by Lexi Blake
“She isn’t the one who killed our parents.” A sheen of tears covered Mia’s blue eyes. “She was only seven when it happened.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Riley insisted. Mia didn’t understand. Mia had been raised by a loving couple who unfortunately planted some very weird ideas of equality and justice into her head. “She’s the only one who can get us what we need.”
He and Drew and Bran had gone without. Without each other. Without food at times. Without any fucking hope. The one thing that had gotten them through was the idea that one day they could make it right. Or if not right, at least even.
It wasn’t fair that sweet Ellie Stratton might bear her father’s burden, but then Riley had discovered the world wasn’t fair a very long time ago.
Drew pinned her with that fixed stare Riley had come to dread long before. It meant Drew wouldn’t be moved. “I need to know if you’re in or out, Mia. If you’re out, then feel free to return to Texas. It seems you’ve found a new family.”
Mia went red and Case started to stand up.
“You want to push her like this, you’re going to go through me, Lawless. You understand?” Case said, his eyes narrowing.
Mia immediately reached for his hand. “It’s all right. Case, it’s all right. Sit down, baby.”
“They don’t get to talk to you like that. No one does,” Case insisted.
“Let me explain.” Drew seemed to calm a bit. “If you don’t want to be a part of this, go back to Texas. It doesn’t mean you aren’t my sister. It simply means we’ll do this on our own. I love you, Mia. But this is going to happen.”
Mia leaned in and spoke softly to her husband. He visibly calmed and took a deep breath.
“I’ll wait for Mia outside. Let me know if my firm can handle anything else for you.” The big guy strode out.
Mia’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t upset him again. He’s been through enough. Now you want me to spill some blood or something to prove I’m a Lawless? I think I should stay in and watch every single one of you. I love you, too, brother. I love you enough to stand beside you, but don’t expect me to keep my mouth shut when I see you doing something wrong.”
“I don’t need you to be my conscience,” Drew insisted.
“Oh, trust me, you do. You all do. And don’t act like I haven’t done my part. If you didn’t have me, Bran would still be in college. Riley would still eat like a five-year-old. Drew, you would never have gotten 4L off the ground because you would have named the company after a dinosaur or a superhero, and Hatch would still be sleeping with skanky hookers.”
Hatch nodded. “She’s right about that. I now sleep with strippers. It’s an entirely higher class of women.”
Drew frowned. “I actually still think MegaRaptor Software would have worked. It screams strength to me.”
His sister was right about some things, and he was proud of the way she stood up for herself. “It screams nerd. And I still eat like a five-year-old. Mostly. I work in a salad every now and then. She’s definitely right about Bran. He was shit at algebra.”
His younger brother rolled his eyes and flipped him off. “I only took it twice.”
Mia gave them all a satisfied smile. “That’s because I convinced your professor to let you do extra credit in exchange for a write-up in the paper. That pushed you over the edge and into that sweet, sweet D. So you all need me. And be nice to my husband. He’s had a rough time and he’s still here trying to help us out.”
Drew stood and walked over to Mia, enveloping her in a hug. “Case is a good guy. A scary guy, but a good one. I’m sorry. We’re all on edge because it’s so close now.”
Bran stood up and joined them. “It’ll be over soon and then we can . . . hell, I don’t even know what we’ll do, but we’ll do it.”
“I say strippers for everyone after we put this thing to bed,” Hatch said, joining the group hug.
Riley pushed his chair back and stood. Mia was at the center. He put his arms around Drew and Bran. “We’ll be able to get on with our lives. And I’ll take that stripper and raise you a high-priced call girl. Mia, don’t even. You have no idea what a well-trained pleasure consultant can do for a man’s stress.”
Mia’s head came up, her eyes twinkling. “I know what a six-foot, five-inch former Navy SEAL can do to a woman’s clitoris.”
And the moment was over.
“Mia, please,” Drew said.
“If Riley can talk about random hookers, I should be able to talk about the beautiful lovemaking between a woman and her newlywed husband. I was raised by two women who had zero interest in dick. It was really surprising to find out how good it felt.” Her lips curled up. Yes, she enjoyed teasing her brothers.
“No more talk,” Drew insisted. “I’m getting a beer.”
Hatch sighed. “Thank God. It’s almost three. I was about to go into withdrawal.”
“I’m going to visit the ladies’ room. Let Case know I’ll be right out,” Mia said, heading for the hallway.
Riley followed his brothers and Hatch out the opposite door and found Case looking out over the Upper East Side, his arms crossed over his massive chest.
He really hoped this wasn’t going to cause problems for his sister. She seemed very happy with her former Navy SEAL turned security consultant/private investigator. “Hey, Mia’s visiting the ladies’ room. She’ll be out in a second. I’m sorry you had to see that. Our family, well it’s complex.”
Case didn’t turn his way, still staring outside. “All families are complex. I worry that’s what you’re not taking into account. It’s where you’ll have problems on this op.”
“Op?”
