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“I’m surprised your father allowed this.” He lifted his gaze to Cruz, giving him a nod. “It seems you’ve knocked some manners into her at least. She needed it. I hope you didn’t part with too much money for her, she’s not as pure as Louis told us.”
Cruz stepped forward, glaring at him. “Talk about Penn like that again and you’ll lose teeth. Here’s your painting.” He said he’d already been paid for it so I wasn’t surprised when he started walking back towards the door.
“Penelope?” I turned to find the man’s son eyeing me with confusion, his gaze flicking between me and Cruz. “What are you doing here?”
His father walked towards us and I let out a laugh.
“Me? Nothing. Found a wife yet?”
“No. At least you figured out how to put pants on this time,” he frowned. “Your father said you were in a facility again.”
I should’ve known he’d use that kind of bullshit. He loved playing the nuthouse card for sympathy.
“No, I just decided it was time I moved out. Besides, I was nothing but a hassle for Louis anyway,” I said sweetly. “We need to go. There’s other rich criminals on our list today.”
“Your father will be hearing about this. Although I’m not surprised that you’ve shacked up with someone like this,” Asshole senior said firmly, and Cruz scowled.
“It’s not like he wants her.”
“And you do?”
“I don’t want her, I have her. Big difference,” Cruz snapped, tightening his hand in mine. “Come on, baby. Let’s go home.”
They watched us leave, and Cruz gave me an odd look once we were back in the car, the anger gone from his face.
“Who are they?”
“That was the guy my father tried to marry me off to,” I said dryly, staring out the window. I could see Dad’s house from here and a shiver rolled through me at the thought of being back there.
“I can’t believe rich people still do arranged marriages. If it benefits people and the two getting married have a connection I think it’s okay, but they can’t force you to marry a random guy as a business deal,” he scoffed, driving back towards Rawson Grove.
“You guys are rich people,” I pointed out, not surprised when he gave me a dirty look.
“I do my own washing and don’t need someone to drive me around. We might have money but we don’t really use it for more than keeping us out of prison and to buy all our electronic stuff. Money doesn’t buy happiness, you know that.”
“No, it buys drugs, deception, and lies,” I mumbled, Cruz’s phone ringing and making me jump. Cruz sighed before pressing the answer button on the handsfree.
“Yeah?”
“Did you seriously take her with you?!” Stone barked.
“We’re on the way back now. She’s got a good eye for authentic work. The piece we were supposed to take was fake but we found—” Stone hung up before Cruz finished talking, and I gave him the side eye.
“Maybe him and Knox should have an angry fuck together. Might make them both feel better.”
“You really need to stop taunting him, even though it’s fucking hilarious. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Stone so wound up. When we get back, go straight to my room and let me deal with Stone. I’ll give him a detailed report about today and put in a good word for you. Stone’s a hard-ass but he respects actions and determination. You work hard and he’ll respect you. Trust me, he’s impressed that you don’t crumple when he tries to intimidate you,” he said warmly. “You did good today.”
“I didn’t. I stepped on all the creaky stairs, my feet sounded heavy on the floor, and—”
“You’re not trained to be stealthy, that comes with time. You weren’t as loud as you think you were, and that’s probably thanks to you sneaking out of daddy’s house regularly,” he teased. “I’ll teach you stealth if you teach me more about spotting legit art pieces. Deal?”
“Are you going to tell me why you’re not good at that? You’d think it would be mandatory in your line of work,” I deadpanned, earning a grin.
“I’m better with tech than I am with judging art, but I usually have someone else with me. I was meant to take one of the others so you saved my ass by noticing the painting was fake.”
My stomach did little flips at his praise and I smiled widely.
“Thanks for letting me come with you. It was fun.”
