Free The Reasons to Stay (Harlequin Superromance) by Laura Drake Page A

Adam turned to look down on her. “For the moment.” He turned on his heel, strode to the door, pulled it open, and with one backward glare, walked in.
    Priss felt a wasp-sting of regret for having misled him. But she hadn’t had a choice; the county had put her back against the wall.
    Screw it. He didn’t matter. Nacho did.
    She took a firm hold of his upper arm and pulled. “You and me, dude. We need to talk.” She led him around the building to the back entrance. The entrance she’d been relegated to as a kid. The one she’d worked her ass off to avoid since.
    Until today.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Y OU ARE NOT GOING TO YELL . In spite of the anger singing in her veins, Priss managed to close the apartment door gently.
    Nacho crossed to the window that looked down on Hollister. “This is cool.”
    The setting sun highlighted the soft planes of his face, reminding her that he was still a boy. One who had just lost his old life, such as it was. And she planned to show him that life could be better than he’d known so far—after she killed him. “What the hell were you thinking? Do you know how close you just came to going to juvie?”
    He walked past the kitchen, to the bedroom. “Where do I sleep?”
    “The big couch in the living room opens to a bed.”
    “Okay.” His voice echoed from the bathroom.
    “Get your butt out here. We’re not done.”
    He slouched back in the room, and leaned against the doorjamb, thumbs in his low-rider jeans pockets. She pointed to the table for two between the kitchen and the living area. He walked over, sat and crossed his arms over his chest.
    Priss took a deep breath and tamped down the urge to throttle him. “I’m going to ignore the fact that you disregarded my instruction to wait outside the pharmacy until I got there.” She took a deep breath. Kinder and gentler. “But explain to me what possessed you to try to shoplift in this store, of all places? Don’t you have any sense of self-preservation?”
    He pursed his lips so hard his bottom lip jutted out.
    “Why did you do it?” She could play this game. She crossed her arms and waited.
    He lasted about thirty seconds. “You’re not my mother.”
    “True thing. Because if I had a kid, he’d know better than to pull a bonehead stunt like this. Why did you do it?”
    “I don’t have to tell you.” He moved, just a bit in the seat.
    “The court appointed me your guardian. So yeah, you do. But you have choices, you know. I mean, if you went back to county, you could be fostered out. Or maybe adopted.”
    His head snapped up.
    She dropped her hands and held them palm out. She hadn’t meant to scare him. “Look, I signed up for this gig. You can count on me to carry it through. But you don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to.”
    “I’m not going back there.” His flinty tone told her that it wasn’t just an answer to her question—it was a vow.
    “That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard you say so far. So that’s settled. You stay with me.”
    He sat up and put his elbows on the table. “So what’s for dinner?”
    She leaned against the kitchen bar and crossed her arms again. “Tell me why you did it.”
    “It’s no big deal,” he huffed, rolling his eyes. “It was our initiation.”
    “Initiation to what?”
    “Me ’n’ Joe ’n’ Diego. We’re starting a gang.”
    A gang in Disneyland? Good luck with that, kid. She managed not to smile. “Here. In Widow’s Grove.” He may be from the wrong side of the tracks but she’d be willing to bet the only gang he’d ever seen was on TV.
    “Yeah.” He made his best “gang” sign, and tried to look badass.
    She didn’t know whether to kill him or laugh. Taking a deep breath, she paused a moment to get control of both urges. “Okay. Let’s get some rules out of the way. First, I’m saying it again. The store is off-limits. Period.” She walked over, pulled a key from her pants, and put it on the table in front of Nacho. “This is