be right! Bad Ava yelled.

For once I listened to Good Ava, took a breath and bared it all.

Quietly, I said, “Yesterday, when I was in my freak out about Jules, Daisy said to me that I was trying to find ways to protect my heart but I was doing it wrong. She told me the best way to protect my heart was to trust it to someone who will protect it for me.”

More silence but his body went completely still.

“That’s you. It’s always been you,” I whispered, my heart racing, I was scared as hell but I forged ahead. “Please don’t take responsibility for Noah being an ass**le. I couldn’t bear it if you did that.”