A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(6)

“Anything else?”

“Back to your parole officer. She’s tight with her brother, incarcerated for killing their father.”

My blood went cold hearing that. That hadn’t been in the report. “You just found that out too?”

He hesitated on his end. “I need to follow up on one more thing before I can answer that. Trust me, you’ll want me to wait.”

“Fine. Get it to me as soon as possible.”

“Will do.”

“What’s going on?” Ashton asked after I hung up.

I filled him in about Easter, and he snorted. “Yeah, I remember that guy. Family keeps him around because he’s funny, tells good stories, but he owes out of his ass.”

“You know the daughter?”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re going to make your approach at a bowling alley?”

I sighed. “Might have to, and you’re not coming.”

“I met the daughter once, when we were kids. She won’t remember me.”

“I don’t want to risk it, not yet.”

“A lot of work you’re putting in to get some ass when all you normally need to do is wave a hand, and they come.”

I shot him a look, because I was completely aware of that fact.

This was aggravating.





CHAPTER SIX


JESS


He was here.

Sunday nights at Easter Lanes was our jam: me and Kelly. I was a pain up people’s asses all week long. Friday and Saturday were given to pouring drinks and hoping none of my parolees violated at my second job, but Sundays were ours. Night off. We loved Molly Easter. She’d become a friend from doing a pottery class with Kelly, and when she’d told us she was taking over her dad’s old place but going to make it better, we were here. Every Sunday. We showed up. We supported how we could, but in the meantime it became a sanctuary to our group.

When I bowled, I was a whole different person.

No worries. No rules. I could come in wearing a mustache on my face, dressed as a trucker if I wanted. No one cared. They loved our bowling outfits, and everyone should bowl in an outfit. Serious business with a side of fun. Also, Sunday nights were not date nights. Those people never understood the mission of dressing for bowling.

I ground to a halt coming into the door, seeing him there. He was in a back booth, alongside the wall with another guy across from him. There were only a few booths on that wall, set across from the bar. I stopped and stared. I couldn’t help myself, and Kelly walked into me.

“Hey, what are you—ooh.” She breathed in. “Who is that?!”

“You a cop?”

The condemnation from him as he asked that question, how cold he’d been.

I shivered now, remembering, but more remembering from the warmth I’d felt a second earlier.

As if feeling my gaze, his eyes turned my way.

I waited, expecting shock. There was none, and that spread shock through me.

I frowned, but then I was just sucked in by his gaze because he was all-consuming. I felt burned from the inside out. God, he was gorgeous. He’d been in a business suit at the hockey game, but this time he was in a white shirt, a leather jacket, and I knew without seeing that his jeans were some serious quality. He leaned forward, those clear eyes never wavering from me, and then he drew back. His drink in hand and still holding my gaze, he raised the glass to his mouth. His throat moved as he took a long drink, and god, I hated how pretty he was.

My heart was pushing out into my chest, trying to get free.

This guy. I didn’t know him, and I made up my mind. I did not want to know him, ever.

“Jess—” Kelly’s voice tore me out of whatever spell I’d been in, and I wrenched myself around, forcibly walking in the opposite direction. It took a second before I comprehended I was going straight to the arcade game area, but dammit, I gritted my teeth and kept on. I needed to be away from him, so I was committing, going to the bathroom in the back. I needed a breather, because even walking away from him, I could feel his gaze on me.

I pushed through to the bathroom. Two teenage girls were in there, and both jumped at the ferocity of me.

“Get out,” I said.

One squealed. The other started to glare. “Who do you think—” She cut herself off, grimacing as her friend grabbed her arm and yanked her behind her. She rushed out as Kelly was stepping inside. She held the door for them, watching them run out before letting the door close and coming in farther behind me.

I was at the sink, glaring at the mirror, watching her warily because there was no way that response from me was going to go unspoken about.

She was cautious, moving to the sink beside me. “Uh . . . you going to fill me in? Who was that guy?”

“The asshole from the hockey game.”

Her eyebrows pinched down. She took a moment, and then understanding dawned. “Him?! That’s the dude who’s pissed you’re a cop?”

I was gritting my teeth again because it didn’t matter. “Why the fuck is he here?”

“Let’s go ask him.” Her voice was upbeat, and she was all smiles now.

“Why are you smiling?”

Her grin turned more Cheshire, and she leaned back, getting settled as she folded her arms over her chest. “Because that guy, my friend, wants to bang the fuck out of you, and you’re going to let him.”