Red Handed by Jessa Wilder

Iwoke the following morning to an elbow to the ribs.

“Ooph, sorry,” Sophie said as she climbed into bed with me. “I’m trying not to spill your coffee.”

“Fuck off, Soph. I’m tired,” I groaned into my pillow.

I wasn’t just tired. I was dead to the world. Last night had taken it out of me in so many ways, I didn’t even know how to process it. I felt like a damp towel wrung out on the line.

“What happened?” Sophie bounced a little with excitement as she spoke, apparently giving up on the coffee.

“Um, we shot a guy in the head, and then some guys in white suits came and took the body away, then started a literal dumpster fire to burn all the evidence.

She gasped. “What?”

“Yeah. Some people light up cigarettes after sex. These guys light up people, apparently.”

“Wait, you had sex! With which one?” She squealed, completely blowing by the murder and disposal of a body. Typical.

I sat up and took the to-go coffee mug from her. It smelled divine. “No…not quite.”

“What does ‘not quite’ mean?’” She made quotes in the air with her fingers.

I felt my cheeks grow warm. “Fuck, fine. We fooled around on the dance floor. It was a lot.”

“Who is we?” she asked, now literally bouncing with excitement.

I bit the inside of my lip. I wasn’t embarrassed. My sister was just a terrible secret keeper and had no poker face whatsoever. She was going to yell about this from the roof, and say all sorts of weird, mortifying things at the first possible moment. I could picture it now. She was going to walk right up to her room and start screaming at Nico through the wall about the size of his friend’s coc—

“Raegan!” Sophie waved a hand in front of my face. “Are you even paying attention to me?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Well?” She made huge eyes at me.

Awe, fuck it. “Beck, Rush, and I danced.” Heat flooded my skin at the memory. “It was hot. Like, really fucking hot being pressed between them both.” I swallowed hard. “They made me come right there in the open.”

I intentionally didn’t mention that Nico stayed. That I’d stared into his eyes while Beck and Rush got me off. If I was worried about any part of what happened, it was that. Because I’d half expected—wanted—him to join us, and that went against everything I’d grown up believing. The Esposito family were the Gentlemen. The Gentlemen killed my brother, and Nico was the literal head of the snake.

She stood up and squealed in excitement. “I knew those boys would share.”

“Apparently as far as a casual hookup goes, yeah they’ll share.”

“Well, that’s the point, right?” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“Yup,” I said, taking another sip of coffee to hide my frown. “Obviously. I mean, we won’t be here that much longer, anyway.”

“Right.” She grinned. “You need to get back on that horse. Or horses, I guess. This is perfect. No mess, no strings. Just get it while you can, Rae. We’ll leave here soon and you’ll never have to see them again. It’s not like we ever came to the North Side before. We literally couldn’t.”

I nodded, even as my stomach churned. She was totally right, of course. We would go back to living on opposite sides of the tentative gang treaty, and just hope that a war didn’t break out. This was temporary. We were enemies.

Why did that suddenly feel so wrong?

* * *

I put on my big girl panties—figuratively—and made myself go up to Nico’s room for breakfast. I felt like avoiding the guys after what happened yesterday would just make things more awkward. Plus, then they’d probably come looking for me. Or worse, they wouldn’t, and everything would be fucking weird.

Sophie declined to join me. “I literally cannot deal with all the testosterone and lust in the room hanging out with you guys.”

“What do you even do all alone?” I asked.

“I’m not alone. Connor is still here, remember?”

Oh. Yeah. I was literally the worst fucking friend. Then again, he was a fairly bad friend to me too since we’d been here, so whatever. “So you guys just eat in your room?”

“No, in his room usually, so we don’t have to listen to you four talk. Otherwise, Connor gets pissed, or sometimes he does sock puppet shows acting out what you’re all saying.”

I choked. “You’re kidding.”

“No. You guys have super repetitive conversations. Nico is always pissed. Rush is always trying to make Nico not pissed by talking about work. Someone throws something, it calms down for five minutes, then Beck makes a stupid joke and Nico gets pissed again.”

I frowned. That wasn’t inaccurate. “What do I do?”

She shrugged. “Calm it all down, I guess. They don’t throw as much stuff when you’re there. You’d be literally shocked how many things get broken on a daily basis. Or shot. Or tossed over the balcony.”

“They’re only supposed to fight in the gym,” I said reflexively.

