Read Online Thieves Like Us by Starr Ambrose - Free Book Online Page A

right that’s so. I’d say the same thing even if you were her father, and you’re not. And for your information, Janet’s not made of glass. She’s tough and smart and capable of making her own decisions. One bad choice hasn’t changed that. But she might be in over her head here, and all I’m asking is that you keep an eye on the legal end of things. I can handle whatever else comes up.”
    A smile played at the corner of Ben’s mouth. “I believe you can, kid.”
    Rocky frowned, as irritated with himself as with Ben for baiting him. “Are you just jerking me around for fun, or are you going to help keep Janet safe?”
    “I’ll help. Jerking you around is just a bonus.”
    It was probably better if Rocky kept his mouth shut. Settling for a curt nod, he left. Driving home, the wry thought occurred to him that at least someone was getting a laugh out of his relationship with Janet. Too bad it wasn’t him.
    Janet sat halfway up the imposing cement and brick stairway to the Westfield’s front door, hoping the morning humidity didn’t send her short hair into mad ringlets. At the base of the steps, Jack’s thirteen-year-old daughter sat astride one of the life-sized cement lions that guarded the entry. Libby bent backward like a circus performer, chin pointed to the sky and hair falling over the lion’s rump, fixing an innocent look on Janet. “Is Rocky picking you up?”
    “Yup.”
    “I like him.”
    “That’s nice.” She was careful not to say
me, too
, in front of Jack and Ellie’s frighteningly perceptive daughter.
    Rising up in a smooth move that made Janet’s back hurt just watching, Libby turned around and sat backward, knees drawn up to her chin. “My friend Tanya likes him, too. She said Rocky’s cute in a really bad way.”
    The teen was obviously digging for gossip Janet had no intention of providing. But Libby had caught her interest with that last bit. “What does that mean, cute in a bad way?”
    “
Really
bad,” Libby corrected. “It means he’s cute, but not, you know, safe. Like he’d be good at doing bad things.”
    Janet instantly thought of a few bad things Rocky might do that made her mouth go dry. She knew exactly what Tanya meant. She squinted at Libby. “How old is Tanya?”
    “Thirteen, same as me.” She stretched out her legs and flexed her toes, balancing delicately. “She knows a lot of stuff about boys that they don’t teach us in school.”
    A year ago Janet might have been thrown by the statement, but she’d gotten to know Jack’s daughter since then. Before Jack had known of her existence, Libby had been abandoned by her drug addict mother and lived with her overwhelmed maternal grandparents. If not for the girl’s own intelligence and her young aunt’s valiant efforts at parenting, Janet imagined she wouldn’t have come out of the experience as well adjusted as she had. As it was, Libby was a master manipulator, who practiced her skills at every turn.
    Janet was determined not to fall for it. “What a thought-provoking comment.”
    Libby stuck out her lower lip in a deliberate pout and tried the direct approach. “What do
you
think about Rocky? Don’t you think he’d make a good boyfriend?”
    “Can’t say. I really don’t know him well enough.”
What was taking Rocky so long?
    “No one around here wants to talk about boys. How am I supposed to learn anything?”
    “Try books. Or have you already exhausted that section at the public library?”
    Libby slid off the lion and skipped up the steps to sit beside Janet. Leaning back on her elbows, she sighed heavily. “It’s tough being precocious.”
    Janet laughed. As much as she dreaded being the target of Libby’s overactive mind, Janet was crazy about Ellie’s stepdaughter. With Jack and Ellie married for barely a year, the three of them had been feeling their way through family life, learning as they went. Despite the occasional hair-ripping and profanity-laced stories from Ellie about life