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“Think some beat cop’s gonna challenge us?” Maybe. Maybe not. “Need me to come with you?”
“No,” she said, smiling as she retreated. “You want anything?”
He shook his head, so she turned to lose herself in the bustle of people. They didn’t matter. She was too in her own head. Facts and possibilities whizzed around in her mind.
McDade and Manzani. Maybe it wasn’t wise to squeeze herself in between two families like theirs.
Her boss, Steeple, wanted her to build on the exposé piece she’d written about the Manzani family. Then her friend and source, Strat, tantalized her with a decades old McDade mystery. As an investigative reporter, she couldn’t ignore the intrigue.
A McDade was missing. A McDade woman… and they were rare.
Connel’s cousin. Did he know her? Remember her? She’d been gone a long time. Maybe they’d never met. Maybe she was long dead. And that was the mystery. What happened to Dorsey McDade?
In the deli, she ordered and sat at a table, all the while texting. Her brother. Strat. Steeple.
“Which one is it?”
The male voice drew her attention up, but the speaker was already sinking into the perpendicular chair.
“Evander,” she said, every muscle tensing.
Evander “Vex” Manzani. Her not-so-secret admirer. Son of Don Silvio Manzani who ran most any part of the city Ire didn’t.
“You get my flowers?” he asked, sliding a hand over hers. “You and your games, baby.”
Why was he smiling?
Shit, that never led to anything good. “I’m not playing games.” She withdrew from his touch. “How many times do I have to say it, Evander?”
“I love this play,” he said, picking up her hand. “Shit, you love stirring it up. Staying all night at McDade’s club…? Fuck, I thought you’d lost your mind, screwing that bastard. I’d fight that war for my princess, but talk about going nuclear.”
“I’m not your princess,” she said, dragging her hand from his again. “We’ve talked about this. This is not a game.”
“That Irish scum…” he said like she hadn’t spoken at all. “It’s gotta be one of his guys… You want me to take them out one by one ‘til I hit the one you fucked last night? I’ll spill their blood for you. I’ll play this out, right to the end.”
His palm skimmed her arm; disgust prickled beneath it.
“Evander,” she said, pacing a slow breath. “I don’t want any blood spilled. What I was doing last night is none of your business. Are your people still following me?”
There was no other way he could know she’d spent the night at Stag.
“They expected you to come out. Every night you do… until last night. That fuck McDade is beneath you, beneath us, but his people… why the fuck…? Why degrade yourself? Is it blackmail? Have they got something on you? Why fuck with his guys?”
“I’m not. I wouldn’t.”
“McDade left with a blonde and a redhead after two,” he said. Lucky women. “He know you were in his place fucking his guys?”
Keeping her face still, an odd curl of jealousy grew barbs in her belly. “Stop this. It isn’t healthy for either of us.”
“It’s our curse,” he said, his hand reaching the side of her neck. “Wanting each other.”
“You can’t keep doing this,” she said. “Showing up like this. Someone will get hurt.” Thank God Daly hadn’t joined her or there would’ve been carnage. The deli people didn’t deserve that. No one did. “Did you come in the front?”
If Daly saw…
“I know what you want,” he said, dragging his chair closer, prompting her to look away. Why did he have to get so close? Sickness churned in her gut. When his lips touched her shoulder, she recoiled and whipped around, ready to lash out. But she couldn’t. With a guy like Evander, there was a careful line to tread. “You want to keep it secret? Fuck with him behind his back?”
No, she really didn’t, but this guy never heard her. “Evander—”
