Stepbrother Thief(78)

“So what was so special about this last job? That's what I'm having trouble understanding. I mean, the haul was huge, but that doesn't seem to be a motivating factor for either you or Gill. Aveline, he won't tell me, so I'm asking you, woman to woman.” I give her a look and she smiles, red lips twisting into a slight smirk.

“If I tell you his secrets, he'll skin me alive. Look, I get the whole girl power thing and honestly, I'd rather be your friend than his, but I won't piss Gilleon off.” I purse my lips and glance back at the yard. It's a good size, a perfect size really, for a family. My heart constricts a little as I imagine living here with Gill, with Solène. We really could've had a beautiful life.

We still could.

I lean over, putting my forehead on my forearms. I can't believe I'm even considering this. Considering him. Fucking Gilleon.

“All I can tell you is that this job, we couldn't have done it without you. You were the only person with the code to that safe. To get in there and out as fast as we needed to, we needed you.” I lift my head up, brows pinched. I think about the store manager—a guy named Bernard Rossi—and I try to think when he gave me the code to the safe. Only … he didn't. He asked me to make up my own code. I just assumed that everyone had numbers of their own, to keep track of everything.

“Why have me set the code?” I ask, completely and utterly perplexed. It doesn't make any sense, none of it does.

“Because,” Aveline says on the end of another drag, “to keep Gill in line, Karl used you. You were his safety net, his security, his ball and chain.” She gives me a sympathy grin and reaches out to pat me companionably on the back. “That's why Karl hired you, you know. He knew his shit was safe with you right there in plain sight, that Gilleon would never do anything to risk you. If Max hadn't stepped in with an offer of protection, you and your family, you'd be dead right now.”



“Gill.”

He's sitting at his desk, a gun in his hand, some rounds sitting on the cluttered surface next to him. He doesn't even look up when I come in. In fact, since that day with Solène, he's only spoken to me in short, clipped sentences, most of the time when we have an audience. Other than his invitation to dinner, I haven't been able to get anything out of him. It's driving me nuts, just like it did when he first came back. I hate seeing him pretend not to care. It's so much worse than knowing he still does, hearing about it, listening to him tell me everything I ever wanted to hear. If he hadn't waited ten years to say it, I probably would've taken him back. Five years ago, I would've wept at the offer. But now, I've grown past that, grown up.

Gill finishes loading the magazine and inserts it into his gun, setting the whole thing aside as I shut the door behind me.

God.

Being in an enclosed space like this makes my brain muggy, my thoughts scrambled. When I lean back and rest against his door, I get hit with the memory of his hand sliding inside my blouse.

“Are we going to talk about this?”

“Which this?” he asks, his voice calm and reasonable, his expression neutral.

“What I said really hurt you, didn't it?” I ask, refusing to shy away from the subject. Why should I? I'm tired of this affecting my life, affecting Solène's life, Cliff's. Gill and me, we need to deal with everything, just get it all out in the open and walk away from it. I used to think that meant walking away from him after this was all over, but now that Solène knows he's her father, I can't do that, not if Gilleon's serious about having a relationship with her. “About no reason being good enough?”

“It's the truth though, isn't it?” he asks on the end of a long sigh, running his fingers through his hair. The tattoos on Gill's arm ripple like shadows in the dim light as he stands up and puts his hands on his hips. He's wearing a black T-shirt today that pulls tight across his chest, and a pair of green camo cargo pants—casually badass and sexy as hell, as usual. “Why should I be hurt? What you said was true, and you're right.” My heart skips a beat as Gill takes a step towards me and pauses, searching my face for something.

“That's it? Just you're right, and that's all? Why don't you tell me, Gill. I can see the secrets in your eyes, and they're killing you.” I move away from the door and sit on the edge of his bed, the smell of Gilleon enveloping me, like he's somehow marked his room with that spicy male scent of his. Goose bumps crawl up my arms and I have to take a breath to calm myself. I pat the mattress next to me and put a smile on my face. “Look, we've been letting our emotions get the better of us, but that's obviously not working out so well.”