Richard

Safe and sound. That was how I’d felt then, and how I’d felt now. I closed my eyes and let myself, for just a second, feel like I was home again. Like I was where I belonged.

I kissed my stepbrother back. Sweetly. Passionately.

And then jumped away from him at the sound of breaking glass and Jax’s bark.

Gunner was already up and at the door. “What the fuck?”

I followed after him, my lips still numb from our kiss. My heart was hammering a million miles a minute and the world seemed to spin. What were we thinking? What had we just done?

What had I just done?

And then my gaze settled on his Mustang. His pride and joy. Specifically, the busted-in back window.

“Holy shit,” I whispered. Jax was at Gunner’s side, ears pricked, tail out straight, staring at the dark road. Gunner was reaching in through the glass and cussing up a storm as he pulled out a piece of paper lying beneath a brick—the brick that someone had put through his baby.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, his wild eyes darting over the text. I could see it even from the stoop. Someone had scrawled all over the other side of that paper, big and in Sharpie. Gunner looked up at him, his face pale. “Tanya, do you know anything about this?”

I walked over to him as if in a dream, my legs quaking all the way. Once I reached him, Gunner pushed the note into my hands. My fingers trembled as I read it.

“There is a Smile of Love

And there is a Smile of Deceit”

BUT MY SMILE IS DIFFERENT

MY SMILE IS A KNOWING ONE

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID

AND I WILL DO MUCH WORSE

“Tanya?” my stepbrother prompted. But I couldn’t speak. I was too busy looking at the brick in his hand. At the black scorch marks up and down its sides.

That brick that had almost certainly come from my apartment building—the one that had just burned to the ground.

Chapter 7

Gunner

“You have any angry ex-boyfriends I should know about?” I asked, setting the brick down on the kitchen counter. I felt like I could have crushed the damn thing into dust with how tightly my fist was clenched around it.

“No, I don’t have any exes,” she said, her eyes locked on the dirty red thing occupying my counter space. “None that’re this_._._._crazy.”

“Then what the fuck is going on, Tanya?” I asked, breathing hard through my nose. I knew I shouldn’t be taking my frustrations out on her—none of this was her fault—but the fact that someone had smashed up my damn car—had seen what we’d done—what I’d done with Tanya_._._._

My stepsister turned her gaze away from me, looking off toward the window. Her weight shifted from foot to foot as she bit down on her lip.

I frowned. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“A while back,” she began, looking back into my eyes with a pained expression on her face, “there was this guy who came into the club.”

“Okay,” I said, biting back a comment about how this was exactly why she should never have started working as a damn stripper in the first place. “What happened?”

“He paid for a lap dance in the champagne room. I thought everything was on the level—he paid cash and had asked for me specifically, which isn’t unusual—until I walked into the room.” Tanya paused, closing her eyes tight for a moment before forcing herself to continue. “He was wearing this weird drama mask—the tragedy one, with the sad face and shit.

“It was weird, but I figured it was some kind of kink or something, and as long as he didn’t get freaky I’d do the dance and get the fuck out of there. But that’s not what happened. He started talking, and he had one of those fucking voice machines, that make you sound like that damn puppet from Saw. He was telling me about how his mother had been a whore, and how he’d stuffed her panties in her mouth and killed her. Then he asked how I’d sound when I was choking—if I’d sound just like his mother did.”

I watched Tanya’s eyes well up with tears, her chest heaving as her words turned to sobs.

“I told him not to fucking touch me, but he started choking me. I screamed, and one of the bouncers came in and pulled him off and threw him out of the club. God, I was so fucking scared. I hadn’t done a private show since then—not until you showed up.”

I watched her for a long moment, my thoughts churning in my head like a brewing storm at sea. The thought of someone almost killing my baby sister making my blood boil in my veins as I imagined that fucking psycho hurting her.

“You think that it’s the same guy?” I asked, glancing out at my car through the kitchen window. Would any of this have happened if Tanya had never given me that dance? If I’d never made her?

“I don’t know who else it could be, Gunner,” she said, her voice faint and breathy as she brought herself back under control. “I don’t have any other enemies, none that would throw a fuckin’ brick at your car. I mean, Jesus—this is some Lifetime-special bullshit.”

I rubbed my hands over my face, resting my elbows on the kitchen counter. I’d done something horrible to my own stepsister, let her grind on me like that—I could have stopped her. The more I thought about it, the more the images of her ass rubbing against my groin filled my mind. My heart started to race and I could feel my cock stirring in my pants again.

For Christ’s sakes. Not now.

“We’re going to lock all the doors,” I said, my face in my hands as I tried to muster the nerve to look at her without giving in to all the shameful thoughts crossing through my mind. I could only imagine what it would be like to bend her over the couch and take her as she worked her hips back against me. “And Jax’s dumb ass can stay with you tonight.”

I looked over at the lazy mound of fur laying sprawled out on the couch and shook my head. Jax was a good dog, but probably the worst when it came to actually protecting the damn house. Sure, he barked at everything that came within a football field of the door, but the moment you got inside he was all tail-wags and kisses. What a sorry excuse for a Belgian Malinois. I almost wanted my money back for the fortune I’d paid for him.

But then I’d look into his stupid, brown eyes and he’d give me that doggy smile, and I’d forget all about the money and his utter incompetence and stuff him full of treats. Yeah, I had a soft side. Women and dogs—what guy can resist ‘em?

“But what about when you’re not home?” Tanya asked, patting her leg and whistling for Jax to come over.

“He doesn’t come when you call—” I began, but stopped as I watched my dog excitedly get up from the couch and trot over to my sister’s side. “You’re the worst dog ever.”

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose before answering her question. “I don’t know. We’ll figure that out tomorrow, I suppose. In the meantime you and I need to get ready for bed. I have to be out early to go to work.”

“How long are you going to be gone, though?” she asked, bent over as she scratched behind Jax’s ears. I could see straight down her blouse.

“Until the next day,” I sai

d, trying hard to turn my eyes away. I could feel my cock hardening as more unclean thoughts filled my head. “We have twenty-four-hour shifts, then have the next two days off.”

“All right,” Tanya said, taking a deep breath and letting it out in the sigh. “What am I supposed to do while you’re gone, though?”

“I’ll give you my card before I leave, I guess, and you can go do some shopping or something.” I was desperate to be out of the same room as her, I’d have told her she could empty my damn bank account if it meant that I could escape from the unbearable temptation of her gorgeous body.