Page 17 of Pucking Snowed In with the Enemy

“You’re pretty sure of yourself,” she said, but the tremor of anger that had been there a moment ago was gone.

“I have no reason not to be.” I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and held it up for her to see my call list. I knew the moment she noticed her boss’s personal cell number. “I find it beneficial to get to know everyone important in this world, and your boss and I happen to attend the same golf course from time to time.”

“Of course you do.”

“Yes, of course I do,” I mocked. “The decision is yours.”

Savannah stepped back, and I could see her sucking up the anger like she was vacuuming it into her body. She may have lost this round, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was going to give up. She was practically on death’s door this morning, and here she was, still pounding her fist at me a few hours later. I liked it, which meant I needed her to go the fuck away as fast as possible. She was a temptation I couldn’t afford to have hanging around.

“You know what? You’re right. You shouldn’t ride with me. I’m heading to my exotic club, Wanderlust. I’ll be there in an hour.” Walking away, I hopped in the driver’s side and didn’t give her another glance as I drove away. Fucking Savannah.

CHAPTER

SIX

SAVANNAH

Iwatched the black truck drive away and wanted to kick my own ass. Nathan had me off kilter from the moment we met. I didn’t even know who he was, and he had my head spinning, and now I was overplaying my hand.

Nathan said he didn’t kill Alex, and I was usually good at judging if people were lying, but I couldn’t figure out if he was telling me the truth. He seemed to know exactly why I was here and what information I had, but if he had access to my boss, he could have all the details of the case. Shit. I thought Matthews seemed quick to dismiss my theories, and this was why. He either knew more than he was willing to say, or he was being paid off, but I would bet my ass there was more going on. The good news was that there was a chance Alex was alive, but I couldn’t understand why the Russian Mafia and the FBI would be interested in my brother.

All I had were answers that led to more questions, and now I couldn’t question him while trapped in his truck. I blew my best opportunity to get him alone again. Fuck. All because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, and I wanted to be alone with him for a whole other reason. This attraction was throwing me off.

Pulling out my phone, I dialed the car service again. They were really going to love me on this trip. As I waited for the call to connect, I stared at my tingling palm and smirked. At least he hadn’t seen that one coming.

When Nathan mentioned his club, even though he said exotic, I thought he meant one of the high-end party clubs. Instead, the car pulled up outside of a strip club. The arrogance of my earlier slap was really coming back to bite me in the ass now.

“Shit.”

I wandered up the steps, not really wanting to go inside. The last time I was at a club like this, the partner assigned to me got shot. I’d only been a field agent for a month, and he died in my arms. I still played that day over again, wondering if there was anything that I could’ve done differently to save his life or make sure he didn’t end up shot in the first place. The what-ifs haunted me.

The bouncer standing outside the door looked at me but didn’t move or say anything. Was there a magic word? Did I flash some skin or hand him money? As long as I didn’t have to get on my knees.

“Are you going to let me in, or what’s the story here,” I finally gave up and asked.

“Mr. Mikhailov isn’t here yet. He said to make sure you stayed outside.”

“How do you know who I am?” I crossed my arms, annoyance flaring.

“He said keep the Fed outside until he arrived.” The bouncer looked me up and down. “You reek of Fed. I could smell your stench when you got out of the car.”

I looked down at the white blouse, black dress pants, and my long coat. What the fuck? I looked like half the women wandering around the city.

“Am I wrong,” he asked.

“No, but it’s a strip club. How much trouble could I get into? It’s not like I plan on joining the girls and taking my clothes off?” Bouncer man didn’t even smirk at my comment.

“You could if you wanted to,” he said, and his lip finally turned up. “It’s not my call. I don’t make the orders. I follow them.”

“What if I needed to go pee?” He crossed his arms, mimicking my pose, and I saw a flash of a gun under his jacket.

“That would be unfortunate for you,” he said but pointed toward the bushes. “You could go over there, but watch out for anything that bites.”

Mumbling profanities, I turned to walk away. “You’re getting a bad review from me,” I said but parked myself on the bench in a posh smoking section.

For an exotic club, this place was fancy. The building was white and could pass for a villa if it wasn’t for the roadside sign with the name of the club in neon gold and black. No car in the lot was under a hundred thousand, white lights lit all the palm trees surrounding the property, and music played outside. Looking up at the sky filled with an infinite number of glittering stars, I sucked in a deep breath. The last lingering effects of my hangover decided to remind me that I wasn’t yet a hundred percent as a sharp stabbing pain hit, making me wince. I was definitely not getting drunk again for a long ass time.

What the hell was I doing here? I could already predict how this conversation was going to go, yet I still felt like I needed to ask the questions. Why was I like this? Why couldn’t I let anything go and stop digging until I found the truth or got kicked in the teeth?