A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(81)

I was guessing that was Mrs. Kappaleweitz.

Kelly leaned forward again. “We’re coming here every Thursday. I’m going to take pictures of the pigeons and show Sal next week. He’ll melt over them. He told me he has a pigeon video channel on YouTube. I’m so subscribing to it.” She frowned at the newspaper. “Oh, right. I forgot. You’re still at Katya?”

I nodded.

She got quiet before gesturing to the paper. “You think that stuff is true?”

My throat was burning. My chest felt like a closed fist was being pressed down on it, rubbing forcefully up and down to slowly break my sternum. But I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Says the one guy who works on Wall Street. You think that’s going to hurt him? Says he’s a big guy down there too.”

“It’ll probably help him, actually.”

She grunted. “Yeah. Funny how that works sometimes. You haven’t seen them at Katya?”

“Not for a long time.”

I’d never told Kelly that the door visitor had been him the night she’d come over sobbing about Justin. She’d never told me what their fight had been about. It was a night she wanted to avoid talking about, so it’d been easy not to tell her.

“I can’t believe the hockey hallway guy had been our boss the whole time. That’s wild, right? And the other guy—Justin’s family knows him. Can you believe that? It’s all crazy. You couldn’t make this up.”

I frowned. “What do you mean about the other guy?”

“The other boss guy. Ashton. He was at the party that day, and Justin’s cousin was all over him. I guess she actually asked him about Justin. It’s why he was hired at Katya.”

“When did you find all this out?”

“That night. When I came over.” She took a big bite of her hero and looked up at me. She stopped chewing, holding my gaze, and then sat back and swallowed everything. One big swallow. I saw it go down her throat. “I never told you any of that, huh?”

“No. You did not.” Since she’d brought that night up . . . “Was that why you were crying?”

She opened her mouth, stared at me blankly, and closed it. “Um. What’s the question again?”

“What else did Justin tell you that night?”

She began looking around.

“Kelly.” I leaned forward, a hand on the paper. “What else did Justin tell you that night?”

She shook her head, her eyes clouding over. She hunched forward, her head lowering, and her voice got quieter. “I can’t tell you. I want to. I really do, but I can’t, and it’s nothing to do with me or Justin. But Justin’s family . . . he’s got a big family, it turns out. Big and pushy. He told me the real reason we quit Katya. Not because his cousin got him the job, though I think that was part of it. He really doesn’t like Vivianna, but he said the two owners are into some shady business dealings, and he couldn’t tell me any more because of you. He didn’t want to put me and you into a bad spot. So, yeah. I kept quiet about it. You mad?”

Was I mad? Jesus.

I was more mad at seeing those women with Trace. Different woman every night, it seemed.

I shook my head. “I’m not mad.”

“But.” Her head dipped even farther down, her eyes still on me. Her chin would be grazing the table if she hunched any more. “I knew your bosses were shady, and I never told you. That’s shitty of me.”

Now I really felt like a shitty friend. “I already knew.”

“You knew?!” She sat back up.

“But you don’t work there anymore . . .” I was lying to cover my ass. I’d made a conscious decision not to tell Kelly when she was working there. Yep. Shitty. Me.

“Guess you have a point, but what about you? You’re still there after all this time?”

She was right. Trace had clearly moved on.

It was time I did as well.





CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE


TRACE


Ashton: She put in her two weeks.

I knew instantly who “she” was and where she would’ve put her two weeks in.

I’d stayed away for so long, needing to get a handle on the family business. My uncle knew about her. My father as well. Remmi. There’d been a concerted effort to put them all off her trail. I went on dates so many fucking nights in a row, and all of them had left me cold. Every one of them.

All of that was for her, so she was safe, but she remained at Katya. That gave me hope that she hadn’t moved on yet.

She was moving on now.

My phone rang right after. Ashton calling.

I answered, putting it on speaker since I was in my downtown office.

“That article came out today,” he said as a greeting.

“I saw.”

“There were pictures of you with different women.”

“I also saw that.”

“That means she still cares.”

“What’s the point of this call? You’re not saying anything that’s helpful.”

He laughed. “The attention’s been diverted. You could probably go and see her. It’s been months.”

See her? God, yes. Every fiber of my being wanted to see her, but it was pointless. “This shit’s not going away.”