Case finally turned, smiling slightly. “Sorry. My brother runs his company like we’re all still in the military. Operation. Mission. It’s what you’re embarking on. You’ll run into trouble because you’re not counting on complexity.”
“I think I understand the complexity. We’ve been planning this for decades. The business moves started years ago. I know the legal ramifications of every step we’re going to take.” It rankled that the pretty-boy soldier thought he couldn’t handle it.
“I wasn’t talking about the individual moves. Though the fact that you’re treating this like a chess game makes me more certain this is going to go poorly. These are people, not chess pieces. Your whole family believes Castalano and Cain are purely evil. You can’t view them that way. Yes, they did something twenty years ago that was evil, but a lot can happen in two decades. You have to take a fresh look at them. Strip away what you think you know about them. Figure out what they want, what truly motivates them.”
“Money.” He’d always known that. Even as a child he’d understood his parents had been murdered over cash.
“That’s the simple answer, and people are rarely simple. They grow and change over time, and what they were twenty years ago may not be the same today. Trust me, change can happen in much less time given the right circumstances. Hell, sometimes the people we’re closest to change and there’s nothing we can do to bring them back.”
He wasn’t sure what Case was talking about, but it didn’t seem the man wanted to go further. He went silent and Riley sought to fill that empty, uncomfortable space. “Don’t worry about us. You handle Mia. Protect her.”
“I will. She’s precious to me, but you’re precious to her,” Case replied. “Be careful with Ellie Stratton. Is there any way you can get what you need without getting into bed with her?”
He should have known he would get this from the Boy Scout. “Don’t worry about her.”
“I wasn’t. I am worried about you. I know you all think I’m just a guy with a gun, but there’s actually a really good brain behind all this beauty. I’ve been watching you for a long time. I do know what you want.”
That didn’t prove Case was smart. Anyone who got close to him realized what he
wanted fairly quickly. “I want revenge.”
“More than that. That’s what you’ve been taught to want, not the need that fills the core of you. You crave constancy. You want someone who’ll take care of you. Not because they have to. Because they want to. Because they can’t quite bring themselves not to. You want someone who’ll put you first, and the woman who does that . . . well, either she’ll get lucky and you’ll accept it, or you’ll tear her apart because you won’t believe her.”
His brother-in-law had apparently read too many pop psychology books. “I’m not getting emotionally involved with Ellie Stratton.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. Usually right before the wedding.” His smile lit up as he looked past Riley. “Here she comes.”
“Did you tell yourself you wouldn’t get involved with her?” Riley felt the need to challenge Case.
“I knew I would have that one the minute I saw her. Two minutes later, I knew it was a mistake and I tried to get away. Five minutes after that, I was in bed with her and that was that. Best mistake I ever made. Hey, princess.”
Mia was practically glowing as she joined Case. She winked Riley’s way. “I’m going to take this guy home. Talk to you tomorrow. And be nice to Ellie. She’s really cool.”
He watched them walk away hand in hand.
He didn’t need Ellie Stratton to be cool. He needed to figure out a way to get her hot.
Case was wrong. When this was over he would walk away and never look back.
Three
Ellie texted her lawyer again. Riley Lang seemed to be avoiding her. She’d called his office to try to reschedule their dinner meeting to a more appropriate time, but his secretary was excellent at deflecting. She’d been told Mr. Lang was in a very important meeting and looked forward to seeing her this evening.
She stared down at her phone. Nothing. The man had said he would be here in about fifteen minutes.
She’d gotten dressed, put on nighttime makeup and stupid heels because it looked like she wasn’t getting out of this.
Logic. That was her friend. It wasn’t like this was some kind of date. She was meeting with her lawyer. That happened all the time. People met with their lawyers. People had to eat to live. So it was normal to meet with one’s lawyer over a meal.
It didn’t mean the evening would end with her wrapped in sheets with her superhot lawyer driving into her body and making her scream out his very lawyerlike name.
Nope. Not going to end like that. No matter how much she saw it when she closed her eyes.
It had been a shitty, shitty day.
She’d spent a good hour crying her eyes out because of that clause Riley Lang had found in the contract. Steve Castalano had been more of a father to her than her own pretty-much-evil, did-really-bad-shit dad.
Every time she was forced to think about her father, she went right back to the night he died. To the secret he’d told her.
Now she shared a lawyer with Drew Lawless. It couldn’t be coincidence. It was the universe’s way of telling her she had some work to do. That she was on the right path. That one day she could explain, and maybe the burden of her father’s secret would ease.
She needed to think about this. She wasn’t sure she could think around her new lawyer.
Riley Lang was hot as hell, and yes, her nipples seemed to perk up when he walked in a room, but she needed some alone time.
There was a knock at her door. It looked like he was early. She’d hedged her bets on getting him to stay away and gotten dressed. She kind of wished now that she hadn’t been so damn thorough when she’d cleaned out her closet the previous week.
She’d tossed out every dowdy suit she’d owned, every heavy blouse and shapeless skirt. Almost every piece of clothing that was black or beige or navy blue.
