The Inside Man
A Dublin Nights Novel
Brittney Sahin
Emko Media, LLC
The Inside Man
By: Brittney Sahin
Published by: EmKo Media, LLC
Copyright © 2020 EmKo Media, LLC
This book is an original publication of Brittney Sahin.
In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting [email protected] Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products, brands, and/or restaurants referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chief Editor: Deb Markanton
Editor: Arielle Brubaker
Proofreader: Judy Zweifel, Judy’s Proofreading
Cover Design: LJ, Mayhem Cover Creations
Ebook ISN: 9781947717268
Paperback ISBN: 9798636014508
Created with Vellum
Contents
Also by Brittney Sahin
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Bonus Scene
More Dublin Nights
Playlist
Reading Guide
Where Else To Find Me
Also by Brittney Sahin
Stealth Ops: Bravo Team
Finding His Mark - Bravo One, Luke
Finding Justice - Bravo Two, Owen
Finding the Fight - Bravo Three, Asher
Finding Her Chance - Bravo Four, Liam
Finding the Way Back - Bravo Five, Knox
Stealth Ops: Echo Team
Chasing the Knight - Echo One, Wyatt
Chasing Daylight - Echo Two, A.J. (7/30/20)
Book 8 - Echo Three, Chris
Book 9 - Echo Four, Roman
Book 10 - Echo Five, Finn
Becoming Us: Stealth Ops spin-off series
Someone Like You
My Every Breath
Dublin Nights
On the Edge
On the Line
The Real Deal
The Inside Man
Hidden Truths
The Safe Bet
Beyond the Chase
The Hard Truth
Surviving the Fall
The Final Goodbye
Contemporary Romance
The Story of Us
I wrote this book during the pandemic of 2020. It was quite possibly the toughest book I’ve written because of what was going on in the world. I kept at it, though. I refused to surrender, and I think my fight to move forward is also evident in the development of Alessia’s character in this book.
I dedicate this book to everyone at home fighting to keep safe and provide for their families. To everyone on the front lines fighting to protect us.
We will endure.
Stay safe!
-Brittney
Prologue
Cole
New York City – November 2013
“Let’s start the night with a toast,” my buddy Jacob announced as he lifted a shot glass filled to the rim with clear liquid. “To our friend, Xavier. Here’s to celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday with the best night money can buy!”
“Hell, yeah!” Xavier shouted, raising his glass to the small group of guys lounging on the leather sofa and club chairs, before downing his tequila shot.
The man of the hour was celebrating more than a birthday tonight. Now that he was twenty-five, he had access to his one-hundred-million-dollar trust fund.
And this nightclub was a millennial and trust fund kid’s wet dream. I was into the more low-key kind of places, but it was Xavier’s party, so I’d go wherever the boys wanted.
Jacob stood, peeled his black tee off, and tossed it. “Five hot girls are dancing in a pool right in front of us. Why are we not in there, too?” He smacked his palms together and kicked off his shoes.
We were on the third floor of the club in the VIP area, which was reserved for people like us. Basically, rich young arseholes. I wasn’t that bad, but some of my friends, well, they could be real dicks.
Four guys from our party, including the birthday boy, followed Jacob’s lead, stripped down to their boxers, and joined the women in the pool.
The club was as eclectic as the people partying in it. Art attempting to rip off Picasso for sale on the black-painted walls, Gothic chandeliers, and modern finishes, not to mention the massive triangle-shaped pool. And this was just the VIP level.
The indoor greenery softened the place up a bit, and the light projections and state-of-the-art sound system blasting Latin music, along with the panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline, were reminders I wasn’t in Dublin.
I’d been living in New York for nine years. I moved to the city when I was seventeen, but I would always call Ireland my home.
“Holy shit.” My buddy Seth, still sitting next to me on the couch, flung the back of his hand against my chest. “Is that little Alessia Romano? When’d she get that body and those tits?”
My stomach dropped at his words, and when I followed his gaze to find Alessia’s dress falling to her feet, I about jumped off the sofa. What in the hell was she doing here?
She flung her dress aside, which left her standing in a tiny white bikini, one I had no clue she owned.
