Page 33 of Bad for You

It was Quinn’s turn to blink up at me. “What?”

“You got it wrong, Quinn.”

She winced. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Now will you let me talk to her? I obviously need to clear a few things up.”

“But you two looked so close…”

“We are, but not like that. She’s going through some shit, that’s all. Now will you let me through?”

She bit her lip, then finally stepped aside.

I rushed through the door and out the back. I found Lila in the break room, sitting on the couch, and she seemed to shrink in on herself when I walked in.

“Not now, Grifter.”

She wouldn’t look at me. “Jesse. You call me Jesse.”

That worked, her gaze shot to mine. “Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

Her eyes glistened, round and sad, and I cracked, right down the middle. “Because I can’t,” I said roughly. “Because you’re all I can fucking think about, all I see when I close my eyes.”

“You have a girlfriend, you shouldn’t be…”

“No. I don’t.”

“I saw you with her. I literally just saw you with her.” Her lips quivered, and my gut tightened painfully. “God, Grifter, the morning after you sent me all those texts, saying I was important to you, that you still wanted me in your life, I called you. She answered your phone, she told me to leave you alone. I’m not an idiot.”

What the fuck?

Then I remembered how insecure Soph had been, how scared.

Goddamn it, Sofia. “Jesse,” I said correcting her again. “You called me?”

Lila scowled at me, looking pissed. I preferred that to sad.

“Did she tell you we were together?”

“She said…” Lila frowned.

“What did she say?”

“I guess she didn’t say it in so many words, but it was implied.”

“Sofia’s my brother’s old lady, or was. She’s a sister to me, nothing else. She came back with me because my brother is the kind of low-life piece of shit who lays hands on his woman. I finally convinced her to leave, to come back with me. Her sister lives in Black Stone. She’s staying there, but she’s having trouble adjusting. She still hangs around the club, because that’s what she’s used to. I was staying close to her tonight because she wasn’t in the right headspace to be drinking. I didn’t want her to make a stupid mistake that she’d end up regretting.”

Her body went rock solid. “She’s your sister-in-law?”

I bit back a curse. “That’s why you’ve been avoiding me? You thought I’d hooked up with someone?”

She colored, eyes bright, lips puffy from biting at them. She’d been crying…over me.

I growled and closed the space between us. I’d tried to do the right thing. Tried to let her go. Fuck knew I’d tried. But I didn’t want to stay away from her anymore. I wanted Lila. I was fucking useless without her.

She stared up at me, those gorgeous eyes wide.

“You want to know why I ended it? You really want to know?” I said roughly.