Rushing the Goal (Assassins #8)(47)

“Lucy, what’s wrong?”

“Lucy, you’ve got us worried. Tell us,” River demanded, and it was crazy how much he had become a father figure to her. That wasn’t right, was it? At twenty-six, having a new father figure? But he was, and Lucy couldn’t talk for fear she’d start crying. But where was she going to go? Could she expect her child to live in a hotel? That wasn’t stable for her, and she had to give her stability. Damn it, this was worse than she thought. She thought she could come home. Crap on a cracker. What was she going to do?

“Our apartment is broke. A water pipe busted,” Angie said, and her mother’s eyes widened.

“What happened? Can you not stay there?” River asked and Lucy shook her head, explaining what was going on. When she finished, a tear ran down her face but she quickly wiped it.

“It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.”

“No, you’ll sleep here. We’ll figure it out,” Autumn said desperately.

“It isn’t safe, Autumn, not for Angie,” River said, shaking his head. “Well, hell, we need a plan, huh, girlie?”

“Yeah, because we’re homeless,” Angie said simply, and Lucy swallowed back more tears.

“We’re fine, don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

But she didn’t.

“Jayden! Call Jayden. He’s leaving, so Baylor will be alone. She’d love to have you guys till the apartment is done,” her mother yelled before pulling out her phone and calling him, despite Lucy’s complaints.

“I can’t just expect to—”

But Autumn ignored her, talking quickly to Jayden.

River looked over at her and smiled. “It’s okay to have help every once in a while, Miss Do-it-All.”

Lucy scoffed. “Hush, you.”

He wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her into his chest. “Damn headstrong, just like my daughter.”

“That’s why I like her,” Lucy said with a wink.

And that was a good thing because it looked like she’d be staying with her sister-in-law until her apartment was fixed. Leave it to her mom to solve everything in seconds. Plus, Jayden didn’t mind. He urged her to come, even when Lucy said she’d get a hotel. She really didn’t want to and she’d rather stay at Jayden’s, but she didn’t want to impose on anyone.

“You can’t impose on family, Lucy. Get your ass in the car and come on. We have plenty of room,” Jayden demanded.

And so they did. Of course, after her mom and River fussed over them, demanding to know updates as soon as she had them. She felt a little better, but not much. It was all such a clusterf*ck. Once in the car on her way to Jayden and Baylor’s, Angie was in the backseat, singing, oblivious to her mother’s troubles while Lucy was having a mild panic attack. When her phone rang, she closed her eyes, praying it wasn’t Rick or anyone else who was going to make this day an even more complete hell. Reaching for it, she saw it was Rayne.

“Hey, you never texted me yesterday about the Paxton job. Are you doing it?”

Lucy swallowed hard, feeling a flutter deep in her gut. “Not sure. Still in the works.”

She had no clue what was going on with that. Couldn’t exactly tell her assistant that she slept with him and things were up in the air. Didn’t seem very professional. After telling her about the shop and to postpone the interviews with the designers who were coming in that week, she said she’d get back to her about Benji’s account.

“Okay, do you have specs? Pictures, so I can get started on that?” Rayne asked and Lucy nodded.

“I’m driving to my brother’s right now. We are staying with him until things are figured out. Let me get settled and get my laptop to upload the pictures from the downstairs—”

But she paused.

Her laptop and camera were in her bag.

In Benji’s house.

Fuck.





Leaning against the counter, Benji crossed his arms over his chest. Before him sat one black pump, one naughty lace thong, and a bag full of designing stuff, all spread out on the island in his kitchen.

All belonging to his magician, also known as Lucy.

That girl and her disappearing act were impressive. Problem was she left a lot behind. Now he had to figure out how to get it back to her. He tried her business line, but they were closed on Sundays. He searched her bag for her cell phone number, nothing. He could drive to the shop since he knew she lived above it, but he didn’t want to just show up. That was rude. So there was only one thing he could do, but he was stalling.

Because calling your linemate for his sister’s number so that you could get her stuff back to her after a night of endless pleasure seemed a little tacky. Then again, maybe it didn’t, but he still felt a little strange about it. He knew Jayden would ask questions and he wouldn’t lie, but he also couldn’t disrespect Lucy like that. So he was kind of stuck.

And looking at her things wasn’t making it any better.

Man, why did she have to leave?

He’d had so many plans. He had wanted to wake up in the middle of the night and take her to oblivion at least ten more times. He wanted to make her breakfast; he wanted to plan to get together today. Maybe a movie or something, hockey with Angie, anything. He just wanted to see her before he left later that night. It pained him to know he wouldn’t see her for the next five days, especially since he didn’t get to do anything with her he’d wanted to.