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“Your uncle worked under your father in the Midwest operation.”
Another head shift. This time he was frowning. “And?”
“Burl ran things on the east coast, right? You had to strengthen ties there yourself after… everything.” His frown deepened. “Do you still talk to Burl?”
“Planning another article?”
“Sort of,” she said. Before he could shift away, she rested her chin on his chest. “It would give us cover.”
“Cover?”
“For being around each other. If anyone asks questions, I can tell them I’m writing a story on the McDades.”
“Anyone asks questions, you call me.”
Except she wouldn’t do that with her family and Steeple.
“Steeple will worry about me,” she said. “He checks in with his people and wanted me to write a follow up on the Manzani exposé. If I’m going to miss meetings and be off the grid, I have to give him a reason for shadowing you or he’ll worry.”
“Print one word about me, my family, or my operations, he’ll have reason to worry.”
Although that was a poorly veiled threat, she slid a leg across him to straddle him again. This time, she bowed to join their lips for a brief kiss.
“Trust… Aren’t we building that?”
“McDades have been in the press enough.”
“The trial,” she murmured, kissing him. “Burl’s conviction, Biz’s—”
Grabbing her upper arms, he flipped them over, putting himself on top. “Think you can fuck with me? Think I’ll fall for that shit? Betray me and I won’t hesitate to open your pretty throat ear to ear.”
“I was worried about you,” she confessed, relaxing even as his grip tightened and his glare darkened. “Even after you knew the cops were on their way, I was scared you’d be caught up in it.”
“You could’ve let us walk into that. Got all of us in one net.”
Which hadn’t occurred to her for a second. “I don’t want the cops to have you,” she said, raising her head to seek his lips, though he jerked out of the way. “I can’t go twenty-five to life without feeling you inside me… Conn…”
“Fuck,” he hissed, his mouth swooping down onto hers.
Raising her arms, he pinned them above her head, holding her down as his tongue plunged deeper.
What was she doing? This wasn’t smart. Her honesty with him… Her feelings. He had every reason not to trust her. Yet he’d shared privileged information. If she revealed that to her brother or her father, to anyone else, Connel McDade would be in serious trouble.
Still, it wasn’t tempting. He had the tape, the ability to ruin her. Leverage. Tit for tat. Everything about them and their lives contrasted, but as his hand insinuated itself between them to play with her pussy, she was ready to give him anything he wanted.
ELEVEN
LATER, LAZING on top of him in their sex sheets, time slowed.
“It’s like a game,” she said.
“What’s a game?”
“This,” she said, stroking his arm. “I have this to leverage, you have that… back and forth…”
“It’s how the world works.”
She laughed. “No, it isn’t.”
