Used by Marlee Wray
Chapter 14
Laurel
Opening Pandora’s Box last night was both mind-blowing and electric. Trick’s bizarre life is equal parts horrifying and alluring. Gorgeous, powerful men who’ve been able to have the most debauched, uncommitted personal lives and then just decide to settle down, as if they have a right to a semi-normal life. I can’t completely wrap my mind around it.
Escaping the room before Trick wakes is a priority. I’m not ready to have sex with him again yet, though I understand better now why he thinks he should have a right to sex whenever he wants it. Habit.
The kitchen’s empty when I get there, so I start the coffee and lay out the tea. I’m waiting for Zoe to appear, but Connor’s the one who arrives first in shorts and a t-shirt.
“Hey, how you feelin’?”
I force myself to make eye contact and even offer a small smile. “All right. You?”
He flashes an amused smile at the question, and it reminds me of Trick. “I’m good.” C pours himself a cup of coffee. “Zoe’s upstairs. Why don’t you go up? She could use a cup of a tea and some company.”
“Tea?”
C puts an herbal raspberry tea bag in a cup and uses the hot water spigot to fill it. Then he grabs a canister of cookies from the cupboard and sets it on the counter. “Take her some of those too.” Then he leaves the kitchen.
As instructed, I arrange a bunch of cookies around the cup and take it upstairs to Zoe. She lies face down on top of the king-sized bed as a musical plays on the large flat-screen. She’s wearing a peach thong, which reveals the bright red lines across her very round backside. Her eyes are red from crying.
Jesus Christ.
I set the tea on a dresser and sit next to her.
“Oh, honey. Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes. I love him, but he’s impossible!” She says the last word loudly, projecting it through the room and maybe to the ground floor. I doubt though that Connor hears it in the workout room where the music’s blaring.
“What are those marks from?”
She waves a dismissive hand. “A cane. For when I’m extra.” She pushes her wildly curly hair over her shoulder. “We were fighting, and I threw a jewelry box at him and broke it.” Tears well up in her eyes.
My jaw drops.
“When he gave it to me, he didn’t tell me it was some priceless antique. Why would you give your girlfriend a gift that costs a zillion dollars and not at least hint that it used to belong to some countess? Who does that! You wouldn’t give someone an unsigned Picasso painting without saying what it was, would you?”
“You threw something at Connor McCann?”
She bursts out laughing. “I know, right?” She wrinkles her nose. “A couple months ago, a drunk obnoxious guy was hitting on me, and C came over and told him to back off. The guy cursed and directed a nasty racial slur at me. C punched him in the face so hard it broke his jaw.” She shakes her head. “Whenever I think he’s rough with me, I remind myself that he’s way, way rougher on other people. And I was being extra extra this morning. Which—I don’t know why I do that because it always gets me in trouble.”
“What were you fighting about?”
“I was being a brat about talking to you actually.”
“To me?”
“Yes, he said you might want to talk to me about him because you’re trying to understand what you’re getting yourself into with Trick and C Crue. And I said a bunch of stupid things, like a jealous little cat. Which is exactly why C thinks I’m too young to get married.” She chews her lip. “I’m honestly not. But when someone treats you like a little girl half the time and you’re so frustrated, sometimes you act like one. What does he expect? Does he think he could get away with spanking a Supreme Court justice?” She glances at the screen. “I love this song. But he’s C, so maybe he would spank a judge if she got sassy with him. I really don’t know.”
“Your relationship with him seems complicated.”
Laughter bubbles up and fills the room. “It’s pretty simple actually. Be good and sweet, get presents. Throw tantrums, get spanked—or caned if you’re very bad.”
“Did he tell you he used you to put on a sex show last night?”
Her eyes are on the screen, and she mouths some lyrics. Then she flicks the television off and turns to me. “All right, Hamilton’s off. I’m sorry. It’s rude of me to have that on. Don’t tell him. He wouldn’t be happy that I was watching television and rambled for like fifteen minutes while you were trying to ask questions.”
I shake my head. “I won’t tell him anything at all.”