“They never go to the gym. Please tell them to go. I need to sleep.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, even as my stomach rolled. God, hearing her interpretation put it into stark perspective how much time I’d really been spending over there over the last few weeks. Somehow it hadn’t felt like a lot.

Sophie waved as she headed into her room, and I paused outside Nico’s door, hand outstretched.

Everything Sophie had said had given me a lot to think about. She was definitely right. I needed to think about this whole thing as more temporary and not get attached. There was also the fact that we had gotten the laptop. I didn’t have to be here anymore. When was I going to go home?

I needed to march in there and tell the guys I was going to leave. Today. Whatever the fuck was happening with us could not continue. It was doomed anyway. Plus, my dad probably needed me back at Mount Summer by now. It was weird I hadn’t heard from him.

Resolved, I pushed open Nico’s door and marched inside. I automatically glanced toward the kitchen where Beck usually stood cooking breakfast but stopped when I found it empty. Huh. I whipped my head around and immediately felt my face flush. Nico and his mother sat at the kitchen table, both clutching steaming mugs of coffee. Giovanna looked just as put together as she had during that meeting with my parents in an emerald green dress with a matching blazer. Nico wore a suit, which wasn’t unusual, but did seem a little odd for breakfast with his mother.

I immediately glanced down at my own rumpled sleep shorts and off the shoulder t-shirt. I had literally rolled out of bed and come up for breakfast, which wasn’t unusual. Suddenly, though, my lack of shoes or a bra seemed less casual and more scandalous. Fuck me.

“Um, hello,” I said awkwardly.

“Raegan,” Nico greeted me.

“Nicolai,” I replied, matching his bored tone.

His stony expression didn’t change, but I could swear I saw amusement in his eyes. Fucker, he knew I came up for breakfast now. He could have warned me.

I debated for a moment, trying to decide if I should act like I had planned this or run for the hills. I landed on the former. Striding over to the espresso machine on the counter, I grabbed a cup from the cabinet and went about steaming some milk. “Sorry to interrupt,” I said over my shoulder. “I’ll just be a second.”

“Not at all,” Nico said smoothly, in a very different tone than he usually used with me. It was that smooth, honeyed voice he’d used in my parents’ dining room. The voice that said, “No wolves here little red, I’m definitely not about to eat you and your whole family.”

“I’m sorry, Darling, I’ve forgotten your name,” Giovanna said, without looking at me.

I raised an eyebrow. Nico had literally just said it, but okay. I opened my mouth to reply, but Nico beat me to it. “It’s Raegan,” he snapped.

“And what is Raegan doing here?” Giovanna purred, somehow making my name sound like an insult.

My eyes narrowed, meeting hers for half a second, but I stayed silent. I deliberately banged the heavy metal milk carafe against the side of the espresso machine with a loud clang.

“She’s been helping with the recovery of the laptop,” Nico said shortly.

Giovanna turned and looked at me. “You’re James and Mary’s younger daughter, correct? The pickpocket?”

I gritted my teeth. I mean, I did pickpocket, but she made it sound like I was knocking over liquor stores to buy crack. Squaring my shoulders, I nodded, but again didn’t speak. Giovanna had a “anything you say can and will be used against you,” vibe, and I didn’t fuck with that nonsense.

“Hmmm,” she said. She turned back to Nico, seemingly done with me. “As I was saying, I’d be happy to hold the event.”

“Good,” Nico said, as though I wasn’t there. “What do you want for it?”

She smiled. “You wound me.”

“Spit it out, mother.”

“The Aspen house.”

“Fine,” Nico said, without skipping a beat.

My eyes widened. Who just gave away a house?

“And the Boeing BBJ.”

“No.” Again, Nico didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t look at all flustered, just resigned.

“Yes.” Giovanna smiled her dangerous, all-teeth smile.

“You can have the Gulfstream or the Challenger. Take both if you want. I don’t like either of them.”

I gaped. I was pretty sure they were talking about trading private planes like baseball cards. What kind of alternate fucking world was this?

Giovanna thought about that for a second. “Fine. I’ll take the Challenger. Sell the Gulfstream.”

“Good,” Nico said. He finally smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

He glanced up and met my eyes, and I realized I was staring. I quickly looked down at my steamed milk just in time to stop it from overflowing. Who the fuck negotiated with their parents like that? What did Nico want from his mother that he was willing to give her a house and a plane?

