Page 2 of Two Tricks

“No, I don’t think so,” I answered. “See, the thing is, my lovely dead brother’s wife didn’t tell me anything about this. I never agreed to help or set up a meeting with anyone, least of all Two Tricks.”

Apparently, I wasn’t going to get rid of her that easily.

“Well, that is problematic and certainly not starting us off on the right foot,” Gabriella said, turning to sit back down. “Seems to me that I should use this chance to explain myself and see if you can help us.”

Fine. She wanted to play hardball? I’m game. She had no idea who she was dealing with, and that gave me the upper hand in this negotiation.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, sitting in the opposite chair and propping my feet on the coffee table, totally relaxed.

Gabriella looked over me again, and I knew what she saw. My pastel pink hair always caught people’s eye first. Then they took in my elfin features with my almond eyes that were more silver than blue. That’s where the softness ended. My nose and septum were pierced with hoops, as well as my bottom lip. My ears were gauged, large enough you could notice, but I didn’t have hockey pucks waving about. The starting wisps of my chest tattoo peeked through the holes in my band t-shirt, and more tattoos covered my left arm and the bottom half of my right. The holes in my skinny jeans showed more tattoos on my legs. I was a walking contradiction of cute and deadly, all in one bundle.

And I fucking loved it.

“I represent a third party who would like to start doing business, but finding a way to make an offer is rather difficult,” Gabriella explained.

I didn’t answer right away, considering if I should give her any hope at all.

“I don’t like getting blindsided in my own shop by someone I don’t know, much less a person referred to me by someone I no longer consider family. Tricks doesn’t need more business. Especially from a small fish.”

“They are no small fish, Dax,” Gabriella interjected.

I grinned. She wasn’t a pushover, that’s for sure. “Trust me. If they were worth the introduction, they would already be on his radar. He makes the first move, not the other way around.”

“Then it seems I have taken up your time unnecessarily,” Gabriella finally admitted, clearly regretting trusting Kimber by coming here to meet me. “Let me leave you with some information. Maybe you can pass it along, just on the off chance he overlooked a promising venture.”

“Leave me the details and I’ll reach out if something changes,” I said without really committing to anything.

Gabriella nodded and reached in her purse, pulling out a business card and a manila envelope stuffed with papers.

We stood and gave each other one more assessing look before she and Kimber made their way down the stairs and out of the shop. Looking down at the card, I saw she was a lawyer—a very expensive one, if the firm name was anything to go by.

“She’s legit,” Weston assured, drawing my attention. He was leaning against the doorway to the office. “I checked into her while you were talking.”

Wes was every girl’s wet dream. His short hair was slick and styled to perfection. He had dark brown eyes that missed nothing, and full lips that begged to be kissed. He took care of himself and it showed, the outline of his toned muscles visible through his snug shirt. In my opinion, it helped that he was tatted from that strong, stubborn jaw all the way down to his big toe.

How did I know? Well, eighty percent of the art on his body was done by me.

Wes and I had been best friends since we were both in the same foster home. We managed to stick together through everything and come out on top. Wes was a kick-ass hacking genius—anything that had to do with technology was his bitch. A few times the FBI and the CIA tried to recruit him from college, but he turned them down, not wanting to leave me on my own.

“You check her accounts?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“She doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s payroll we need to be concerned about. Although it looks like her law office is going to make her partner soon, which could change that.”

I grinned at him, shaking my head, and slipped past him into our office. “What else did you find on her? She can’t be clean if she’s looking to broker a deal with Tricks.”

I dropped into my chair and rolled over to his side of the large metal desk we shared. He had two monitors filled with dozens of open windows. He liked to live in organized chaos on his computer, but in the real world, he was a neat freak. Which drove me crazy when he yelled at me for leaving messes everywhere in our shared townhouse. We each had our own floors for a reason.

“It’s not that she’s dirty, per se… it’s more that she helps some problematic people in her family.” Wes sat back from the keyboard and looked at me.

Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.

“The Rossi family is an interesting find. The parents are straight-laced, second-generation Italians. Emilio, Gabriella’s father, is also a lawyer, but he works mostly with immigration cases. Her mother has been a homemaker their whole marriage.”

I frowned, not seeing why he was so worried. I opened my mouth to ask, but he stopped me with a look. Huffing, I sat back, letting him have his way. He was driving me crazy with the dramatics.

“It’s her two younger brothers we need to watch out for. Enzo and Teo. They’re the leaders of the Phantom Saints.”

“Wait, the Phantom Saints?” I questioned.