“That’s what I always think. But he always finds out everything in the end. A lot of times, he finds out things from Trick actually. Don’t ever expect to keep secrets from Trick. It’ll never work.” She licks her lips. “Now about last night, yes, C told me. He said it was pretty shocking for you. Are you okay?”
“I wasn’t the one who was naked and in ropes. Are you okay?”
“Depends. How did I look?”
My brows rise.
She smirks and winks. “Honestly, I am okay about that. I’m over Trick seeing me like that.”
“And how did you get over it?” I try to keep my tone neutral, but it’s not, of course.
Zoe rolls her full lips inward, pursing them between her teeth so they’re momentarily missing. “C made a couple of sex tapes of us, and Trick found them on the computer thing. The server?”
“Is that it? Trick saw some footage of you guys?”
Zoe swallows and then licks her lips. “I don’t think they meant for me to talk about anything else.”
“Did you have sex with them both?”
“Kind of. It was a long time ago, and it wasn’t like a regular ménage or anything. I did something that Trick and Anvil punished me for.” As she continues her voice fades to nearly nothing. “The aftercare was orgasms and a hot bath. Trick washed my hair. It was the one time.” She exhales and grimaces, watching my face the entire time. “I’m so sorry.”
“Connor knows all this?”
“Yes.”
“How about Rachel?”
“Yes. But you have to understand, Anvil sees me as a piece of furniture. It’s how he sees every woman who’s not Rachel. He was not in the tub. He wasn’t really involved with the sex part.”
I close my eyes and shake my head, the blood draining to my feet as it’s been prone to do since I’ve been pregnant. I move to the wall to brace myself. “I just can’t believe how he lives. It’s like some perpetual frat party gone wrong.” Exhaling, my dizziness intensifies, and I sink slowly to the floor.
“Oh, my God.” A second later Zoe’s kneeling next to me. “Please, please, please don’t get sick… or anything like that. How about a sip of tea?”
“I’m okay. I just need a minute.”
“Here. Here’s a pillow. Lie on your side on the floor.”
I’m dizzy enough that I don’t argue. The room gets dark and far away until I can’t see or hear.
Zoe strokes my hair, but her voice is just mumbling.
She moves away, but I don’t open my eyes or tell her I don’t want tea. I just lie on the floor, feeling like things are slipping away.
* * *
Trick
My eyes go to the yoga pants over and over, but there’s no sign she’s bleeding. The fear in Zoe’s voice when she came to get me made my blood run cold. It was as bad as when I thought Kathleen might kill herself. And Laurel does look pale and sick as she lies on the floor of C’s bedroom.
“Laurelyn?”
She opens her eyes, and the look she gives me rips my heart out.
“What’s going on?” C says from behind me.
I look over my shoulder. C’s flushed and covered in sweat. Obviously he was mid-workout when Zoe went and got him, too.
“I think she fainted.”
“Why’s she still on the floor? Put her on the bed.”
Laurel pushes my hands away. “No, no.” She struggles to sit up, and I help her despite her resistance to it.
Her skin’s clammy, and my eyes drop again to her stomach and the yoga pants. Nothing’s changed in the five seconds since I last looked.
“Question for you, Trick.” Her voice is faint.
Leaning forward, I nod. “Yeah, what, babe?”
“If I do something that you consider really wrong, are you planning to give me to Connor to punish? And then to have sex with?”
“What? No. Why would I?”
Laurel puts a hand to her forehead. “I think you should.”
“What now?” C demands.
Then what she’s talking about hits me. “Fuck.” I look over my shoulder to find Zoe wringing her hands in the bedroom doorway. My voice is low and frustrated. “Damn it, Zoe. Why would you—?”
Her agitated voice explodes into the room. “C said to be honest! And she asked me outright! If you wanted me to lie why didn’t you tell me? I wasn’t trying to hurt her. Or you. I swear! I’m so sorry.” Tears well in Zoe’s eyes.
