Page 27 of Dangerous Men (Fortune City Mafia #1)

I grind my teeth together and minimize my research, furious at myself for the slip-up.

This is why I hate talking to people. This is why I don’t want to waste my time making small talk.

I keep my voice just as calm and casual as before as I answer her.

“He’s the last of our little gang. We’re a bit like brothers, the four of us. ”

“Oh.” Sydney twists her hands together again, nervously. When I glance up to watch her, her eyes are full of questions I’d rather leave unanswered. “When will I get to meet him?”

Never, if she wants to live to see another day in her happy little world. She’s lucky he’s away, following up on a business deal gone wrong in Seneca, where Alec has been pushing out our territory. Far, far away from this fragile girl and her cute little shop.

“Ask Sterling,” I say.

She shifts a little, from foot to foot, and I finally can’t stand it any longer. Her hovering is making me anxious, and it’s impossible for me to concentrate like this.

“Leave or sit,” I tell her. “Your choice, but pick one .”

I want to take it back immediately when she slides into the chair next to me, smoothing the skirt of her sundress over her legs. Great. Just great.

“Can you answer something for me?” she asks, watching me, hands still nervously smoothing her clothing. “Honestly, I mean.”

Probably not.

“Maybe,” I say.

“Are you here to watch me?” she asks.

Now that? That’s a surprising question. I look away from my laptop and lean back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest and finally giving her my full attention.

I can almost see the attraction. She’s beautiful. Sexy, in an effortless girl-next-door kind of way. The image of her on that bed, back arched, is burned into my memory.

“Yes,” I answer truthfully.

“Did they ask you to do that? Alec and Ash, I mean?”

I don’t answer that one. Obviously, they did. Why on earth would I be here wasting my time otherwise?

“Does that bother you?” I ask her instead, tilting my head to the side as I say it. “That they want to keep an eye on you?”

She shrugs, idly drawing patterns on the table’s surface with her finger.

“I’m not sure yet,” she tells me. She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth as she considers it. “I barely know them, and they’re having me watched? Doesn’t that seem a bit…intense?”

I snort a laugh but don’t respond. “Intense” barely scratches the surface of the two of them.

But my reaction does something to her. She grins at me like she finally broke through my facade, like that one little sound means we’re becoming friendly.

We’re not.

“I like Alec,” she tells me, gifting the words to me like I’m her confidant. She smiles a little more when she admits it. “He’s…sweet. Really sweet.”

I straighten my glasses, expression neutral. I can’t imagine anyone calling Alec sweet , but I’m not about to shatter whatever twisted fantasy she’s concocted about my idiot brothers.

“And Ash is, well… Ash.” She shrugs like that explains enough. And maybe it does. I nod without thinking. “But I don’t know if all of this is…right for me.”

Good. Maybe she’s smarter than I initially gave her credit for, if she’s figuring that out all on her own .

This girl isn’t strong enough to survive one day in our world. It’ll be better for everyone if she stays right here, in her cute little store, and my brothers go back to doing what they do best. To what we do best.

Because now is the worst time possible for them to be distracted like this.

“You seemed comfortable enough with them before,” I tell her, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. I say it without thinking, remembering how easily she had come for them while I watched, and to cover, I quickly add, “Seemed like flirting with two rich men came quite easily to you.”

She flinches at that. A direct hit. “I’m not…it wasn’t easy,” she insists. There’s a flare of anger in her eyes when she says it, and that flash of emotion beneath her perfectly curated nice-girl persona is intriguing. “And I don’t care that they’re rich . I didn’t even know who they were!”

I don’t say anything, letting my silence speak for itself. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Her obvious sensitivity to what I said makes me think I’ve hit the right nerve. Maybe that’s her game. Just another gold digger trying to get her claws into Alec’s fortune.

How boring. How utterly plebeian.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she adds defensively when I don’t react, rapping her fingertip hard against the table for emphasis.

“If you’re not doing anything wrong—if all of this is perfectly fine and normal—then why are you here complaining to me about it?” I press. I know I’m probably being an asshole, but I really can’t bring myself to care. If my attitude is enough to scare her away, then what would Viper do?

Send her screaming. That’s what.

“I wasn’t trying to complain,” she responds haughtily. “Listen, you obviously know them. And you’re acting like this is normal. But it’s not . It’s not normal to send someone to watch over the woman you’re… I don’t know, the woman you’re courting .”

I raise an eyebrow. “Courting?” I repeat in a mocking tone. “I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself, don’t you?”

That curious flash of anger, quickly repressed again. Tragic. It might be the only interesting thing about her I’ve seen so far.

She takes a deep breath through her nose, closing her eyes as she does it. When she opens them again, that spark of anger is gone, and the dull, boring girl is back.

“I’m just scared,” she admits, hugging herself as she says it. “Scared of losing myself in someone else, I guess. Being with them feels like being pulled into a riptide. And I worry I might not resurface this time.”

She looks at me, then, as though remembering who she’s speaking to. “But why would you care? You’re obviously extremely busy with…whatever the hell a doctor accountant does.”

This time, she almost pulls a real laugh from me. My lips twitch up a fraction.

“If you’re so worried about that, why not just walk away?” I ask. Make it easier on me , I want to say. Get out before I have to waste any more of my time here.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I just got out of a bad relationship, okay?

And Alec makes me feel…good.” She exhales slowly, and I get the impression she’s speaking more to herself now than to me.

“And maybe I need that right now. Maybe after the shit he put me through, I deserve to feel good.”

“‘He’ being your ex,” I say. Not a question, just a statement. “Chase Levine.”

Sydney frowns, brows furrowing as she turns back to me.

“How do you know his name?” she asks, eyeing me suspiciously .

Fuck.

Lie or truth? I consider the consequences of both before deciding. “I just finished reviewing his employment contract this morning. And started drafting his termination notice, on Sterling’s orders.”

Sydney’s face goes blank.

Huh. I guess I should have lied.

“Alec was serious about that?” she asks, voice cold.

I stay quiet, watching her.

Her eyes narrow. That fire is back, raging in her gaze as her lip lifts in an angry sneer.

“This isn’t his fight. And it’s definitely not yours,” she seethes. “If Alec fires him, I’m canceling our date,” she tells me, a surprising amount of steel in her voice. “Tell him that.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along the message,” I say, just the barest hint of amusement creeping into my voice.

She stands up, pushing her chair back too hard. She looks ready to storm off, but before she does, her eyes focus on the sandwich she’d brought me, forgotten on the table.

“Here,” she says, picking it up and thrusting it toward my chest. “It’s gone cold. Enjoy .”