“Oh please,” she says. “Lach knows better than to try to put a leash on me by now.”
“Aye.” I take Keeva off Mack’s hip to give her a cuddle. “I suppose so.”
“Who are you fighting tonight?” she asks.
“Nobody.”
“Nobody?”
“I’ve some other business to attend to,” I say. “With Alexei.”
Mack is quiet, but observant. The woman is too bloody smart for her own good, and I haven’t a clue how Crow keeps up with her.
“She won’t like that,” Mack tells me.
“I don’t follow.”
“Don’t go digging around in her past,” she insists. “She needs to tell you herself.”
I keep myself occupied with the baby, but Mack is still after it.
“Scarlett will turn on you so fast you won’t even see it coming,” she says. “It isn’t easy for her to let people in, Rory. And she will see it as a betrayal if you go behind her back.”
“She’s already told me a few things,” I admit. “I just need some names.”
She stares at me, and I don’t like it.
I’ve been patient. I’ve let a lot of things slide with Scarlett that I wouldn’t have if it were anybody else.
And everybody’s on my arse about what they think is best.
Just this morning, Crow was bitching and moaning about me taking too long to get to the club when he needed me. He’s all bent out of shape because I set up this meeting with Alexei in the first place.
But he did the same for Mack when he was in my position.
And she’s done the same for her friend Talia when the situation warranted it. Yet here they both are, calling the kettle black. Leaving Scarlett to her own devices and hoping she doesn’t get murdered by one of these pricks is not an option. And if they can’t see it that way, then it’s their issue.
I hand Mack the baby and she frowns.
“I mean it, Rory,” she yells as I retreat. “If you do this, you’re signing the death certificate on this relationship. That’s a fact.”
The door closes with a slam behind me, and Crow rings me a minute later.
I ignore it and get into my car.
“Drink?” Alexei asks as I take a seat in his office.
“No thanks, mate.”
He nods and gets down to business, which is what I like about the bloke.
If there’s someone that needs being found, Alexei will do it. He can do just about anything on a computer, the extent of which I probably don’t even want to know.
And while he’s not technically part of our syndicate, he’s an ally. So, he helps us from time to time in exchange for our assistance when he needs it.
He has the file on Scarlett already, sliding it across the desk and leaving me to it.
The level of detail is more than I was prepared for.