Shit.The pain on her face brings me to my feet, and I regret questioning her. “No, Zoe, look—”
C cuts me off, and his words are sharp and grim. “Man, get your fucking head together. I mean it. You reap what you fucking sow. Now own that fucking shit.” He turns and stalks to Zoe. “No, no, no,” he whispers, hugging her against him. “Hey, c’mon, don’t cry.”
I sit down on the floor next to Laurelyn, angry at myself for not thinking through all the things that could come out in a conversation between Laurelyn and Zoe. Laurel’s always gotten jealous when she hears about my being with women she knows. I should’ve managed the way certain things were told to her.
I rest my arm on my knee. “Listen, I did a lot of wild things in the past. A lot. Because if anything intense is happening, drugs, sex, violence, parties, I want to be in the middle of it. I work hard to get myself there.” Rubbing my thumb on my jeans, I shrug. “I don’t know how normal people live. And honestly, I don’t care. But I’m sorry that hearing about my past hurts you. I know how that goes. Jealousy eats me alive every time I have to hear about someone else who’s been with you. ‘Cause I always wish that was me.” I rest a hand on the carpet, palm up, fingers open and waiting. “I fell in love with you last decade, and from then on, no one’s ever mattered the way you do. But while we weren’t together, I was playing games and killing time. I wasn’t alone because I don’t like being alone.”
“Your life is insane,” she whispers.
“Yeah, that’s the consensus.”
C walks Zoe over to us. I put my arms up. When Laurel starts to move, I drop my hand on her thigh to keep her in place, but I also keep my left arm up for Zoe.
Z drops down to sit on the floor on my left side, and I put my arm around her and squeeze her against my side.
“I’m sorry, Zoe. That was some hypocritical bullshit. It will not happen again.”
Zoe reaches across me and grabs Laurelyn’s hand and holds it in both of hers. “I knew I should lie. I’m so sorry.”
“No, Zoe,” Laurel says quickly and gently. It makes me so damned proud of her. Laurel knows who to blame and who not to. “You can tell me the truth. It stings and shocks me at first, but lies are worse.”
Zoe crawls over us to sit on Laurel’s other side. Then Zoe wraps her arms around Laurelyn. “Thank God you’re okay physically. That was terrifying.”
C goes into the master bathroom and turns on the shower and the tub. When he comes back to the doorway, he looks down at us. “Come on. Everyone in here.”
Laurel freezes and shakes her head as C disappears back into the bathroom.
Seeing her concern, Zoe jumps in instantly. “You know what. I’ll take a shower with C. You take a bath with Trick. That’ll work.” Zoe nods, standing up. “I’ll put some bath stuff in, so you won’t feel too exposed. Give me a minute.” She goes into the bathroom.
“What do you want to do?”
My answering tone’s neutral. “You know.”
“And if I say no?”
“Then I’ll stay here with you.”
Zoe pokes her head out. “Laurelyn.” Holding out a bathrobe, she wags it up and down. “C’s in the shower. If you get in the tub now, he won’t see anything. Hurry up.” Zoe tosses the robe onto Laurel’s legs and then goes back into the bathroom.
Without another word, Laurel shakes her head and sighs. Then she stands, strips, and walks into the bathroom. I take off my jeans, which was all I put on before sprinting upstairs.
By the time I walk into the bathroom, she’s in the Jacuzzi tub that’s full of churning water and bubbling bath salt foam.
I drop onto a bench seat in the tub and pull her to me, so her back is leaning against my chest. I massage her shoulders and the back of her neck.
“How many girlfriends have you had in total?”
“Girlfriends? One.”
“One? Me?”
“Of course you.”
“How many people have you dated?”
“Seven, including you.”
“How many of those came after me?”
“Three.”
“So you’ve only dated three women since you were a teenage boy? And you never met anyone’s parents other than mine? Never told any of them you loved them?”
“No, why would I?”
“So with literally only six weeks of relationship experience that came when you were in high school, you think you should be the one calling the shots about the rules of our relationship?”
I try not to smile. Her point is valid, but a concession could turn disastrous. “I’m not moving into your world, Laurel. You’re moving into mine. I’m the one who understands how my world works.”
