Page 10 of A Corruption Dark & Deadly

“I’m not going to work for him,” she said. “I’m not.” Her eyes flashed over to his. “Is there anything I can do to get my house back? I can pay you rent. I can pay off the mortgage? Anything?”

“Not unless your brother can come up with fifty grand right now,” Jericho told her.

Annie wanted to scream. She wanted to slap the smug smirk from Jericho’s face and she wanted to slap her brother for being so fucking stupid. There was nothing she could do. Her house had been stolen by some kind of beautiful monster.

“Where am I going to live?” she asked, looking at Jericho.

“You can come move in with me,” Bruce reminded her, gently patting her on the back.

She snapped at him. “Don’t touch me.” Her eyes looked at Jericho. “I am not moving to the city,” she told him. “If you hate it here as much as I do, you understand.”

“I never told you that you had to leave the house,” Jericho told her, his tone serious.

“Wait,” Annie said, furrowing her brow. “What?”

Jericho nodded. “You don’t have to leave,” he said. “I’m not kicking you out. You can stay there for as long as you want.”

“Okay,” Annie said slowly. “How much do I owe you in rent?”

Jericho wrinkled his brow, making him look pensive and even more beautiful than he was. She clenched her teeth together in order to focus on what was important, and it certainly wasn’t his high cheekbones or his pale green eyes or the perfection that encapsulated his face.

“Rent?” he asked, furrowing his brows even more. “Who said anything about paying rent? You wouldn’t owe me anything.”

Annie clenched her teeth together. This seemed too good to be true. She couldn’t fathom living in her home with a new owner and pay nothing in rent.

“What would you want in return?” she asked slowly, knowing there was some sort of catch. There had to be. This was Jericho they were talking about. The criminal. Head of organized crime. Was he trying to trick her? Did he want something from her? She wasn’t sure what she could give him that he would want. She wasn’t supposed to be involved in the first place.

“Nothing,” he said, almost offended that she asked in the first place.

What did he expect? Nothing was for free. Not even love.

Annie didn’t want to press her luck. Instead, she clenched her jaw to keep the words from leaving her mouth and sighed through her nose. “Can we leave now?” she asked.

“Once the deed has transferred over to me, you are free to go,” Jericho said.

“I’ll go sit in the car, then,” Annie muttered.

Jericho stood and held out his hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Brennan,” he said.

She didn’t know what to say in return. It wasn’t a pleasure meeting him, but she didn’t want to be rude. Not when he was offering her the opportunity to live in her home for free. Instead of responding at all, she nodded her head and shook his hand.

Then, without looking back, she left for the car, hoping Bruce would hurry the hell up.