by E. M. Gayle
I let loose with a heavy sigh. I wasn't going to win this argument, but that didn't mean I had to make it easy for him either. Never had I met a more stubborn man than James Dean Monroe.
"I'm not dialing you in. If anything, you'll be in the way."
JD brushed my hand away from his arm. "That's too bad son, because we are definitely not going away. You're going to have to adapt and overcome."
"I'm not a fucking soldier. That's not how I operate." He was beginning to seriously piss me off, and that wasn't helping. "It's one thing to help you out in a pinch, but what you're talking about goes above and beyond."
"Son, these are extenuating circumstances. Cullotta attacked our club in your name. I can't let that go."
"Can't or won't?" Although what difference did my name make? I wasn't a club member. I'd walked away and burned the bridge down on my way out.
"It doesn't matter. Fact is, we're in it, and we aren't going away. We can either work together, or we'll go around you. What will that do to whatever operation you've got cooking?"
Fucking ruin it. I had enough irons in the fire without adding babysitting the club to the list. I'd never be able to keep up. "What did you have in mind? I can tell you right now, a war is not in the cards. I'll have you all arrested to keep that from happening."
JD shook his head. "Look around you, boy. There is a war already raging. Some of my men were shot. And we didn't go down clean. Not all Cullotta's men made it out. They aren't going to let that go."
"Shit," I cursed under my breath, barely banking the rage that rose up. He was right. Of course he was. My father always was. His ability to see and strategize was unparalleled. His help could be invaluable if the price wasn't too high.
"Exactly. Now let's talk about what's going to happen next."
"You’re going to rest and give yourself some time to recover," I stated hopefully, despite knowing it would never happen.
He scoffed. Snickers from the other men followed. Like it or not, I'd lost the battle the minute they'd knocked on my door. "Cullotta has clearly bitten off more than he can chew," I started. "The idea that he would go after the club and think that would get me to back off shows just how desperate he has become."
Every man in the room nodded in agreement. "You must be getting too close. Got any idea what he's worried about?"
My mind immediately went to the bag of diamonds safely tucked away in my freezer. And yes, I was fully aware of how ironic it was for the diamonds to be sitting on ice. But when the knock at my door had come, I'd had to move quickly. I didn't want to share any details about my case, but that in particular seemed too risky.
"I've been seeing his daughter. Her and I are—" I didn't finish the sentence because I didn't know where we stood at this point. Well, I knew what I wanted, but getting her on the same page was going to take a little more effort.
"Fucking?" he asked.
I refused to dignify that question with an answer. Let him draw his own damned conclusions. "Listen to me, old man, because I'm only saying this once. My relationship with Nova is off limits. Although her arranged fiancé is going to be a problem."
JD whistled."Yeah, those mafia types tend to be a little possessive over their princesses. Their pussies are usually worth a lot of money."
I clenched my fists at my sides and reminded myself that JD was just stating the obvious. It wasn't personal. Mobsters did marry their daughters off as business transactions all the time. Female consent meant nothing to them.
"I think in this case it's a little more complicated. But it is still the gist of it. Although her fiancé seems to hate her father as much as we do. Not sure why he'd want to marry her. It certainly can't be just about the money. What Cullotta has pales in comparison to the Kavanaughs." He'd been thinking out loud, but he could see his father and the other club members digesting his words. He hated to admit it, but having his father as a sounding board for this case might not be all bad. The man was fucking brilliant.
"Tel." JD pointed a finger at one of his men. I didn't recognize this one, but I'd stopped keeping track of the club some years ago. Letting that go had been the final step in putting my past behind me.
"On it, Prez," he responded, grabbing a computer from the backpack at his feet. "Wifi password?" he asked, and then paused. "Oh. Never mind."
I could see from the way the other man's fingers flew across the computer keyboard he knew exactly what he was doing. The club had a fucking hacker now? What the hell would happen next? Were they into using fucking bitcoin too?
"I'm in."
I definitely did not want to know what he was into. I doubted anything that man did with his computer fell under the "legal" umbrella. This whole situation continued to go sideways on me. I turned back to JD, ignoring whatever was happening with the hacker.
"Don't worry, Rock. Intel knows what he's doing. No one will be able to trace anything he does, and it definitely won't lead back to you."
"Just stop talking." The likelihood that my apartment was bugged was unlikely, but that didn't mean we needed to have a live conversation with details that could get us both into hot water.
"So, what else? There has to be more to this than a little dicking. Have you fallen in love with this woman? Is that why you don't want to walk away?"
I could have choked JD for that question. Nova was none of his business. She was mine, but I didn't need to beat my chest and punch something to prove it. I wasn't a caveman.
Although she might disagree with my self assessment. I could still see the hurt and anger in her eyes when she learned the truth about me. The fact that she didn't let me explain still stung. Although not as much as learning she had those diamonds. I still had a lot of questions about how that came to be.
While it was good they were now safely in my possession, if her father learned she had them—
Fuck.
"What's wrong?" JD asked.
