A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(23)

So someone had told her who I was. “You know my name now.”

“I was told Tristian West. I wasn’t told anything else, and I’m going to be honest, I haven’t decided if I’m going to do a search or not.”

There was that, but it wouldn’t matter within twenty-four hours. “Your father was killed when you were in high school, and your brother was convicted of the crime.”

She reached for the door handle. “Stop the car.”

“Your mother’s a drunk. You’re working two jobs to take care of her and your brother’s debts.”

She reached for the door, but I moved, reaching over her and grabbing it before it could open. Or I tried. She turned, grabbing my arm, twisting, and I was shoved away from her instead.

“Don’t.”

The car door was still open, but Pajn had pulled the vehicle over.

She didn’t release my arm, just leaned in. “Do not move on me again. You did it once. I won’t allow it a second time.”

I pulled my arm free and moved, slower this time, but she didn’t move back.

That brought us close, real close, and this was not what I had intended to happen. Having her so close, feeling her again, I was staring at her lips.

I knew how she tasted, and I wanted another touch.

I was moving in when she sucked in her breath and jerked out of the way. The door was still open, and she reached for it, but she didn’t get out yet.

Pajn was waiting for my order on what to do, so right now, I was waiting for her.

“Why did you wait for me?”

“To apologize.”

Her eyes clouded over, and she looked down. She didn’t say anything else before she got out of the vehicle and shut the door.

“You want me to go after her?”

I shook my head. “Take me to my downtown office.”

I needed to do some work of my own.

My uncle said they hadn’t done anything about Billy Garretson because of his niece’s job and her father. He hadn’t expanded and I hadn’t pushed because a part of me didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to fully wade into that world except for the random times I already had, helping with what my uncle needed me to do. But this was different. This was personal, and I was nearing a line where I needed to know all the angles before I proceeded any further.

For now, I’d do what I excelled at for my normal work.

Research.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN


JESS


I was staring at a college photo of Tristian West and kicking myself.

After getting home last night, I pulled him up to see what I could find.

We’d grown up in the same neighborhood, but while I went to the public school, he went private, and it hadn’t stopped there. Columbia for his first four years, then to Yale for his MBA. He was now a Wall Street guy.

I remembered joking to myself about how his shoes looked like a Wall Street guy attending a hockey game, because that’s what he’d been.

And he owned Katya. Big shock there. The guy was my second boss. No wonder Anthony had been having a fit. Tristian, or Trace to his friends, owned it with his best friend, Ashton Walden, who’d attended all of the same schools as Tristian. Same high school. Columbia. While Tristian was at Yale, Ashton went with him, but he started his first business, something in cybersecurity. Tristian graduated, and both returned to New York.

And after getting a job on Wall Street, he and his friend Ashton started their first joint business and since then were operating a whole list of them.

Each was wealthy, but together, they were a whole other force.

There wasn’t much on Tristian other than the obvious. He’d been in the system because he was arrested when he was sixteen on drug charges. He and Ashton were both arrested on the same day, but no charges were pressed. Their lawyers would’ve come in and made it go away. But the kicker, the real kick in your teeth about all of this, was his uncle.

Stephano West, head of the West Mafia family.

Goddamn.

Tristian West was the nephew and, according to my report, considered “like a son” to a Mafia boss. And I turned my phone over because that last text last night hadn’t been Kelly.

Unknown: I would like to see you again. Here’s my number.

“Morning!”

I was at the kitchen table and shut my laptop when the door opened and Kelly came in, but she wasn’t alone. Justin trailed after her. He glanced my way, a sheepish look on his face as he put his hands in his jacket’s front pockets.

The dude worked fast.

Kelly had showered, and she sailed over to me, then threw her arms around my neck and pressed her cheek to mine. I was still sitting, so she bent down, and I could smell Justin’s shampoo. Head & Shoulders.

She squeezed my neck a little. “Hmmm. You smell so good.”

I had to chuckle. When Kelly got laid, she thought everything was perfect and magical in these early days. “You’re in a good mood.”

I got up, grabbing my coffee mug because I needed a refill.

I caught the blush before Kelly grabbed her purse. “I need to change clothes. Be back!”

After pouring my coffee, I set the pot back. “You needing some of this?”

Justin chuckled. “God yes. Your friend is, uh, she’s got stamina.”