Red Handed by Jessa Wilder

Iwas getting some serious fucking Déjà Vu.

I stood in the back of a vast conference room on the third floor of the hotel. Nico sat on the end of the long table with Rush and several armed Gentlemen behind him. Beck apparently wasn’t needed for this sort of meeting and was thrilled to be allowed to stay upstairs.

My parents sat on the opposite end of the table surrounded by Brian, Patrick, Connor, and two additional guards whose names I couldn’t remember. My father looked the complete opposite of Nico in jeans and his ever-present leather jacket. Meanwhile, my mother was trying out another new lipstick. She was seriously starting to look like Giovanna and it was creeping me the fuck out.

I hovered awkwardly near my parents, slightly to their right. I wasn’t quite sure where I was supposed to stand. That in and of itself was a bad fucking sign. I needed to get my shit together.

“How’s your sister?” my mother asked me into the awkward silence.

“Fine,” I said shortly. I racked my brains to think of something to tell her about Sophie. “She’s getting into Yoga.”

Nico coughed across the table, and I glanced at him. His expression was odd, like he was having a mild aneurysm.

“That’s nice,” Mom said blithely.

I glanced back and forth between Nico and my parents. It wasn’t totally clear to me what we were waiting for, yet apparently everyone else in the room was totally on the same page.

I didn’t have to wait long to find out what was going on. The conference room door opened and Giovanna wafted in. She wore a skintight, calf-length black dress with an actual fucking cape that made her look like Cruella de Vil. Her hair was pulled into a tight bun as usual, and her red lipstick matched her inch long nails. I glanced down at my outfit of shorts and a crop top. There hadn’t been a lot of time to do much more than grab my gun belt from my room and chug a bottle of water. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have changed even if I had known she was coming.

“Sorry I’m late, Darling.” She bent and gave Nico an air kiss on each cheek.

“Don’t lie, Mother,” he snapped.

Giovanna smiled as she sat down, pulled a gun out of her purse, and placed it on the table. “Fair enough.”

“Gigi,” my father greeted her gruffly.

“James. Mary. I would say it’s good to see you, but I’ve just been chastised for lying.”

I choked, trying to hide my laughter. Jesus Christ, we should not have held this meeting right after we’d all been drinking. How the hell Nico managed to seem sober was beyond me. I’d seen him down three of those terrifyingly strong gin cocktails.

I wondered absently why Giovanna needed to be here at all. Her role and her relationship with my parents baffled me. That was just one of the many things on my growing list of questions. It probably wasn’t something my dad needed information on, though. He obviously wasn’t confused.

“Can we get on with it?” Dad said. “Some of us have shit to do.”

Nico looked dangerous for a second before he schooled his features. “Fine. Raegan told you what we learned from tracking down The Hatter’s tech lead.”

My dad crossed his arms and nodded. It had been a relatively brief phone conversation that I’d taken in Sophie’s bathroom, drowned out by the sound of her workout video. Nico may have wanted me to tell my dad about the gun run, but I wasn’t sure we wanted to advertise the run was on our supply line. For once, my dad seemed pleased by my forethought in that area.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting us to do about this,” Dad said.

Nico raised a brow. “The Trilogy already has enough weapons to form a small army. If they’re bringing in more and not selling them, it’s against all our best interests.”

Dad nodded, conceding the point. “What are you suggesting, though?”

The problem with this conversation was the same one I had upstairs. My dad also didn’t seem sure if Nico realized the guns were coming from our supplier and clearly didn’t want him to know. It couldn’t have been clearer that this alliance was built on a foundation of sand and straw if we weren’t even able to share that much information. It made me wonder what Nico was keeping from me.

“Unless you can think of a…” Nico smiled. “Faster way, we’ll have to intercept them at the shipping yard.”

I’d already thought through all of this, as I was sure my dad had. Mount Summer ran our weapons shipments through several supply chains so as not to rely too much on one supplier or make anything too obvious. The location that was being targeted was a large dealer over the state line who shipped guns to us as car parts for our dealerships. It was likely that the Trilogy had made a deal with the same dealer, rather than intercepting our order. I double checked with Brian and our last order came in on the fifteenth. We weren’t due for another shipment for another forty-five days.

