“They should love you more,” Sander said.
I shrugged again. It hurt even though I wanted it not to. I was coming around to the fact that they weren’t great people, that very nearly gifting their daughter to their best friend who was nearly twenty years her senior was not okay, and that cutting her off without emotional or financial support when she finally left him was ridiculously cruel. But I wasn’t there yet.
“You love me enough for anyone,” I said, squeezing his hand. “And anyway, I’m making it work. It’s good for me to be on my own and struggle. I’ve never done that before.”
“Good,” he said, meaning it with all his heart even though he only gave me a brisk nod.
There was a little pause where I waited for him to tell me his real reason for ambushing me at my school and he pretended his only motivation was making sure I was all right.
“Need you to do something for me,” he finally grunted.
Damn.
“Okay, what do you need?” I asked as if it was no big deal.
And it wasn’t. Lysander never had much of a future. He hated our parents, began binge drinking and partying at the age of twelve and never turned back from a life of poor decisions. Our parents threw him out of the house when I was ten and he was fifteen but he’d still found ways to see me, to buy me little gifts and take me out to the movies. He was and always had been my little secret, my minor rebellion. I’d been giving him money since I was eleven, first from my allowance and then from my joint account with William. It wasn’t unusual for him to ask. He’d only had odd jobs before and now that he was an ex-con, it was even harder for him to find work.
Only now, I didn’t have my parents or William’s money and I barely had any of my own.
So, I was hoping whatever he needed didn’t involve a whole bunch of zeroes.
“I heard you been spending some time with a brother from The Fallen MC,” he said, instead.
What?
I gaped at him as shock, horror and disbelief raged through me. How could Sander have possibly known that? I knew he liked to ‘keep an eye on me’ but how far did that extend, because he would have literally had to be stalking me to find out about the minimal time I spent with King.
And if he knew, who else did?
I shuddered.
“How did you hear that?” I demanded, only it was too breathless to really be an order.
He crossed his arms again and stared at me, not willing to answer.
“For Pete’s sake, Sander, I spent like two days with the guy. How do you know about that?” I cried, heedless of keeping a low profile now that I was panicking.
People finding out I had an ex-convict as a brother was way lower on the totem pole than them finding out I’d made out with a student.
“Doesn’t matter. I need you to get me a job at Zeus Garro’s garage.”
“What?”
He repeated his statement then said, “I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important, princess.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know where you heard I was hanging out with a biker but the fact is, I’m not. I ended it before it even started. I mean, come on, Sander, me with a man like that? I don’t think so.”
I laughed nervously because there was a large part of me that wanted to be the kind of girl who would attract and keep a man like that.
Sander raised a brow at me. “Don’t need to know the details. Don’t even need you to date the guy. Do need that job, Cressida. Like I said, wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t super important.”
It was easy to understand what he meant. He wouldn’t ask unless it meant the difference between staying out of jail or going back in, or maybe even the difference between life and death.
I wanted to be appalled, but even though Lysander had never asked me to personally extend a favor like this to him, I’d seen him do it to others before. This was the way of his outlaw life, favor exchanges, manipulations of people and laws, demands and acts that would make a normal human crumble. He thrived on them now, excelled at his criminal life.
I didn’t judge him for it. I’d helped buy it for him so I never judged him for it.
But he’d never asked me to take part in it.
“You can’t ask him yourself?” I ventured.
“Nope. Zeus Garro’s a smart guy, wouldn’t let someone on to that compound unless he was trusted.”
“I’m not trusted. I’ve never even met Zeus Garro.”
“This guy that you aren’t seein’ anymore. He go quietly when you cut him loose?” he asked, somewhat bizarrely.