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Minka Mayet is an exceptionally intelligent woman. But on this one small detail, she’s totally and completely blind.
Felix Malonealonedoesn’t own our family assets. Hemanagesthem. He makes a lot of noise, and lives in the largest house our family boasts. He sits at the table when Cordoza wishes to speak, and he represents the family.
But everything our family owns, especially now that our father is dead, has been split five ways.
Because there are five Malone brothers, and Felix is nothing if not generous and loyal to the four he shares trauma with.
He doesn’t want his fortune unless the five of us share it equally. He doesn’t want a jet, unless the rest of us get to use it and abuse it, too. He doesn’t want a boat unless it seats seventy and his brothers get to take it out for a spin.
It’s a decent gig for me, really, considering I donothingto earn the zeroes deposited into my account each month. But I’mnot so naïve as to say no. I’m smart enough to know I may need that money someday. To outrun the very name I was given, and to keep my wife and myself safe from those who wish harm on the Malones.
I swore off the family a long time ago. And yet, Felix does as Felix does, and he makes damn sure we’re all okay.
My phone chirps in my back pocket despite the fact we’re closer to the moon than we are to Earth.
Well… maybe. I don’t know.Are we?
But I don’t get to focus on my interstellar thoughts, because the ringtone drones and Minka giggles.
“It’s so cute you think you’re not obsessed with him.” She reaches around me, fondling my ass and stealing the device from my back pocket. Then, spying the screen, she reads Fletch’s name and shakes her head. “So cute.” Swiping to answer before I can snatch it back, she brings it to her ear and tut-tuts. “He’s on his honeymoon, Detective Fletcher. Your desperation reeks.”
“Give it to me.” I grab her wrist in one hand and my phone in the other. But I tug her close. Closer. Until her breath touches my tongue and her lashes flutter closed in response. “Five minutes, Mayet, then I’m done.”
“Three minutes,” she bargains, rising from her seat and practically climbing over me to escape the small space she’s been backed into. Setting her feet on the floor, she plays seductively with the strap of her top. “I’ll be in the back.” She licks her lips and grins when my eyes follow every infinitesimal move she makes. “Join me, Detective Malone. We only get to honeymoon once. Detective Fletcher wasn’t invited.”
She turns on her heels and unsnaps the button of her tiny, denim shorts as she walks away. My heart thunders. My hands, trembling around the device clenched in my fist.
“Um…” My throat burns dry. My voice, hoarse. “F-Fletch?”
“I’m turned on, man.” Fletch—Detective Charlie Fletcher, my best friend, my partner on the force, and the man who gave me a beautiful niece to love—sniggers on his end of the line. “Like, I’m just gonna put it out there. That sex kitten voice of hers makes me hard.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Common sense comes flying back to the forefront of my mind. The blood that was pumping straight to my cock and neglecting my brain, finally reroutes and does the job it’s supposed to. “You’re calling me on my honeymoon, man!”
“You only just took off! How was I supposed to know you’d jump straight from mimosas to cock sucking?”
“Don’t—”
“Sorry. That was disrespectful.” He giggles.Giggles! “I meant, mimosas to lovemaking.”
“Fletch!”
“What? She’s fucking with you. She said that shitknowingyou’d be stuck on the phone with me. You’re married now, bro. Which means by the time you get off this call, she’ll be asleep or complaining of a headache.”
“You’re bitter and mean.” Leaving our champagne behind and pushing up from the table, I slowly make my way through the cabin. “We have two minutes to talk. Then I’m gone for a week.”
“You can’t take phone calls while you’re sailing the Caribbean?” he tsks in the back of his throat. “Wow. She’s really locking you down like that?”
“I made the deal! I said no phone calls. No work. No Fletch or Aubs.”
“Oh, well…” He takes a pause to consider his next rebuttal. “That’s a decent deal then, I guess. Very masculine and controlling of you. Good work.”
“What do you want, Charlie?” I slow my steps about ten feet from the suite door, procrastinating. Because once I look inside, this conversation is over. “Got a case already? It’s barely nine in the damn morning.”
“No case yet. Moo said she misses you. And Aubs is already blowing my phone up since we’re now quote, unquote,partners.”
“Uh-huh.” I nibble on the inside of my cheek and approach the door. Slowly. Quietly. “Have fun. Aubs is a good girl. And she’s smart. You’ll enjoy working with her.”
“Uh-huh. But I can still call you, right? To talk a case over if I get stuck.”
