Hardcore Volume 3 (11 page)

He set me down in the center and turned on the water, and that sorcery hit me from all angles.
 

My eyes closed. “God, yes.”

Van slipped an arm around my waist, his face in my hair, hand on my ass. “I’m going to be the next thing that makes you say that if it kills me.”

I leaned back into him and smiled. I reached for the shampoo and poured some in my hand, lathering it between my palms. “So, what’s for dinner?”

He let me go and stepped over to grab the soap and lather up his own hands. “Something fast. I’m starving.”

“Me too. I hadn’t planned on leaving, so I haven’t eaten since lunch.” I kneaded my hair.

He smiled. “Can’t say I’m sorry. You couldn’t get there fast enough, as far as I was concerned.”

“How long were you waiting?”

“Hours. When it started raining, I realized there was a real possibility that you wouldn’t come. I was terrified that I’d waited too long to get you back, that you’d moved on.”

I stepped into the stream to rinse my hair, turning to avoid his eyes. “I don’t know if moving on was ever going to happen.”

“I know the feeling. I’d been on the fence since I’d gotten the letter, but I couldn’t wait after Erin came to talk to me.”

I dropped my hands and turned to face him. “What?”

He stopped scrubbing his arm, looking surprised. “You didn’t know?”

“No. When?”

“Yesterday. She told me what you went through to get the painting back. Told me about your sister and Jade. She told me about you, mostly things I’d already known, about who you
are
. And then I realized how wrong I was. I had to get you back.”

I just stared at him, stunned. “I could kill her and kiss her.”

He chuckled, but his eyes were sad as he cupped my cheek. “I’m sorry I doubted you. You tried to come clean and I shamed you for it.”

“It was exactly how I expected you to react. I betrayed you. I hurt you. I can’t believe you found it in your heart to forgive me at all.”

“How could I not when I learned the whole truth? You’re a thief and a liar. But you’re loyal and generous. You sacrificed what you wanted, and not for the first time, by what Erin said. You’re
good
, Cory. Even when you’re bad.”

I didn’t want to argue because I couldn’t hear him try to convince me. I didn’t want to concede because I still didn’t know if I believed it. So I kissed him. It was the only answer I could give.

He leaned back, smiling as he scrubbed his hand across his bicep, under his arm, across his chest. I just watched like an idiot until shampoo almost ran in my eye.
 

I tipped my head to rinse my hair the rest of the way and let the water run over my face. When I stepped out of the stream and opened my eyes, he was watching me.
 

I smiled and reached for the soap, lathered my hands and ran them over my arms, across my breasts, pausing to circle my nipples under the heat of his gaze. He licked his lips and rushed me, grabbed me and pressed me against the shower wall. His lips hovered over mine.

“Not yet. I want you in my bed. I’m going to take my time with you tonight.”

I nodded, the motion slight, my nose brushing the side of his. He pressed his lips to mine, hard and hot for a long moment, pulling at my bottom lip before he let me go. I was still caged in his arms.

“Wash up. I’m going to get dinner started because if I stay here with you, I’m going to fuck you until you scream.” He smiled as he backed away, watching me as I stood there with gooey knees and an arching heart. “Just grab one of my shirts from the dresser. I’ll throw your clothes in the wash. You’re not going to need them tonight.”

I WATCHED HIS PERFECT ass walk out of the shower, then out of the bathroom while I stood there, blinking. I peeled myself off the wall and wobbled back to the streams of water, taking my time finishing up with a smile all over my face. When I’d dried off, I made my way into his room and to his dresser where I assessed the drawers, not wanting to rummage. I guessed the top drawer would be underwear and the second would be shirts, and internally cheered when I was right.
 

I grabbed a black crew neck and pulled it on, dried off my hair a bit more before hanging the towel up. The shirt was just long enough that it barely covered my ass, the crew neck just wide enough that it hung off my shoulder. When I padded into the kitchen, I couldn’t help but smile at his wide shoulders as he put a tray of asparagus into the oven. He was shirtless, his black sweats low on his hips, the can lights casting the shadows down the muscles of his back.
 

“I thought you said you wanted something quick?”

He smiled as he turned to face me. “Yeah, well. It’s quicker than pizza delivery.” He dragged his eyes down my body and shook his head. “I need a drink. Want one?”

I nodded as I sat at the island. “Scotch?”

“Definitely scotch.”

He poured us drinks, taking a sip with his eyes on me before he turned to the chicken on the cutting board. “Get my mind off your body so we can get through dinner.” He picked up the garlic press and went to town on a clove, dropping it into the hot pan in front of him with a hiss.
 

“I’m sure you have questions for me.”

“A million.”

“Well, what would you like to know?”

He pushed the garlic around with a spatula and tossed in a stick of butter. “Tell me about your sister.”

I sighed. “Jill is … well, she’s amazing. She’s smart and beautiful. Driven. She sets her mind to something and doesn’t stop until it’s done.”

He glanced up at me. “Sounds familiar.”

I laughed. “She’s not really a risk-taker, though. She weighs everything out, makes decisions for her future.”

“What’s the deal with your parents?”

I looked down into my glass and took a sip before I began. “They just don’t care. We were an inconvenience to them. They provided the bare minimum for us financially and absolutely nothing emotionally. I spent most of my childhood alone. In my room. Playing outside. They never gave me rules, never monitored me. They just wanted me out of their faces.”

“God.”

I shrugged. “I was happy with that, though. As a kid, I was free. I could do anything, be anything. But when Jill was born, everything changed. I couldn’t just be responsible for myself, and I didn’t want to be. The first time I ever held her, I understood. I was only ten years old, and I knew I’d have to take care of her. So I did.”

