Wild Card (Leaving Las Vegas) Read online

“I need a burger. Something bloody.”

  “Sure thing.” The truck’s engine roared to life, and Finn pulled out of the parking lot.

  They were two blocks from the club when Gina finally remembered how to breathe normally. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to take off on you.”

  “The club manager scared you.”

  “No, of course not—” But with the smell of sex still clinging to her skin, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to Finn. “Yes.” Panic flooded her veins as the memory consumed her. The entire world felt like it was spinning out of control. “I thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to kill me. He was so mad. Just like—” Her voice broke off, and she sobbed.

  She wasn’t supposed to think about the terror that had sent her sprinting from the lonely Southern California town straight to the lights of Las Vegas.

  After years spent running, it should have been over and done with, but suddenly, it felt like it had just happened yesterday.

  She’d never be able to run far enough to escape her own memories.

  Finn found a restaurant—a place that sold burgers and booze—and held out his hand. “Give me the cash, and I’ll get our dinner to go.”

  She handed the money over without stopping to think. After so many years of being careful… She blinked, shaking her head. “That’s all we have.”

  “Don’t worry,” Finn said. “I won’t spend it all in one place.”

  That wasn’t what Gina was worried about. Exactly.

  Sometimes it felt as if she’d spent half her life running, even though she knew no one had bothered to look for her in years. All that time, all that effort had cost her. She’d never come close to experiencing the comfort and companionship she’d found in Finn’s arms. The first time she’d seen him, she’d wanted him—hard and rough and up against the nearest flat surface—but now she just didn’t want him to leave.

  “Ten minutes.” He shoved the wad of cash into his back pocket.

  Gina rolled down the window and watched him make his way into the bar. Everything was going to be okay. They were in Missouri—not California.

  Sure, there were men tearing apart the countryside, hunting her and Finn down like animals. But they’d gone more than twenty-four hours without anyone pointing a gun in their direction. That had to be a plus.

  By the time Finn made it back to the truck, Gina’s nerves were calm, and her stomach was growling. The burgers smelled like red-blooded heaven, and she couldn’t wait to dig in.

  “What did you get?” she asked as Finn got into the driver’s seat and handed her a white foam takeout container.

  “Cheeseburger,” he said. “Swiss cheese, mushrooms, and caramelized onions all on a sesame seed bun. We’re splitting an order of onion rings.”

  “And if I don’t want to share?” Gina asked with mild humor, even though she was already reaching hungrily for her food. She lifted the burger in both hands and took a large bite. Damn. Juice dripped down her chin, and she let out a hungry groan. “Oh, that’s good.”

  “If I’d known you were going to react like that, I’d have bought you a burger sooner.”

  “We didn’t have any money.”

  “Trust me, I’d have thought of something. That noise is worth risking life and limb for.” Finn dug into his food, propping the box up on the center console between them.

  After a few moments, he turned to look at her.

  “You need to tell me about it,” he said between bites of food. “Whatever happened back at the strip club, you shouldn’t have to face it alone.”

  Gina’s blood went cold. Her hands felt numb. Her body was shaking. Her burger was falling apart, and she couldn’t do a thing to stop it. “Nothing happened.”

  “Don’t lie. Not now. Please—” Finn’s blue eyes bored into hers. His cheeks were still flushed from sex.

  It had been his first time. Gina didn’t want to ruin it with her memories and pain, but his gaze never wavered. Whatever she needed to say, he was ready to hear it.

  Her heart battered against her chest. She picked at her burger, rearranging it carefully until it looked like a sandwich again. “I told you about the manager at the Beavertail?”

  “The man who broke your nose.”

  “That’s the one.” She took another bite. The burger might not look as pretty as it had a few minutes earlier, but it still tasted delicious. “His name was Rick. He was a couple of years older than me and good-looking—or at least, he thought he was. He thought he was God’s gift to women, and we were all supposed to be grateful for any attention he might give us.”

