by Nicole York
“You two lovebirds can go,” Marcus said.
Cole straightened “What?
“Yeah, get out of here,” Marcus said, nodding his bald head toward the front doors. “We’ll cover your post. It’s a Thursday night. Shouldn’t be too busy.”
Zak’s gaze flicked between Marcus and Cole. “We might need him.”
Marcus frowned at his righthand man. “You and I need to have a chat, brother. Cole, get out of here. We’ve got this. And Cameron?”
Cameron pursed her lips and turned to Marcus. “Yes?”
“Don’t accept anything less than your standards with our boy, yeah? He’s one of the good ones. Ugly as fucking sin but good.”
Cameron giggled, reached out, and took Cole’s hand. “He’s not that ugly.”
“If you say so,” Marcus said.
As Cameron led Cole out of Kadia by the hand, he shot a dark look over his shoulder. Marcus stood with his thick arms crossed over his even thicker chest. He grinned like the devil himself as he was temporarily bathed in sunlight when Cameron pushed open the doors and stepped outside.
21
Cameron
“This place looks nice,” Cameron said, stopping outside a restaurant with a romantic patio lit up by draped string lights overhead.
Cole soaked in the sight of the place. White tablecloths. Candles flickering on tables beside single-stemmed red roses in glass vases. Gold cutlery. Black leather menus with gold-embossed lettering. Servers in white button-ups and black ties.
It was fancy as hell. Way fancier than the usual diners and burger joints he liked.
Cameron pulled him toward the front doors where one of their menus was displayed in a front case. Cameron peered down at it and scanned the options. “Do you see something you like? If not, we can keep walking until we find something else. I mean, I wouldn’t mind that. I’m a little underdressed.”
Cole reached down and squeezed her ass. “You’re the hottest woman here. Who cares what you’re wearing?”
“I do,” she said shyly.
Cole moved his hand up to slide it across her lower back. “Then let’s keep going. Maybe we can come to this place next time.”
“Next time?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“You said it, not me.”
He smiled and led her away from the menu and back out onto the sidewalk, where they carried on their way down the street looking for the right spot to sit and eat. She loved how he kept his hand on her lower back the entire time. They passed boutiques pulling their outside racks of clothes or sidewalk signs indoors for the night as they prepared to close. Coffee shops filled the street with the rich scents of chocolate and espresso beans and fresh-baked pastries.
Cameron caught a whiff of something else on the air. Something savory and rich and delicious. “Pasta,” she groaned.
“Do we have a winner?” Cole asked.
She nodded and looked around, trying to find the source of the delicious smell. “We do, if only I could figure out where it was coming from.”
Cole grinned. “I know the place. It’s just up ahead and down that side street there.”
“Is it fancy?”
“Not at all. The opposite actually. It’s a family-owned Italian restaurant. You’ll like it.”
“And how would you know what I like?” she teased.
Cole glanced down at her and guided her closer to his side with his hand on her back. “I know what you like when you’re naked and screaming my name. Why wouldn’t I know what restaurants you’d like?”
Her cheeks burned. “Touché.”
They stopped at the intersection and waited for the walking man to appear. They crossed and were nearly swallowed whole by the oncoming pedestrians from the other street corner. Cameron cursed New Yorkers as she struggled to stay with Cole. He held her in close and used his shoulder to lead the way.
They hopped up on the opposite curb and hooked a right down the side street. About half a block down, Cameron spied the restaurant.
“It’s adorable,” she whispered.
How had she never known this place was here?
Oh, yes, because she was filthy rich and her parents would never go to a mom-and-pop place like this.
Like the fancy restaurant they’d just passed, this patio was lit up with string lights. Patio was a generous word. There were a total of three tables set out on the sidewalk. The lights were draped from the red awning that covered the two windows on the front of the restaurant. They cast enough warm light for those eating outside to see by. The smell grew more intense and more delicious as they approached, and the warm ambiance inside beckoned Cameron closer.
“What do you think?” Cole asked. “Should we eat here?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
They stepped inside. The smell of herbs, frying onions, and fire-roasted tomatoes was overwhelming. An Italian woman with a thick accent greeted them and Cole asked if they could sit outside. She brought them to one of the tables and left them with two plastic-laminated menus. There was a fake battery-operated tealight in a mason jar on the table.
“This is so cute,” Cameron said. “Do you know what you’re getting?”
“Lasagna.”
“That was quick.”
“I know what I want.”
Cameron smiled. “I respect that.”
“What are you getting?”
Cameron studied the menu. “There are so many options. I don’t know. I like the sound of this seafood saffron pasta. Or the butternut squash ravioli. Or—”
“Get the saffron one.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“You’ll like it.”
She flipped the menu upside down and slid it to the edge of the table. “Done.”
They didn’t wait long before a young man, presumably the son of the woman who’d seated them, came to their table to take their orders. Cole ordered a bottle of red wine to the table along with waters and their pasta dishes. Cameron sat and let him order for her and wondered if she liked that he was ordering for her or not.