“Orgies with call girls was your old life. Being married is normal. You literally know only one married couple who themselves don’t seem to know any other married couples. I know lots of married people.”
“Good for you,” I say, sliding my hand down to cup her breast.
C chooses that moment to step out of the shower, treating her to a view of his naked ass. She turns her head quickly toward the sinks.
Suds cover most of my arm and hand, but it’s obvious what I’m holding and I don’t let go of her. She doesn’t try to get me to move my hand, probably because she’s too startled. C wraps a towel around his waist and hands one to Zoe. Then he turns and looks down at us.
“‘Vil wants to know when the game starts. An hour?”
“Yeah. We gotta eat first,” I say.
“I feel like pecan pancakes and scrambled eggs,” Zoe announces brightly when she steps onto the bathmat. She’s wrapped in a fuzzy blue towel. “I can have those ready by the time you guys come down.”
C and Zoe exit without waiting for an answer.
“Insane.” Laurelyn’s whisper is half sigh. “Every. Single. Thing.”
My left hand slides down to her belly and strokes it, looking for the bump that unfortunately doesn’t exist yet. Then my fingers dip lower, cupping her pussy.
“Do we have time for this?”
“No, but I like touching you.” My middle finger goes lower still until I find the tiny pink whorl and trace the circle.
She grabs my forearm in a tight grip.
“Trick, no.”
“Lie back and stay still.” With my other hand, I pinch her nipple.
Her breath catches.
My fingertip presses until she stretches around it. “See how easy it is?” My voice is husky in her ear. “Or do you already know?”
Her breathing’s ragged, and her leg muscles tense.
“Answer my question. Have you had things inside you here?” My finger pushes deeper into her ass.
She shakes her head.
“Nothing?”
“I… always say no.”
A second fingertip rubs the ring where the first is penetrating her.
Her fingernails dig into my arm. She’s too skittish to enjoy what I’m doing. Needs to be more aroused first.
“Trick, please—”
A few beats pass while my fingers play, then I pull them away. She collapses back against me.
“You’re not allowed to say no, but if after a few times you don’t enjoy it, I’ll only do it as punishment.”
With a soft, shocked gasp, she pulls away and sits on the opposite bench, her face a flaming pink. Popping the drain up with my foot, I sit forward. “Let’s take a shower to get all this salt off.” I climb out of the tub and step into the shower.
I wash and rinse my body, but she doesn’t join me. Little battles everywhere. I don’t care. She’s still here. And since she’s been in the house, I haven’t been tempted to use drugs once, despite the soreness in my arm. The pain hurts less and the hollow places inside me go away when she’s near me. If I’d wondered before whether I had a right to hold onto her, I don’t anymore. She’s mine, and I’ll fight as long and hard as it takes to keep it that way.
When I emerge from the shower, she’s rinsing soap off under the tub’s gushing tap. I dry myself and wrap a towel around me. “Tell me what scares you about that kind of sex.”
“All of it.”
Exhaling an amused sigh, I hand her a towel. “You can ask me anything, you know.”
She shakes her head sharply, drying off her arms and legs, then the rest of her. “Unless.” She looks over at me. “Have you ever been the one—?”
“On the bottom?”
She wraps the towel around herself. “Yes.”
“No, but there was a girl who convinced me to let her put a finger in to give me a prostate massage while she blew me. Looking back, I don’t think her finger was long enough. Her hands were pretty small.”
“If you haven’t let anyone have sex with you that way, you must not have liked the finger inside?”
“It didn’t do anything for me, so I never went farther. But that doesn’t mean you won’t like it. You’ve liked everything else I’ve done to you.”
She holds out a hand to stop me from saying more. “I don’t want a man’s opinion about it. Men have a conflict of interest.”
Chuckling, I walk out into the bedroom and grab our clothes to toss in the laundry room. When I hear her behind me, I say, “You have all those married friends. Talk to some women that like it. They can give you advice about how to get ready and what to do during to make it a good experience.”