The fastest solution would be to go straight to the supplier and threaten them to change The Hatter’s order, but that would involve revealing that we knew who the supplier was. That information wasn’t on the tech kid’s computer, probably because he didn’t know. All he had was the location and information for the drop point, which was the same shipping yard that Mount Summer used.

My dad narrowed his eyes on Nico. “Can’t say I can think of a better way than the shipping yard.”

Nico snorted. He knew we were lying. “Fine. Your men can take the lead, then.”

They talked about some particulars, while I glanced back and forth between them like a tennis match. A tennis match where the ball was on fire and if you lost, you had to step in front of a firing squad. As they spoke, an errant thought nagged at the back of my brain.

We—Mount Summer—didn’t want Nico to know we worked with the same gun supplier, or that we knew him, but what was stopping my dad from just making a call on his own time? He could call the supplier, threaten them, and never tell Nico that’s how the gun shipment mysteriously failed to show up.

I eyed my father as he stood from the table, my mother so close to his shoulder you would think she was fused there.

“I’ll walk you out,” I said.

Nico and Rush both gave me long looks as we exited the conference room. Giovanna, surprisingly, had immersed herself in her phone and didn’t seem to care what we were doing. Maybe what Nico had said about her was right—she was just mean for the sake of it, it wasn’t personal.

The elevator doors closed on my parents and I and I rounded on my dad. “Why can’t you just call and stop this?”

“Shut up,” he snapped.

Frustration and resentment roared in my stomach. He expected me to be his spy—a loyal soldier—but wouldn’t tell me anything.

“Nico will realize it, too. I need to know why you can’t just call the supplier.”

“You can tell Nico to shove it up his ass,” my father snapped, sneering around his name. I’d forgotten until this moment that only his friends really called him that.

The elevator opened, and my parents strode toward the exit. My father stopped at the revolving doors, turning back to me. His smile was mean—I had to wonder if he and Giovanna hadn’t picked up some mannerisms from each other.

“I already called,” Dad said. “It’s not an option. The supplier is keeping the order with The Hatter.”

My eyes widened. “What the fuck?”

“I’ll see you at home tomorrow, Raegan. Don’t forget, I’m still expecting my report.”

I watched them go. When had the entire world turned upside down, and how was I still hanging on to the edge?

* * *

I swung open the door to my room with way more force than necessary. I glanced at my phone as I unclipped my gun belt with one hand and discarded it on my bed. It was well past midnight. Good God, I was becoming nocturnal.

I had a vague memory of Giovanna saying that most of the Gentlemen’s business was conducted at night. She wasn’t wrong. Nico really kept everyone working way later than was strictly fair, and days started on the very late side. I guess we were probably keeping time with the call-girls and their clients in case anything went wrong, but I hadn’t thought much about it. I had barely interacted with any of them since I got here.

Not bothering to close the door between my bedroom and the living room, or even the bathroom door, I stripped out of my clothes and left them in a trail across the floor. Shaking out my ponytail, I turned on the shower for the second time today. The long day combined with the drinking earlier had made me feel disgusting. The honey vanilla scent of whatever fancy shampoo the maids kept putting in my room quickly filled the bathroom. I needed to find out what the hell brand it was because it was excellent.

As I stood under the scalding hot shower, I remembered that I’d completely forgotten to yell at Rush for beating the shit out of Connor. That was going to have to go on my to-do list for tomorrow. That shit was not okay.

Everything prior to the meeting had now been overshadowed. If my dad had already called the supplier, he must have had the same thought I did. That we could stop the shipment at the source without ever telling Nico how it happened. If that call hadn’t worked, did that mean we’d just lost a supplier to the Trilogy?

“Raegan!”

My stomach dropped out, and I froze, shampoo suds dripping down the side of my face. What the fuck was that?

“Raegan?”

Oh, Jesus Christ.

“You cannot fucking let yourself into my room, Nicolai,” I screamed over the water. “I’m in the shower, get the fuck out.”

“I did knock,” Nico said from far too close.

“And I didn’t answer, so you decided to barge in like you own the place?”

He laughed, and I could’ve banged my head against the wall. I sort of walked into that one. I peered through the steamed, lightly frosted glass. I could just make out his absurdly tall frame leaning against the vanity, arms crossed over his chest. My heart beat wildly against my ribs. Holy hell, suddenly the hot water was nothing compared to my flaming skin.