She decided quickly that she did.
The server left with the menus and Cole poured them each a glass of wine. They sipped it and watched each other over the rim.
Things suddenly felt a little strange. Every interaction she’d had with Cole prior to this moment had been in a poorly lit room somewhere at Kadia. They’d almost always been naked and conversation hadn’t really been part of the experience.
But she wanted to make that happen tonight. Just hooking up wasn’t working for her anymore. She wanted more.
“So tell me how you ended up working at a place like Kadia,” she said, swirling her wine around in her glass.
Cole leaned back in his chair. It creaked softly beneath him. “Uh, it’s a bit of a long story.”
“We have all night.”
He frowned.
Cameron licked her lips. “By long story, did you mean it’s a story you don’t want to share with me?”
Cole shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “It’s not that.”
“What then?”
“Cameron, there are things about me that you won’t like.”
“I know, I know, you’re dangerous. So what? We all have a bit of danger in us.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me so that I can understand.”
He sighed.
For a moment, she thought she was talking to a wall and he wasn’t going to confide anything in her. If she wanted something with him, she needed him to be able to talk to her. Why would she want to be with someone who only ever listened to her? She wanted a challenge. She wanted the raw, real Cole. Was that really too much to ask of him?
“I used to own a security company in California,” Cole said.
Cameron paused with her wine hovering inches from her lips. “You? Seriously?”
He nodded. “Yes. I had a different life, Cameron. Completely different from wha
t it is now. I was a security guy. I had the white picket fence. I had the wife, too.”
“You were married?”
“Would you like me to answer your original question, or are you going to keep repeating my words back to me?”
“Sorry. Continue.” She sipped her wine and listened.
“My wife left me for another man right when I thought I had it all. We’d been talking about starting a family, you see. So one day, I get up and go to work like everything is fine, thinking in the next couple of months we might be pregnant, and the next day, my life is coming apart at the seams and she’s not in my life anymore. Just like that.”
“Jesus, I’m sorry, Cole.”
“It was a long time ago. The company did fairly well for a time. My brother Ian helped with it and owns it now. It was time for me to move on, so I picked up my life and moved out here to New York City, where I fell in with some interesting people.”
“Unsavory bastards, you mean?” Cameron asked with a gentle smile.
Cole chuckled softly. “Yeah. Unsavory bastards. In the beginning, we weren’t friends at all. I was working to bring them down actually. I had the law on my side and was working as a cop for a little while. I thought the badge would be enough to put a stop to the darkness that goes on behind closed doors that good people like you never know about. There’s a seedy underbelly to this city, Cameron. A lot of bad things happen here. And I was naive enough to think my uniform would help me put a stop to it. I was wrong.”
“So you quit the force?”
He shrugged. “Pretty much. I ended up forming an allegiance with the man I initially wanted to take down in order to fry bigger fish. One thing led to another. I was brought on by Demetri DeMarco.”
“Who?” Cameron asked.
Cole scratched his jaw. “Demetri DeMarco.”
“Never heard of him.”
“No, you probably wouldn’t have. That means your father is a good man, Cameron.”
She didn’t know what that meant. She frowned.
Cole sighed. “He’s a mob boss, for lack of a better word.”
“Oh.”
“I still work for him at Kadia. Marcus is one of his best men and I take orders from him. We’ve done bad things, Cameron. I wasn’t lying to you just to scare you off when I told you that before. I’ve killed men. And chances are I’ll kill more of them.”
She could feel the blood draining out of her face. “How many?”
“Enough.”
That meant more than one, and thinking about sitting across the table from a killer made her blood run cold.
“Does that scare you?” Cole asked.
Should she lie? Would he believe her if she did?
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Enough to keep you away?”
She knew the answer like she knew her own hands. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. She was sure.
Cameron jumped when their server arrived with their pasta dishes. She giggled and apologized and tried to pretend she hadn’t just found out the man she was starting to seriously crush on was a hired killer of some sort who worked for the mob. Was that his job? Was he a hitman? Did he stuff people in the back of trunks? Did he roll them up in tarps or rugs and toss them in the river? Did he slice and dice them? Did he pull out teeth and burn off fingertips to destroy DNA and the identification process?
If he was a cop, then he’d know all the right moves to make to avoid being caught.
She stared down at her plate of pasta and swallowed.
Cole reached across the table and put his hand on hers. “Cameron?”
She looked up at him.
He offered her a warm smile. “It’s okay if this is too much for you.”
She shook her head. “It’s not. It’s just a lot to process all at once.”
“I understand. You should know that the men I’ve killed were all bad people who had more blood on their hands than I did. They hurt innocent people. They destroyed families. Someone had to end them and I will always step up to be that someone.”
She stared at his hand over hers. Had he strangled men with those hands? How many triggers had he pulled? How many knives had he wielded?
