by Sara V. Zook
Stan smirked. “Don’t give me that look, Nicky. I have some information for you I think you’re going to want to hear.”
How could it be possible that Stan would have information on anything? I put my hands on my hips. “I’m listening.”
“Can I sit down?” Stan asked.
“Yeah.” I sat down across from him, my arms leaning forward against my knees.
“His name is Robert Simeon.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
Stan chuckled. “The guy I saw Lilah getting all close to. Robert Simeon.”
I felt a twinge of anger flare up inside of me as I thought about Lilah getting close to any guy other than me. “Never heard of him.”
“Me either. Want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Cause that’s not really his name.”
I narrowed my eyes at my cousin. “What are you saying, Stan?”
He grinned. “Told you you were going to want to hear this.”
“Yeah, yeah. Pat yourself on the fucking back and continue,” I told him.
“His name is really Trey Foster.”
“Trey Foster,” I repeated.
“Yeah. He’s from a gang out in Philly and just recently moved to New York. When I say recent, I mean after Carmine’s death. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I’ve put other pieces together, too. This Foster is not only associated with a Philly gang, he’s the nephew of the mob boss there. Word is that that mob boss is trying to take over Carmine’s connections here in New York. He wants to expand, and he’s got his eyes set on Haven. So this is what I’m thinking. This Foster guy may be connected to the Triplet getting shot, too. I mean, no one can explain why that Detective Thomas isn’t on your payroll, right? Who has him bought out? Could be Foster who’s working for his uncle. That detective might even be a part of that Philly group, too. Who knows? Anything’s possible. I think he zeroed in on Lilah on purpose knowing she’s with you. Maybe he’s trying to get information from Lilah about you by trying to pretend to be interested in her.” He shrugged. “Who knows,” he repeated.
I let my hand rest on the back of my neck. Then I stood up and looked out the window as I processed everything my cousin had just spewed out at me. I turned around and stared at him. “Holy fuck, Stan. I’m impressed. I can’t even get Remmy to find out shit like that, and you come in here and unload like that. How’d you do it? How’d you find all that out?”
Stan shrugged. Then his facial features turned sullen. “Glad I could help since I did such a shitty job before.” Then he stood up. “I’m headed back to Lazerne now. I just didn’t want to leave without you knowing about that guy. I had to find out who he was. It was driving me nuts.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. I was sure I was going to be bald at the rate I was going with all this stress. “Listen, Stan, I’m sorry, okay?”
“Nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who fucked up here.”
“I just don’t want a mess here between guys. There’s already enough stress without a woman getting in the way, too, ya know?” I told him. I felt bad for how I’d treated him, what I’d said. “I can be an asshole. You know that better than anyone.”
“Nah. It’s cool, Nicky. Really.”
“I want you to stay.”
“But you just said…”
“Fuck what I just said. I want you to stay,” I repeated to him. “Do you want to stay or not?”
Stan’s face lit up. “Hell yeah, I want to stay.”
I reached for my cigarettes. “But I mean it about Remmy and this Lola shit. No more Lola shit.”
“Yeah, man, I know, I know. It won’t happen again with her.”
He reached for the pack after I put it on the table and got his own cigarette out. I handed him the lighter, and we both sat down again. There was nothing but the silence and our smoke drifting in between us for a few minutes.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Stan questioned me.
“I fucking hate that Lilah’s involved with this,” I growled out. It was hard to contain the rage I was fighting against right now. I took another hit. These damn things didn’t calm me anymore. Not much of anything could…except her. “I think if Lilah’s gotten herself into this mess—which I’m not saying she has yet. She might be innocent in this and not done anything.”
“Right,” Stan said.
“Even so…” I stared at my cousin for a moment. “I’m going to use Lilah as a pawn.”
“How?”
“She’s been acting a little off lately, which I thought it was just me being an asshole. But it makes me think now that maybe she is involved with this Foster somehow.” The thought alone made my blood boil. “If she is involved, I’ll let her lead that fucker straight to me, and then it’s simple really. I’ll kill him.”
“And what about her…if she is involved?”
I shrugged. “I’d never kill Lilah.” But was that the truth? Yesterday I may have said that thinking it was so. Today, things had changed. My cousin had given me information that made my own girlfriend look like she could be a traitor. After all I’d done for her too…no. Today I couldn’t say that was totally the truth. Would I kill Lilah? To save my fucking empire, as cold and heartless as it seemed…yes, I think I could.
TWENTY
CROSS
Life just seemed so complicated anymore. There was Nicky and that lifestyle. There was Robert and his. I was trying not to think about any of it right now. All it did was stress me out and make me an irritable person to be around. I wanted to distract myself by the only means I knew how—to work. I was immersing myself in my designs and spending a lot of hours at Cain Designs. Luckily no men bleeding out had come through my door again, though it wouldn’t take me by surprise if it happened again.
Andrea, the other girl I’d hired alongside Emily, appeared at my office door. “Lilah?”
I looked up from my desk at her.
“Someone’s here requesting to speak privately to you.”
I sighed and put down the pencil I’d been sketching with. “Who?”