“I don’t talk to them about their sex lives.”
“Hmm.” I don’t say what I’m thinking, which is what good are they then? Instead, I say, “Well, talk to Zoe or Rachel. C was Zoe’s first for anal. And ‘Vil was Rachel’s first for everything.”
Her head turns, and she stares at me. “Why do you know that? Boundaries—please get some.”
I thought we already established boundaries aren’t my thing. “That’s a no then, on letting them watch the first time I fuck you that way?”
Her blush makes me smile.
“I need you to leave me alone for a while.”
No way.“You can have ten minutes while I check some email. Then you’ll see me in the kitchen for pancakes and eggs.”
“Maybe I’ll go to my parents’ place and—”
“Yeah, we can do that, but not today. Today we’re busy here.”
She looks at me, and I wait for her to argue. She’s smart enough not to. Good. The part where I leave her alone or offer to give her up is over. And she’s not going to bounce from Boston to her parents’ to my place and C’s, all while waffling about what she’s gonna do next.
I’ve flipped my cards over for her to see. Now it’s time for her to fold or go all in.
* * *
Laurel
After I dress, I head toward the kitchen, but then I realize that Trick, Zoe, and Connor are in the living room. C’s sitting on the couch. Zoe, who’s dressed in a salmon pink and charcoal mini dress, is lying on her side with her head on a pillow that’s resting on C’s thigh. She’s looking at her phone, and his hand is under her curls, massaging her neck.
“Laurelyn, come over,” C says.
My steps falter for a second, but then I walk to them. It’s hard to make eye contact, but I do because I’m doing all I can to at least give Trick’s bizarre lifestyle a try.
Trick’s standing, but when I get there, he grabs a fancy chair with a burgundy leather seat cover and sets it next to him. Tapping the armrest, he beckons me into it.
It seems a shame to waste it, so I sit. “Your side hustle could be furniture mover.”
He glances at the chair and smirks, then turns his head to glance at nothing and laughs. “Old habit.”
C smiles, watching him. “We’re curious.”
Trick rolls his eyes. “If there was no chair when my ma came into a room, my dad gave her mine or his. And he thought something next to her chair for her dish or drink ought to be there too. So over comes a side table or footrest or whatever. When he was really drunk he could bring the house down around us, but the rest of the time, he was as good as gold, especially to her.”
Suddenly a lot of things make sense.
“Hmm.” C looks at his phone. “Trick, ING has new human capital. Revenue’s up, but doesn’t look like it matches the graph you projected. You hear about anyone not working?”
Trick shakes his head.
“Ready for numbers?”
Trick nods.
C looks down at his phone and begins rattling things off that I don’t understand. “The standard stuff, plus four online. Seven parties times six. No Sunday work. Two high-roller nights times three. Two out-of-towns times four.” C pauses. “Got it?”
“Yeah.”
C turns his phone around, and there’s a seven-figure number.
Trick leans forward. “No. Phone’s low.”
C frowns. “You look at the ING sheets the past couple months?”
Trick flashes a smile. “You mean after you told me not to, C?”
“I know you and spreadsheets. Even when I tell you to delegate something so you can concentrate on higher level stuff, sometimes you’re up at three in the morning looking at data.”
“You told Zoe to ration my Red Bull. Been sleeping.”
C smirks. “Good. But look now and see who thinks they’re clever.”
“All right. What else, C?”
I’m surprised they’re letting me sit with them for this and also fascinated that Trick can calculate revenue on a business division in his head like that. It sounds as if someone is cheating them, which I imagine is a very dangerous thing to do. I wonder if they’ll catch the person and what will happen to him.
C leans down and kisses Zoe’s forehead. “Get me some coffee, baby.”
She rises, looking very much like a dancer with her graceful limbs extended. C’s eyes follow her until she’s out of sight. “Talbot popped his rate again.”
My ears perk up at a name I recognize. Trick rubs his arm, making me wonder how much it hurts him.
