Saint (A Dark Mafia Romance)(113)

“Oh, give me a little credit, cabrón!” He grins at Logan. “You’re not the only guy who knows how to grease wheels my friend.” He reaches into his pocket, and Logan’s whole body tenses for a second. “Oh relax, Papi. You just forgot this.” He tosses a bundle of something at Logan, and as it’s not until it splashes down in front of us and sits there floating in the pool that I realize it’s a bundle of cash with a rubber-band around it.

A bundle of cash that looks a whole lot like the blood-stained one from his pocket that first night.

“I told you, I don’t want it.”

Javier grins wickedly. “Oh, but I want you to have it!”

Logan’s jaw tightens and I can hear a growl at the back of his throat as I clutch at his back. “I don’t need it.”

Javier’s grin drops in an instant. “I don’t give a shit what you need, marica.” The warmness in his voice from before, however fake, is dropped like a rock. “You take it ‘cause I want it to remind you of our deal.”

I lean into his ear. “Logan, what-”

Javier chuckles. “Yeah I bet she doesn’t know, does she? I bet she’s just got no idea what sort of shit you and me got up to before her daddy swooped in and wrote you a blank fucking check.”

Wait, what? A million questions whirl through my head, none of which I can ask right now given our circumstances.

“Hey, chica.” Javier’s eyes narrow as he grins at me over Logan’s shoulder. “Stick around with this guy and you’re gonna get burned, baby.” Javier cackles at that one, as if he’s just told the joke of the century. “Yeah this one likes deserting things he starts, don’t you, Irish!”

Logan’s hands start to close into tight fists. “You have five seconds to walk the fuck out of here before I throw you over the edge.”

Javier chuckles again. “Just keepin you on your toes, pendejo. Just keeping you on your toes.” He looks at me again and blows me an air kiss that makes my skin crawl and my nose wrinkle. “You have a good night too, baby. If you get tired of this loser, you come find Javier, okay?”

He nods as he looks around the pool area again. “Not bad, Irish. Not fuckin bad.” He gives Logan one last look before he turns and heads towards the elevators, leaving us alone.

It takes me another few seconds to find any words at all. “Ok, what was that?”

Logan pulls away before turning to me. “I need to take you home.” He moves away and steps out of the pool.

“Logan, talk to me. What was that guy talking ab-”

“Let’s just go, alright? I should bring you home.” He holds a towel out for me, and I blush before he turns his head as I step nude from the pool and grab the towel around my body. He turns back to me with this hard glint in his eyes like he’s wrestling with something inside.

And so much of me wants to ask him what that battle inside is. What he’s fighting against even now, when it’s just the two of us. And I want to know what this whole thing was - the part with Javier, but also, and maybe even more-so, the part before.

I look at him and see the man that was open to me when it was just him and I, in that one perfect moment in time.

But the way his face betrays nothing now, as he snatches his keys off the table and yanks a shirt over his head tells me that openness is now closed. The walls are back up, and I’m suddenly furious with myself for letting myself fall for all of this again, and making the same goddamn mistake all over again.

“Fine.” I say quickly, yanking my shorts back up and snatching my t-shirt up. “Take me the hell home.”





Chapter Seventeen





“Look, I’m sorry you had to see that back th-”

“It’s fine.” Quinn’s arms are crossed over her chest, her face as stiff as her body and staring straight ahead as the elevator in our building slowly rises.

“Quinn, there’s a lot more to-”

“Logan, it’s fine.” She snaps, her jaw tightening and her eyes still looking right in front of her.

The door opens at her floor, and she starts to step right past me when I stick my arm out, stopping her as I jam my thumb against the close door button. The elevator starts to rise and her face flashes fiercely as she whirls on me. “What the fuck are you-”

“You don’t get it, do you!” My voice is louder and harsher than I mean it to be, but it certainly gets her attention . Her eyes flash fire as she glares at me. The door opens to my floor, and Quinn shakes her head and makes to move past me again. I grab her by the wrists this time, shoving her back against the elevator door-well. “This little dance we got going on, darlin?” I’m close to her, so close that I can feel the heat of her breath across my lips and the heave of her breasts against my chest. “Well it’s gotta stop.”