Page 18

“Y ou got here fast.” Ivan meets me in the stairwell leading down to Obsidian.

“You said there’s a problem. What is it?” I brush past him and jog down the rest of the stone steps to the secret area beneath our legal moneymaker. It’s not that this part of the building is unknown; it’s that it’s kept off the books.

Things done down here don’t belong to the IRS or any other government watchdog agency.

“Did I tear you away from something?” Ivan eyes me. He’s only a year younger than me; he knows me better than almost anyone in the world.

“Not something. Someone.” Kaz steps out of one of the playrooms just as we pass and joins us.

“What were you doing in there?” I ask, stopping to glance inside.

“Relax. I was checking on the new equipment that arrived.” He shakes his head. “I don’t dip my pen in the company ink, you know that.”

I pause. Kaz has his own set of rules that he follows. He’ll break any law that gets in the way of what he wants, but his own rules are strict and ironclad.

“What about the waitress last weekend?” Ivan cocks an eyebrow.

Kaz grins, producing a deep dimple on the left side of his cheek that seems to make the women in this damn city suckers for anything he says after displaying it.

“She worked upstairs.” He shrugs. “Different inkwell. Besides, it was her last night. She left to go work at some accounting firm in Joliet. And I thought we were discussing Alexander finally having someone warming his bed long enough that he doesn’t want to get up at the ass crack of dawn to work?”

“You stay out of my bed.” I push the door to the main office open and we file inside.

“See? She’s gotten to him.” Kaz walks the periphery of the room before settling himself in the armchair in the corner.

“No one has gotten to me.” I frown. “She’s information, that’s all.”

“But I thought she’s given you all the information you can get from her?” Kaz pushes. He’s always the first to find the button that will piss me off the most and press it.

“She’s not your concern.”

“Oh?” Ivan questions. “She’s got ties to DeAngelo, but she’s not our concern?”

“She’s not a threat to us,” I clarify.

“See how his eye gets a little twitchy?” Kaz smirks.

“You’re gonna lose your teeth if you keep it up,” Ivan says with a pointed finger at our younger brother. “And I’m not gonna stop him.”

“Not my fault the man has finally found something other than work to occupy his time and he won’t admit it.”

Ivan steps in front of Kaz, blocking my view of him.

“You said she’s not a threat. But what if DeAngelo is looking for her?”

“Is Rurik here yet?” I’m not going to explain this mess any more times than I have to.

Kaz looks behind me. “Just walked in.”

“You are lucky.” Rurik strides through the lounge and joins us as the bar. “I was just getting ready to head to the airport when your text came through last night.”

“Oh?” I grab a bottle of whiskey and pour him a drink, sliding it across the counter toward him. “Are you in the middle of something?”

He takes the glass. “Nothing that can’t wait.”

“What’s going on exactly?” Kaz leans against the edge of the bar. “Why are you dragging Rurik into this mess if she’s no danger to us?”

“Because our friend here is the best hunter I know.” I pour myself a drink and throw it back. It does nothing to dull the irritation that my life has turned into since finding Megan standing in the records office wearing that fucking cat mask.

“You’re sending Rurik after Marco DeAngelo?” Ivan questions.

“No.” I pull out my phone and open the picture of Mira I grabbed from Megan’s cell.

“Which one?” Rurik leans over the bar to look at the image. “The black hair with the white stripe or the curly-haired one with the birthmark on her cheek?”

I have to look at the photo again; I hadn’t noticed much about Mira other than she wasn’t Megan.

“The one with the curls. Her name is Mira Pierce and she’s been gone for six months now,” I explain and point to Megan’s smiling face. “This is Megan, and they’ve managed to get themselves in trouble with Marco DeAngelo. I have Megan handled, but Mira has been in hiding.”

“What did they do?” he asks as I pick up the phone and open the photo, cropping out Megan before sending him the pic.

“They did nothing exactly. Mira’s boyfriend, however, was stupid enough to start dealing for Marco. Somehow, he managed to lose his supply and when Marco came for the money, he decided to make an example of him and killed him.”