“What’s he up to? Twelve hundred? For that money, he should suck your dick and wash both Rovers to work off the extra time he bills. He did twelve minutes on the phone with Rachel and billed one and half hours. Research, my ass. If anyone looked anything up, it was a paralegal, not him.”
Twelve hundred per hour? My God.
“He asked me who makes your suits.”
“Good. Tell him I’ll give him the name but there’s a finder’s fee. I’ll get us a few grand back.”
C grins. “He didn’t like that you chose Flynn for you with the feds.”
“Talbot has to run the room. He’d never sit still for hours while I stalled.”
“You know how I feel about you playing around with the feds. And if you’re gonna do it, better if Talbot’s in the room. Flynn’s fantastic in court, but he’s not keeping up with you on a roll.”
“You’re the best on legal, C. Tell me what you want. No in-custody calls to Flynn?”
“Talbot should be first string for you.” C turns his head to look at me. “Tell me about the time Talbot was with you, Laurelyn.”
Surprised he wants my opinion, I straighten in my seat. “It was very short, and I don’t have much experience to really say, but he seemed good.”
“I’m not asking about competency. How’d you feel about him? General vibe.”
“When he got there, it was a relief.”
“No personality problems?”
My brows furrow, and I shake my head. “He said almost nothing to me though. He went after the agents, and they’d made my life so difficult I was grateful he handled them so quickly. But we were only in the room together for about ten or fifteen minutes.”
“What’s up, C?” Trick asks, leaning his right arm on the back of my chair.
“‘Vil. Rachel was doing something with the baby, so she had the Talbot call on speaker. ‘Vil walked by and heard him talking to her. Didn’t like his tone.”
“Be more specific.”
“Sounded condescending, I guess. Talbot’s an arrogant prick, but ‘Vil said he’s never heard him take that tone before. Said she asked a question, and he gave her a big sigh before he answered, like she was wasting his time.”
Trick scowls. “Fuck Talbot. At twelve hundred an hour, he should’ve started that conversation with some ass-kissing. He doesn’t even do corporate law.”
C holds up a hand. “I didn’t have her use him for that. I went through the contracts myself and got the young hotshot partner at Tam’s to review them. But Rachel’s trying to learn and wanted to ask some things about trials after she read about a plagiarism case. I had Talbot call her since he’s a trial guy. But after what Anvil said, I want to know what Talbot’s like with women when we’re not around.”
“Who was with Rachel when the police questioned her when Frank got shot?”
“I think Flynn. Didn’t Talbot have ‘Vil that day? Who was with you?”
“Flynn, but they tried to sweat me, remember? I was last.”
C chuckles. “They always try. It’s like they’ve never watched video on you. Don’t they know the longer they leave you alone to stew, the less they get? Flynn said one time you said ‘I don’t remember’ ninety-three times in an interview and that was the longest sentence you used. That’s your real side hustle, giving cops high blood pressure.”
Zoe returns, blowing on a cup of hot coffee. She looks so sweet doing it that I think about the group of them. The way Anvil Stroviak’s upset someone wasn’t nice enough to his wife, the way Connor McCann hugged Zoe when she was crying, and the way Trick brought me a chair. For a bunch of hardened criminals they are awfully affectionate at times. It makes me think about my own behavior. Am I ever that sweet to Trick? He certainly knows I care about him and am attracted to him, but other than messaging him when we were estranged… what do I do to show him?
“The FBI detail on you is gone. There’s one NY field office agent who’s in town as a guest of Coynston PD to look into the death of suspended agent Milt Schager.”
“Yeah, my super’s been hit up twice by Coins PD asking for surveillance video. They know there are no cameras, so I’m guessing they’re using it as an excuse to get in his office and ask him other questions.”
Neither Connor nor Trick looks worried, which is reassuring. It would be horrible if Milt’s status as an agent protected him from being considered an attempted murderer who got shot in self-defense.
C stretches and looks back at me. “So Laurelyn, I need to ask you some things. Everyone all right with that?” C flicks his gaze to Trick who nods.
It feels good to be included. My accepting Connor’s invitation to use his tub seems to have been a good decision.