“She’s your parents’ neighbor, right? Mind if I—”
“No,” I seethed when she removed her strappy black heels and started down the steps into the pool.
Jacob set his eyes on her almost immediately. Hell, the gaze of every man and woman was riveted to her gorgeous figure. She was only twenty and had no business being in a place like this.
“Oh, don’t make her leave,” Seth begged, grabbing my arm, but I yanked free of his touch and stalked straight for the pool.
“Back off, Jacob,” I warned as he closed in on Alessia.
I stood at the edge of the pool, hands in my pockets, my blood boiling.
Jacob glanced at me before peering at Alessia, who’d ducked under the water. Seeing the murderous look on my face, he held his palms in the air in surrender.
Alessia popped back up a moment later and flung her
long, wet locks to her back, her makeup still flawless despite the water . . . but it was the bikini top that had my jaw locking tight.
That white scrap of material glowed in the club lights but also showcased her damn perky nipples. “Out,” I ordered.
She flinched at my command but quickly recovered and pouted. “I’m having fun!”
She was probably drunk, which made sense, considering her sober self would never have tossed her dress and designer heels so carelessly.
“You shouldn’t be here.” I crouched to better see her eyes in the shite lighting. “You’re not twenty-one. Where’s your fake ID?”
“You’re not my brother,” she said, reaching to snatch a Jell-O shot from the tray held by a bathing suit-clad cocktail waitress who’d just waded into the pool.
I sure as hell wasn’t her brother, but HE was why she’d been an emotional mess lately. Her quest to find the brother she only recently discovered existed had been one dead-end after another, which was why she kept drinking and partying. Taking her frustrations out with the bottle.
She dipped her tongue into the little cup, circling the interior, licking the red Jell-O from the edges. The action of her cheeks hollowing as she sucked down the shot had my dick stirring in my pants.
I extended my palm, hoping she’d give in to me, but instead, she shot me a devious smile and yanked with the force of someone twice her size, and I went crashing headfirst into the water.
“Damn it, Alessia!” I wiped the water from my face and swiped at my hair.
“Welcome, brother,” Xavier said on a laugh, and Jacob clapped his thanks to Alessia.
“Not funny,” I grumbled.
Alessia stepped in front of me, my white button-down dress shirt molding to my skin. Her pink nail traced a line up the center of my chest, and she nibbled on her lip, the pink gloss somehow still there despite her dip beneath the water.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice huskier than it should’ve been. With her so close in that damn see-through bikini top, it was all I could do to keep myself in check.
She flung her arms wide and fell back onto the water, floating with her hair fanned out around her.
“Please, get out.”
She finally stood, but darkness filled her gorgeous brown eyes. “My mother is dead. Father, too. No living family except a brother I can’t find and who apparently doesn’t want to be found,” she shouted over the music. “What do you expect me to do?”
I snatched her hand without thinking and placed it on my chest, my heart racing beneath her palm. “I’m your family. You won’t lose me, okay?”
Alessia was trembling as if cold, even though the pool was heated. She studied me, but then it was as if she flipped a switch, turning off her emotions because, in a lighter voice, she said, “I’m gonna dance.” She pulled her palm free of my chest and turned, but I secured a hand around her wrist and stopped her. “You can either join me,” she purred, her voice so low I was forced to watch her pink lips as she spoke, “or you can let me go find some guy without a stick up his ass.”
I’d throw her over my shoulder and carry her out kicking and screaming if necessary, but no, I had a better idea. With my free hand, I motioned for the nearby bouncer.
“You wouldn’t.” A wave of fiery anger flashed across her beautiful face.
“Oh, I would,” I challenged. “Sir, this woman is underage,” I told him. “Fake ID.”
“Miss?” The bouncer took my word since I was a regular, thanks to my buddies who loved the place.
He kept his eyes on her, and if I didn’t get her out of here fast, he’d fall under her spell. There was something about her that drew everyone’s attention, and it wasn’t just that she was smoking hot. Alessia had an energy about her that made men lose their bloody minds. And it was why she needed me to protect her from arseholes.
Once Alessia turned twenty, it seemed like the arseholes came out in full force and were lined up around the block to get her attention. I seriously considered queueing up along with those dickheads.
