Page 26 of Hidden Ties

Leaning back in his chair, he studied her for a moment. “Something tells me you are not stupid, Ms. Monroe.”

“Valerie,” she offered. “You can call me Valerie. I think bailing me out for two million dollars gives you that right.”

A smile tilted his lips for a mere second, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. She much preferred him without the deadly smile. It somehow made him even better-looking, and that wasn’t something she wanted to think.

“I suppose it should,” he agreed before picking up a pack of cigarettes and lifting them. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” She waved her hand slightly, hoping he’d blow the nicotine in her direction to calm her nerves.

When he lit the glorious end up, she contemplated asking the Boogieman for one herself.

Relaxing into his chair from the first hit, he got back to her earlier point. “Do you knowwhyI bailed you out?”

“Trust me, Mr. Carus—”

“Lucca,” he offered back with a puff of smoke. “I think we’re both entitled to a first-name basis.”

“All right.” She cleared her throat, starting again, “Trust me,Lucca; I wouldn’t have come here to find out if I did.” Again, it was another thing she didn’t like. Using his first name. It humanized him.

He tapped some ashes off his cigarette into a crystal ash tray. “I understand you worked for the Horseshoe?”

“That’s correct.”

“Well, despite the claims being made against you by your previous employer, Sal claims you to be innocent.”

Her head suddenly snapped back to look at Sal over her shoulder, to see him standing in the far corner of the room. She had almost forgotten about him—he had been so quiet.

“Is that so?” she gritted out, giving him a dirty look.

“Frankly, Valerie—”

Her name out of the Boogieman’s mouth sent another set of frost across her skin as she turned back to face him.

“I couldn’t care less if youwerethe one who cyber attacked the Horseshoe, but if you did, I need to know now so we know how to proceed. Mr. Bryant is a great attorney, and I’m sure he’s more than—”

“Oh, I’m innocent.” She decided to save him the time of explaining. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“That’s good, then.” Lucca fully believed her, taking another puff of his cigarette and blowing out the smoke, filling the room. “Do you know who possibly did and why they would want to frame you?”

She slumped her shoulders. It was the question she’d had on her brain since the moment the cuffs had been slid around her wrists. “I have no idea.”

“All right, then. Tell us everything you talked about with the lawyer, as well as anything that stuck out to you while working there.”

Valerie was detailed, replaying everything she’d said to Kent, as well as her time working at the Horseshoe, including the date she’d started and the date she’d been fired, along with everything in between. All the while, Lucca smoked cigarette after cigarette until it was Sal who sat in the chair as she went from pacing to touching things in the office, finally inching closer and closer to Lucca’s desk.

“Do you mind blowing the smoke in this direction?” she asked, waving the nicotine goodness toward her.

That was when Lucca respectively put his cigarette out. “I think we’ve heard enough for now. Thank you, Valerie.”

“No problem at all,” she assured him and let her inner thoughts take over by going for the pack of cigarettes on his desk, but a cold hand came out to stop her.

“You may take your seat again.”

Snatching her hand back in shock, she took the chair next to a smirking Sal, feeling awkward. After getting lost in the details,and her cravings, she had become comfortable enough to forget whose presence she was in.

Letting her speak uninterrupted for quite some time, the mob boss now began his questioning.

“Have you been able to find employment yet?”