Lance cupped my cheek. Instead of pulling away, I leaned into his touch.
“I need you to trust me.”
I stared at him. It was crazy to give him my trust. He’d acted like a lunatic the first time we’d met. He’d stalked me and broken into my house, and now he was mixing me up in something I didn’t quite understand but I knew was very illegal. Something to do with his mafia family. So why the hell did I want to say yes? “You don’t make that easy.”
“Haven’t I kept my word to you from the start?”
“I told you not to come back to the library, but you did.”
“I never promised you I wouldn’t.”
“You promised me you wouldn’t hurt me, that you weren’t dangerous, but you are.”
“I’m very dangerous.” He rubbed his thumb along my cheek bone. “But something tells me you like that.”
Oh God. Did he know? Could he see that deep inside me? I thought of how I’d gotten off thinking of him, and heat filled my face.
“I’m going to protect you.”
“Whether I trust you or not?”
“Yes. That’s how it has to be, but I’d prefer if you trusted me. This will be a lot easier if you go along with what I say.”
“Are you like this with everyone?”
“Like what?”
“Demanding, outrageous.” Charming as fuck.
His smile weakened my knees. “More or less.”
“Protective.”
“I reserve that for adorable, uptight librarians that don’t want to let me into their… collections.”
Fuck. I’d let him plunder my collection. There was no way in hell I’d say no to anything he wanted from me.
Maybe I’d officially lost my mind. Gwen had been warning me about the effects of too much stress. I looked into Lance’s warm, dark eyes and decided if this was insanity, I was just going to give into it.
Once we had erased all traces of our presence, we headed for Lance’s car. As he opened the door for me, I had a terrible realization. I grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?
“The security cameras. We’ll be on them.”
He covered my hand with his. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that.”
“What does that mean? How?”
“Trust me. I’ll handle it.”
How much power did this man have? “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t like it either.”
“But you’re… This is what you do, isn’t it?”
“I live a… colorful life, but this situation feels off. It’s not what I expected, and I don’t like that.”
I let him usher me into the passenger seat. A few minutes after he started driving, I realized he wasn’t going in the right direction to take me home. “Where are we going?”
“To Remington’s house and then to mine.”
I’d known better. Lance had told me who he was, and I’d still gotten in his car, and now… “Take me home.”
“Julian—”
“I’ve put up with a lot of shit from you. I don’t want to be involved in this anymore. I don’t want to be where that necklace is.”
“I can set you up to leave town if that’s what you really want, but—”
“Leave town? I have a job.”
He shook his head. “Your workplace isn’t safe right now.”
“Lance, stop the car right now. I mean it.” He didn’t. I hadn’t really expected him to. “You’re in possession of a stolen artifact. Do you really want to add kidnapping to your potential charges?”
“I didn’t steal the necklace.”
Did I know that for sure? “Maybe not, but you’re not attempting to return it.”
“And I’m not kidnapping you. I’m keeping you safe.”
“I want to go home.”
He shook his head. “That’s not an option.”
“Because I know you have the necklace?”
He glanced quickly at me, then back at the road. “No, because I want to protect you.”
“I wouldn’t need protecting if you hadn’t—”
“Yes, you would. Someone came into the archive and hid that necklace, someone you let in.”
Anger burned through me. “You are not going to blame me for this.”
“Cher, I didn’t say you were to blame. I said the person talked to you. They can identify you as the one that let them into the archive, and they know there’s a chance you saw what they did.”
Fuck.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. It’s my fault—or my family’s fault—that you’re in this situation.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow.”
Lancelot let out a long, slow breath. “We’ll see how we can work that out.”
Would he really prevent me from going to the library? “This isn’t… I’m not bargaining with you.”
“Sweetheart, you really don’t have a choice. I’m not letting you go. I’m not even going to let you out of my sight unless I know you’re protected by someone I trust.”
“This is insane. You’re insane.” I pulled out my phone, and he grabbed it from me without even looking away from the road.
“Julian, this is for your own good.”
“Calling the police about this would be for my own good.”
“Do you honestly think the police would be any match for the people behind this theft?”