The sudden memory of a conversation between Cullotta and his second in command must have been written all over my face. They'd talked about an airport surveillance video from the night those diamonds went missing. If he got his hands on that, then she was in more danger than anyone understood.
There seemed to be no love lost between the father and his daughter, so finding out she foiled his attempt to get his hands on those gems would be a betrayal. I doubted her position would save her from her father's wrath.
"I’ve got to go." I swiped my keys from the countertop. "I'd suggest it's time for you to go home, but I doubt you'll take that advice."
JD nodded. "Yep."
"Then I guess, make yourselves at home until I get back."
"We can go with you," he suggested. "Be your backup."
I snorted. "You can barely stand up, old man."
Someone sucked in their breath, while the rest of the room went deathly quiet.
"I'm not too old to put you in your place, you little shit."
There it was. The JD I remembered well. As much as my brother assured me he’d changed, so far, I'd seen nothing but more of the same. Egos the size of Cadillacs and penises the size of…
I sighed. "I don't have time for this bullshit. I'm sorry if you don't want to stay on the sidelines, but for once, you're going to do what I want. I'm not going to watch you kill anyone on my watch. And I'm not covering up for the club again. So let it go. Or let me go, and hang loose here until I get back. If you can do that, then maybe we can talk seriously about what role the club can take in all of this."
It was interesting to watch the different shades of anger cross my father's face while he tried to rein in his temper. I understood the need for revenge as much as the next guy, but this situation called for delicacy instead of brute force. There were too many unknown players at the moment.
"I'm going to cut you some slack for talking to me like that this one time. But when you get back, I'm going to kick your ass for the hell of it."
I shook my head as I headed for the door. Old man was crazy an
d that's all there was to it. And supposedly the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Which was another worry for another day.
"Where the fuck is she?" I growled my question into the comm in my ear loud enough for everyone to hear. Our search for Nova had come up empty. She wasn't in her suite, her store, with any of her friends, and she didn't show up for her usual nightcap in the hotel bar.
"No sign of her yet, boss." My new stealth team, which consisted of two part-time guys, sounded as frustrated as me. They'd spent the entire night, well into the early morning hours scouring the city for my woman. Not exactly the focus of our investigation, but it was all related. If Cullotta took Nova, things were guaranteed to go sideways. And I wasn't sure I would remain impartial.
"What about Cullotta? Anything there?" I tapped my foot waiting for an answer. My patience had worn out hours ago. Not to mention the burning in my gut that meant nothing good when it came to this operation.
"It's been a while since anyone has laid eyes on him, but as far as we know, he's still at his compound."
"As far as you know? What the hell does that mean? Don't we still have audio on his residence?"
"That's a negative. As of an hour ago, that warrant expired. We were forced to turn it all off."
"What? I thought we were expecting an emergency extension. This is fucking urgent!" I knew yelling at the messenger wasn't going to help, but what the fuck kind of ineptness had taken over the agency? They were better than this.
"You want the facts or my opinion?" Judy, one of the best field operatives I'd worked with over the years, broke into the conversation. She normally kept so quiet on these things, I often forgot she was there. At least until we needed her, and then she always came through.
"I'll take both." I trusted her gut almost as much as my own.
"The facts are, we have everything we normally need to keep that warrant going, and yet, we've been shut down. Which leads to my opinion that either Cullotta has made himself a nice deal that we aren't privy to, or we have a problem we aren't yet aware of."
She was right. The kind of roadblocks we were hitting didn't make sense. The fact that I'd been tasked with taking this investigation underground all but screamed the obvious answer. Cullotta had gotten into bed with more of this city's leadership than should have been possible. Which left very few people I could trust. Judy, I'd stake mine and Nova's life on. And since she’d recommended Carl, and we'd both dealt with him in the past, our small team was as tight as I could get it.
Although now I had the MC to contend with. It had been hours since I'd left JD and his crew behind, and while the alarms had not indicated any traffic in or out of his apartment, I knew they were out here somewhere conducting their own investigation. My security was pretty good, but I felt it safe to assume JD's hacker buddy could make mincemeat of it.
I twisted my wrist and looked down at my watch. It wouldn't be long before we knew for certain if Nova was officially missing. She had planned a call for all her employees and contractors at the auditorium in less than an hour. Intercepting her there seemed my best bet. If not, then we'd regroup at the Sinclair, and fuck it, I would unleash the club on Cullotta.
Chapter 3
Nova
* * *
"Excuse me?" I'd heard him loud and clear, but I couldn't believe he'd uttered those words. Was he mad?
"I'm certain I don't need to repeat myself. The arrangements are already in progress. All you need to do is pick out a dress and be ready to go on time."
I jumped from the chair. "I'm not marrying you in three days. Are you crazy? My fashion show is in three days." I looked down at my phone sitting on the table. "Well, actually it's in two and a half days, and at this point, I can't even get a good night's sleep before I have to meet my staff downstairs for our final run-through and the last one thousand details that still need to be addressed. So not no, but fuck no."