Nico was well above average height, shot things at random, and had a hell of a lot of presence. Still, if I had to pick, I’d say I was more scared of his mom. I had never met Nico’s dad—only heard stories about how much my dad hated the guy—but from just this meeting alone, I wondered if Nico didn’t take more after Giovanna.

“Raegan, make me one while you’re over there,” Nico said in an oddly calm tone.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re holding coffee.”

He frowned down at the cup in his hand, like it had personally offended him. Jesus Christ, he probably didn’t know how to use his own damn espresso machine. I rolled my eyes and grabbed another cup, starting the machine up again.

Giovanna looked at me again, her eyes lingering on my too-short shorts, but she spoke only to her son. “So, I see you’ve taken on the Mount Summer girl as your latest pet project?”

Nico made some sort of noise in the back of his throat that might have been an agreement but could also have been a growl of warning. It was hard to tell.

Giovanna sniffed. “Really, dear. Is this necessary? One would think forty-seven floors worth of whores would be enough to satisfy your needs.”

My stomach clenched as hot anger and embarrassment flooded me in equal measure. I looked back, unable to help myself, and found them both staring at me with identical black eyes.

“That’s crass even for you, Mother.” Nico spoke in a tone that would have been more appropriate to commenting on the weather.

“Please, Nicolai, we both know I could say far worse.” Giovanna laughed lightly, a merry musical sound totally at odds with what she was saying. She looked me dead in the eye, her smile turning vicious. “I have to tell you, Ms. O’Rourke, Nicolai has always had a soft spot for rescuing stray animals.”

I nearly dropped the milk. “Excuse me?” I was so shocked my brain was short circuiting. I was stuck somewhere in the fight, flight, or freeze cycle and I couldn’t figure out if I was going to grab Nico’s gun and shoot a bitch, or bolt out of the room and cry. What the absolute fuck was happening right now?

She took a slow sip from her cup of coffee. “My Nico loved to explore. At the summer house, he used to bring home every damaged and disgusting rabbit or squirrel. It didn’t matter how vile…or how close to death. Nico has always loved a project.”

Almost in slow motion, I took a step toward her, my hand actually shaking. My eyes darted to Nico’s for a second, and he stood quickly.

“Alright, it’s time for you to leave,” he said. For half a second, I thought he was speaking to me, but then he walked around the table and stood between Giovanna and me. “It was good to see you, mother. I’ll see you for dinner on Saturday.”

Giovanna rose smoothly, like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Maybe for her it wasn’t. She kept her smile fixed, watching me as she wafted to the door. “Nice to meet you officially, Ms. O’Rourke,” she called. “I do hope you end up being worth the trouble in the end. God knows none of those rabbits ever earned their keep…except as food for our dogs.”

I stared, open mouthed, as Nico closed the door on his mother. “You’re letting that overflow,” he said casually.

“Fuck!” I jumped as hot milk hit my bare foot.

Nico crossed the room and sat back down in the seat his mother had just vacated. “I’ll take two shots of espresso.”

“Go fuck yourself. You can steam your own damn milk.” I picked up my own coffee in shaking hands and left the mess on the floor for Nico to deal with.

He sighed, like I’d seriously inconvenienced him, and reached for his plain coffee. “Ugh.” He frowned as he took a sip.

“Your mother is a bitch,” I said after a minute.

“Yes,” he agreed. “She knows.”

“She thinks I’m trash.”

“Probably.” He took out his phone and scanned something on it without much interest.

A pang hit my stomach. Somewhere between hurt and shame, which was idiotic. It didn’t matter what Giovanna Esposito thought of me. It wasn’t like I was dating her son. And I certainly didn’t move anywhere near her social orbit. I had lived twenty-three years never running into her, and soon enough I’d go back to never seeing her again.

“My mother also spent her whole life married to an abusive asshole while running an interstate prostitution and human trafficking ring,” Nico continued calmly. “I’ve seen her shoot one of my father’s mistresses in the face and wipe the blood spatter with a Hermès scarf. I wouldn’t worry too much about her opinion of you.”

My mouth fell open slightly. That was almost nice? I mean, it wasn’t exactly an ‘I love you,’ or even friendly by normal people’s standards, but it definitely felt like a tiny vote of confidence. I could live with that. I leaned against the table, still shaking with the adrenaline brought on by rage. “What was that about?”

