Red Handed by Jessa Wilder

Isat at Nico’s kitchen table, shoveling the last of my eggs into my mouth. Beck leaned against the stove, trying, yet again, to go over the information he got out of the guy he “creatively interrogated” three nights ago. Nico was barely listening.

I cleared my throat, earning me a glare from Nico. “If The Trilogy’s trying to recruit new members, the sheer number of Mount Summer men that keep turning up dead shows their members are loyal to their death.”

“So?” Nico snapped.

“It makes me wonder why our men are just disappearing.”

Now I had their attention. Nothing pissed Nico off like mentioning anything positive about Mount Summer, except maybe bringing up his brother.

Beck growled and slammed his hand on the table. “Are you saying our guys turned traitor and signed up?”

Yeah. That’s exactly what I was saying, and I would be shocked if Nico hadn’t already come to the same conclusion. “It sure as hell looks like it.”

Nico turned to me. “I’m going to the uptown office to get an exact head count of missing men. You two go stake out the Trilogy headquarters and see if anything interesting turns up.”

Nico threw on his jacket over his guns and walked out without even yelling. Interesting. Quiet Nico was almost worse than Screaming Nico. He was going to blow a gasket later if we found anything. Or, more likely, blow up some of his furniture. We’d just gotten the new couch, too.

Beck groaned, rubbing his face. “Fuck, man, I need to get some sleep. Between making that guy squeal, the explosion, and hunting down the bomber. I’ve barely gotten any sleep in the last three days.”

“Learn anything good? I wasn’t really listening.”

Beck shrugged. “Kind of. I had to pull like half his teeth out first, though, and I hate that. Fingers are so much cleaner.”

I nodded. “You sleep. I can go. It’s just sitting in a car.”

“Thanks, man.” He clapped me on the shoulder.

I stood, an idea forming in my head. We had the enemy in our grasp. The redheaded thief from Mount Summer was probably bored out of her mind. No better time to pump her for information. She hadn’t come out of her room at all in the last forty-eight hours, as far as I knew, and I was itching to know how the hell she broke into our hotel. I smiled. Nico was going to fucking kill me.

Once I got to her room, doubt closed in. Not that I’d admit it out loud, but our dance haunted me. That brief time before I knew she was not only a member of Mount Summer, but Jimmy’s daughter…dammit.

I hesitated for a second, then knocked. She took her sweet-ass time before answering, but it was worth the wait. Rae wore a thin-strapped tank top that showed off her tanned stomach, and the shortest sleep shorts known to man. I wasn’t prepared to see all her smooth skin, and I had to suppress a groan. I raked my hand through my hair. Enemy. She’s the enemy.

“What do you want?” she demanded, one eyebrow raised.

I closed my eyes and looked at the ceiling until I got my shit under control. I was supposed to hate her, but she was making it fucking difficult standing there looking like my teenage wet dream. “You bored?”

Rae inhaled sharply, and my gaze snapped back to her. Her eyes traveled over me, taking in every detail. She bit her bottom lip. She wasn’t as unaffected as she’d like to appear. Right now, she was eyeing me like she could lick me, and God knew I wanted to let her, no matter what side of the city she was from. There was no fucking denying the chemistry between us, that the hate did nothing to dampen. When her gaze met mine, her cheeks went pink.

“No, I just love being stuck in prison waiting on some asshole to tell me what to do,” she said, wrenching her eyes away from me and putting her hands on her hips. “Tell your boss to hurry the fuck up. I don’t have all the time in the world to wait for him to come up with what he wants from me.”

I ignored the way her stance put her breasts on display and jerked my head toward the elevator. “Come on, I’ve got a job for us.”

Her eyes lit up with obvious interest, but her voice was still suspicious. “What kind of job? Are we finally going to look for the laptop?”

I nodded, apprehension about this entire idea slipping in. “I’m doing some recon today. You can come.”

“Recon where?” She reached behind her and pulled a gun holster out of nowhere, immediately strapping it over her bare thigh. I had to hold back a groan.

“First, you need to change.” There was no way I’d survive in the car with her dressed like that.

She followed my gaze and rolled her eyes. “Fine. Give me five minutes.”