"You are a mouthy little thing," he said, his voice cold and rather emotionless. It sent a cold chill running along my spine. "If you can't be respectful when you speak to me, I'd be happy to teach you some manners."
"I don't need manners, I need my freedom." In the heat of the moment, I'd thought sending Rock away and agreeing to this farce of a marriage was the best and only choice I had. But from the moment Agent Reed left my suite, Ronin had transformed.
First, he'd insisted we move to his suite, and instead of following my instincts to say no, I'd led him lead me away from the safety of my own place to this—well, it felt suddenly like a prison.
"You traded your freedom for your life. It's as fair a bargain as you could get."
"I'm not marrying you in three days." I told him, not caring what he'd do to me. "We need to wait one more day. I have too much riding on that show. One more day shouldn't kill you."
Standing stock still, except for his eyes moving up and down my body, he unnerved me. I fought my need to squirm and nearly lost the battle when he finally picked up the two glasses of wine, carried them around the table, and handed me one of them.
"I will agree to postpone until after the show."
Thank God. Maybe he could be reasonable after all.
"On one condition."
My stomach sank. I had a hunch I wasn't going to just dislike that condition, I was going to hate it. "I'm not sleeping with—"
"Don't be crass, darling. I don't have to make bargains for sex. Besides, I prefer when my women beg, as you will, when the time is right. No. I want something entirely different from you." He took the seat next to mine and sipped his wine.
The notion of him toying with me crossed my mind. It seemed like Ronin always wanted to play some sort of game, and tonight would be no different. And I wasn't going to touch that comment about making his women beg no matter how much he baited me to react.
"What do you want then?" I asked, hoping I didn't regret asking. If I couldn't give him what he wanted…. Well, I had to give him what he wanted, didn't I? The condition of my show going off this week was more important than anything else, including my dignity.
"Answers."
Now that I did not see coming. "About what? I hate to tell you, but I probably don't know as much as you think I do. My life these days consists of work and more work." That had been true until I met Rock. Then my life had changed. Not that I needed to remind Ronin of that. He already knew too many of the intimate details about my love life.
"Trust me. You'll have these. And if not, then no fashion show. I'm a simple man, so I will make this as easy as possible."
I doubted he had a simple bone in his body, but I wasn't going to say that. He wanted manners, I'd give them to him. At least as long as I could. "Go on," I urged.
"Only two questions. First, how did you get your hands on those diamonds? You don't strike me as a thief, let alone one knowledgeable enough to get those. Did you pay someone for them?"
I smiled at that. Did it matter if he knew? I quickly decided that it did not. He'd watched me throw them at Rock and they were no longer mine.
"That would have been the smart thing to do, but then someone else would have known I had them, and I wasn't willing to go there." More lies I couldn't afford for him to figure out. My sister knew.
He leaned back in his chair, and eyed me warily. "Are you trying to tell me that you actually stole them yourself? I find that hard to believe. Let me remind you that this agreement between us only works if you are honest. Otherwise, we're done talking, and I'll make arrangements for us to leave now."
Panic seized me. I had no doubt Ronin would resort to kidnapping if that's what it took to get his way. "I am being honest. They were smuggled into the country on board Vincent Cabrini's plane on his last trip to Italy. My father and his father cooked up the whole damn plan. Once I knew that, it wasn't as hard as you'd think to gain access. Although that part I did pay for. Luckily, private planes are still given a lot of leeway at airports, despite tighter international security. After that, it was just a matter o
f search and seizure. There are only so many places to hide something like that and still be able to access it."
He set the wine glass down on the table and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "You expect me to believe it was really that easy? You waltzed onto a celebrity's private plane, searched it, found the diamonds, and then waltzed back off without a care in the world."
I lifted my brows and smirked at him. "It was definitely not that easy. Simple in plan yes, but it still took a lot of finesse, research, and timing before I could pull it off. I had to study schematics of that plane ahead of time, not only so I had ideas on where to look, but also because I wouldn't have a lot of time. Information is the key to an operation such as that. Then I had to locate the right people to bribe at the airport, and then get in and out of there without anyone seeing me."
"Then you were lucky."
"Probably. I took as many precautions as I could, but there were no guarantees. What good thing in life happens without at least a little luck?"
"You might be right." He pushed from the chair and paced across the room. "However, I still can't decide whether I should be impressed with your skills as a thief or your skills as an actress who is probably lying to me."
"I don't think I would make a good actress," I blurted, sprinting very close to the line of desperation. I needed him to believe me.
He turned towards me and grasped the back of one of the dining chairs before leaning forward and narrowing his eyes. "We shall see."
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"Second and last question. "What really happened the night you left your father's house? Why were you exiled so completely from your family that he let you run wild and free these last five years unchecked?"
Oh shit. This was bad. Really bad.
I did my best to school the shock, but his question had been the equivalent of a gut punch and I could tell by the rise of his eyebrows that he'd caught my initial reaction.