My humor evaporated. I’d been working up the courage for this conversation for the past half hour and still hadn’t figured out a good way to explain my plan B. “How much did you look into my family?”

“I stopped with your parents,” Josh said. “Digging any deeper felt too intrusive.”

I looked over at him. “Really? That’s where you drew the line?”

One big shoulder lifted in a shrug. “What? It had to be somewhere. Would you prefer that I’d dug deeper?”

“I honestly would have because it would save me from having to tell you some uncomfortable things about my family.”

I turned back toward the road. We were entering the suburbs, and I couldn’t keep looking at him whenever I felt like it – which was approximately every 1.2 seconds. He was too good-looking, and it was a goddamn distraction.

His hand landed on my thigh, and I must have been beyond redemption because even such a comforting, innocuous touch made me want to squirm in my seat. If he’d just inch it a little higher…

“Aly, nothing you could say about your family would ever drive me away.”

“Okay then. My uncle Nico is in the mob.”

Josh turned toward his door. “Pull over. We’re breaking up.” He jiggled the handle like he was trying to open it. “Let me out.”

I slapped at him. “Stop that. I’m serious.”

He swiveled back to me. “I thought you didn’t have any other family. There’s no mention of them anywhere on your social media profiles or other digital records.”

Was it weird that confessions like that didn’t even phase me anymore?

“That’s because I’ve been ignoring their existence,” I said. “Nico is my mom’s younger brother. He fell in with a bad crowd when he was a teenager, and the family pretty much disowned him. My grandparents fled here from Sicily because of the mob, and to have a son join their ranks was anathema after everything they’d been through. The last time I saw Uncle Nico was at my mom’s funeral. I thought that was the final time I’d ever hear from him, but he reached out a few months ago and coerced me into getting my youngest cousin, Greg, a janitorial job at the hospital.”

“Random,” Josh said.

I shook my head. “I wish. Let’s just say that there’s a coroner’s assistant whose last name ends in a vowel, and I’m pretty sure the real reason Greg got hired has something to do with how certain bodies get handled. I’ve only seen Greg a handful of times at work, and we’ve come to an unspoken understanding about pretending we don’t know each other, which, I mean, isn’t hard because we only met at Mom’s funeral. And no, I don’t want to get to know him now. He’s following in his dad’s footsteps like all my other cousins, and my job is too important for me to risk losing it over whatever shady mob shit he’s involved in.”

“So why are we involving them now?” Josh asked.

I sighed. “Because before my dad died, he told me that if I ever got into serious trouble, I should go to my uncle. Nico might be a soulless bastard, but family still matters to him, and apparently, he never stopped trying to reconcile with my mom and grandparents before they passed.”

“When you put it like that, I almost feel bad for the guy,” Josh said.

“You really shouldn’t. He’s not a good person. Maybe not as bad as Brad, but close. Unfortunately, I think he’s a necessary evil right now. From what Dad told me, Nico’s not high up in the organization, but because of what he does for them, he’s our best bet at getting out of our current situation without getting caught.”

“What does he do?” Josh asked.

I grimaced. “He’s a cleaner.”

“Money laundering?”

I shook my head. “More like sanitizing crime scenes.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re sure this is how you want to handle our current trunk situation?” he asked.

I glanced over at him. “I guess that depends. How do you feel about slicing off Brad’s fingerprints, ripping all the teeth from his mouth, hacking him into pieces, setting those pieces on fire, and then dumping them all into a river or lake?”

Josh blanched. “Like I might be sick again.”

I nodded. “Same. Death, I’m okay with; dismemberment, I’m not so sure. And because we’re amateurs, the risk of getting caught somewhere along the way is too high for me to stomach. I’d much rather let the professionals handle it.”

“Consider me team mob then,” Josh said.

“It’s going to come at a cost,” I warned him.

He gripped my shoulder, and the urge to turn and nuzzle my cheek into his hand was too strong to resist.

He stroked his thumb up my neck. “Do you know what the cost will be? Are we talking money or, like, favors?”

“Probably favors. Just because I’m family doesn’t mean I’m exempt from blackmail and coercion. I’ll probably have to convince the hospital to hire another mobster or something.” I sent him an apologetic look. “I can only imagine what they’ll ask someone with your hacking skills to do.”

He squeezed my shoulder. “If it means staying out of jail and the media, I’ll do whatever they want.”

I frowned as I took a left turn. He was concerned about the media? The thought of winding up on the news hadn’t even occurred to me. I was still too worried about getting caught driving with a dead guy in the car to think much past that, but maybe I should have. Brad did come from a lot of money, after all. Rich white boys were always considered newsworthy by the media. It made me even more convinced that going to Nico was the right choice, despite whatever fallout might come from it.

“You never gave me an answer,” Josh said, snapping me out of my dark thoughts.

“About what?”

“Whether or not you’re my girlfriend.”

My pulse ratcheted up, and there went my stomach, going aflutter. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” I said, sneaking a glance over at him.

He flashed a wolfish smile at me, and honestly? I forgot about the body in the trunk. Hell, it felt like the sight of those dimples was realtering my brain chemistry so that all my future thoughts would revolve around this man.

My body’s response to his was bad enough, but I was doomed now that I had a face to go along with it. Doomed, I tell you. Whatever self-preservation remained went out the window. This was what I wanted – he was what I wanted – to hell with the consequences. And yes, it was all happening faster than was probably normal, but with him, I didn’t need months to make up my mind. These past few weeks had been enough for me to decide what my answer would be.

He made me feel alive. He’d dragged me out of the gray world I’d been living in and taught me how to see colors again. In a sea of men who barely put in any effort, this man stood out for going above and beyond. He was the definition of “If he wanted to, he would.” Because he’d done for me what no one else ever had: he not only met but exceeded my needs, both physically and emotionally. He kept me on my toes, never knowing what he would do next. And he did it all while making me blush and laugh, often at the same time.

Of course, I wanted to be his girlfriend. Hell, if I had it my way, every free moment I wasn’t working would be spent in his company from now on. I hoped he understood what he was getting himself into because while his obsession had started relatively recently, mine had been going on for months, and once I got my claws in him, I didn’t plan to let go.

He shifted forward, crowding into my space in a way that made my breath hitch and my nerves spark. “Aly? Do you want to be my girlfriend? The position comes with snacks and orgasms and maybe a little light stalking.”

I grinned. “Yes.”

He swooped in and kissed my cheek, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so happy. Even with a dead body not five feet from me. Even on my way to ask the last person I wanted to for help. Josh distracted me from all the awful bullshit and made me feel good instead. Maybe this relationship had started out on questionable footing, and maybe we still had a lot to learn about each other outside of our mutual stalking, but saying yes to being Josh’s girlfriend felt like the easiest decision I’d made in a long time, and no matter what was to come, or what secrets Josh still held, I doubted anything would ever make me regret it.