“He’s way cuter than a gremlin. Even Gizmo.”
“See? You know what a Gremlin is.” I shake my head.
She pauses briefly, then says, “I take it you owe Rafe $50, then?”
I smirk faintly at her reference to the bet the guys made about whether or not she’d try to kill me. “I owe him a little more than that.”
Her gaze drops to Roman. “So, is he staying much longer?”
“Rafe? No. He’ll head back to Vegas now that the job’s done.”
She nods her head, but kind of awkwardly. “That’s good. Of course, the way he’s been visiting, he’ll be back again next month.”
I narrow my eyes, but she still won’t look at me. Mia’s been begging me to bring Rafe here because she had the idiotic idea of pushing him together with Meg. I didn’t think the idea came from Meg, or that there was a chance in hell it would ever take anyway, but I got tired of hearing about it.
If Meg’s not dying, I give it a week before she’s back in Mia’s good graces, if she’s not already. Once Rafe leaves, Mia will forget how easily he crawls under her skin. If Meg gives her even the vaguest hint that she might like Rafe, Mia’s going to be in my fucking ear about it again.
No, I’m not doing this shit again. Best nip this in the bud right now.
“I’m fairly certain all his interest in Chicago should be sated after tonight. I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again anytime soon.”
Meg nods. “Right. That makes sense. He was just here for the payday,” she says, lightly.
“I think he was more interested in the benefit package than the payday. Money doesn’t hold the same appeal for men like Rafe; they have plenty of that. What appeals to men like Rafe is offering them something they consider off-limits. Giving them a little hit of the one drug they can’t buy.”
Her chin rises defensively as she absorbs each word. I caught the look on her face in the bedroom when she saw Rafe and Mia on the bed. I wasn’t sure if she’d developed a little crush—Rafe tends to have that effect on women—or she was concerned he might hurt Mia. Whatever her faults, however inconsistent she can be, Meg does at least prefer people not rape Mia. If there’s a strong enough incentive—a Black Amex seems to be sufficient—she can be flexible, but she’s a self-serving opportunist, not a malicious shrew. She only wants Mia hurt if there’s some gain in it for her, not just for kicks.
Thinking about it makes my blood boil again. I pull at my collar, even though it’s not constricted by a tie like it normally is. The idea of Mia being hurt by anyone for any reason…
Now I don’t just want to sting Meg, I want to remind her how close she came to a dirt nap. I stop rubbing Roman’s back for a moment to reach into my pocket and draw out the present I bought her.
The shield she was just starting to erect around herself drops and surprise flits across her features. She swallows, staring at the bullet, then casts a questioning look at me.
“I want you to keep this,” I tell her. “It’s yours. I picked it out just for you.”
She doesn’t appreciate my light sarcasm, I can tell in the pucker of her mouth. She doesn’t dare say anything though.
“You may not have been able to put a bullet into my head, but I promise you, I wouldn’t have hesitated a single second to put one in yours.” I nod at the bullet, for emphasis. “This one, in fact.”
It takes a minute, but eventually she sees that I’m not dropping my hand. She reaches out and grabs the bullet. Since there’s a pocket of silence to fill, she rolls the bullet between her fingers and inspects it. “What would you like me to do with this?”
Swallow it.
I’m slightly nicer. “Why don’t you get it set in a necklace, wear it around your neck?”
A faint, humorless smile stretches across her face. “You do love threatening jewelry.”
“Maybe it’ll serve as a daily reminder. I’m going to say this to you once, and only once. No one is watching out for you anymore. We all saw how you repaid the loyalty Mia gave you; I promise you, none of us will offer so much as a scrap of it ever again. Mia is not looking out for you anymore. If—and only if—you can be a good friend, I’ll consider allowing a friendship between you. This means you’re nice to her. You look out for her. If you see any harm coming her way—whether she’s about to stub her fucking toe—you scream it from the rooftops. If you’re useful, if you make my wife happy, then you may stay. The first time you try to use her, it ends. If you behave the way you have before, you won’t survive the year. There are no more chances for you. You played a game of chance with terrible odds and you lost. You tried to get one over on me. I have a long memory, Meg. I won’t forget that.”