  “But you weren’t.”

  “Nope.” She shrugged. “Back in high school, I was the town wild child. My family had a reputation, and I was determined to live up to it. I smoked, drank, and fucked with the best of them.”

  “You gave hand jobs in movie theater parking lots.”

  “Yeah.” She laughed at the memory. “I did that, too, but by the time I turned eighteen, I was done with it. I thought I was so freaking smart, but really, I just wanted what every young girl wants.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Forever.” She’d been so naive. “I wanted one man to have and to hold. So, when Rick started sniffing around, I told him no. I wasn’t going to be that girl anymore. The money from the strip club—”

  It had been more money than she’d ever seen in her life. While not a steady income, it was enough. And on the nights she’d hit it big, it hadn’t mattered that she’d needed to budget her earnings out for weeks at a time.

  “It was good money,” Gina finally said. “Once I paid back my dad’s debts, I figured I’d put away some savings. I bought some nice clothes. I thought about going back to school, but I got a library card instead. It wasn’t much of a life, but it was mine. Rick ruined that.”

  “Did he hurt you?”

  “I already told you, he broke my nose.”

  “No.” Finn reached out to grab her arm and held on tight. “Did. He. Hurt. You?”

  Gina thought about it for a long moment. The air crackled with tension. “I didn’t let him.”

  “Good.” Finn nodded. He dropped her arm and went back to eating his food. “Now tell me the rest of it. Tell me why you still can’t go back to California—and why he’s not in jail.”

  “He hit on me.” It was such a tame phrase, so completely unrelated to the truth. Gina struggled to string the words together.

  In her mind she could still hear Rick’s oily voice laying out the plan—telling her exactly how things were going to be—as if he wasn’t just her employer. As if he owned her.

  The asshole.

  “He told me that I was going to be his girl. We’d go out on a few dates, and then he’d move me into the apartment above the club. It would make me more accessible. Then he dragged me into one of the VIP rooms by my hair. My head clipped the side of the door. That’s when he broke my nose.”

  “But he didn’t hurt you.”

  “Rape,” she snapped. “You can say the word, and it never got that far… The club had those tiny tea light candles on the tables. It was supposed to make for a more romantic environment, but most of the guys just used them to light the cigarettes they weren’t supposed to be smoking anyway. When he started pawing at my clothes, I threw one of those candles at him.”

  The acrid scent of burned flesh still woke her up sometimes late at night. It was her deepest, darkest secret—one she’d never told anyone before—but for once, she didn’t want to hide, and she didn’t want to run. She wanted to tell Finn exactly what she’d done.

  “I never thought… Someone had spilled a drink on him earlier that night. His clothes just went up in flames. Whoosh!”

  “God works in mysterious ways.”

  “You better believe it,” Gina said. “So, I got the hell out of there. Two hours later, I was in my car heading toward Las Vegas, and I haven’t been back to California since.”

  “The police ever question you
about it?”

  “Nope. I contacted a friend after I left. She told me that he was okay, although he’s not so pretty anymore. The police wanted to question me—but I couldn’t go back.”

  “Probably a good idea.”

  “Rick put it around he had guys looking for me—I spent years looking over my shoulder—but I guess he wasn’t as connected as he liked to pretend. No one ever found me. Not that I made it easy.” She’d never taken a leading role. She’d never put herself out there.

  “It’s not like I wanted to be a stripper—I got over that years ago—but it was always there in the back of my head. Like a safety net. If things got really bad at the casino, I could always go back to stripping.” She finished her burger, licking the remnants off her fingers. “I guess I was wrong. When the manager mentioned the VIP room, I almost had a coronary right there on the linoleum. You think I’m screwed up?”

  “I’m not one to judge…” Finn shrugged. “I understand what you’re talking about.”

  “At least you can still go back to being a priest, if you want.”

  “No,” he corrected forcefully. “I couldn’t go back.”

  “Not even if you begged?”

