Charley�s cheeks burned, but she recovered quickly, forcing a playful eye-roll. "If you call schmoozing with a bunch of art stiffs a good night, I feel sorry for your future boyfriends. Sorry I didn�t text�that auction dragged on forever."

"Are your pants hot? Like, on fire?"

"Excuse me?"

"Because you�re such a liar!" Sasha poured herself a coffee, dumping in about half the sugar bowl and enough almond creamer to turn it beige. In a singsong voice, she said, "I know your faces, Chuck. And that�" She swirled her finger in front of Charley�s eyes. "�is not the face of a woman who spent the night schmoozing."

"You�re a regular private eye, aren�t you?" Charley stuck out her tongue.

"Was he cute, at least? What�d y�all do?" At the granite-topped breakfast bar, she took the seat next to Charley, stirring her coffee with trademark Sasha exuberance, spoon clinking against the mug like a bell. "I�m not leaving this room until I get the scoop�starting with the dude�s name."

God, I need more caffeine for this conversation�

Unlike her big sister, Sasha was an open book. She talked in her sleep, sang in the shower, thought and daydreamed out loud. She did everything out loud, full blast, no holding back. Charley admired that about her, but it also made her feel like a total fraud. There was a lot Sasha didn�t know about Charley�s life, and as much as Charley loved her, she needed to keep it that way.

The girls had different fathers, and since Charley�s mother had split and moved to Florida when she was six, searching for a man with, quote, potential, Charley didn�t even know Sasha existed�not until Mom called up one day with some sob story, trying to extort them. Charley�s father told her about the call afterward�broke the news that Charley had a baby sister.

Charley was unfazed. She was twelve years old by then, and her father and the crew he�d put together over the years�Uncle Rudy, Trick, Welshman, and Bones�were the only family she needed. As far as Charley was concerned, Mom could take her new family and jump off the closest pier.

But five years ago�about a week after her father�s death�a young girl showed up unannounced at Charley�s building, shivering and hungry, eyes wild with the kind of desperate, bone-deep fear no fourteen-year-old should ever know.

Charley didn�t recognize her, but in her backpack�shoved in with a bunch of tattered clothes and a dog-eared romance novel the girl had found on the bus�was an envelope with Charley�s name and address. The letter inside was from their mother.

It was full of bullshit about wanting a better life for Sasha, about how wrong she�d been to keep the sisters apart, but the truth Sasha shared later was much more sinister. Mom was using again�a habit she�d nursed long before she left Charley and her dad�and her dickbag, drug-dealing, boyfriend-of-the-month had driven Sasha to the Greyhound station in Jacksonville that morning, getting her a one-way ticket to New York.

Don�t come back, the boyfriend warned. You�ve upset your mother enough. Nothing left for you here.

I understand if you don�t want me,Sasha had said to Charley. But maybe I could have a sandwich? Then I�ll figure something else out. Please�I just need to eat.

Charley�s life may have been fucked up, but she�d never been hungry. In that moment, it didn�t matter that Charley was raised in a life of crime, that Sasha was a stranger, that her own mother could be so cruel. She vowed, right then and there, her sister would never know that kind of hunger or helpless fear again.

Five years on, she was still doing her best to keep Sasha safe, to give her a good life.

Unfortunately, that required a few little white lies. And a few major ones, too. About Charley�s job. Her boss. Where the money had come from.

Where it was still coming from.

"The dude�s name," Charley said now, "is already forgotten."

"So you did have a date! I knew it!" Sasha cocked an eyebrow, a cute trick she�d recently mastered. "Did you get any?"

"Nope." Charley forged on, feigning defeat. "It sucked. Everything about the guy sucked."

In more ways than one�

"Bummer. Maybe you should update your dating profile? No offense, but �museum consultant� doesn�t exactly scream �I�m hot and spontaneous and totally down to fuck.�"

Charley laughed. She�d deleted that "profile" about fifteen minutes after Sasha set it up for her last year. Her sister�s heart was in the right place�she�d been worried about Charley after things crashed and burned with the documents forger, a man Sasha believed was an insurance salesman. But come on. Online dating? Even if Charley was a legitimate museum consultant�a girl with a normal job and a regular life�how could she find the kind of man she wanted through an app? The kind of man who could take her to the edge, test her limits, talk dirty to her all night long, and wake her up with soft cuddles and kisses and breakfast in bed? Danger wrapped in silk�that�s what she wanted. JrNovels.com