by Tate James
We made our way down to the parking garage together, and my phone buzzed with a message just as we were getting out of the elevator.
I opened it, thinking—stupidly—that it might be from Cass.
Lucas: I tried not to message again. I tried. But you're all I can think about. Yesterday was incredible. You're incredible. Can I see you again?
The message surprised me enough that I stopped dead in my tracks and read it three times. When he'd left my apartment last night and I told him not to text me, I thought he listened. But I should have known better... He knew what he wanted and seemed to have a good read on when to push me.
"What is it?" Zed asked, giving me a wary look from a couple of paces away.
I shook my head. "Nothing." My fingers flew over the keyboard of my phone, sending a quick reply as I started walking again.
Hades: Lose my number, Lucas. I'm your boss.
His reply dinged before I opened my car door.
Lucas: It's only Monday.
I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile.
"You okay, boss?" Zed asked, unlocking Seph's dented-up Camaro. She was a truly crappy driver and had collided with the back of a Jeep on her way home from school last week. Not bad enough to need a tow, but bad enough that she shouldn't be driving it around, hence why I was playing chauffeur. God knew I wasn't letting her drive my cars with her track record.
"All good," I told him with a smirk. It was so tempting to tell him Lucas was begging to see me again, if only to turn the tables on him. He was constantly telling me about his revolving bedroom door; it'd be interesting to see the shoe on the other foot.
But for some reason I held my tongue. I had no intention of ever seeing Lucas again in a less than professional capacity, but I also didn't want to use him. Not like that. He was too genuinely nice.
Zed gave me a suspicious look but nodded and popped Seph's door open. "See you at 7th later?"
"Probably." If I didn't fall asleep first. Usually on a Monday night I spent a couple of hours hanging out with Seph, making sure she was completing all her homework and cooking dinner. Then when she went to bed, I headed into one of the clubs. My average night’s sleep was around four hours, and I'd just gotten used to it.
Zed left the garage ahead of me, giving me a little salute as he drove out in Seph's Camaro. I took a moment to reply to Lucas, though.
Hades: I'm busy tonight.
It was important to me to try and provide some level of normalcy for my sister, so there was no way I'd be ditching her to get some dick. No matter how epic that dick happened to be.
Lucas: Then I quit.
I barked a laugh, shaking my head at his reply. He didn't mean he’d quit trying to see me; he meant he’d quit his job before even starting.
Hades: No, you don't.
He didn't reply quickly this time, so I inserted my phone into the car cradle and drove out of my building. Seph was probably already getting annoyed waiting for me to pick her up.
His response lit up my screen a few minutes later, and I smiled. It was just the broken-heart emoji.
A call from Seph came through when I was only about two minutes away from her school, and I answered it on handsfree.
"I know, I'm late," I said as soon as the call connected. "I'm almost there."
"No, uh, that's okay," my sister said, sounding way too fucking perky.
Instantly my heart raced. "What's going on, Seph? Are you okay?"
She let out a forced laugh that only panicked me further. My foot pressed down on the gas.
"I'm fine, Dare," she replied with another fake laugh. "But, uh, um, I have a favor to ask."
Oh.
My foot eased off the gas again, slowing me back to normal speed.
"Go on..."
"So." Seph lowered her voice like she was trying not to be heard. "Remember that guy I told you about this morning?" She was practically whispering into her phone, so I was going to guess he was somewhere nearby.
I snickered a laugh. "Yeah, I remember. What about him?"
"Well, he's my new project partner in art class and he usually walks home and I kind of sort of told him that my sister would give him a ride and I don't know why I said that and now I can't take it back and—" It was all one long sentence with no gaps for breathing, so I cut her off.
"Seph, fucking breathe. You want me to give this kid a lift home? It's not a big deal." I shook my head, wondering where the fuck she got all her melodrama from. Sure as hell wasn't me.
"I want you not to kill him." She hissed those words at me, and I had to bite my lip not to crack up laughing.