“Sure. Of course,” I say.
“You understand that FBI agents are not your friends anymore, right? If they ever were.”
Licking my lips, I nod. “I do understand.”
“Sounds like they were polite when they last talked to you, though? When they interviewed you about Schager?”
“Yes, they were professional. Unlike the time before, this last time they didn’t grill me for hours in a freezing room and ignore my requests to use a bathroom.”
“I’m not surprised they treated you better the second time. They’d just heard there’d been a botched sting where you ended up in a suspect’s apartment. Just remember their friendly act is an act. Every time they talk to you from now on, they will try to get as many details on Trick and the rest of us as they can.”
“I understand. Just so you both know I didn’t talk about Scott or any of you with them. They did try to bring him up several times, but I just repeated my original statement and said I didn’t have anything else to say.”
“Good. Talbot said during the time he was there, you did well. How about before he got there? The feds can apply a lot of pressure. It’s easy to get tripped up.”
“I don’t think I gave them the information they were after. I wasn’t cooperative. They took me to two hospitals, trying to force me to get a rape exam. I said no. They pushed and pushed. It was horrible.” My voice trails off, and I swallow.
Upon hearing this, C’s mouth forms an angry line.
“I’d rather not talk about it. But I definitely wasn’t trying to help them.”
“You didn’t get the test?” C asks.
I shake my head. I don’t look at Trick. I can’t yet. My own emotions are about all I can handle when I think about that day.
“Most people would’ve crumbled. I’m impressed. How about taking a lawyer with you if they want to talk to you again about anything?”
“Yes. I actually wished I could talk to a lawyer before I spoke to them about Milt. I was afraid to go in there alone.”
Trick squeezes my shoulder. “How am I just hearing this?”
“We weren’t talking. And you were already paying for something really expensive,” I whisper. “The last thing I wanted to do was ask for help with the FBI after I made the mistake of trusting Milt to begin with.”
Trick’s voice is strained. “If you’re scared about anything, you have to come to me. Or what good am I to you?”
Looking up, I see the pain clouding his features, and it breaks something inside me. Tears well in my eyes, and I stand.
“Getting shot was easier than hearing this,” he murmurs.
“I should’ve talked to you. I wanted to… it just felt like I would’ve been taking advantage of you.”
He exhales and wraps his arms around me, resting his head against mine. His voice is as soft as mine was, so it feels almost like we’re all alone. “I told you last night the things you have to do for me. Well, I’ve got non-negotiable things to do for you, too. Let me do my job, Laurelyn.”
“I will. I understand now.”
He kisses the side of my head, then releases me.
C’s expression is unchanged, like he didn’t just witness a heartfelt exchange. “So anytime you talk to law enforcement, you’ll ask for a lawyer, right? And you’re good with Talbot?”
“Yes.”
“All right. And you’ve heard our concerns about him. So if he takes a bad tone with you, I want to hear about it.”
“I work for a tech company with a zero tolerance policy on these kinds of issues, C, so I’ve had to do courses. If Talbot tries to diminish me, I’ll call him on it.”
“Go ahead. But I also want to hear. Classes are one thing. Real life is something else. Besides, not everyone speaks up the way you say you will, and we need to know for their sake too.”
“Did ‘Vil already talk to Talbot? If not, I’ll do it,” Trick says. I’m glad I won’t be there for that. Trick’s grim expression makes him look dangerous.
“No. No one’s talking to him yet. The Coins cops want to talk to Rachel about the fire. Talbot’s going with her. I want you to put a device on her. You know how Anvil is these days. If a branch caught Rachel’s sweater as she walked by, he’d be ready to knock down the tree. You wire her and then you and I will listen to the way Talbot talks to her and we’ll see.”
“Good.”
“Last thing. Pauly Mangia sent an email, trying to set up a meet for us with the Leones.”
“Mangia mentioned me?”
“No. Us, C Crue.”
“More Palermo funerals coming up, and Mangia missed his invitation again. Shame.”
