“Hi, baby,” Willa said, bending to smooth and kiss the baby’s head. Then she looked up at the man and her voice took on a sultry undertone that made me blush. “Hi, baby.”
“Hi yourself, Jezebel.” The dark haired man leaned in to kiss her, tongue and all, like we weren’t even there. “Little man is cranky. Want me to put him down?”
“God no,” Willa said. “He’s already had a nap. None of us will sleep if he has another. I’ll take him for a swim, get him good and tired.”
“Good and tired sounds good to me.” The innuendo was obvious in the man’s voice as he handed over the baby.
“Me too,” Drago said.
“Thirded. Is that a word?” Rock looked up like he might find the answer written on the ceiling.
We needed to get out of there stat. These people clearly wanted to have sex.
“It was nice to meet you,” Willa said to us. She looked at the baby, who babbled happily and tugged on her long, wavy hair. “Let’s get you in the water, little man.”
The guy who’d been holding the baby watched her go until she disappeared into another room. Then he turned to me.
“I’m Neo.”
“Cassie.”
He nodded. “I know.” He turned his attention to the Hawks. “‘Sup?”
They made small talk while we settled on the designer sofa and chair, a massive marble coffee table between us.
“What can we do for you?” Drago asked, flashing a tongue stud like Vigo’s.
“Need some information,” Hawk said. “About Aventine.”
“What kind of information?” Rock asked.
Vigo picked up a toy from the coffee table, a wooden train with a different animal in each car, and started inspecting it.
I shot him a look that I hoped saidstop messing with stuff that doesn’t belong to youand took it out of his hand, then returned it to the coffee table.
“We’re looking into something that happened a while back and some financial transactions got our attention.” The Kings had good poker faces, which didn’t surprise me given the fact that they were all part of well-known mafia families, something Jagger had filled me in on on the way to the house. “Transfers from a private bank called Kensington Trust.”
“Why the fuck would we talk to you about financial transactions at Aventine?” Neo asked. “With Bram’s little sister here no less.”
Of course.
Of course even here these guys, who I’d never formally met before, would know I was Bram’s little sister.
Rock shook his head. “Fucking insane.”
“Listen,” Hawk said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “We don’t give two fucks what kind of money laundering scheme — or anything else — is going on at Aventine. We’re just trying to run this down.”
“This for your friends in the Feds?” Neo asked.
Honestly, I was still reeling from the revelation that Hawk had worked for the FBI. It was literally the last thing I would have expected anyone to tell me about him.
“I don’t work with them anymore,” Hawk said. “You know that.”
“Then what’s it about?” Drago asked.
Hawk didn’t miss a beat. “It’s personal.”
I tried to hide my surprise. The question surrounding Kensington and my parents’ deaths had nothing to do with the Hawks.
