Page 40 of Playing for Keeps

Carina reached for me, her hands smoothing along my chest as she shifted her weight side-to-side, her hips doing a dance of seduction I’d seen too many times before.

“You want anything more?” she asked, fingers toying with my collar. “I’d be happy to turn around.”

Fuck.

This woman knew how to get to a man. It was something I had to remind myself as I forced myself to shake her loose. As I forced myself not to hop back on my motorcycle, drive away, and never return.

“I’ve got business to attend to,” I told her, letting her down without telling her no. Because as I’d just proven to myself, I was weak. With Jen out of reach, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go.

“Maybe later?”

The tilt of my lips satisfied her enough to let me leave, and I stepped out of the door, closing it behind me so she could fix the mess I’d left her with before getting back to her job.

Making my way through my father’s club, I grabbed a drink from the bar before heading into one of the private back rooms. I wasn’t there for more than ten minutes before one of the girls ushered Lee through the door.

The big man looked around the space, a million questions in his eyes. Yet he didn’t speak a single one of them, opting instead to settle quietly into a chair, his phone placed face down on the table at his side.

“Thanks for coming,” I told him before raising my tumbler of whiskey to my lips.

“Didn’t have much of a choice, now, did I?”

“You always have a choice. You’re not required to be here. Anytime you want, you can turn around and walk right out the door.” I paused, allowing the allure of the club and the dancers and the money changing hands to pull at him. “That is, if you’re happy with the way LS Security is running.”

Lee’s head was shaking as his fists clenched on the table. “Told you already, I’m not. Need your help to get that changed.”

Lifting my chin, I gave the man a once-over.

He’d listened to me so far. Arrived on time and dressed the way I told him to dress. Chinos and a blazer with a button-down shirt, boots spit-shined and gleaming, his hair and beard nicely trimmed.

But as a man used to running the show, a man used to commanding men and giving orders rather than taking them, I wasn’t sure how far he’d be willing to go.

“I have my concerns about what you’re asking of me,” I told him, swiveling my chair so my body faced him, bringing my whiskey to my lips for a slow sip. The man flinched but held his tongue, and the power I held over him warmed me more than the alcohol seeping into my blood. “You’re asking me to go up against my cousin, and that’s not something I take lightly.”

Lee’s face pinched, but again, he said nothing. Not even as his eyes darted to the quick buzz of his cellphone.

“If I do this,” I said, and those emerald eyes of his flicked up from the table, “you’re going to have to listen to me and do what I say. Because that’s what I’d be doing. This company is as much Frankie’s as it is yours, and what you’re asking of me is pitting me against her.”

“Of course,” he murmured, a pained kind of hopefulness staining his voice. His phone buzzed again, but this time he kept his eyes trained on me.

“Get rid of Daginger.”

When I tipped my head toward his cell, he trained his eyes on the buzzing device. Text after text came through in rapid succession. His hands clenched in front of him, but he didn’t make a move for the phone.

“That’s him, isn’t it?”

“’S no doubt in my mind.”

“You need to get rid of him.”

There was a plea in his voice when he responded, “He’s my biggest client.”

“He’s also your biggest pain in the ass.” I spun my laptop to face him. “You’ve spent more time in this man’s presence than you have alone in the past year. He’s nothing more than a toddler, throwing temper tantrums every time he can’t get his way.”

As if to punctuate my claim, Lee’s phone buzzed once again, this time with a muted ring.

“If you didn’t have to deal with Daginger,” I said, watching as Lee dragged his wide eyes over the data on my computer screen, “you’d have more time to put into the company. More time to recruit talent, to woo investors and clients.”

“The hell’d you get this?” Lee demanded, forcing his jaw to close so he could talk.