“Get out,” I demanded.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Now?” I said, incredulously.

He wanted to talk to me, now? Naked? I did not have the emotional capacity for this shit. Fuck, forget emotions, I just didn’t have the self-control. Living in this hotel was like being a recovering sugar addict in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

“Yes. I don't like—”

“Waiting,” I finished for him, dragging a hand down my face in exasperation. “Get some new material, man. That bit is dead.”

“Fine. I’ll be in your room.”

“Whatever,” I ground out.

I turned the water to as cold as possible and finished rinsing my hair, then stepped out tentatively, making sure he had really left. He had, but of course he hadn’t shut the door. Awesome.

In the mirror's reflection above the sink, I could see Nico had decided it was perfectly acceptable to stretch out on my bed. He lay on his back, arms under his head, staring at the ceiling. I sighed and grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself so tightly it dug into the skin under my arms.

“Don’t look,” I yelled. “My clothes are out there.”

“I doubt you have anything special I haven’t seen before,” Nico said. His words were harsh, but his tense shoulders didn’t match his feigned relaxation.

I bent and felt around on the floor for something to wear. Grabbing a large t-shirt, I threw it over my head and let the towel fall to the floor. In an ideal world I would find some panties too, but I didn’t really want to bend over and dig in my suitcase with Nico right there.

Fuck it. I crossed my arms over my chest and popped a hip out, hoping I looked casual. Like I always had serious conversations in a t-shirt and no underwear.

“What did you want?”

Nico looked over at me, his eyes lingering for a second on where my wet hair was soaking through my shirt. “I’m going to buy you new clothes, this is fucking ridiculous.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s what couldn’t wait until I was out of the shower?”

He was joking, right? I recoiled in confusion. Nico was sort of unintentionally funny himself, but he had the worst sense of humor imaginable. He rarely laughed and never, ever, joked as far as I could tell.

He blinked twice, sitting up on the edge of my unmade bed. “No. Jesus Christ, never mind.”

Nico’s usually perfect hair was all over the place, making him look overall younger and less threatening than usual. He’d abandoned his suit jacket and tie and undone the top few buttons of his white dress shirt, pushing the sleeves up to the elbows to expose his tattoos. As with the last time I’d seen them, I really wanted to take a closer look. Would he let me? I felt like I was living in the fucking Twilight Zone.

“Then what is it?”

“I know you know where those guns are coming from,” he drawled.

“You think I know, or you think my father knows?” I smiled, trying to mimic Giovanna. I probably looked like I was having a stroke.

His dark eyes bore into me. “I know you know. You’re a terrible liar, Rabbit.”

“Maybe I’m an excellent liar,” I said as my heart beat furiously.

I meant it off-hand, but there was some truth to that. He didn’t know my dad had asked me to spy on them. That was a lie by omission. I was pretty good at lying to myself about my fucked up feelings. That counted, right?

“I don’t even fucking care who the supplier is,” he said. “Just make the call and stop the shipment. I don’t want a gang war any more than you do. We both know what that looks like.”

I bit my lip, closing my eyes and tilting my head up to the ceiling. Fuck. Of course, he’d come to the exact conclusion I’d predicted. I just assumed he’d go to my dad and not me. Knowing we’d already tried to make the call, and it hadn’t worked…I couldn’t say that. I couldn’t say nothing though, either.

“It’s not an option,” I said, anxiety churning in my stomach.

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

“What you’re asking isn’t an option.”

“Why?” He stood and took two steps toward me, so I had to tilt my head to maintain eye contact. My breath caught. My lack of real clothes and our tight proximity suddenly made the room feel very, very small.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” I whispered.

His eyes scanned all over my face, just like they had the other night when he was checking me for injuries. “Fine.”

Something like excitement traveled up my spine as the mood seemed to shift. I took half a step closer until I could feel his breath against my face.

Nico straightened, blinking hard, and turned away from me. “Don’t fuck me over on this,” he snapped as he grabbed his abandoned suit jacket from my bed.

I didn’t bother to reply, knowing it would be lost, as he was already halfway out the door.