Robert appeared from behind Andrea. He lifted his hand and gave a little wave. I sighed. This was supposed to be my getaway from men, yet somehow they always knew where to find me.
“Yeah, this guy,” Andrea said, throwing her thumb back over her shoulder to point at him.
I stood up. “Robert, come in. Andrea, shut my door please.”
She nodded and closed the door behind her.
I stared up at Robert. He looked…different. There were circles under his eyes, and his hair was more unkempt than usual. His calm but intense eyes had a savage appearance about them.
“Sorry to come bursting in here like this,” he began, and that’s when I smelled it. Liquor. Was he drunk? It was barely even noon.
“It’s okay,” I tried to reassure him, even though it wasn’t. He was interfering with the invisible boundaries I’d set up for him. “What’s on your mind?”
He took a step toward me. “Did I do something wrong the other night?”
“Robert…”
He took yet another step. The smell of alcohol was almost unbearable, as though he’d bathed in it. “The way you left… I just need to know what happened. What’s going on with you, Lilah?”
I automatically took steps backward until my bottom hit the edge of the front of the desk. I put my fingers to my temples and pushed on the instant ache that had come on so suddenly. “I told you I’m with Nicky Cain,” I reminded him, looking up into his wild, glossy eyes.
“Yeah…”
“Yeah. I’m in love with Nicky. It was a mistake going to your apartment. I just did it on a whim, and I regretted it. It’s not that you’re not a wonderful man, Robert. You are. If my situation was different…any woman would be lucky to be with you. I just…there’s a lot between me and Nicky. There’s a bond there I can’t break. You did nothing wrong. It was a great evening, but I can’t do those
kinds of things again. I can’t hurt Nicky. That’s why I left the way I did. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings in any way. I just didn’t know what else to do, so I left.”
Robert stared at me, his eyes turning into tiny slits. “You were afraid you’d do something…with me.”
“Like sleep with you? Yeah, of course. And kiss you too, although that already happened.”
A laugh of mockery exploded from Robert’s throat. I eyed him warily as he seemed to be in some sort of crazy state right now. I was actually fearful of him. I had to watch what I said to him so I wouldn’t totally set him off.
“Did you say you’re in love with Nicky Cain?” he asked.
I pressed my lips together. “I am. Sometimes it’s hard to admit that, but he’s done so much for me.”
“You don’t fall in love with someone because they’ve done things for you. You don’t owe him anything.”
I wanted to scream out at him. How did he know what I owed Nicky? He knew nothing. “It’s more than just that, Robert.”
“You’re not in love with him, Lilah,” he insisted, edging his way closer to me yet again. “A guy like him…can you imagine how many other girls besides you he’s sleeping with?”
My mouth gaped open. “That’s a shitty thing to say.”
He laughed. “Just speaking the honest truth with you since you seem so good at being in denial.”
My hands balled into fists at my sides. I was over this conversation. Robert Simeon had better leave soon before I punched him in the throat.
“Lilah,” he whispered, his voice becoming softer. He placed his hands lightly on my shoulders and let them slide down to my upper arms. I wanted to push him away, but at the same time I wanted to stand my ground. Men didn’t intimidate me anymore. I promised myself that would never happen again. Being married to Mark had been more than enough. “Let’s start over. Let’s spend some time together. I want to get to know you.” His face leaned in as I tried to hold my breath to keep from smelling his. “I think you want to get to know me, too. You’re just afraid to admit it to yourself. Let’s go to your place this time.”
“My place?” I turned my head so that he couldn’t kiss me if he tried, which at this point, I was pretty certain he was going to. “Do you know who Nicky is? He would kill us both.”
Robert shook his head. “I’ll remind you of what I said before. I’m not afraid of anyone.”
That was it. This guy had turned psycho. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself waste one moment thinking about him. What a creep. I shook away from his touch and darted out from underneath him. “I don’t want anything to do with you,” I sternly told him. “It’s time for you to go. Now.”
He reached out and took hold of my wrist roughly, squeezing it. I winced from the pain. “You’re not listening to me,” he growled.
“Let go of me!”
He didn’t listen, though. He tugged hard at my arm, forcing me to come into his side where I was pinned. I struggled, but he was too strong. “I need you to focus, Lilah. Listen to me, goddammit.”
There was nothing left for me to do. I didn’t want to involve anyone else, but I couldn’t stand another minute of listening to this crazy talk. I shrieked at the top of my lungs, taking Robert by surprise. He hurried to cover my mouth, but it was too late. Andrea swung the door open and came rushing in the room.
“Everything okay?” Andrea asked.
Robert immediately let go of me. I hurried to the other side of the room, my chest heaving from the panic surging through me. I glared at him. “Get the fuck out.”
He licked his lips, his eyes moving between the two of us. I was sure there were customers out there too that had probably heard my scream. Without saying another word, he darted out of the room, out of the store, and hopefully out of my life.
I pressed my hand against my chest and closed my eyes.
“You okay, Lilah? What happened?” Andrea asked.
I took a series of deep breaths to try to calm down. “I’m fine. Thank you. Just give me a moment.”
