“That’s bullshit,” Knox said, tucking his wife under his arm.
Nash nodded. “Agreed.”
“Gotta side with the testosterone twins,” Stef said, hooking his thumb in their direction.
“They know something,” Lina said, narrowing her eyes.
I crossed my arms. “Then they better say it.”
The brothers shared a look.
“Uh-uh. None of that telepathic guy code,” I insisted.
Nash cleared his throat. “Evidence suggests otherwise.”
“What evidence specifically?” Naomi pressed.
“When you blew into town and needed money, Lucy coughed up half the cash to fund the grant that paid your salary,” Knox announced.
“How do you know that?” Naomi asked him.
“Because I paid the other half,” he said.
Naomi sighed. “Just when I think I couldn’t love you any more than I already do.”
I slapped the bar. “Hang on. You’re saying I didn’t earn that grant? That you two bozos just decided to give the library the money?”
Knox shrugged. “We heard the funding you applied for wasn’t gonna come through. So we made it happen another way.”
“That’s very generous of you,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Uh-oh. Sloane’s going to explode,” Stef observed.
“No, I’m not.” The effort to keep from shouting made my throat hurt. “Why would he do that? He’s always hated me.”
“No, he hasn’t,” Lina and Naomi insisted together.
“At the risk of breaking man code, let me tell you a story about Lucian’s bike,” Nash said.
“I don’t care about Lucian’s bike,” I snapped. “I want to know why the guy who told me I wasn’t worth his time because I’d ruined his life would dump money into a cause I care about.”
“It’s a metaphor,” Nash promised. “Luce’s aunt and uncle who lived in California got him this sweet mountain bike for his thirteenth birthday. He loved that thing. Rode it everywhere. Washed it every other day. Two weeks after he got it, Ansel got pissed at him for not taking the trash out or mowing the lawn crooked or some shit like that. He took the bike out of the garage, threw it in the driveway, and then backed over it with his truck.”
I rolled my wrist. Apparently time didn’t heal all wounds.
“That’s horrible,” Naomi said.
Knox handed her a fresh napkin. “Do not fucking cry, Daze.”
“His aunt and uncle must have heard about it because they sent Lucian another bike. He hid it at our place in the shed. He only rode it when he came over. He never once took it into town or anywhere his dad might see him on it,” Nash explained.
Knox frowned. “I remember that.”
I didn’t want to feel sorry for Lucian. Not right now.
“So he protected it by hiding it from his dad,” Lina said. “That’s a spot-on metaphor, hotshot.”
“I do what I can,” he said with a flirty wink.
I shook my head. “Yeah, okay. He was thirteen and living under the thumb of a god-awful monster. But what’s his excuse now?”
“How the hell should we know?” Knox said.
“Sounds like the guy you’re not worried about didn’t grow up with any kind of emotional support to show him what it’s like to be a real man in a real relationship,” Joel said, magically appearing behind the bar. “A guy like that might think the only way he can keep something safe is by keeping his distance.”
I didn’t want a reason to empathize with the man who was currently fucking his way through the beautiful female philanthropic geniuses in the District of Columbia. I wanted to forget that Lucian Rollins existed.
I held up a finger in Nash’s face. “First, you are hereby not allowed to discuss anything regarding me, including any past, present, or future threats.”
“Noted.”
“Second, who the hell would be targeting me to get to Lucian? A discarded lover? Some politician he put into office?”
He shrugged. “Possibly. Or maybe someone like Anthony Hugo. An enemy with the resources to dig into exactly who and what Lucian is doing.”
“Well, that puts a fucking damper on things,” Stef said, breaking the ensuing silence.
“Look. Right now, we don’t know who it is. So it’s smarter to be vigilant,” Nash explained.
“Then why the fuck isn’t Luce being vigilant here?” Knox demanded.