  “It’s not about begging. To be a priest…to stand up in front of all those people on Sunday morning and teach them right from wrong—to guide their spiritual journeys—you have to believe in what you’re saying. Absolutely. There’s no room for doubt.”

  Gina snagged an onion ring from the open container. “And you’ve got doubt?”

  “I certainly don’t have faith.”

  “Why not?”

  There was no answer. The only sounds in the truck came through the open window, the cheerful country music getting louder every time someone opened the door to the bar. Finn’s tongue darted out to moisten his lips. He didn’t say a word.

  Gina sighed. “You don’t have faith, but you still follow the rules. You keep your nose clean. You always turn in your paperwork on time. You never step out of line. You always do as you’re told.”

  “I’m pretty sure my boss didn’t want me to bring you out here. He thinks you’d be safer back in Las Vegas. I told him no.”

  “Yeah, you did, but you haven’t talked to him in a few days. What happens the next time you’re near a phone?” Gina’s gut churned. “What are you going to do if he orders you to bring me back?”

  “I’m going to keep you safe. No matter what.”

  Finn appeared to have lost interest in his food. He put the burger down and handed the container back to Gina to balance carefully on her lap. His hand went to the key in the ignition, and the truck rumbled to life. “There’s a gas station about half a mile back. I’ll fill up the tank. If we hit the road now, we can make it to Chicago tonight.”

  It was already edging up on midnight, but Gina didn’t bother pointing that out. She’d just opened up her chest and poured out her heart’s blood in front of him. It didn’t matter. Finn still wouldn’t talk about his past.

  He might want to protect her, but he didn’t trust her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Finn woke up in a pile of blankets and heat. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to struggle out from underneath the oppressive warmth, but the comforter wouldn’t let him go. He turned to move it and blinked in surprise. Arms were holding him, not a cotton-covered duvet. Firm arms curled around his waist while a curved body was plastered against his chest.

  He choked, not quite waking up the woman snuggled up against him. His cock hardened with the realization that it wasn’t just any woman tangled up with him. It was Gina Malloy, all five feet ten inches of snarky, sassy, unadulterated sex appeal.

  While watching her dance last night, he’d dreamed of throwing her down and pushing roughly into her, taking her savagely in the middle of the club. It would never happen—he might fantasize about them having fun in the baked heat of an empty parking lot, but there was a difference between tempting fate and screwing in front of thirty witnesses—but damn, the fantasy had been nice. After all, she’d said she’d liked it rough.

  Then he’d followed her into the dressing room, and it had been better than any fantasy. Losing his virginity should have been memorable, no matter what, but the fact that it was Gina? Yeah, that had done things to him, twisting up his insides until he couldn’t think straight.

  Of course, that had been before he’d heard the hurt in her voice when she told him about her former boss.

  He should have taken more time with her, bringing her to orgasm with his fingers before he buried himself inside her.

  Too many men had ordered Gina around, telling her what to do instead of listening to what she wanted. He wasn’t going to be like that.

  Not if he could help it.

  Instead, he’d driven hell-bent for leather toward Chicago, forcing himself to stay awake with hot coffee and loud music. When they’d finally hit Lake Shore Drive, his eyes had been bleary, and the other cars had seemed like fuzzy mirages around him. He’d barely made it up the front stairs. The fact that he’d found the spare key in the familiar hiding space had been a freaking miracle.

  Snagging some spare pillows from the linen cabinet took all he had. He hadn’t managed to find a blanket, and at half past three in the morning, he hadn’t cared. He’d meant to show Gina upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms, but clearly, that hadn’t happened either.

  “Finn,” she murmured, curling tighter into the crook of his arm. “Hmm…Finn.”

  Hell. Finn soaked in her familiar lilac scent. His fingers tangled in her silky red curls, and his lips skimmed across her forehead, kissing her gently.

