Her ample ass pressing back against my dick… She had to know what she was doing to me. I should have slept on the couch, or hell, at least the floor in the bedroom. What had I been thinking?
That you wanted to be close to her.
I ignore that voice in the back of my head. I can’t think about that right now. I can’t think about how her dress rode up over her ass, how I could feel it jiggle against me. I could have slid right in, put my mouth on her neck or a hand looped around her throat and…
I have to stop thinking like this. She’s a cop. She fucking hates me.
I can’t even lie to myself anymore about hating her. I don’t. I feel something for her I’ve never felt for any woman, even if I’m afraid to examine what exactly that is.
I draw in a deep breath and look through my text messages, most of them in code.
The rooster comes home to roost in the trees at midnight.
Arturo Colombo had sent me that, my main point of contact when it comes to trailing Nico. The reason I trust him isn’t because he’s a trustworthy man. He is, of course, but that’s not why I trust him with this task.
I trust him with this task because he hates Nico more than anyone I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something given how divisive my brother is. He’d once caught Nico with his ex-wife, and it took my father and myself to talk him down from killing him. Arturo and Olivia had been divorced for five years, but that doesn’t make a difference to wiseguys. Once a woman is ours, they’re ours forever.
And Nico knew that. But Father made it so he didn’t face any consequences for his actions. Nico doesn’t know it, but I’ve been tailing him for months, ever since he started acting erratic and I knew he was back on drugs. Father would ship him off, dry him out, and he’d come back okay but it only took a couple months for him to go back to it. Rinse and repeat. For years.
The rooster is Nico, of course, and by coming home to roost in the trees he means our warehouses on Oak Street. I’m aware a lot of my equipment is bugged by the feds, so I don’t do much business via text or on my main phone unless it’s in code.
I send Arturo back a thumbs up to let him know we’re showing up. He hasn’t given me specifics yet, but I’ll meet him near Oak Street and we’ll formulate a plan of sorts. I’m not going to give Nico the opportunity to lose one red cent of my money.
I shoot Diego a text to come help, knowing he’ll know what I mean. It’s nearly ten when he arrives, and I huff out a breath.
“About time.”
“I was out of town. I’m not always at your beck and call,Caputo,”he mutters, and I’m surprised and a little curious about what he had been doing. But in the end, I don’t push. He wouldn’t if it were me. Not unless it became a habit.
“Just need you to watch her for a few hours. Don’t touch her.”
“Of course not,” he says, looking almost offended.
“I know you wouldn’t. Just had to be said.”
He nods, sharply. “I assume you found out about Nico’s poker night?”
“You already knew?” I don’t know why I’m surprised. Diego makes it his business to know all the goings-on in the mob world.
He grins. “I know everything.”
He sits down in the chair in front of Sophia’s room, pulling out his paperback again.
“I’ll be back before dawn.”
He nods, and I leave the cottage, getting into my car and heading for the freeway. It’s about an hour and a half drive into the city to Oak Street. I make it in an hour, and when I park a few blocks behind Oak I drop my location to Arturo.
He arrives in a few minutes, and it’s around eleven-thirty by the time we meet up, our cars parked in single file along the street. I stand on the sidewalk as he gets out of his car, watching him.
“We’re really doing this?” Arturo asks, blowing dark curls out of his face. He’s got a wild grin on his face and I hold up a hand.
“Don’t get too excited. We’re breaking up the poker night, not killing my little brother.”
“Pity,” he shoots back, but I don’t take it personally. If Nico had gone aftermyex-wife, I’d probably want to kill him, too. “I get to rough him up, though, right?”
“No,” I say, and he pouts like a petulant child. “I’ll take care of it. You distract his minions. Alfonso and Johnny will be stuck to his side like glue.”
Arturo nods, cracking his knuckles. He’s almost too excited, but he’s what I’ve got. I need Diego to stay with Sophia, so I can’t use him, and I’m not sure who else in my circle is loyal to Nico instead of me. But that shit is going to change. Tonight, they’ll all see why they should be loyal to me and me alone.
