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J uno thought about calling Dare to tell him that his brother was in the hospital, but then how would she explain to her friends why she was with Saint in the first place? She was going to have to come up with a damn good story at some point because she needed to tell Sprite, Phoenix, and Vixen that she was going to have to move back home with her parents. It was pointless to tell them that she was an exotic dancer since there was no way that Bruno would hire her back now after everything that happened with Saint tonight. She’d have to stick with her cover story and tell her friends that she was fired from the law firm and that she just needed time to find another secretarial position. That would cover her ass with the girls, but how was she going to explain that she had driven Saint to the emergency room for his broken arm—that she caused in the parking lot at a strip club. She checked the time, noting that it was almost two in the morning, and decided that waking Dare up because Saint broke his arm, wasn’t necessary. If Saint’s injuries were life-threatening, she’d call him, but that wasn’t the case.

sat in the waiting room, dozing in and out of sleep when she heard someone walk in and sit next to her. She peeped one eye open to see who it was and found Dare staring back at her. “Why are you here?” She mumbled, trying to figure out if he was really sitting next to her or if her mind was playing tricks on her. She had been trying to figure out what to do about telling Dare when she started to doze off.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Dare said. “Does Vixen know your secret?” he asked.

“Um, my secret?” squeaked. “What secret?” She never gave out information without knowing what was going on first. It’s how she had kept her big secret all this time.

He sighed and rolled his eyes at her. “I’m one of your oldest friends, so I’m not sure why you are lying to me right now.” The problem with Dare was that he could see right through her, and he was right, he was her oldest friend. Still, playing dumb was her only choice here.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Dare,” she insisted. “I’m not lying to you about anything.”

“Then, why did I have to find out from Saint that you two are dating?” Dare asked. “He called to tell me that he fell and broke his arm while you two were out on a date, and you brought him here.” Why the hell would Saint tell his brother that? She thought back over what Dare had just told her and realized that Saint was probably trying to cover her ass. He didn’t lie to his brother and even covered for how he had gotten a broken arm. The problem was, how was she going to lie to Dare and say that they were dating?

“You okay?” Dare asked. She wasn’t but there was no way she was going to tell him that. She felt as though her head was spinning, and all she wanted to do was get off the ride.

“I am,” she lied. He sat back in the chair and looked her over, trying to decide if he was going to believe her or not. That’s the way Dare always looked at her when he wasn’t sure if she was lying to him or not. He was the one that she worried about most when it came to her real secret of working at the club. Being friends with Dare was like being friends with a bloodhound. He was always snooping around, trying to find all the clues. But this time, Saint might have covered both their asses enough to get away with the crazy lie that he told his brother.

“Are you going to tell Vixen?” asked. She knew that her girlfriends would have many questions before giving up the hunt.

“No,” he whispered, “you are.” Shit—Dare wasn’t going to cover for her forever, that much she knew. “She’s one of your best friends, and you and Saint won’t be able to hide your relationship forever. And it’s not my responsibility to tell my wife that you’ve been keeping the fact that you’re dating Saint from her and the other Royal Harlots.”

“Please, just let me tell Vixen,” she begged. The last thing she wanted was to have to confess her life choices to every woman in the Royal Harlots.

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to tell her, and then, I’ll tell her myself. I won’t lie to my wife and keeping your and Saint’s secret is basically a lie,” Dare insisted. She wouldn’t want him to lie to Vixen, but she was going to have to rehearse her story, and going over everything with Saint would be very helpful. But for now, she was alone and having to deal with Saint’s lie to his brother.

“I’ll tell her,” she lied. She was going to have to come up with some excuse as to why Saint lied about them being in a relationship—but that might involve her telling her friends about her choice of work. Well, what she used to do for work. What really wanted was some sleep to clear her cloudy mind and then she’d have to sit down with Saint and come up with a logical reason as to why they were together tonight.

“I can hang out here and give Saint a ride home if you want to go home. It’s after three in the morning, and you’ve got to be exhausted,” Dave said. She was, but if she left now, how would she get back to her car?

“I’d love to go home, but I drove Saint’s truck here and I’d have to pick up my car,” she admitted without telling him where her car was parked.

“Well, I can run you to your car and pick up Saint’s truck from here in the morning,” he said. “He’s getting his cast on now, according to that very moody woman behind the desk over there,” he nodded to the woman who had cheered for her earlier and couldn’t help her smile.

