Thief (Love Me With Lies #3)(33)

“What the-”

I shoved him inside and kicked the door closed. The room smelled.

Slipping my watch from my wrist, I tossed it on the bed. Then I hit him.

He fell back, crashing into the dresser and knocking over a lamp. I was on him before he could stand up. I yanked him to his feet by his shirt, his legs flailing beneath him trying to find ground.

I set him on his feet, and then I hit him again.

“Caleb,” he said. He held one hand over his nose, which was bleeding through his fingers, and the other he extended toward me, palm outstretched. “I was drunk, man — I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? I don’t give a f*ck if you’re sorry.”

He shook his head.

“Shit,” he said. “Shit.” He bent over at the waist, hands on his knees and started laughing.

I ground my teeth together until I was sure they’d turn to dust.

“You lied to her about the amnesia.” He was laughing so hard he could barely speak. I shoved him.

He staggered back, but he was still laughing. “You’re just as bad as me, man. The two of you pretending not to know each other, it’s like a f*cking-”

I grabbed the front of his shirt and flung him sideways. He landed on the bed; laughing so hard he was holding his stomach. Infuriated, I went after him again.

Before he could say anything else, I pulled him up and held him against the wall.

“You don’t know anything about us.”

“Don’t I?” he hissed. “Who do you think was there for her after you cheated on her and left?”

“I didn’t,” I said through my teeth, and then I clenched my jaw. I didn’t need to explain anything to this little shit.

“You speak to her again, I kill you. You look at her again, I kill you. You breathe in her direction-”

“You kill me,” he finished.

He shoved me, but the guy was like one fifty soaking wet. I didn’t move.

“You’ve been killing her since the day you met her,” he spat at me. That hit me hard. I thought about the day I saw her in the record store and how there seemed to be no light left in her eyes. “Why’d you come back? You should have left her alone.”

Blood was smeared across his face and his greasy hair was sticking up. I looked down at him impassively. “You think you could have had her if I hadn’t?”

My words hit him somewhere deep. His eyes rolled to the side and his nostrils flared. So, he was in love with her too? I laughed, which sent him into a rage. He struggled against my hold, his face clammy and red.

“She’s mine,” I said into his face.

“Fuck you,” he said.

I hit him again.





I don’t hear anything from her. How much time goes by? Everything feels so much longer when you’re hurting. I am so consumed by thoughts of her, that when a few people from work invite me to go out for drinks, I agree just for the distraction. Among the group is a girl who works in the accounting department and flirts with me relentlessly. Steve raises his eyebrows when he sees me leaving with them.

“A word of advice,” he says, as I stop in his office to say goodbye. “When you’re in love with a woman, you shouldn’t get involved with other women.”

“Noted,” I say. “Though, I would like to offer that she is probably sleeping with another man as we speak.”

“You still think she’s coming back to you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because she always does.”

He nods as if that settles things.



We land up at an upscale martini bar in Fort Lauderdale. I leave my suit jacket in the car and loosen a few buttons on my shirt. One of the girls smiles at me as we walk toward the bar. I think her name is Asia spelled Aja.

“Your ass looks great in pinstripes,” she says. My buddy, Ryan claps me on the back. I’ve known him since college. Steve gave him a job when we graduated as a favor to me. Turns out he’s pretty good at what he does. Ryan looks at Aja with mock sympathy.

“This guy,” he smirks, “is not going to sleep with you.”

Aja grins. “That would be a new experience for me.”

I laugh and really look at her for the first time. She reminds me of Cammie.

“Broken heart?” she asks, ignoring Ryan who is trying to insert himself between us.

“Something like that.”

“I specialize in those.” She winks at me, and now she reminds me of Leah. I shiver involuntarily. I don’t want to be reminded of Leah.

“I’ve grown attached to my broken heart. I think I’ll keep it.” I hold the door open for the girls, who file in one by one. Aja waits for me on the other side of the door, and I inwardly groan. I’d rather not spend the night fighting off advances from a woman I’m not interested in. On the other hand, she’d be no work at all. I don’t like that. Women hold all the power. They should use it like a whip, not offer it up like a sacrifice.



I haven’t done the group bar scene since I was in my early twenties. I buy the first round, hoping that buying drinks will make up for the fact that I’m about to slip away from their group and drink on my own.

Aja finishes her martini in two sips and decides to make me her sole prey for the night. She is joined by Lauren from the accounting department. I’ve tried for the last ten minutes to have an adult conversation with the two of them, but if I talk about anything other than office gossip and movies, their eyes glaze over. Aja suggests that we leave and go to her place.