“Giovanna hardly likes anyone, and the animal story is true…if embellished,” he said, not looking up from his phone. “Don’t worry, Rabbit, she’s lying about the dogs. All my pets have been very well cared for.”

“No.” I furrowed my brow, confused. “I meant what were you negotiating about.”

He glanced up at me sharply. His eyes moved back and forth rapidly, as if he were just thinking through what he’d said. I fought back a smile. Nico didn’t seem like the type who ever spoke without thinking. I was getting all kinds of insight from him this morning—not all of it pleasant, but still.

His eyebrows pulled down low over his eyes. “The laptop was wiped, meaning that whoever stole it already took the information they needed. I couldn’t use anything on it to determine who might have taken it.”

I contemplated that. Even if it hadn’t been wiped, that strategy was kind of iffy, anyway. Maybe if the person had downloaded something else, or logged on to a personal IP or something, there might be a way to figure out their identity, but that wasn’t likely. Nico seemed to be grasping at straws, which begged the question. What the hell was on the laptop that was so important? Would he answer me if I asked? I chose not to chance it. Not yet. Not quite.

“Okay, so what does that have to do with your mother?”

“We think there’s a mole within the Gentlemen,” Nico said, reaching across the table and snatching my espresso from me. I growled when he downed it in one gulp.

“I thought you caught that guy the other night.”

He laughed harshly. “That was one rat. We know that close to a dozen men have turned, we’re just tracking them down. I want to know who’s recruiting them and passing information to The Trilogy. We need my mother to bring all the high-ranking members together in one place so we can weed out who it is.”

“And you can’t do that yourself?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I can, but it will look like a calculated ambush; a declaration of war. However, if my mother does it, it will look like a cocktail party. Just one more in a string of her high society soirees.”

His tone dripped with disdain, but it made sense. I had to wonder why he was telling me, though. I didn’t get Nico at all. Half the time it seemed like he trusted me, and the other half he was throwing massive tantrums about how I was the enemy and nothing else. Then there was the way he looked at me sometimes, which I was one hundred percent sure wasn’t just hate. I needed to figure out what the fuck I was doing—I had literally come up here to tell the guys I was going home, and now…I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

“I need to go home,” I blurted out.

Nico looked up at me, clearly surprised. He took a few seconds before answering, his dark eyes scanning over me like an X-ray. “I’m disappointed in you, Raegan. I didn’t think you’d let Giovanna scare you like that.”

I scoffed. “It’s not your mother. We got the laptop, and that’s why I was here, right? I’m done. I’m probably needed back home, anyway.”

He gave me a condescending look. “Why? So you can steal jewelry for daddy? Or do you do cars as well? Banks? What petty jobs are they wasting you on?”

“Don’t act like you’re so above it all,” I snapped. “You’re literally a pimp.”

He laughed—a real laugh, not the condescending chuckle—and I froze. I was starting to simultaneously look forward to and dread these moments when Nico smiled and seemed like a real person. It was fucking with me.

He stood from the table and took two steps toward me. My instinct was to step back, but I held my ground, refusing to give him the upper hand. He was almost a foot taller than me, so I was forced to tilt my head back the closer he got. I shivered as he invaded my space.

“How long do you think you’ll last out there? Every time you’ve left the hotel you’ve been shot at,” he said.

“Because I was with Sophie…or I looked like Sophie from a distance. She’s the target, right? She’s the one you’re protecting. Most people don’t even know I even exist.”

Nico narrowed his eyes. “We don’t know that for sure.”

I grimaced. “Even my dad didn’t want to send me here. Just Sophie. They’re only worried about her, so I don’t know why you of all people would want to take it upon yourself to worry about me more than my own family. You were the one saying that we all needed to remember what sides we’re on.”

Nico’s face hardened. He looked angry, but not that blind rage I’d seen a few times at this point. Still, for the sake of the furniture, I kind of wanted to confiscate his gun. He’d just gotten a new table. I said as much.

He gave me another of his weird looks, the ones I couldn’t quite read. Still, he pulled the gun out of his belt and handed it to me. “You are the only person I’ve ever met who wouldn’t be terrified to talk to me like that.”

“Please, you’re not as scary as you think you are.”

He smiled dangerously. “Rabbit, you have no idea how scary I can be.”

A thrill traveled up my spine, and I bit my lip. I wasn’t totally sure what we were talking about anymore.

