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The fact that she wasn’t meeting my eyes set off every protective instinct in my body.
My eyes were glued to her as she circled me, muttering about darts here and seams there. Her loose ivory shirt was slit to her belly button, the champagne-colored bra underneath showcasing the long expanse of her torso. Slim-fitting brown pants showed off her lean build, while a plethora of leather cuffs, gold necklaces, and rings finished the outfit. She looked fashionable and artsy, which fit her personality perfectly, even if it was as far from the mafia princess wardrobe as she could get. Which I was sure was the point. But the outfit was exactly what she’d normally wear. Nothing off there.
Looking past it, I couldn’t see any extra bruising, and she wasn’t favoring one side of her body over the other. She wasn’t even hunched in on herself, so I had to assume she wasn’t injured or nervous. The part of me that had once longed to leave my life behind recognized the same desire in her, though.
Aislynn’s only non-fashion goal was getting out of the life before her father married her off, and she was getting tired of waiting. She wasn’t scared; she was ready to leave. Desperate to run. Knowing that, I shoved aside my initial panic. She would tell me if she needed me to get her out sooner than we’d planned. Until then, I had to trust that she knew what she was doing better than I did.
“Everything looks nearly finished. I’ll give Gretchen a break, and then we should be done in a flash.”
Grey stepped into my fitting area, his long fingers deftly buttoning the jacket of his tux. A quick sweep of the room had him chuckling under his breath. “Run her off again, reina? I’m not surprised.”
I flipped him off, tilting my head as I looked him over. The near-black suit fit him perfectly, showing off powerful thighs and shoulders that most people didn’t know he had. With his tousled hair and the pocket square that matched my dress, he looked downright edible. I loved and loathed it in equal measure. “You look amazing, Greyson. Great job, Ash.”
“I know.” She turned to fix the little green handkerchief. “Well, what do you think of your girl?”
Grey’s eyes sparkled as he took in my dress. After much deliberation, we’d gone with a simple floor-length velvet gown. The scoop neck bared me all the way from the tops of my shoulders to the crest of my breasts as the soft fabric hugged my figure tightly. The emerald green glowed against my tanned skin and the peekaboo of chains woven through my dark hair. It was elegant and sexy, and with the gold jewelry we’d picked out, I looked every bit like royalty.
“Grey?” I asked when he didn’t speak. For whatever reason, I was nervous about what he thought. I couldn’t care less what anyone else thought of my outfit choice, but a big part of me wanted Grey to like it.
His eyes caught me, and oh, they burned. The sight of heat in them made me shiver, and he smiled, that small tip of his lips that was just for me. He traced my body and left it tingling, looking at me like I was his. It was a fire-and-brimstone kind of lust. Eternally damning.
The moment stilled, and we stayed wrapped in each other as everything else faded away. I could see the war in him even from across the room. The way his hands clenched to keep from reaching for me, the tightness in his shoulders and jaw. The thread he held himself back with was razor-thin and fraying.
When he finally spoke, it was with a rasp that made my entire body clench. “You’re breathtaking, though you always are.”
The sound of a phone ringing in the other room broke whatever spell we were under, pulling us back to where we were. Grey turned away, and all at once, the heat and warmth he gave me were gone and the cool mask he wore for everyone else was all I could see. I hated it. I wanted that warmth. I wanted to burn like Icarus, even for just a moment.
I shook myself, pushing the thoughts of Grey away. There was no Greyson for me, and there never would be. Maybe I needed to get laid, to put him back in the friend zone and get rid of the tension that racked me constantly.
The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. I could call up an old flame or go to one of our clubs and pick someone up for the night. Yes, I’d get Grey out of my system, even without having him. I could do that. I had to.
And if a small part of me whispered, it won’t help, I ignored it.
Focusing on the moment, I nodded to Ash, flicking my eyes to the door where Grey was already flipping the lock. We waited as he ran his phone over the walls, vents, and windows. When he was sure we weren’t being recorded, I turned my focus back to Aislynn. “What’ve you got for us?”
There was a reason we only worked with Ash, and it wasn’t just because of her talent.
She frowned. “Nothing concrete, but I don’t think we had anything to do with Rey’s death. Da hasn’t mentioned making moves your way, nor has he been planning them behind my back. Hell, even my brothers have been subdued.”
I wasn’t surprised. Everyone had liked Rey. Even the O’Bannon boys, who’d been hellions since their first breaths, had loved him. He was the sunshine in our wicked lives, the one most likely to make everyone laugh. That was why his death had been so heartbreaking. Besides being my underboss, a position that admittedly had its own enemies, he had been too well-liked in the city for the assassination he stole from me. It wasn’t fair.
The pang in my chest reminded me it was my fault he was gone.
“I figured, but I appreciate your checking for me.” I wanted her to keep an ear out for more information, but I couldn’t ask. She was already putting her life at risk by giving me any insight into her family. The O’Bannons weren’t the type to let bygones be bygones. If they caught Ash conspiring with us, she’d be dead before we had a chance to save her.
“Everyone’s out of sorts waiting for you to make your move, so I doubt I’ll be able to get anything else out of them without raising suspicion, but I’ll see what I can do.”
That was more than I had any right to ask for. “I appreciate it. Any chance you’ve heard whispers of a new player on the scene? Goes by the name Cash.”
Despite being plugged in to every dark network in the northern hemisphere and half of the southern, we’d found no mention of a Cash from any of Grey’s sources. He’d even spent the last few days checking in with every informant we had both above and below board, and not a single breadcrumb led to Cash or the Aces. Grey wasn’t used to failing, and it was putting him in a pissy mood.
Ash screwed up her face as she thought back. I wasn’t surprised when she shook her head. “No, but I can ask around.”
The last thing I wanted was her sticking her neck out for us even more, but truthfully, we needed the information. If they’d already staged one assassination attempt, another wasn’t out of the question. We needed intel before I found myself in a body bag.
“Do what you can, but be careful. There’s something big coming, and I don’t want you getting caught in it. If you get into trouble, you know what to do.”
We had an in case of emergency plan, but it was a last resort. It would blow not only Ash’s cover, but ours too. The last thing I needed was a war with the Irish, but Ash had been a good friend and a seriously helpful informant. If that was the cost for her safety, I’d pay it ten times over to make sure she lived.