  This was what he wanted. Not just sex—although the way his erection thrust awkwardly in the confines of his jeans made it clear his body wouldn’t turn that down either—but companionship.

  Her fingers dug into his shirt, and he could feel her nails scraping against his chest. A sharp moan escaped his mouth.

  Oh, yeah, he could definitely do sex.

  “Really, dude?” A familiar voice interrupted Finn’s plans. “You’re going to lose your virginity on Mom’s couch?”

  It took everything Finn had not to jerk upright. His head tilted slightly, searching the familiar living room with its battered furniture and overstuffed bookshelves. “How do you know I haven’t already lost it?”

  “Then, congratulations, big brother.” Colin was sitting on the far side of the room, where he’d pulled in a chair from the dining room. His clothes were rumpled. And his expression was curious.

  “Been here long?” Finn asked.

  “Sorcha called me a few hours ago. She heard a noise downstairs and wanted me to come and check it out. Imagine my surprise to find the prodigal son laid out in the living room. With a girl.” Colin grinned. “Good for you.”

  The last thing Finn needed was a pat on the back from his little brother. He edged upward to get a better view. “You’ve been sitting there all night?”

  “I went up and caught a few hours in our old room. You could have done the same thing.”

  “I wasn’t sure I’d be welcome.”

  “So, why’d you end up here at Mom’s instead of coming to my place? Cheryl would have made up the hide-a-bed.”

  “It was late. I was going on instinct.”

  Colin stood up and straightened his shirt. “There’s coffee in the kitchen. I’m going to go wake up Sorcha. You’re going to owe her.”

  “For not calling the cops last night?”

  “Nope.” Colin chuckled, making it sound as if they were back in high school. “For bringing down some clean clothes for your girlfriend to wear. Her legs are grade A, but you better hope Mom doesn’t see them.”

  He was right. Finn squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. He’d driven into Chicago on automatic pilot. He’d gone to his mother’s house—the same foursquare bungalow he’d grown up in—because he hadn’t remembered how to get to Colin’s.

  His arms wrapped protectively around G
ina. “What time is it?”

  “Six forty-five.”

  Kaitlyn Finn woke at seven o’clock in the morning and was downstairs at 7:20 on the dot to make breakfast—two eggs, some bacon, and a piece of rye toast with burn marks on one side from the antique toaster oven she refused to let any of her children replace. She’d followed the same routine for years.

  “You cut it awfully close,” Finn complained.

  “Figured I’d let you sleep. You got in late enough.” Colin stood and walked into the kitchen. His pace was even. His tone was calm.

  They were Irish twins, born only ten months apart. All their lives, people had been comparing them, calling them two peas in a pod. It was true that they looked similar—all the Finn kids had the same black hair and blue eyes—but that was where the similarities ended.

  Colin was a friendly man, married with four children. His personality was bright and sparkling. People liked him.

  Finn had always been a short-tempered bastard.

  He got that from their mother.

  “I can wait in the car,” Gina murmured quietly against his neck. “If my being here is going to cause trouble for you with your mother—”

  “Hell, no.” Finn snorted. “My mother’s going to adore you, remember? I’m the one she’s pissed at, but she’ll get over it eventually. That’s what family’s all about.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I never had a family. My mother dumped me at my dad’s place when I was two years old.” Gina untangled her arms from his. Her body stiffened. “He never even told me her name.”

  She sat up carefully, swinging her legs over the side of the couch, then stood up and stretched.

  It had only been days since they’d met—even if it felt like years—and Gina looked exactly the same. Long legs stretched all the way from her black hot pants to her slender feet. Her hips were full and luscious. Her waist was toned and taut. Underneath her battered pink T-shirt, her breasts were full and round, like ripe melons waiting for him to take them in hand.

  When she turned back to him, her heart-shaped face was pale, providing sharp contrast with her dark freckles and bowed lips the color of raspberries. There were dark splotches underneath her hazel eyes, but it didn’t distract from her natural beauty.