She nodded and stepped out of the room, but the same question was running through my head—what the hell had just happened?
TWENTY-ONE
CAIN
Hagan’s name flashed across my phone screen. I pressed it up to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Trey Foster just left Cain Designs,” Hagan informed me.
Jealousy ripped through me momentarily before I pushed it down deep again.
“He wasn’t there long,” Hagan added.
“Okay. Thanks, man.” Hanging up, I pressed the phone up to my forehead. I’d had Hagan watch over Cain Designs in case Foster showed up. I was hoping there was no connection between Lilah and Foster, but it wasn’t looking good. It was the ultimate betrayal—the woman you share your home with going behind your back like that with a guy who belongs to another mob group—and it hurt like hell, too. It was worse than any physical pain I’d ever had to deal with. Lilah was a traitor. After all we’d been through. And even worse, she knew things about me she could share with Foster, things that could possibly end my reign, which meant I would have to end her first. The mere thought of that almost brought me to my knees.
I didn’t know how long I sat there and wallowed in my own misery. The elevator doors opened and in stepped Lilah. I looked up at her, her long blonde hair falling in waves around her shoulders, her forehead wrinkled as if she was in distress. Was she in distress over what she was doing to me? One thing I knew for certain right now—I had to get my shit together in front of her. She couldn’t know the craziness going on inside this head of mine.
“You’re home early.”
Startled by my voice, I realized she hadn’t even noticed me sitting there watching her. “Yeah,” was all she said in response as she took off her heels and flung them in the corner of the room by the door.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She shook out of her coat and gave me a look I could only read as guilt and worry. Fucking right she should feel that way. She should know who she was messing with.
“Just been working a lot lately. I needed a rest.” Lilah gave me a weak smile.
I walked over to the bar and poured myself a drink. “Want one?”
She hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, sure.” I handed her mine. “Thanks.”
“Sit with me for a minute, babe.”
She sat down on the stool beside me and placed the glass to her lips. It was unlike her to be so quiet.
“Are things at Cain Designs not going well?”
Lilah looked surprised by my question. I reached over and placed a piece of her hair behind her ear. “They’re going great. I’m glad I hired Andrea and Emily. They definitely help me a lot.”
“Yeah, that business is not something you can take on by yourself. Everyone is ranting and raving about it.”
She smiled a little then. “Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That’s awesome to hear.”
“So what else have you been up to? Besides running the business I mean?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied.
I sucked back a gulp of my own drink. “Have you been meeting important people since opening that place? Made any new friends?”
Lilah’s eyebrows shot up. It was like a game of cat and mouse, though I couldn’t say I was enjoying this. I was torturing myself just as much as I was her.
“A few.”
She was being pretty brief, though I couldn’t blame her. She did seem pretty shaken. I wondered what had transpired between her and Foster today. It was killing me not to just take hold of her and ask her straight up what the fuck she was doing with that asshole—but I didn’t. I couldn’t. I had to lure him in, and I had to use my own girlfriend to do that.
Lilah wasn’t about to tell me anything. She did know better. I wasn’t sure if she was afraid of me or not, but she should be. We both sat there in silence enjoying what we could of each other’s presence and our
drinks. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She was every bit as beautiful as always. She now held her head way higher than when I’d first met her. She wore confidence well. My heart ached inside of me. I had the sudden urge to reach out and touch her. I was getting all sentimental, which is exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do, but it felt as though this moment—here with Lilah now—may be our very last. This realization had my guts twisting inside of me. Damn, it hurt like hell to be hurt by this woman.
“Lilah…” I reached out and placed my palm on her cheek. It was a simple, yet beautiful gesture. She leaned her head into my hand and we remained like this for a few seconds. She looked so distraught, that I wanted to hold her and protect her, like I always vowed I’d do, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she was mingling with the enemy, my vow would’ve always remained true. Now things were different. They’d changed somehow, but my body still reacted to her despite the pain she was causing me inside. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted her before. I wanted to claim her one last time so I could memorize every ounce of her perfect body. I wanted to feel what it was like to be with Lilah Cross before shit hit the fan and turned our relationship into mush. The storm was coming. I could feel it. I just thought that maybe I could outrun it for a few more minutes, that it’d stay away and let me and Lilah just be me and Lilah one final time.
She turned to look at me. The sadness in her eyes was soul crushing.
“I want you,” I told her. “I want you so bad I can barely sit here.”
Lilah leaned over and brushed her soft lips against mine. “Not right now, Nicky baby. I’m very tired.”
I watched her down the last of her drink, stand, and walk away leaving me alone with my anguish once again. She’d rejected me. I squeezed my glass so hard I thought I might be picking glass out of my hand soon. I could chase her down, slide into bed next to her, but I had no interest in that. If she had wanted me, she wouldn’t have told me no.
Fuck her.
The plan continued to unfold in my mind. I pulled out my phone and pressed it up to my ear again. It rang a few times before Remmy finally picked up. “I need you to get some things in order. We’re going to be making a very large H drop off. Soon.” I turned to make sure Lilah wasn’t standing there. No. The bedroom door was closed. I returned my attention to my thoughts.