I was leaning against the wall outside her door when she popped out into the hall. I checked her over. She’d thrown on a pair of jean shorts, a band t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. I titled my head. She was still sexy, but at least my dick stopped growing in my pants. “You ready?”

“Just desperate to get outside.” She practically skipped to the elevator.

I choked on a laugh. It was only her second morning here. From the way she was acting, you’d think we kept her in a dungeon for a month. “Well, don’t get too excited. We’re just watching a building for several hours.”

“Literally, whatever. I just want to do something. I’m not used to having any downtime.”

I eyed her curiously. What was her job at Mount Summer? I sort of assumed she was another pampered Mafia princess, like her sister, but clearly not. It was good information to have.

The moment the elevator doors opened, I led the way to the small convenience store attached to the hotel. Rae’s mouth dropped open and her eyes were wide as she scanned the room. She grinned, looking like she’d never seen snacks before.

“Grab something to eat. It’s going to be a long day,” I said, keeping my gaze averted.

“Where do you usually eat?” she asked, as she scanned the room and headed for the glass case doors. “I saw the restaurant on the third floor yesterday.”

Hmm. So she had left her room at some point. “Yeah, there’s that, but we usually just hang out in Nico’s room. Beck—the uh, blonde guy, you met him—he’s a pretty good cook.”

Rae nodded. I wasn’t sure why I was explaining any of this. She probably didn’t care. “Met” was also a fucking weird way to say you looked like you were going to let him fuck you up against the wall in the alleyway. A tinge of jealousy settled into my stomach. Beck had no problem flirting with her, even after he found out she was from Mount Summer. It was my job to know better.

“Won’t he miss you tonight?”

“What?” I blinked. What were we talking about?

“Won’t Nico miss you for dinner?”

“Probably,” I scoffed.

Nico could wait forever, as far as I was concerned. I was going to drag out this stakeout as long as humanly possible, if only to try to get information out of her.

* * *

The silence stretched around us, heavy and awkward. We’d been sitting in a residential area on the South Side of town watching a plain brick building for the last twenty minutes in near complete silence. Fuck, I wasn’t sure why I thought I could grill her for information. Talking wasn’t my strong suit.

Interrogation was Beck’s job for several reasons, although the thought of him using his methods on this fiery redhead made my stomach roil. Truth was, I didn’t want to look too closely at what I’d really been thinking when I asked her to come with me. Interrogation was definitely only part of it.

The thief finally caved, bored in the silence. “So, where are we?”

I drank the last of her water and smiled, doing my best to piss her off. She glared at me, but I ignored it. “We’ve got a lot of surveillance equipment around the hotels, for obvious reasons. We picked up a few different people on the cameras the other day that we couldn’t account for. They weren’t guests or employees or connected to anyone at the gala.” I gestured up at the brick apartment building. “This is where one of those guys’ lives.”

Her head tilted in question, but her eyes didn't shift from the entrance. “How do you know?”

I just smirked. “We have ways.”

She snorted and looked my way. “You're not impressing me with that. I broke through your security, remember? That’s literally why I’m here.”

Fuck, her sass got me going. I didn’t intimidate her at all, and it was sexy as all hell. I pushed down the feeling under a blanket of nothingness and gave a nod of recognition. “Tell me how you broke into the hotel. We’re going to be watching this building for a while. We’ve got time.”

“You guys all act like it’s hard,” she replied, not really answering my question.

Fuck, who was this girl? My security was tight. “It is hard,” I deadpanned. “Well, it should have been. You might have had an advantage because Beck was on guard that night and he’s easily distracted.”

That had to be it. Beck was the weak link in this equation. Not that he usually made mistakes—dude was just as good at his job as I was—but we all knew he had royally fucked up that night. Starting with torturing a mark right behind the hotel, and ending with letting Rae distract him. Seriously, sometimes I wondered if his adrenaline addiction was getting dangerous.

Rae’s face turned bright red, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She looked adorable. All innocent and shit. I clamped my mouth shut. What the fuck was I doing?

“Oh, so he told you about that?”

I raised an eyebrow and lowered my voice. “We share pretty much everything.”

