“I am. I didn’t sleep well at all last night.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is your fault.” He steps in and takes both my hands in his. “I got used to sleeping next to you already. Please come home.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”40WestonI reach over and take Scarlet’s hand. We’re headed back to Eastwood and though I should probably be a dozen other things, I’m happy. Scarlet is coming home with me.
“Why did you start conning people?” I ask, giving her hand a squeeze.
“I realized I could,” she confesses. “It wasn’t like a dream I had when I was a little girl to grow up and be a con artist.”
“What did you want to be when you grew up?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. For a while there I wanted to work at a zoo, but then things changed and I realized I didn’t have options. Especially after I dropped out of high school to take care of Heather and Jason.”
“You did go back, right?”
“Right. My dad showed up again and was able to look after them. Luckily, because our mom died shortly after.” She looks out the window and it hits me how different our childhoods were. “I’ve always worked. I had to. Hell, someone had to and it sure wasn’t Mom. I busted my ass for my family and when I realized I could get more money doing something as harmless as flirt with a guy…I still shouldn’t have done it, but, well…”
I rub my thumb against her hand. I don’t want to judge her. I don’t want to look at her any differently than I did before. “How’d you pick people to scam?”
“Well, my go-to scam was to hang out in bars at expensive hotels. Men—usually married men away on business trips—were easy. I mean easy to con. Not easy to sleep with. I didn’t sleep with them. I just took their money and left. Which was supposed to sound better but, fuck, I’m terrible.”
I laugh, giving her hand a squeeze. “Honestly I find this all really interesting.”
“Well, that’s good, I guess. And to answer your question, I’d read the room. Find a guy who had something to prove. The more desperate, the easier they were to take money from. And you’d be surprised at how distracting a low-cut top and a good pushup bra can be. I picked a lot of pockets after ‘accidentally’ spilling a few drops of whiskey down my cleavage.”
“Yeah, that would be distracting. Even for me.”
She smiles, but I can sense her discomfort. I don’t approve of what she did, of course. It’s illegal and I’m a cop.
“I used to think of myself as a version of Robin Hood who kept the money I hustled instead of giving it to the poor. My family was poor so it kind of makes sense.” She shakes her head. “The people I conned were rich assholes who were more than willing to cheat on their wives. Losing a couple hundred bucks here or there wouldn’t have hurt them and maybe it taught them a lesson in cheating. Instead of getting a sexy one-night stand, they got stood up and got their cash stolen.”
“That’s a way to look at it.”
“It doesn’t make it right. I know. If I could take it back, I would. There’s a lot of stuff I’d take back and I’m not just talking about cons.”
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of too.” She looks cold, so I take my hand from hers and turn up the heat. “I’ve never conned anyone, but there’s plenty of things I’d do over. Specifically, my marriage.”
“Has she been back?” Scarlet asks hesitantly and I debate on telling her what happened at the bar yesterday. She’s already upset.
“Yeah. She showed up at the house and I told her to leave. Then Jackson and I went to Getaway—”
“You took Jackson to a bar?”
“During the day. They weren’t open yet.”
“Oh, that’s better. I was going to say you really fell apart on me and I was only gone a day.”
“I did fall apart. But anyway…we went to talk to my brothers and Daisy followed. She tried to get Jackson to leave with her.”
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“I had her arrested for an attempted kidnapping. Her parents got a fancy lawyer right away and she was released. We’re supposed to have family court in the near future, so nothing will happen until it’s reviewed then.”
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Unfortunately.”
“So she’ll be back.”
“Yes, but hopefully the next time she does, I’ll be officially divorced and will have all the paperwork I need to legally have full custody of Jackson.”
Scarlet nods and falls silent for a few minutes.
“Do you still want to be with me?”
“Yes.” I slow, getting stuck in construction-zone traffic. The clouds are starting to give way to blue skies.
“Are you sure? I’m not a good person, Wes.”