"Seph, I don't kill boys for liking you. I just politely educate them on the consequences should they lay their dirty teenage-boy hands on you. Honestly, you make me sound like a monster." I grinned as I said it, not feeling even the slightest bit guilty for keeping my sister safe. She had her whole life ahead of her for bad romances, but she'd already lost so much of her childhood, thanks to our family.
She made a frustrated, slightly panicked sound down the phone. "I hate you," she muttered without conviction. "If you scare him off, I'm moving to Reykjavik and never speaking to you again."
I snickered. "Sure thing, brat. See you in thirty seconds."
She ended the call, probably frantically trying to think of a reason to rescind her offer to the new boy. But it was too late; I was already turning into the long driveway up to Shadow Prep.
I spotted her in the distance, waiting on the front steps of the administration building with her copper-red hair still in a perfect bun. She was standing on the bottom step, messing with the shoulder straps of her bag and talking to a boy who sat a couple of steps higher.
He sat in the shade of the building, so I couldn't make out what he looked like except that he wore the Shadow Prep uniform and had the hot-guy slouch down pat. Fucking player, I'd put my money on it. No way in hell was I letting him chase my sweet little sister without some severe warnings about what would happen if he hurt her.
I pulled up right in front of the steps, obscuring my own view, and waited patiently for Seph to get in. She took her sweet-ass time, too, popping open the passenger door as she chatted in a high-pitched, panicked voice.
"No, it's totally fine," she was telling him. "It's on our way anyway; you shouldn't have to walk all that way. Besides, we need to talk about our art project, right?"
Her attention shifted to me as she paused with the door open, and her brow drew into a tight frown when she saw my thigh strap full of knives and shoulder holster holding my Desert Eagle in plain view.
"What?" I asked at her horrified expression. "Get in, Seph; I don't have all day."
Her eyes widened, her whole face begging me not to embarrass her as she slid into the front seat. The back door opened, and the tall boy she'd been flirting with climbed into my car.
"Hey, thank you so much; you—" His polite thanks cut off abruptly as our eyes met in the rearview mirror. My lips parted in shock, and he froze. Just froze.
Seph was none the wiser, though, pulling her door shut and buckling her belt as she rushed to introduce us.
"Lucas, this is my sister. She's not a very good ‘people’ person, though, so, like, just ignore her if she says anything rude or mean or generally threatening, okay? She'll just be joking. Right, Dare?" Seph gave me a hard glare like she wanted me to nod and smile, but I was too busy freaking right the fuck out.
Lucas was quicker than me to recover, breaking eye contact and clearing his throat before closing his own door.
"Really nice to meet you," he murmured, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror once more. This time his green gaze was full of apology and guilt, silently begging me for a chance to explain. "Dare, was it?"
I had fucking nothing to say. What the hell could I even say? Less than twenty-four hours ago he'd fucked me on just about every surface of my bedroom and bathroom. Now he sat in the back seat of my Range Rover wearing a Shadow Prep school uniform.
What
the actual fuck?
"Dare," Seph hissed, poking me in the leg and damn near cutting her finger off on one of my blades. "Stop acting weird."
My attention snapped back to her, but still couldn’t think of anything to say. So I just shook my head and started the car. I couldn't exactly kick Lucas out without telling Seph that he'd spent the weekend with his dick buried between my legs.
Fuck. Fuck.
I’d known he was too good to be true. Now I was wishing he really had been a spy for a rival gang... That would have been infinitely better than this. Anything would have.
Seph chatted away, clearly trying to cover for my awkward silence as we drove back to town. Lucas responded to her in one-word answers, and every time I glanced at him in the mirror, he was staring at me. Just fucking staring like he didn't care if Seph found out.
Then again, she was sitting directly in front of him, making it hard for her to see him. She probably hadn't even noticed.
"Where am I taking you, Lucas?" I managed to grind out from behind clenched teeth as we got closer to the edge of town. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and it was taking all my willpower not to drop Seph at home and take Lucas somewhere to shoot him.
