Page 6 of She’ll Steal Your Heart
“Oh.” Mia lifted her drink for a sip. After a moment, she gasped, setting the glass down so hard the bartender gave her a startled glance. “Oh my God, you’rethatLauren? You’re the Lauren who robbed the bar?”
* * *
Mia tossed backwhat remained of her whiskey as Lauren seemed to shrink on the stool beside her. Her new friend was a criminal. A thief. Mia hadn’t known Josie at the time of the robbery, but she’d heard her tell the story. Just weeks after her bar’s grand reopening, Josie had let her new bartender close for her for the first time. Lauren had made off with the contents of the cash register and some of Josie’s most expensive liquor and then skipped town.
Miahadknown Lauren then, although only from their online chats. She vaguely remembered that Lauren had disappeared from their group chat for a few weeks, later mentioning that she’d moved to Rhode Island, but Mia had never suspected Lauren was on the run from the law. Now that she knew, it felt like a betrayal.
“I can’t believe this.” Even Mia could hear how angry she sounded.
“I should go,” Lauren said quietly. She slid off her stool and reached for the backpack she’d been carrying all evening. Her shoulders were hunched, her expression stricken. She looked like a kicked puppy, and Mia didn’t like that either.
“Aren’t you even going to try to explain yourself?” she asked, harshly enough for Lauren to flinch.
“Would it make a difference?” Lauren straightened to meet Mia’s gaze. “You and Josie know each other. You’re friends.”
“We’re friends,” Mia confirmed. “But you’re my friend too, Lauren. In fact, if you count our online friendship, I’ve known you longer than I’ve known Josie. So yes, it matters. Explain yourself, but don’t give me any bullshit excuses.”
Lauren sat and reached for her beer. She took a fortifying sip. “I robbed Josie’s bar,” she said, softly enough that only Mia could hear her. Luckily, the rest of their group was currently engaged in a lively discussion about Sam’s most memorable power suit. “I take full responsibility for what I did. In fact, part of the reason I’m back in Brooklyn is to make things right, to repay her and turn myself in.”
“I want to believe you.” Mia had been a defense attorney for fifteen years. It had been her job to defend people like Lauren, whether they were guilty or not. But she wasn’t Lauren’s lawyer. She was her friend, and that felt different.
Lauren reached for her backpack again, and Mia thought she’d decided to leave after all. But she slid it into her lap and unzipped it, then removed an envelope from the top pocket. She passed it to Mia, but as she accepted the envelope, her gaze caught on a large canister taking up most of the space inside the bag. It looked like an urn.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Lauren exhaled softly, reaching out to touch it. “I’m going to scatter his ashes while I’m here too, but I didn’t have a safe place to leave him in the meantime.”
Mia opened the envelope Lauren had given her. Inside was a certified check for three thousand dollars, made out to Josie Swanson, which corroborated Lauren’s story that she’d returned to Brooklyn to pay Josie back. In the face of that check—and the urn in Lauren’s backpack—Mia felt her anger deflate like a ruptured balloon. “Why did you do it? Did you just need the money?”
Lauren shook her head as she carefully placed the check into her backpack and zipped it shut, returning it to its spot between her feet. “No, I was doing okay for once, and I loved my new job at Dragonfly. I truly did. Josie’s the best, as I’m sure you know.”
“Then why did you rob her blind? That really set her back—financially and emotionally—just when she was starting to turn things around for the bar.”
Tears shone in Lauren’s eyes, and her bottom lip shook. “I never meant to hurt her. When she left me on my own to close the bar that night, I was glad she was starting to give me more responsibility. I didn’t want to let her down.”
“You have a funny way of showing that,” Mia muttered, gesturing to the bartender for another drink.
Lauren took a shaky sip of her beer. “My mom died of an overdose when I was fifteen. She struggled with drug addiction for most of her adult life, and so did Craig. I tried to help him, to get him clean, but he was in way over his head, both with his addiction and with the people he owed money to. Terrible people, Mia.” Her voice wavered, and Mia’s stomach plummeted. “He came into Dragonfly that night to ask if he could crash at my place for a few nights, and he…they’d beaten the shit out of him. He was terrified, and so was I.”
Instinctively, Mia reached over and rested a hand on Lauren’s against the bar top.
“He was completely strung out, and he owedso much money.” Lauren took a slow breath. “I was afraid of what those people would do to him—or me—if he didn’t pay back what he owed, and I was standing in front of a full cash register. I panicked. I told him to take the money to pay off his drug debts, but I didn’t think it through, because then I was a thief. There was—and still is—a warrant for my arrest, and Craig…he did pay off his debts, but he didn’t get clean.”
“Jesus,” Mia said. “Your heart was in the right place, but that was a really stupid thing to do.”
“I know.” Lauren nodded. “It wassostupid, and I regretted it almost immediately, but I couldn’t turn myself in, not without leaving Craig all alone while he was in terrible shape. I feared for his life every day, Mia. I thought if I was there, I could keep him alive.” Lauren swiped at her eyes. “So we skipped town together and started a new life in Rhode Island, such as it was, with me on the run and him still numbing his pain with opioids. Last month, he OD’d, just like our mom. After all that…I still failed him.”
“I’m so sorry.” Mia’s hand was still on Lauren’s. She couldn’t relate to anything Lauren had just shared. She’d never battled addiction or known anyone who had. She’d never lost a loved one. And she’d never committed grand larceny in the name of love. “But you didn’t fail him. Addiction is a disease.”
“I know that,” Lauren whispered. “But he was my baby brother, and I had promised him that I’d keep him safe. But it turns out, I couldn’t do that, no matter how hard I tried.”
“It sounds like you did your best,” Mia said. “And you’re here now to clear the charges against you?”
“Yes, I…I’m going to start by paying Josie back. And then I’ll turn myself in and hope for the best.”
“Okay, well you’re not going to dothat,” Mia said. “You need a lawyer first, and you shouldn’t walk into Josie’s bar unannounced either.”
Lauren stared at her out of wide eyes, looking confused, scared, and so damn young. “Why not?”
