"And why the fuck are you this fucking Alex? I mean, I got that before you mouthed you were. She didn't know your last name. Alex's last name, I mean. Knows Enzo's, though. Oh, fuck! You didn't knock her up, did you?"
My eyebrows fly up. "What? No. How...? Why would I have you investigate me? Pretend to, anyway?—"
"Pretend?" He falls about laughing. "Who said anything about pretend? I'm digging into you, bub."
"I haven't touched her." I take a swallow of the Teeling whiskey and ignore the fact that he knows most things about me that he needs to know, which I would say is everything. Apart from my childhood and teens. And Lola. But that stuff is unimportant.
Not Lola. She has never been unimportant. She is just something I keep to myself, and maybe share a bit about with Cade.
"So, why does she want to investigate you, and why do you want me to? Sounds kind of fucked."
"It's nothing. She's considering a job." I look into the amber liquid in my glass. "But it is nothing. Just say I'm clean, blah blah, and we can forget about it."
Silas shakes his head. "I'm not forgetting a fucking thing. And I'm not buying this nothing bullshit."
"Itisnothing."
He leans back in his chair and shrugs. "Fine. If you don't want to tell me, that is totally fine. I will just call this Lola back and ask her."
I want to punch the sudden smug smile off his face as I let out a small growl that makes his smugness grow. "Okay. I will tell you."
He crosses his arms and waits.
"Let's start with Louie..."
I begin when I met him at college, and Silas is heckling me when the doorbell rings.
He gets up and leaves the room, returning with Cade in tow.
Silas is smiling. "Our friend Enzo has some sexy piece who he's playing filthy games with, getting her to pretend to investigate him. Only, I think there's a lot more going on because he's cagey as fuck."
Cade helps himself to a drink and takes my place on the sofa.
I huff. "I'm not cagey. And Cade knows most of it."
Silas nods. "Start at the beginning."
Cade shrugs, and I sigh.
I cherry-pick a history that is the truth with a few strategic holes here and there. I tell them how I'm helping Louie by becoming CEO, the involvement of the Rebecci family, and the shit done to Edoardo. And I make sure they both know this could all be handy for us at some point.
After all, knowledge is wealth and power for us.
And then I tell them about Lola.
How there is an old family entanglement, and how I look out for her and always have. How I helped get her a job, and I'm worried someone might be after her because of who her father was.
She was a potential target before his death and remains more of a target now.
Silas frowns. "How do you know?"
I spread my hands. "Because that's how this world works. Her father became one hell of a liability, and I know the thinking, even if she was never considered a threat before."
Cade leans forward. "Like Gino?"
"Gino plays by mafia rules, but while I think he would watch someone like Lola, someone on the peripheral, he wouldn't target her. Not unless?—"
"He thought she was guilty of something against him." Cade nods.