“I think that she’s nice,” insisted.

“Yeah, well, apparently she either doesn’t like men, or my brother did something to piss that woman off and she’s angry at me for being his brother,” Dare grumbled.

“It might just be something about you and Saint that she doesn’t like,” said.

“Impossible,” he said. “My wife tells me every day that I’m irresistible.” He bobbed his eyebrows at her, and she groaned something about keeping the gross stuff to himself, causing him to laugh. “So, how about I give you a ride before Saint gets released?” She was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to leave her alone about going home. She was going to have to come up with a good lie—and fast.

“Well, I promised Saint that I’d be here for him when he got out and that I’d stay the night with him—you know, take care of him,” she said, bobbing her eyebrows at him. This time it was Dare’s turn to groan in disgust and was pretty sure that she had covered her ass with one darn good lie.

“Okay, I don’t need any more details,” he grumbled. “Do you want me to wait for him to get out? I can keep you company. We haven’t caught up in a long time.” Dare was right. They hadn’t talked a whole lot since he and Vixen got married. They had all seen each other down at Savage Hell, during parties where both the Harlots and Bastards shared the clubhouse. Soon, the Harlots would have their own club, and she knew that all the women would miss hanging out at Savage Hell. At least they would have parties where they could all hang out. And the guys liked to bring their Ol’ladies to the bar to hang out with them on nights that they didn’t have church. But she wasn’t anyone’s Ol’lady and being invited to Savage Hell might not happen for her.

“I’m sure that Vixen will want you home,” she insisted. “No sense in both of us sitting around in these uncomfortable chairs. You go home and tell my friend that I say hi. We can catch up soon at Savage Hell.” She hated that Dare looked a bit disappointed in being dismissed by her, but if she didn’t talk to Saint first to get their stories straight, they might blow the cover story that Saint had come up with for her. Telling Dare to go home was a necessary evil, even if she had hurt his feelings.

“Okay, well, tell my brother that I stopped by and if he needs anything, to just give me a call. That goes for you too. If you need to go to work and don’t want to leave him tomorrow, just let me know and I’ll come babysit him for a while.” She was pretty sure that Saint wouldn’t let either of them take care of him, and no way in hell he’d let them babysit him. Saint was stubborn, and she was sure that he wasn’t used to having anyone take care of him. He usually played the role of caretaker and giving that up would probably be impossible for him.

“Will do,” promised. “Thank you for checking on us,” she said, almost choking on the word, “Us” but if she was going to keep up the ruse that she and Saint were together, she’d have to use words that involved them being a couple—at least until they could fake breakup.

* * *

woke up to someone shaking her and God, her back was killing her. She opened her eyes to find Saint standing over her, and she quickly sat up. “You must have fallen asleep,” he said.

“What time is it?” asked.

“It’s almost four in the morning. I hear that my little brother stopped by to check on me.”

“Who told you that?” she asked. They were the only two people left in the waiting room. He nodded back to the woman behind the desk, and she smiled back at both of them.

“I’m guessing it’s almost the end of her shift because she was really nice to me when I came out,” he said. “Are you still okay with driving me home?” Saint asked. “Or at least, back to your car. I should be able to take it from there.”

“No driving,” the woman called, “doctor’s orders.”

“Snitch,” he grumbled.

“How long before he’ll be able to drive?” asked the woman.

“Two weeks,” she said.

“Two weeks?” repeated. “I thought you just broke your arm.” She had a broken arm her senior year in high school, and she could still drive.

“Apparently, I did more damage than I thought. I can’t use my arm at all for two weeks, and then, I have to be seen by an orthopedist to see if I’m healing correctly. If not, I’ll have to have a little operation.” God, she felt awful.

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed, “if I wasn’t such a klutz, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Saint shrugged as though it was no big deal. “Don’t worry about it. I was the one who lost my balance and fell on top of you.” That wasn’t the way that she remembered things. She practically pulled him down to the pavement with her, but for some reason, Saint was trying to make her feel better.

“You don’t have to do that, Saint,” she whispered.

“What am I doing, ?” He knew exactly what he was doing and now he was giving her a hard time about it.

“I don’t need you to make me feel better,” she insisted. “I pulled you down when I fell and broke your arm.”