She turned, if it was possible, even redder, and I smiled. I was pretty sure she wasn’t embarrassed this time. I had no idea what idiotic idea made me say that, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying her reaction. I may know who she was now, but that didn’t stop the memories of how she felt against me from seeping in. Luckily, she’d be gone soon and I would forget all about sleeping with the enemy.

We watched the house for a few more minutes, but nothing happened. If the guy we were waiting for was home, I doubted he intended to come out. Instead, the tension in the SUV was growing palpable. The energy between us a constant pull. I glanced over at her. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly. My gaze caught on the movement, watching her pulse tick in her neck. I clenched my fist, fighting the urge to feel her there.

I relaxed a little as she started asking questions. “What do you do for Nico?”

Grateful for the distraction, I answered. “Technically, I’m the head of security.”

She gave me a side eyed look. “What does ‘technically’ mean?”

That was a good fucking question that I wasn’t sure I should answer. I was supposed to be pumping her for information, but she was better at it than I was. Still, my role wasn’t a secret, and she’d figure it out eventually.

I peeled up the edge of my t-shirt to show her my Gentlemen tattoo. She nodded at the gray-scale skull wearing a crown. The jewels in the crown marked me as upper management.

I’d gotten the tattoo on my sixteenth birthday, same as Beck and Nico. All the jewels had been added when Nico took over the organization from his dad five years later. Fuck, that was five years ago now. I was probably due for a touch up.

She tucked her knees to her chest and took a giant bite of her pepperoni stick. “So you’re a happy henchman, then? Did the Espositos also give you your prison name?”

She said the most absurd shit, I had no idea what she was talking about. “My what?”

“Come on, ‘Rush’? That’s not a real name.”

“Sebastian Rushmore,” I said shortly.

Her eyes widened. So she’s heard of my dad. No surprises there, I guess. As far as I was concerned, though, my dad could take the name and shove it up his ass. If ‘Sebastian’ wasn’t so unbearable, I’d have changed my last name altogether.

“I’m no one’s henchman.” I glared at her. “I run the Gentlemen. Keep them in line for Nico.”

She smirked. “See it’s that ‘for Nico’ part that makes you a henchman.”

I rubbed my hands over my face, suppressing a groan. I wasn’t going to let her get under my skin. “Do you know how to use those?” I asked, eying the guns on her hips. Knowing the question would piss her off.

“What do you think?” she deadpanned.

My lips tipped up at the corners as I watched her indignant scowl. She was fucking hot when pissed. “Okay, I deserved that,” I said, shocked that my voice came out normal and didn’t betray every depraved thought running through my head. “I just thought a princess of a gangland would be hidden in an ivory tower.”

She laughed loud, filling the cab, and my chest tightened at the sound; defying every attempt to deny my reaction to her. “That would be my sister. I’m the spare. Totally dispensable.”

I stiffened. Her words didn’t sit well. Her family didn’t really treat her like that, right? Then again, maybe there was some truth there. I knew of Sophie O’Rourke, at least in passing, but I’d never even heard about her having a sister. The little firecracker glared at me, daring me to comment. No fucking thank you. Beck had a headache for days after she got through with him, and I liked my hearing the way it was.

When I said nothing else, she relaxed in her seat. “Tell me what’s going on.” She took another bite of her food. “We’re supposed to be a team.” She air quoted the word team, sarcasm dripping from her tongue.

She was definitely better at interrogations than I was. “You heard everyone talking about The Trilogy, right? Do you know who they are?”

“Not really,” she admitted bitterly. “My dad isn’t super forthcoming.”

“Figures.” I scowled, taking a sip of coffee. “Why fill you in when you’re risking your life, right?”

She blinked up at me and I felt my breath catch in my throat. A treacherous thought kept creeping in. Who the fuck wouldn’t want to keep her safe?

Reigning in my thoughts, I said, “Well, they’re a new group who have been gaining a lot of support in the city over the last few years. They’ve got several hundred members and they’re growing fast. Pretty soon they’ll be as big as The Gentlemen and Mount Summer combined.” The crisp bite of anger pierced through me. The only people we might hate more than Mount Summer was The Trilogy.

She bit her lip, drawing my attention. “Nico said they came up from the south?”

My eyebrows shot up. Nico wasn’t known for sharing anything. Ever. Even for me and Beck, getting information out of him was like pulling teeth. Even that small tidbit was…fucking weird is what it was.

