Page 62 of Sticky Fingers

As foreign as that word sounds to my ears, I can’t help but smile as I remember that moment when we admitted it to ourselves. God, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I’m in love with Malcolm Push.

And it feels freaking amazing!

“Oi! Are you listening?” Kathy snaps her fingers right in front of my eyes.

I turn to face her and blink twice as I see the frown on her face. She must’ve been talking while I spaced out. Not that unusual, and it never fails to piss her off.

“Sorry, I was thinking about—”

“I know what you were thinking about. You were thinking about Malcolm,” she says, sighing and rubbing her temple with two fingers. “And you have that silly smile on your face...and I don’t like that, not one bit.”

“C’mon, Kathy, you should chill for a bit. I’ve met Malcolm, and even though he’s the head of the oh-so-evil Push Organization, he’s not as bad as he seems. In fact, I think I’m starting to trust him. He’s different from other guys.”

“Jesus, Sonia, he got you good.” She sighs again, this time shaking her head. Slowly, she gets up from the couch and walks toward the dining table, where her laptop has been set up. “C’mere, take a look at this.”

“What are you talking about?”

Now standing next to her, I look to her screen. There are a lot of pictures from Malcolm there, all of them apparently taken after he dropped me off at Clarendon Tower.

“You had him followed?”

“Well, I told you we had to be cautious with him, didn’t I?” She merely shrugs and then taps the keypad a few times and brings up just one photo.

It fills the screen entirely and, even though the photo has been taken from a distance, I can see still see Malcolm perfectly. He’s shaking a man’s hands, a man that looks suspiciously like…

No way.

Why the hell is Malcolm meeting with Detective Strong?

“Holy shit…” is all I can say.

“That’s right. If a crime lord and an NYC detective are meeting...it can’t be good. I’m sorry, babe, but I think that...Malcolm might be trying to set you up.”