22
Cole
Cole frowned as he looked from Cameron to the untouched bowl of pasta in front of her.
He shouldn’t have told her all those things, especially not right before dinner. Of course, she’d lost her appetite. What normal person could sit down and enjoy a meal after finding out their present company was a murderer?
Cole nodded at her bowl. “We can ask them to pack it up for you if you’re not hungry.”
Cameron licked her lips. “But I am hungry.”
“I should have kept my mouth shut.”
Cameron shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I’m glad you told me.” Her lips turned down in what might have been a grimace and a smile. “I think. I’m not really sure.”
“Tell me about you,” he said in an effort to change the subject. If he could get her talking about something else, something familiar and safe to her, she might recover from the news he’d just dropped on her. “What was it like growing up as the daughter of a famous billionaire?”
Cameron smiled weakly. “Well, when I was a little girl, I hardly knew my daddy was famous at all.”
That surprised Cole. How could a man so wealthy and well known around New York keep that part of his life separate from his family?
“Daddy never brought me to events or anything like that,” she continued. “He and my mother would go to all their galas and fundraisers and I’d stay back at the estate with one of the house staff. He always promised, when you’re older, when you’re older. As a little girl, those words become so frustrating. I wanted more than anything to put on a fancy dress and new shoes and go out with them. And when I finally got the chance? It was magical.”
“Where did they take you?”
Cameron rested her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. She gazed thoughtfully at him, and he could see a memory playing behind her eyes. Whatever it was, it was bright and warm, like the slow-turning ballerina in a light pink tutu turning in a circle inside a handmade wooden music box. “They took me to their New Year’s Eve Fundraiser when I was fourteen. Daddy still wasn’t keen on me tagging along. He much preferred the idea of his little girl staying home watching movies instead of getting all dolled up and heading to a party where there were boys, God forbid.”
“A valid concern.”
She laughed lightly and shook her head. “Not really. I wasn’t at all interested in boys then. I was pretty innocent. I mean, I believed in Santa Claus until I was about twelve or thirteen. Something along there.”
Cole’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “Damn.”
“I know, crazy right? But my parents did a good job. My father grew up in a house where his mother flat out told him that Santa wasn’t real when he was six. Way too young. She spoiled something wondrous for him because she couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort. To be fair she had her own demons she was facing, and a fictitious fat man who ate cookies, came down the chimney, and put presents under the tree for her three sons just wasn’t a priority. But still, Daddy remembered how devastating that was to find out when he was so little and he didn’t want that for me. So my parents kept the magic alive as long as possible. I think I was a lot more sheltered than other kids my age.” Cameron sighed and picked up her fork. “That’s probably why I feel like I’m floundering, trying to catch up. I’m twenty-eight years old, and sometimes, I still feel like a scared eighteen-year-old girl.”
Cole smiled. “I’ve never had the impression you were scared of anything.”
“Well, I am.”
“What are you scared of?”
“Failing,” she said simply.
She’d answered so quickly that Cole knew she was telling the truth. “Failing at what?” he asked.
“Everything. Failing as a dau
ghter and letting my parents down. Failing at getting this shelter project finished. Failing the women who need me. Failing as a friend. Failing—”
“Hold on,” Cole said, hating the way she was talking about herself. “This is nonsense. You have a good heart and good intentions. So long as you keep a steady course, you won’t fail.”
Cameron looked up at him, almost anguished. “How would you know? The pressure to succeed when you have my kind of wealth and background is soul sucking. I want to help other people who need what I can give them but I feel so out of my comfort zone lately and overwhelmed. What if I do more harm than good?”
Cole shook his head. “You won’t.”
Cameron took a bite of pasta.
Success.
“I know you’re trying to lift my spirits,” Cameron said, “but I don’t think you know me well enough to be so certain. Not yet anyway.”
“I know you’re a good woman. A strong one, too. I know you have a kind heart and you know how to stand up and fight for what you want.”
She dabbed at her lips with her napkin. “Oh?”
“You wouldn’t take no for an answer from me,” Cole said. “And I’m a hell of a lot more to deal with than the busybodies who will help you open a shelter, or the women who need your help, for that matter. I’m a criminal and you didn’t back down. Imagine how easily you can handle low-profile clients?”
Cameron took another bite of food and smiled. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“Take it from someone who’s very familiar with failure. The right thing will work out in the end. You just have to be there ready for it when it does.”
“Do you mean Kadia?”
Cole nodded. “Yes, and the men I work for. They might run in bad circles—”
“Might?”
“Yes.” He chuckled. “But they’re not bad people. They’ve done bad things, and for a long time, I painted them with an evil brush and assumed they were nothing but scum. I was wrong. I think they’ve done more good than they have bad in the long run.”
Cameron sighed and leaned back in her seat. “I never imagined I’d be sitting on the patio of a little restaurant like this on a date with a man like you. Daddy would freak out.”