Page 6 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Jake

While her friend babbled about some shit, my target sat quietly with her legs crossed at the ankles, a barely touched drink in her hand, and her small purse in her lap.

“Tell me about yourself, Sienna.”

Tilting Morrison’s eyes to mine, she said, “I work in a bank. What do you do?”

“I’m in business. Acquisitions.”

Time to change tactics. Curving my arm on the backrest of the booth behind her, I slanted in. “What do you do for pleasure?”

She blinked fast and cleared her throat. “I...uh, write. I mean I love writing fiction.”

“What kind of fiction?”

“Right now, anything that inspires me. I love Poe and Shirley Jackson. Zadie Smith is the goddess I pray to, and of course, the classics...”

While she talked, she had turned almost completely toward me, and her face had become animated.

“Is Nana boring you with her writing?”

She fucking was, but the blonde brat was encroaching on my plan. Sienna stopped abruptly, and we both turned toward her friend.

“Quite the opposite,” I lied.

The Ashford girl shifted until she was almost in her friend’s lap. “You can thank me later for saving you, Jake. When Nana starts, she can talk about that for hours.”

Morrison’s daughter sighed and got to her feet. “Gabby, let’s go dance.”

The blonde giggled and shook her head. “You go. I think I’m going to stay with Jake.”

“And me,” Sile said with a smirk.

Morrison’s girl shrugged. Then she headed out of the roped off area.

Farrah and Jerome Ashford’s only daughter scooted over to me, and I exhaled slowly. That twit was becoming a pain in my ass.

I tracked the Morrison girl onto the dance floor. Once under the strobing lights, she secured the strap of her cellphone-sized purse around her wrist. She arched her neck back and threw her arms above her head.

The girl could dance. She undulated with the beats, blending some seriously skilled moves with enthusiasm and sensuality. A circle of watchers had formed around her. Other girls joined in. Horny boys tried to wedge in, and they were immediately tapped on the shoulder by bouncers.

“Fuck, she’s good,” Sile said.

In minutes, the group of girls had become a jerk-bank magnet. The Ashford girl jumped on her feet and hurried to the dance floor. She wormed her way to Morrison’s latest bastard, who carried on dancing.

Sile tipped the bottle of beer to his mouth. “Getting her away from that entitled brat will be a kindness.”

“Yeah.”

When they came back, I maneuvered Sienna Winslow to sit between Sile and me, leaving the Ashford girl seated on his other side.

I leaned in. “You scorched that dance floor. Where did you learn to dance like that?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and grinned. “Thank you. I’ve learned with YouTube.” She pointed at the bucket on the low table. “Do you mind if I take a bottle of water? It’s the last one, and—”

I tagged the bottle and uncapped it before handing it to her.

“Th-thank you,” she murmured before tilting her neck back to take a healthy mouthful.

While she talked more about books and shit, I kept my attention on her. But the girl was as bland as her friend had said.

The blonde whined. “Nana, I’m bored.”

Sile laughed, drawing the women’s attention. “We can’t have beauties like you being bored. Let’s do shots.” He curved his arm around the brat. “What’s your poison, gorgeous?”

That worked, and the Ashford girl giggled.

When Morrison’s daughter licked her lips and swiped the pad of her thumb over the corner of her bottom lip, I inched my mouth to her ear.

“You’re beautiful, Sienna.”

“You’re very attractive, too,” she whispered.

She was into me. Good. Cupping her cheek, I stroked my thumb on her cheekbone. “I want to kiss you.”

Her pulse went wild, but she shifted back and lifted those fucking yellow peepers.

“Gabby... uh... she likes you and—”

The trust fund princess had made that clear, but I wasn’t going to let her derail my plans. “Sienna, can I tell you the truth?”

Her head jerked back. “Are you going to say mean things about my friend because all women are catty and compete for a man’s attention?”

The little mouse had some spunk. I slanted closer. “The truth is the minute you walked in, I only had eyes for you. I don’t care what your friend wants. I want you, Sienna. If you don’t feel it too, just say it.”

She bit on her bottom lip. “No, I... I feel it too.”

With my hand around the side of her neck, I went in and kissed her. When the tip of my tongue touched her upper lip, she made a muffled noise before her tongue came out to play.

Drawing away, I watched her mouth chase mine. Then she looked up. And killed the beginning of my hard-on.

“I want to see you again,” I whispered, and I almost smiled when I felt her shiver.

While she started nodding, her friend stood up. “Nana, let’s go home.”

I kept my hold on the Morrison girl. “Give me your cell, Sienna.” After inputting my number, I handed it back to her. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Her face flushed. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Like taking candies from a baby.

Ten minutes later, Sile and I escorted both girls to a car.

When she waved from the back seat window, Sile scoffed. “You’re in, brother.” He slapped his hand on my shoulder. “I’m in the mood for no-string pussy.”

After that first-base bullshit, I needed a raw fuck. We headed back to the club where after a couple of drinks, I took a busty blonde with a great mouth to the bathroom.

****

The doors of the elevator leading to the penthouse hissed closed behind me, and the hairs on the back of my neck raised. Without turning the lights on, I opened the cache underneath the alarm system and pulled out my gun.

A voice I recognized cut through the darkness.

“Still have good instincts, son.”

I lowered the gun and turned the lights on to find Zook comfortably settled in the armchair by the shut curtains of the terrace. The stocky older man was swirling his tumbler full of my Woodford Reserve twenty-five bourbon.

After placing my Glock back in the cache, I sat in the armchair across from him. Zook was old-school, and if there was something he deemed important, he communicated it face to face.

The whir of the elevator alerted me of an incoming visitor, and Zook said, “I called Silas.”

Once Sile sat on the arm of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest, Zook started. “Edo has taken an interest in Sienna Winslow.”

Fuck. Edoardo Conti was a feared man for good reasons, but he also had a code of honor, and the girl was my marker.

“Why?”

“The harbor master is Morrison’s bitch, and The Family needed some shipment to go undetected. They were also paying Morrison generously for the use of his shipping containers.”

The greedy motherfucker didn’t fucking know who he was playing with.

“What happened?”

“He wanted a percentage of the sale of the cargo. Edo refused, and the son of a bitch ratted them out to the Feds. There was a raid two weeks ago, and Carlo was shot. He’s in critical condition. If he dies, my brother will want his pound of flesh.”

“Fuck,” Sile muttered.

Carlo was Edoardo’s oldest son and the heir to his empire. Bad news for Morrison.

Zook continued. “They know his daughter was seen cozying up to you at the Shell. She’s your marker, and we heard the kid just lost her mama, so they’re conflicted about her getting dead in the crossfire.”

I got on my feet. “Give me a couple of weeks.”

Zook grunted. “Son, I’ve seen your M.O. with the Morrison women. Fucking her won’t stop her from wanting a relationship with her rich father.”

“It will if she’s in love with me. Then, I’ll take her away. She’ll be out of the crossfire while I use her to put pressure on the motherfucker. It’s a win-win.”

Leonardo ‘Zucchero’ Conti inclined his head. “Two birds, one stone. I like it. I’ll get you the file on her.”

After he’d left, Sile tagged a couple of beers from the bar. “In love with you, Jakey? Two weeks is fast. Even for you, loverboy.”

“Have you seen her tonight? She’ll crawl on all fours to fetch my slippers in a week.”

He scoffed. “That’s just fucking, brother. Do I need to explain the difference?”

“In two weeks, she’ll be expecting a ring.”

Silas smirked. “Care to make it interesting?”

“What do you have in mind?”

My friend handed me a beer. “Two weeks. Full declaration of love, or a bottle of Weller Millennium.”

“You’re on.”