Saint sighed, “Can we talk about this another time? My pain meds are kicking in and I need to get home before I’m out cold. Just drive me to the club—I don’t live far from there.”

“Okay, have you been discharged?” asked.

“I have been,” Saint said, holding up his paperwork in his good hand.

“Great, let’s go then.” She smiled and waved back at the lady behind the desk and walked out into the crisp night air. She was exhausted, but the cold air helped to wake her up enough that she knew she’d be able to drive back to the club.

unlocked Saint’s truck and helped him up into the passenger seat, even though he protested that he didn’t need any help. As soon as she got him buckled in, she shut his door and rounded the vehicle, getting into the driver’s side. She buckled in and started the truck, turning to face Saint.

“Why did you tell your brother that we’re dating and that’s why we were together tonight?” she asked. was going to wait to have this conversation with Saint, but she was pretty sure that after tonight, they probably wouldn’t be seeing each other very much. Their paths barely crossed, and she was sure that wasn’t going to change.

“I was pretty sure that you wouldn’t want me to tell Dare the truth, so I went with the first thing that popped into my head. Why else would we be hanging out, ?” he asked.

“I don’t know—maybe we both ran into each other around town or something. You had to go with a lie that was going to be hard to keep up with?” She sounded a bit pissed off, and wasn’t sure if it was the late hour or the fact that Saint seemed to get on her last nerve for some reason. Sure, the guy was hot as hell, but that really didn’t mean anything to her. He also annoyed the shit out of her, and she had a feeling that would cancel out his hotness factor.

“Hey, I was in a lot of pain when I called to let Dare know that I was in the ER, and I needed to come up with something on the fly. I don’t think you could have done any better,” he spat. She felt like an ass for pressuring him to answer her questions. He was right—if she was in that kind of pain, she wouldn’t be quick on her feet either. Hell, she’d be a complete baby, and coming up with any excuse would have been damn near impossible for her.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed, “you’re right. But now, we have to fake break up over our fake relationship because everyone down at the club will know about this by sunup, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll expect us to be together the next time we show up at Savage Hell.’’

“Shit,” he mumbled, “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’m sure that we can put our heads together and come up with something, but do you mind if we do that tomorrow? I’m so exhausted that thinking straight won’t be my strong suit until I can get some sleep.” She wanted to point out that it was already tomorrow, but she didn’t want to sound like a bitch. Saint laid his head back and was almost asleep when she pulled into the parking lot at the strip club and gasped at the sight of her car.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Someone set my car on fire,” she shouted. The flames were almost out, and her poor car looked more like a charred shell. pulled into the back of the lot and parked Saint’s truck. “Who would do this to my car?”

“Someone with taste,” he said, chuckling at his own joke.

“You’re no help,” she mumbled, “you’re high as a kite and practically useless.”

“Hey,” he said, “I am not. If I was high as a kite, as you put it, would I tell you that you should call the cops and file a police report?” he asked.

In a perfect world, she’d agree with him, but if she did that, she’d have to tell the cops everything—even about working at the club. The small-town gossip mill would have a field day with that news and by sunup, she’d have her phone ringing off the hook from Vixen, Phoenix, and Sprite. needed time to think, and sleep would probably be good for both of them. She looked over to find Saint already passed out again next to her and she sighed.

“Guess I’m taking you back to your place,” she whispered to herself. The question was, how was she going to get back to her apartment without her car? took one last look at her old grandma car and felt like she wanted to cry—but she didn’t have time for that now. She needed to get Saint home and they both needed some shut-eye before she figured out the next step in her very screwed-up life.

“I’m just going to take your wallet out of your jacket pocket and look at your license,” she whispered. She knew that he’d probably sleep right through her rummaging through his pocket, but she wanted to be careful not to spook him. found his wallet and quickly memorized his address. He didn’t live far from her apartment, but his neighborhood was nicer, and he probably lived in a house rather than a tiny apartment.

quickly returned his wallet to his jacket pocket and turned on the pickup truck. She was going to get him home, and then she’d have to figure out a way to get him into the house and bed—by herself, because the very last thing that she wanted to do was call Dare to help her. No, she’d have to figure this out on her own, and then, when they were both up in the morning, she and Saint were going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting to get a few things straight. Number one on the agenda was figuring out how to break up with each other and have no one suspicious of them—and that was going to involve one hell of a crazy plan.