The door opened and Rush entered, followed closely by Beck. They both stopped short at the sight of us standing inches apart in the kitchen, the gun held between us.

“I thought you guys were getting along better now?” Beck whined, striding over to the couch. “Or is this a kink thing? Cause that’s cool. Do you.”

I laughed, but I was the only one. Rush threw Beck a hard look that I couldn’t decipher and cleared his throat. He sat down at the table. “How’s Giovanna?”

Blinking furiously, Nico stepped back abruptly, and I was left feeling like I was missing something.

“As expected. She took the Aspen house and the Challenger.” Nico pulled the gun back out of my hand and put it on the table.

“Fucking typical. When’s the party?” Rush asked.

“Saturday,” Nico sighed, running a hand through his jet-black hair. “In the meantime, Raegan here thinks she’s leaving.”

Beck looked up quickly, his face falling comically. “Why?”

I squirmed uncomfortably. “I did my job here, right? I always had to go back, eventually.”

Rush stared at me intently and Beck seriously looked like I’d popped his birthday balloon. Fuck. I needed to get out of here, just to avoid this conversation. I couldn’t handle this shit.

“I thought you were happy here,” Beck said finally.

“I—” I didn’t know what to say. There were some things I liked. Most of them were in this room…but this wasn’t sustainable. They had to know that. I couldn’t be kept in this hotel like a fucking prisoner, and God knew these guys would get bored with me sooner rather than later, and then what? I’d have basically sold my soul to the enemy for orgasms. Undoubtedly a lot of them, but the aftermath would be way too messy. I just couldn’t.

“What do you think is going to happen?” I asked seriously. “I can’t stay here forever.”

The guys looked at each other, some silent communication passing between them I couldn’t follow. It was suddenly like those first days after we’d arrived all over again, where I knew they were keeping something from me and couldn’t figure out what. The question of why my father would want Nico of all people to protect Sophie screamed in my head. Maybe I was talking to the wrong people. The guys obviously weren’t going to tell me. Maybe I needed to talk to my dad. Or someone who worked for my dad.

“You’re right, Raegan,” Nico said. “You don’t have to stay. I won’t force you to.”

I narrowed my eyes. Something about that phrasing nagged at me. I stared at him for a moment, before realizing it was the use of the word “won’t” as opposed to “can’t.” Most people would have said, “I can’t make you stay here.” A subtle, but powerful distinction.

“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” I said.

Nico’s lip curled. “You’d be going home to resume stealing, correct?”

“You know that’s what I do.”

“I suspect that’s not all you’ve been trained to do, but fine. That’s what you’re being used for,” he said, more to himself than to me.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I growled.

“Nothing,” Beck jumped in. “He’s being a dick, ignore him.”

Oh, if only I could. My life would be so much easier if I’d just ignored all of them.

“There will be at least a hundred high profile people at the party on Saturday. That would be the ideal target for you,” Nico spoke like we hadn’t been interrupted.

I bit my lip. That would be a good target, but again I could feel a catch coming. I didn’t speak, just waited for the other shoe to drop.

“I would be willing to give you free rein of the party if you did something for me.”

“What’s that?”

“Picked up the cell phones of some specific people, bring them to Rush, and then returned them to the people without their noticing. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

I contemplated that for a moment. The actual job wasn’t hard. The problem was that it would mean staying with them for another three days at least. Planning an operation. Digging myself deeper into whatever mess this was.

“Why do you even care?” I snapped.

“About the phones? I thought you understood the situation with our men defecting to The Trilogy. Of course, I fucking care.”

“No.” I ran a hand through my hair. “About me staying. You must have thieves. You probably didn’t even need me here in the first place. This is all out of your way, and I know I’m not the target of the shootings, so what’s the point?”

Beck and Rush looked at each other again, and I looked down. For them, I assumed the point was slightly different. For Nico, though, who the fuck knew. Yeah, he might kind of flirt with me occasionally, but that was not what this was about. I wasn’t stupid, and neither was he. He had some motive for wanting me here, and I wanted to know what it was.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “You know what, Rabbit? Fine. Stay for the party, and I’ll answer your stupid fucking question. One question, that’s all you get.”

I tried not to make eye contact with either Beck or Rush as I answered. I really wanted to keep this about business, and I felt like if I looked at them everything was going to get all confused. I glared at Nico, and my heart beat a violent rhythm against my ribs. “Deal.”