She’d hidden behind those stupid clothes for years, hoping she wouldn’t cause comment from her father about her professionalism. Or worse. Her dad never failed to point out that she’d gotten her mother’s penchant to carry a few extra pounds. Her sister, Shari, looked like Dad’s side of the family. Blond hair, blue eyes, slender like a supermodel. Ellie had been told time and again that no one would take her seriously in business if she didn’t hide her overblown body behind bland suits and a pair of glasses.
Her own husband had told her she should drop a few if she wanted anyone to want her for something other than cash.
The bad news? All of her cash was either gone in the divorce or tied up in the company. She had what she needed to buy out her business partner and not much else.
The good news? She no longer had to listen to her father or her husband.
Tossing out those clothes and buying an entirely new wardrobe had drained the last of her savings, but she’d needed the change. She needed to be the new Ellie.
New Ellie didn’t hesitate to open the door to the superhot guy who was her lawyer. New Ellie didn’t wish she had a high-necked sweater to hide behind. New Ellie was all about the V-neck.
Her bell chimed again and she wished she was still in a building with a doorman. Or a building in Manhattan at all. Her gorgeous condo had been sold and the money halved, her portion placed in savings to buy her partner out. Her Brooklyn neighborhood was nice and quiet, but she missed the bustle and energy of the Upper West Side.
She glanced at herself in the mirror. She was determined to convince Riley Lang that she didn’t need him to take her to dinner to go over the contract. They could do that in the office. She wasn’t getting close to someone like him.
She hadn’t been able to handle Colin. Riley Lang was a dozen steps ahead of Colin on the sexy-male ladder. She wasn’t losing her head over a gorgeous guy who seemed to want to manipulate her somehow.
The girls looked good. They were a nice C cup. They balanced well with her hips. She was always going to be an hourglass. Now she simply dressed to suit her figure. Her makeup was pretty good. She’d left her hair down.
She was ready to face him.
After all, she was kind of manipulating him, too. She needed him for more than a contract. She needed him for his access to Drew Lawless.
Unfortunately, when she opened the door, it was her sister and Colin standing there.
Shari frowned, but then she’d told Ellie once that she never smiled because it caused wrinkles. “Thank God you’re here and not at the office. I hate that place. Not that this place is much better. I need to talk to you.”
Ellie could feel her blood pressure tick up. Colin walked in behind Shari, his head down.
She thought about railing at her younger sister for selling her stock, but it wouldn’t do a bit of good. There were seven years between them and an ocean of issues. Shari had been the indulged second child. After Ellie’s mother had died in a car accident, her father had taken up with a sweet but not-so-bright model. Krissy Stratton had overindulged her daughter to the point of rottenness, never seeing what holding her girl to no rules at all was doing to her. After Krissy herself had died of breast cancer, Ellie had tried to take her sister in hand, but the damage had been done.
“What do you want?” There was nothing to do but get to the heart of the matter, and that would always be about what Shari wanted.
Shari rolled her eyes. “Rude much? You could try being nicer to me. After all, I came all the way out here to Brooklyn to see you.”
Shari rarely left Manhattan. When she did, it was for some exotic locale like Paris or Milan. She’d worked as a model since she was fifteen, but she spent every dime she had.
And likely a good portion of Ellie’s since now she had Colin’s half of the money from Ellie’s shit-tastic marriage.
“You didn’t come to see me. You want something. I have someone coming to pick me up, so make it fast.” She would use any excuse to get her sister and ex out of her apartment as quickly as possible.
The last thing she wan
ted was her lawyer viewing this cozy scene. She needed the man to see her as a professional, in control. She never felt more out of control than when she had to deal with her sister.
“You have a date?” Colin asked, his eyes widening.
When they’d met, he’d been serious about a career in business. He’d been in her accounting class and she’d helped him pass. They’d become friends and then lovers. It had seemed natural to marry him.
She didn’t even recognize him now. He’d always been attractive, but now he was dressed like a refugee from a boy band. She wasn’t sure how he saw with all that hair flopping in his face.
“I have a date.” She wasn’t going to tell them that Hottie McHotterson was actually her lawyer. They didn’t need to know that.
Shari sighed and resettled her ridiculously expensive Chanel bag over her shoulder. “I don’t want to be here to see whatever the Internet spits out as a date these days. Look, I’ll get to the point. I need some cash.”
“Go to an ATM.” Her sister always needed cash.
“I have to have new headshots,” Shari explained. “I’m sorry to have to come to you, but I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Ellie turned to look at Colin. “She’s your girlfriend. Don’t you want her to have headshots?”
Colin wouldn’t look her in the eyes. “I don’t have anything to give her.”
She felt her jaw drop. “You had ten million dollars last year.”
It was what he’d taken from the divorce. What she’d had to pay him in order to keep her stock.
Shari’s portion was sadly locked in a trust fund she couldn’t touch until she was twenty-five or finished an undergraduate degree. Ellie wished her father had thought to lock the stock up the same way.
“I . . . well, I made some bad investments. So we need some money. Not a lot. Twenty thousand should do. I can pay you back,” Colin insisted.