Actually, that was a lie. Even in a goddamn Shadow Prep uniform, he looked so gorgeous it hurt. I was too damn scared of what I'd do if I was alone with him... because chances were I wouldn't shoot him at all. Just like I'd failed to shoot Cass earlier.
Oh fucking hell. Cass. What was Cass going to say when he found out? Or Zed for that matter?
I cringed internally, already anticipating their mockery.
Lucas gave me directions to his house, his voice low and soothing, like he was trying to apologize with every word. That wasn't going to fucking cut it, though.
The neighborhood he directed me to was an upper-middle class area, and the house he pointed out was cute, in a slightly run-down way.
I stopped the car in the driveway and still had nothing to say, so I just waited for him to get the fuck out and let me erase the past three days from my brain permanently.
"So, did you want to call me later, and we can plan out our project?" Seph asked, spinning in her seat to beam at Lucas. Fuck me, she was totally crushing on him. Not that I could blame her; she had good taste. But this was one hell of a disaster just waiting to happen.
"Um." Lucas met my gaze in the mirror again, and I quickly looked away. I wanted nothing to do with this mess. "Yeah, sure."
Seph beamed even brighter. "Great! Pass me your phone; I'll put my number in."
He handed his phone to her, and I jerked. What if he'd left our message thread open? Oh, fuck.
Seph didn't say anything though, just typed her info in and handed the device back to him with a smile. "I sent myself a text so I’d have your number," she told him. "I hope that's okay."
Lucas's eyes widened—I was fucking watching him in the mirror again—but he nodded and gave my sister a tight smile. "Cool. I'll, uh, see you. Thank you for the ride home, Dare." His lips twitched with mischief as he said that, and I shook my head at him in the mirror.
Fuck right off with that shit, Lucas.
"Goodbye, Lucas," I told him in a hard voice, meaning it.
His responding grin as he climbed out of the car was the same one he'd given yesterday after he’d kissed me in front of Zed like he was staking claim.
I pulled out of his driveway quickly, before I could change my mind and confront him right there. Seph didn't say anything for the longest time, too, then finally let out a long and very dramatic sigh.
"What?" I asked, side-eyeing her. "I didn't even try to kill him." Even though I should have.
"No, I know," she groaned, then gave me the worst kind of pouty face. "I think I know why Lucas hasn't really paid attention to the girls at school."
Shit. "You do?"
She nodded, the picture of unhappiness. "I think he's got a girlfriend."
I blinked a couple of times, refocusing on the road ahead as I swallowed. "Why do you say that?"
She huffed again. "When I sent myself a text from his phone, I saw the most recent message thread in his inbox."
Oh fucking hell.
"What? Seph, that's an invasion of privacy! You can't just read his messages!" Yeah, I had a vested interest in my little sister not being that rude. Please let her not have read them.
She just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I didn't open it. Jesus, Dare, what do you take me for? But she's clearly his girlfriend. Her contact was saved as just H and a love-heart emoji."
What?
"Well..." I searched for something to say to that. Anything. "Maybe he has a boyfriend."
Wow. That was the best I could come up with to deflect attention? Hopeless. Something about lying to my sister got me all twisted up in knots, and I definitely didn't use my best material.
Seph huffed again. "Yeah, maybe. Or maybe it's just an ex or something. I dunno. Argh, why am I even telling you this? You're probably already planning on sending one of your guys over with a gun and a threat later tonight. I'm doomed to graduate a virgin."
I smiled at her, not totally faking it this time. "Seph, if any guy lets me intimidate them away from you, then he’s clearly not worth your time or attention. Think of it like that."
She didn't though. She glared daggers at me the whole way home and jumped out of the car the second we parked. Her timing was impeccable, too, because a split second later my phone lit up with a new message.
Lucas: We probably need to talk...