The bouncer pointed to the dress and shoes. “These yours?” he asked once she begrudgingly got out of the pool, my friends booing the bouncer for making her leave.
“I’ll take care of her,” I told him and grabbed two towels from the stack near the pool and handed one to her.
My clothes were sopping wet, and the towel didn’t do much good. The bright side of her not going into the pool fully clothed like I had? She wouldn’t freeze to death later.
She toweled off and snatched her dress and shoes, then spun around, nearly knocking me back into the water. Her gaze moved slowly down my wet shirt before her eyes journeyed to my face. “Don’t even think about walking me home.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed hold of her elbow. “There’s not a chance in hell I’m letting you leave alone.”
She shot me a menacing glare that was quite possibly the cutest one she’d sent me lately, and I’d been on the receiving end of quite a few since I kept “raining on her parade of fun” as she liked to tell me.
She leaned in close. “Bite me.”
Damn did I want to, starting with her nipples. “Get your clothes on. You’ll freeze to death outside.”
“Don’t you have another woman to bother?” She got dressed, the material clinging to her body, the bikini soaking through the fabric of her dress.
“No, you take up too much of my time.” I couldn’t hide the sarcastic tone of my voice even though I’d wanted to come across as serious.
Alessia swayed to the side as if she might fall and found her balance by planting a hand on my shoulder. She began waving to someone in the pool and smiled. “Maybe I should go home with one of your friends?”
I looked back at Jacob, who was sending her an air kiss.
“No.” I motioned for her to leave, but she didn’t move.
“You know, I’m not a virgin, so if you think I—”
“Alessia,” I hissed. “You need to go to bed.”
“With you?” She angled her head, her brows lifting.
“I’ll stay on your couch to make sure you don’t fall and hurt yourself since you’re barely able to walk right now.” I urged her to move again and tossed a hand up to let the guys know I was leaving, which elicited another round of boos.
“I’m not that drunk,” she said with a touch of sass in her tone that always appeared when she’d been drinking. “Just a little too much champagne.”
We grabbed our jackets from the coat check, then went outside, my feet a horrible kind of wet and cold inside my shoes as I walked, creating a water trail behind me.
Alessia wrung the water out of her hair onto the footpath and pulled her long locks into a tight ponytail as I hailed a taxi.
I’d come in Seth’s limo, and Alessia no longer had a driver. She’d let him go and was also in the process of selling off all her father’s assets since he’d taken his last breath three weeks ago.
She’d come to me for help to ensure she didn’t get taken advantage of when she relinquished his business holdings, and I hadn’t put up a fight with her about it. I knew she had no desire to run his empire, but I also didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life.
One thing we had fought about—dropping out of college. She hadn’t given me any warning, either. I’d give her until Christmas to come to her senses, and then I’d push her to return to school.
I’d opted for silence until we were inside the lift in her building. She’d been swiping through images on her phone the entire ride over, and I didn’t feel like getting into it with her within earshot of the cabbie. “This isn’t like you,” I finally spoke up.
“I always party,” she snapped without looking up at me, her phone still clutched in hand.
“Not like this,” I said glibly.
She spun to the side and lowered her arm. “Well, maybe you don’t know me as well as you think.”
“You’re my best friend,” I grumbled the reminder she clearly ne
eded to hear.
We hadn’t started out that way, she’d been too young when we met, but after her mother died in a car accident because some arsehole ran a red light, I’d been there for her.
I’d always wondered why she hadn’t become closer to my sister, but Alessia and I had just clicked. When she was sixteen, she’d joked that we fit together like puzzle pieces.
But as soon as she became of legal age, things between us changed. I tensed up whenever she was around. The moral discipline I’d held myself to in regard to Alessia no longer applied. And my traitorous body knew it.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be friends anymore.”
I did my best not to let those words sting. “That’s the alcohol talking,” I said when the doors parted.
She remained still, and I had to shoot my arm out to keep the doors from closing together. “Alessia.”
“Don’t,” she whispered, hurrying past me.
I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to face me. “Are you high? You promised me you’d never do that and—”
“No,” she snapped. “I keep my promises.”
“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
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