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I’m a damn liar.
I have to make him trust me so I can find the dirt I need to get the monster thrown in jail…
CHAPTER 2
Natalia
One Month Earlier…
Harrison James O’Connor,of the O'Connor clan walks into the club like he owns the world.
Thing is, he practically does.
He passes where Michelle and I are standing at the bar, and I think he’s the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen in the flesh. His eyes rake down the women he passes like he’s a buyer assessing the property he’s planning to purchase, but they don’t rest on anyone in particular. I doubt he even saw me. Blue eyes, tanned skin, dark hair, the right amount of scruff, with a great build under a suit that probably cost as much as my student loan payment for the year. Three women and an almost-equally handsome man walk behind him in his wake.
“Oh, Mama,” Michelle says and raises her eyebrows after they pass us and go to a raised booth in the side of the club, which appears to be reserved for him and his party.
I’ve read about the O’Connor family before, but so far, I haven’t given him much thought, considering the fact he’s clearly from a very different world than me. Harrison’s family is so steeped in money and power that he was named after his mother’s family, the Harrisons of Rochester, so he could be a standard bearer for both families. His name is notorious among the Wall Street types who frequent the restaurant my grandfather owns in the financial district, where I worked during my undergrad when he was short staffed. I still pull a shift if he needs me and I’m off, but my schedule at NYU is heavy. Harrison himself never came to the pub, but I heard talk about him even before I saw him in person.
Harrison was taken from his Irish Mafia family two decades earlier when his mother divorced his father. Harrison graduated first in his class at Yale with a MBA, then went right into the Army, to the shock of everyone who knew him. From what I’d read, he returned to New York after getting out of the Army and started his own hedge fund after several years leading a Special Forces Unit in Afghanistan.
This was instead of following in the footsteps of his Mafia boss father as the head of a notorious organized crime family and next in line to inherit his grandfather's company built from the ground up by Ryan O'Connor, who made his fortune during prohibition and then afterward, in the building industry. Mobbed up to the teeth, in other words.
The O’Connor family has seen tragedy: Harrison’s younger brother Liam lost his life to a drug overdose earlier in the year. Harrison’s grandfather was shot in a dispute between warring families and died when he was still young. Harrison’s father took over the helm of the family business as a result.
Michelle insisted I come out with her to celebrate after her final exams finished for her last semester at NYU. While wewatch Harrison and his friends with envy, Sherri, my friend from NYU, joins us.
“Sorry I’m late,” Sherri says and comes to stand at the bar where we are. She hugs me and kisses my cheek. “Did I miss the grand entrance? Is Harrison here?” She glances over to the booth and exhales heavily. “There he is…”
Sherri has decided to meet Harrison and become his girlfriend.
“What’s your plan, sweets?” I ask, curious about her winning strategy. “You know. Strategy. Tactics. This is war, right? Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
“This is his favorite bar,” she says breathlessly, “and he comes here every Thursday night. All I have to do is introduce myself and bingo.”
I laugh at her chutzpah.
"He's out of your league, Sherri,” Michelle says with a snort. “He’s out of all our leagues.”
“Pfft,” Sherri replies. “You just watch.”
I glance at him from across the bar. He’s such a hunk of rich sleek polished manhood, I can’t imagine him dating a girl from a working-class background like the three of us.
“He probably only dates debutantes and society girls,” I suggest.
"I intend to put myself in his league.” Sherri wags her eyebrows while she sips her glass of wine.
"How do you propose to do that? Win the lottery?"
"I know a secret," she says cryptically. “It’s my key into his very exclusive world.”
I frown, confused by her smile, which resembles the cat that swallowed the canary. "What do you mean?"
“No, no, no. Like I said, it's a secret." She laughs. "Maybe one day I'll tell you guys, but for now, it has to stay secret.”
"What? Is he a member of the Illuminati or something?" Michelle asks, her voice sounding bored.
Sherri snorts. "Not quite that secret."