14
Considering there was quite literally nothing Lucas could say that would adequately explain why he was a student at Shadow Prep not Shadow Grove University like he'd led me to believe, I ignored his message.
I helped Seph with her homework like normal, cooked sweet chili chicken breasts with garden vegetables for dinner, watched three episodes of Gossip Girl with her, then made an excuse not to go into 7th Circle.
The next morning I had a half dozen missed calls from Lucas, all of which I cleared from my call history. I dropped Seph off to school way earlier than she needed to go—paranoid I would see him—then drove over to Rainybanks to meet with the Timberwolves accountant.
As much as it sounded like fun to be the CEO of a multibillion-dollar hospitality company and the leader of an exceptionally lucrative criminal organization, it was really just a whole lot of work.
Thankfully, I'd always done well in school, as had Zed. We each had a degree in business administration, as well as post-grad degrees in event management and finance. Zed, being a couple of years older, had been able to tutor me through a lot of the coursework, which allowed me to get my qualifications through online learning rather than attending an actual college. Not as prestigious, but who gave a fuck?
That level of education meant that I wasn't relying on other people to tell me the truth. I could cross-check their work and know for myself if anyone was ripping me off, as our first three bookkeepers found out the hard way.
Thankfully, the fourth one had a bit more of a brain in her head and hadn't tried to screw me yet. She was also perfectly unflappable and didn't even bat an eyelid whenever I randomly dropped in to review the books and check end-of-night reports. Zed and I quietly joked that she was the Mary Poppins of the crime world. She was always so prim and proper, despite managing money from sex workers and drug deals.
"Good morning, Ms. Wolff," she greeted as I quietly let myself into one of the lush fifty-fourth-floor offices that Copper Wolf occupied. Here, in the bright light of day, I was Daria Wolff. Honestly, all my names used to confuse me, but now they came as easily as slipping on a coat when it was cold out.
"Good morning, Macy," I responded with a polite smile. "You look lovely today. Is that a new scarf?"
Her smile widened, and she touched her perfect, nude-manicured nails to the floral silk scarf around her neck. "It is, thank you. I was about to order coffee. Would you like one?"
"That would be
great," I replied, passing her and pushing open the door to my own office, next to her one that she’d just exited. It wasn't an office I used particularly often, but it was nice to have a workspace that wasn't in the dark bowels of a nightclub or on my own sofa.
I switched my computer on and leaned back in my high-backed chair with a yawn. Macy followed me into my office a couple of minutes later, placing two external hard drives down on my desk with a smile.
"Coffee will be up shortly," she told me. "Any questions, let me know."
She let herself back out, closing the door softly behind her, and I selected the first hard drive. Silver for Copper Wolf records, black for Timberwolves. Anyone who tried to say that it was too risky to keep digital documents was living in the damn past. Digital was a million times more secure than an antiquated paper-and-ink record just waiting to be stolen and used in court.
So long as you had a great security system, encryptions, and a self-destruct sequence to wipe the data if anyone unauthorized accessed it, which I was lucky enough to have, then digital was the way to go.
I plugged the silver hard drive into my computer and went through the process of entering my passwords. There was a soft tap on my door before I’d even opened the first spreadsheet, and Macy's assistant silently delivered my coffee to my desk.
The next several hours disappeared in a flash as I cycled through the last week of spreadsheets across all my Copper Wolf bars and clubs—there were seven of them now—and then reviewed the profit and loss statements for my vodka brand.
When I finished on the silver hard drive, I took a break to pee, stretch, and check my messages. Then wished I hadn't checked my messages.
Lucas: Please don't ignore me. I need to explain. I had no idea Seph was your sister; she only ever called you Dare. Why Dare, by the way? Were you a reckless kid? I could see that. Then a winking face.
Fuck me. Lucas Wilder—totally not his real name—had balls of steel. Any other guy would have already skipped town, changed his name seventeen times, and possibly looked into plastic surgery by now. Not Lucas, though. Nope, he still wanted a chance to explain.