“Did they ever hurt you?”

“Not physically. They were just … absent. I never needed closure — I let them go a long time ago. But Jill hasn’t. That’s what really gets to me, the fact that they hurt her. I wanted to get her away from them, and now I have.”

Van looked at me across the space and shook his head. It wasn’t pity, just sadness that I saw. I kept going.

“She was such a good baby, so smart even when she was little. You can look into some kids’ eyes and know that there’s more in their souls than the rest of us could hope for. You know that they’re special. Jill is one of those.”

“And you’d do anything for her.”

“I always have. I always will. I love her.”

He poured white wine into the pan and turned up the heat, glancing at me briefly before asking his next question. “Tell me about Jade.”

I sighed. “Jade. I don’t even know where to start with her. She was just … I don’t know.” I struggled to find the words. “I’m sure you could guess that I have very little regard for traditional ‘rules.’”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I could see that.”

“No one in school really got it. Just Jade. She’s been a spoiled fuck as long as I’ve known her. We met freshman year, and she was just so brash. Her irreverence was refreshing. It made me feel a little less alone. Like it was okay not to be like everyone else because I’d found someone so much like me. It took years for me to realize that we were more different than I’d realized.”

“She’s who you started running with, right?”

“Yeah. She saw a video on parkour and showed me. It was so badass. We started small, just running around the city, jumping on things. Over things. The stronger we got, the more we could do. I kicked her in the jaw once when she was spotting a back handspring.” I smiled at the memory.

“Done that.”

“Yeah, well, parkour’s not for pussies.”

Van laid the chicken breasts into the sauce. “You really have to want it, that’s for sure. It gets in you. There’s always that one moment.”

I nodded. “I was sixteen. I was running along a duct between buildings, and the city was solid, towering around me. My eyes were down, locked on the alley thirty feet below me, and I knew right then that I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. It felt too good.”

“I had climbed up a lightning rod on a building, way higher than I should have been for the skill level I was at. I was seventeen, and I hung off of that building somehow knowing I wouldn’t fall, feeling like King Kong. I’d never experienced anything like it — the rush, the power.”

“And the problem solving. You look at something and you’re like, ‘How can I get over that as creatively as possible?’”

His smile was crooked. “And with as many tricks as possible.”

“Without being a douchebag about it.”

He laughed. “You’ve got to have style. Can’t be desperate.” He flipped the chicken over and topped it with capers and tomatoes. “What all have you stolen?”

I stiffened in my seat, even though there was no accusation in his voice. “We used to hit electronics stores. Jade’s twin brother was friends with a couple of petty thieves that had more work than they could handle, so they passed off jobs to us. We’d been breaking into places for years, usually to parkour. Abandoned warehouses, that sort of thing. It was easy money, money I could use to buy things for Jill. Clothes. Toys. I could take care of her. Send her to a better school.”

“Sounds like an easy choice. What changed with you and Jade?”

“I don’t think Jade changed. But when we started running with the other girls, she was jealous, I think. Instead of dealing with it, she acted out. Talked shit. Pushed us around. It’s just that none of us cared enough to push back. We just rolled our eyes and shrugged it off. Until you.”

“How did that go down?”

I paused and looked him over. “You sure you want to know?”

He nodded. “I want to know all of it. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since you told me.”

“All right.” I drained my drink and set it down. He poured me another as I started. “When you had me run the delivery here that day, I recognized the Rothko, and when I left here, I was freaked out and pissed. I was talking to Erin about it when I got home, and Jade overheard. She told me to steal it, and I agreed to it, at first.”

He flinched.
 

“I didn’t want to do it, but she threatened me from the start. At first, she said she’d tell Jill I was a thief. She didn’t know, she
couldn’t
know. And I didn’t know you, just knew I was attracted to you. So I came to the gallery that day to ask you out because I had to. I left the gallery wanting to see you again. And when I came here that night, I decided I wouldn’t steal it. I went home the next day ready to tell Jade to fuck off. She told me she’d kill Jill before she beat me unconscious.”

A shadow passed across his face, and his lips turned down, brow heavy and eyes dark. I kept talking.

“I had to leave you because I couldn’t pretend. I couldn’t lie to you. I knew you weren’t going to let me go that easy, though, not as intense as we’d been. But I didn’t want to leave. I just didn’t know any other way to go about it.”

“How bad did she hurt you?” His voice was low, nearly a growl.

“I had a concussion, but I was okay otherwise.”
 

He didn’t look convinced.
 

“It’s not the worst fight we’d had.” I shook my head. “Jade said she’d kill Jill. There was no way out of the job. Morgan tried to push back, but when we found out that Jade was having Jill followed, that was it. We all backed off.”

“What happened that night?”

I took a heavy breath and met his eyes. “I watched Jade stand right there and take the Rothko off the wall, wishing I was dead. We made the drop, and the fences double-crossed us, gave us a fraction of the money they promised Jade and Jace. Jade had a gun to her head twice that night. Once from the fences. Once from me.”

His eyes widened a hair.
 

“You can’t move life backward. You can’t undo what’s been done. Pulling the trigger wouldn’t have changed anything except me.” I took a drink to wash the ache in my chest away. It didn’t work. I set the glass down and spun it around. “The next day, the girls talked me into stealing the painting back. Bust the warehouse and the guys that fucked us over. But I didn’t care about them. I just wanted to tell you the truth. Return what I’d stolen. The property, at least. I didn’t ever believe what I’d done could be repaired, but I wanted you to know all the same.”

“You knew what I would say, but you did what you thought was right anyway.”

I nodded. “You told me once that you didn’t think it was hard to do the right thing.”