Stealing His Heart(38)
He thought he could force her to reveal her secrets? Screw him. “I can’t. I told you that. Trying to force it out of me won’t do you any good.”
“I don’t believe you.” He crossed his arms. “You did it once, you can do it again.”
She shook her head and hooked up to the system. After randomly pushing buttons, it beeped at her and turned red. She glowered over her shoulder. “See? I don’t know what I did.”
He came up behind her. “Think harder.”
“I am.” She curled her fingers on her phone even tighter. “I’m trying.”
“No, you’re not.” He trailed his fingers down her leg and toyed with the hem of her skirt. “I think you’re playing me. And I’m prepared to stay in here until you get us out, no matter how long it takes.”
He dropped his hold on her and left, crossing the safe to sit down on a bin.
“And if I don’t? What then?” she asked.
“Then we die in here.” He crossed his ankles. “I don’t know about you, but no one will miss me too much.”
She clamped her mouth shut. “Not even your sister?”
“Well.” He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe her. But she’s got Tyler now.”
“That’s not the same as the love of a brother,” she said.
“Fuck, I’d hope not.” Jake pointed at the lock. “Now get back to work.”
She blew out a breath, fluttering her hair. “You’re being stupid.”
“I’m good at that.”
“You don’t say?” She turned her attention to the code, mind racing. “I hadn’t noticed until now.”
He snorted, but didn’t reply.
After a few minutes of her aimlessly poking buttons, he broke the silence. “Why do you do this?”
Grateful for the distraction, she stopped acting as if she was trying to crack the code and walked over to his side. “Why do I do what?”
“Steal. Explain it to me again.”
She exhaled. It was the first time he’d asked her that. Maybe it meant he was beginning to see she wasn’t being evil. Maybe he was beginning to understand her. “You protect stuff for people, keep it from being stolen. I do the same thing. The only difference being that I recover stolen items, and you keep things from being stolen.”
He studied her, as if he was having a hard time understanding her logic. For him, everything was black and white. There was nothing in between. “You break into other people’s homes and steal. That’s wrong.”
“Even if they stole it themselves?”
“An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind,” he said. “Is this because of your parents?”
“Yes. And yours.” She lifted her chin. “I hate that bad people in this world get away with everything, and we can’t do anything to stop it. The people who stole all my parents’ money. Your foster parents. The man who killed my parents. They all have one thing in common. They all walked away without a single punishment, and we couldn’t do a thing to stop them.”
“No one said the justice system was perfect.”
“It’s unfair. Unjust.” She took a deep breath, wringing her hands. “I debated becoming a cop so I could arrest them all. But I’m not disciplined enough. On top of that, I’d never be able to walk away from someone I knew was guilty because we didn’t have the legal evidence. So…I do this.”
His gaze latched on hers. “You steal from them.”
“Yes.” She bit down on her lip, and added defensively, “They all deserve it. You can’t deny that. They’re all assholes. I only steal from the ones who stole it first.”
He shook his head. “That doesn’t make it okay. If I treated everyone the way I was treated, I’d be in jail. Would have been since my parents died.”
Kneeling at his feet, she covered his hand with hers. His fingers tensed under hers, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted her touch. Funny, considering all they’d done together in the past twenty-four hours. Heck, even before that.
“I know. And it’s people like Soltese that need to be taken from. That deserve to have their privacy invaded, and the items they took from innocent people taken back.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Tara.”
“Yeah, it is.” She withdrew. “Ever wish you had been honest with Christine and told her you were being abused? Do you ever wish someone came and took you away from him?”
He moved away from her, his profile barely visible in the dim shadows of the safe. “‘Took me away?’ I’m not one of your items that can be stolen away in the night.”