“Fuck,” Kaz groans. “And your girl’s involved in this shit?”

“No.” I shoot him a glare. “She had nothing to do with that, but Mira was there. She saw it. Marco gave her the option of ending up like her boyfriend or getting him the money owed. She opted for a repayment plan.”

“But she’s been gone for six months.” Rurik frowns. “Did she skip town and let your woman take the heat?”

My woman. It’s a pleasant sound hearing that from someone other than me.

“The two of them together decided it was safer if she left. There’s a detective that has been asking questions and Marco was starting to get suspicious. She’s been sending the payments owed while hiding, but the money didn’t show up last month or this month, and Megan hasn’t heard from her.”

“Maybe Marco got her and is just using Megan for the rest of the cash,” Ivan points out.

“That’s what we need to find out.” I look at Rurik. “I have nothing other than her picture, her name, and the place she went when she left town. I went through my usual channels for information, and it’s all come up dry.”

Rurik rubs his chin, scratching just below his beard.

“I’ve found people with less. If she’s alive, I’ll find her. And if she’s not.” He shrugs. “I’ll find that out too.”

“What about the money owed to Marco? If she’s been paying monthly, he’s going to come looking for it soon.” Ivan points out.

“We’ll deal with him soon enough.” The idea of handing over even a penny to that fucking prick makes my stomach turn. We’ll need to make him understand it’s not her debt, and that anything that was owed to him was paid in full when he took out Nico.

Fuck.

The list of shit to sort through just gets longer by the day, thanks to Megan.

“And if Marco finds Megan before we get this all settled? A debt is a debt, and we’d be doing the same if someone owed.” Kaz grabs the whiskey bottle from me and pours another glass for himself. “I know this girl’s keeping your bed warm and all but?—”

“He touches what’s mine and he’ll pay for it.” My teeth snap together as my jaw tightens. If DeAngelo looks at her, I’ll take his fucking eyes.

She’s a complication, she’s sneaky, and she has an issue with telling the full truth the first time she’s asked, but she’s my fucking complication and I won’t let anyone hurt her.

Ivan studies my face for a moment, then gives a curt nod. “Does she understand that?”

“I haven’t explained the full situation yet,” I say.

Ivan grins. “Well, good luck with that when you do.”

“The bigger issue is Thompson. Marco is the one who sent Megan, but he’s not the one who told her where to find the drive and how to get in here. So, we need to find out whose lips have gotten a little loose.”

I turn the conversation back to the reason I had to leave Megan naked in my bed. If I didn’t have this shit to deal with, I’d still be home waiting for another chance to sink myself into her.

It’s not that I haven’t had good sex before, but Megan is different. It’s not just a fuck with her. It’s not enough to just fuck her once or twice. Hell, I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of her.

And that fucking mouth of hers. She has a shyness about her, but once she gets that fire built up in her, she’s all molten lava. I can see the fear in her eyes, but she doesn’t let that stop her when she has something to say.

And at the moment, it’s a lot of anger aimed at me.

I don’t blame her, but it will pass.

And then she’ll realize she’s not going anywhere. That once I’ve made my claim, it sticks.

She’s mine now.

Rurik checks his phone. “I’ll check in when I have something. When I find her, what do you want me to do with her?”

“I don’t want her hurt. Just bring her home, let her know it’s safe. She’s probably spooked, and you’re not exactly a walking advertisement for a knight in shining armor. It might not be that easy to get her to believe you.”

He deadpans, “If you want her home, I’ll bring her home.” He taps his knuckles on the bar. “You have enough to deal with here. I’ll handle this.”

“Thank you, my friend. I will owe you.” I shake his hand over the bar. Rurik can be counted on without a second of worry. Once he’s given his word, it’s all but done.

“And I will collect.” He flashes a grin, then grabs the bottle of thirty-year-old Glenfiddich whiskey from me and salutes me with it.

“You’re letting him take a six-thousand-dollar bottle of whiskey?” Kaz watches Rurik saunter from the club with the bottle.