“I hate Pauly Mangia,” Zoe says, setting down her phone.
“Mmm hmm,” C says, his hand sliding down to stroke her side, his knuckle brushing the side of her breast. “I’m gonna call Leone direct. With Enzo either missing or dead and Tony in the hospital fighting cancer, there will be dogs sniffing around, looking for scraps. The Leones aren’t the only ones who’ve reached out.”
Trick clenches his jaw. “We left all the big cities alone by design. Yet here in Smallville, which we’ve finally settled, we’re now gonna have the supervillain of the week visit? We took this town. No one helped us with a single fucking thing. You asked, and their answer was no or silence. Do you remember what I said back then? No one who turns us down at the beginning should get a piece of us later.”
“I didn’t ask the Leones back then. And you know why we should at least meet with them.”
I remember the gossip about a mob boss’s son being murdered in Coynston. He’d been Rachel Palermo’s fiancé, Alberto Leone. Trick mentioned the name Leone when he was out of his head the night he got shot. Did C Crue kill Alberto Leone? And do they now need to be nice to the Leones to avoid an act of retribution?
“We don’t owe the Leones shit. That was settled last year. And back in the day when we left Frank, they knew the situation. Everyone in Boston and New York did.”
I’d had no idea that when it was first formed, C Crue reached out to other established syndicates for help in their fight against Frank Palermo. They’d been so bold and so tough, so reportedly deadly themselves, that they hadn’t seemed to need anyone’s help. It was just one more wrong assumption I’d made.
“Trick,” C says in a mild tone.
Trick folds his arms across his chest.
C laughs and looks up at the ceiling. “You’ve got an uncle-sized chip on your shoulder. I need you to brush that off for a few minutes.”
“I’m listening.”
“The Leones do not care about Coynston. Even we don’t use Coins as a hub for most things. Coins is just C Crue home base because we live here. You know that. You said that yourself.”
“If no one cares about it, why are they lighting up your phone?”
“Because C Crue has a golden boy who doubled the Callahans’ revenue in two months after one trip to Boston.”
“You know why we helped the Callahans. When I couldn’t get to Jersey fast enough that time, you called and they went. They were the only ones in that first year to take a call from us, and they never asked for a payback.”
“You’ve masterminded seventeen new schemes in the last fifteen months. This much profit… we can’t keep up. We have to expand. You know it.”
“We can expand on our own. Because I didn’t look so golden to anyone when I left. People helped Frank hunt us by feeding him information. Ask me for the names, C.”
“It wasn’t personal, Trick. They didn’t back us because they thought we would lose.”
“To hell with them. They reach out to me individually, you know, trying to convince me to make my own deals? They would burn you and ‘Vil in a heartbeat. They would gut C Crue.”
C smiles, seemingly unruffled that other organizations are trying to steal Trick away. Is C really unfazed? Or is that just more of the C Crue swagger that they use to cover their real emotions?
“I’m guessing the Leones have reached out? Because you didn’t care about them one way or the other last year.”
“They have. I said no meeting. Then they sent a gift to the hotel when I went to New York. The gift’s name was Candy. Returned unopened. But not before she offered to perform a blowjob in bondage for my little sister’s boyfriend.”
“Bet the kid was sorry you showed up before he got to take that for a spin.”
Trick smirks. “Safe to assume.”
“Here’s what I know. I’m going to New York for meetings. If you come, you can hear the numbers right then. And if I don’t like the deals they’re offering, when I tell them no, you can add ‘and to hell with you.’”
Trick rolls his eyes. “My pancakes and eggs are cold by now. Gonna have to nuke ‘em.”
Zoe wrinkles her nose. “There’s some leftover pancake batter in the fridge. And eggs in the carton. C said to make just one batch.”
Trick grins. “You told her not to make me pancakes, C? Did you say, ‘Trick made you cry. To hell with him.’”
“Something like it, yeah.”
Trick laughs.
“New York?”
“Yeah, of course.” Trick heads toward the kitchen. “When do you ever invite me anywhere that I don’t come?”