“At least it wasn’t the 1926 Macallan.” I shrug. That prized bottle sits in my private office unopened. You don’t just casually drink a one-point-six-million-dollar bottle of whiskey.

“If you two can concentrate on something other than runaway women and expensive liquor, I finally got my hands on the coroner’s report for Thompson,” Ivan snarks.

“The official one or the real one?” Kaz asks, his levity disappearing. Kaz plays hard, but when it comes to family or our businesses, he’s as ruthless as the rest of us.

“Both,” Ivan responds. “The official reporting is that he died of a heart attack. But the report we received shows he had potassium cyanide in his blood.”

“Cyanide?” Kaz raised his brow. “He was poisoned?”

“The coroner said from the amount of it in his bloodstream, he thinks he was being given small traces of it over time, and whatever he was given the last time was enough to trigger a heart attack,” Ivan explains.

“Why wouldn’t they want the real cause of death on the certificate?” Kaz leans forward, pressing his elbows into his knees.

“Dexter Thompson was corrupt as fuck. He wasn’t just on our payroll. Half the city probably had him in their pocket.” The zoning commissioner can keep a developer from getting the land they want and the permits they need to get a project underway. It’s easiest to slip him the cash he wants to get your way in new developments.

We don’t deal with bribes when not necessary. Every bit of dirt we had on him kept him securely in our pocket.

“Who else knows he was killed?” I ask.

Ivan shrugs. “Anyone who can get to the coroner. We know DeAngelo wanted dirt on Thompson.”

“Poison isn’t his way.” Kaz rubs his temples. “If it was him, he’d have just sent his fucking goons to blow up the man’s house.”

“The list of who wanted that man dead could be fucking long.” If Thompson wasn’t doing what someone wanted him to do and they couldn’t get him to budge, they could take him out and take the chance on the next commissioner.

“We’re supposed to break ground on the resort next month, is that being fucked with?” Kaz questions, his voice hardening.

“Not yet, but the acting commissioner hasn’t been announced yet. Our permits are all solid so far, but if they start digging around, wanting to clean up the corruption, it could get messy.”

“Until their price is known.” I snort. “No politician is incorruptible. They just have pretty titles and the backing of the government.”

“So long as we’re not being fucked with, it might be best if we wait to see how it plays out,” I suggest.

“Yeah. I agree.” Kaz gives a solid nod. “The new commissioner might be better for us.”

Dexter Thompson’s death isn’t our problem, so long as whoever steps in is as controllable as he was. If the government wants to hide his murder, that’s on them. We have businesses to run.

“Agreed,” Ivan says.

“What about the DeAngelo issue and your woman?” Kaz lifts his chin in my direction. “He’s not going to walk away just because she’s yours now.”

“No. He’s not,” I agree.

“You want company when you meet him?” Ivan offers.

“I’d rather not sit down with the asshole at all, but to make sure the money gets into his hands, and he assures me she’s off his radar, I might have to do that.” I nod.

“You getting involved could make it messier. Maybe she can just pay him.” Kaz has a point.

Stepping in here might give DeAngelo ideas that he can come after us. It could make her a target in order to get to us.

“Would you send your woman into a meeting with DeAngelo?” I question.

He’s just as possessive as I am, and when he finds the woman who wakes up the beast inside him, he won’t let the poor woman step foot out of his eyesight.

“So, we’ll meet him.” Kaz nods.

“I’ll get a meeting set up.” My phone vibrates and I pull it out. One glance at the screen and my jaw tightens.

“What’s wrong?” Ivan questions.

“I didn’t get a chance to mention yet, but Elana came home last night. She’s at the house.”

“Doesn’t she have school?” Kaz questions.

I shrug. “She’s impulsive like always. I don’t know what’s going on yet. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her.”

“What’s happened?” Ivan questions as I type out a response.

“She’s with Megan.” I pocket my phone and turn to the door. “And she brought her to a doctor.”

“Is she okay?” Kaz asks. “What kind of doctor?”

“She brought her to a gynecologist.”