I kept talking, trying not to let her see any of the thoughts racing through my head. “Yeah, but The Hatter is expanding fast. First, they were just recruiting high school kids, but then it was everyone. They’re buying up property on the East End of the city down by the waterfront. Giovanna thinks there are moles in both Mount Summer and The Gentlemen helping to recruit men from The North and South End. They’ve been pretty quiet for a while, but they got bold the other night bombing the hotel.”

“What kind of name is ‘The Hatter?’” she scoffed.

“We don’t know his real name. We can’t even find a picture, they always wear masks.”

Her brows furrowed. “Why would they do that, though?”

“What? The moles, the masks, or the bombing?”

“All of it, I guess.” She unscrewed my water bottle and took a sip. “But I meant the bombing. Why would anyone do that?”

“To cause a distraction. There was a lot of serious information on the laptop they stole from the judge. Information that could bring down the Esposito family and the entire Gentlemen organization.”

It pissed me off to no fucking end that those assholes had breached my security to plant the bomb. I guess Beck and I were zero for two this week. At least Nico seemed to have his shit somewhat together.

“So…why are we all working together now? Is it just numbers? The Trilogy is big, so we’re working together to outnumber them?”

I just shrugged. Like hell I was going to be the one to explain the reason behind the alliance to her. “Something like that. You’d have to ask Nico.”

She snorted. “That’s never gonna happen.”

I glanced at her, then froze as something moved out of the corner of my eye. Fuck!

“Get down,” I hissed, already reaching for my gun.

Years of experience had her acting fast. She ducked, crouching low on the floor of the passenger side of the car. “What’s going on?”

Across the street, three men had exited a van and dragged a fourth guy toward the building. He was unmistakably unconscious.

“A bunch of guys just came out of the building.”

“So?”

I only recognized two of the four men. One was a guy named Carson, a known Trilogy member who specialized in surveillance. He was the guy we were here to watch. The second guy, though, was the one who freaked me out for a second.

Enzo was a Gentlemen. A long-time member, who Nico had inherited from his dad. I didn’t know him well, but I knew enough to be both surprised and concerned that he was standing across the street with Carson and some other Trilogy members. If he was funneling information to The Trilogy, that was bad. Really fucking bad.

I glanced down at Rae, doing my best not to look down her shirt. Jesus, why was I thinking like that right now? I huffed out a breath and trained my gaze back on the men. I was starting to empathize with Beck for acting like an idiot around her.

“I don’t want them to see you,” I told her. “First of all, it screws everything up if we need you to break in anywhere, and second, you look a lot like your sister.”

“What?” She gaped at me. “Why does that matter?”

I glanced back and forth between Rae on the floor and where the Trilogy members were dragging the limp body toward the door. Rae stared at me expectantly, and it took me a second to remember what she’d asked. “I mean, now I can see the difference, but yeah. Except for the hair you look a lot alike.”

Before the other day, I’d only ever seen pictures of Sophie, and all taken before she dyed her hair blonde. When I pulled that mask off Rae’s face, I was struck by the knowledge she was Sophie. The overwhelming feeling of disappointment had squeezed my chest. In the few minutes I’d known her, she’d sparked more in me than the countless women I’d been surviving on. Disappointment was quickly burned out by rage. I’d been so sure she’d set me up, but from the way she was reacting to me now, I wondered if it was all just a cruel mistake.

Her head tilted to the side, eyes scanning over mine. “You don’t know Sophie, though, right? Or you didn’t?”

“No, but I’d seen pictures. At the gala I thought you were her. I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistake.”

“Why am I here if I’m ruining your stake-out just by the possibility someone could see me?” she hissed.

I ran my hands through my hair, looking back and forth between her and the men disappearing through the door. “Because I’m a fucking idiot.” I squeezed my eyes shut and blew air through my nose in a sharp sigh. “Fuck!”

“Well, I guess none of them can leave here talking then.” She held out her hand. “Truce?”

I scanned her face, looking for any hint of betrayal, but her eyes were wide and clear. I grabbed her hand, ignoring the electric current burning up my arm. “Truce. For now.”

Her gaze met mine, and she nodded. “For now.”

We jumped out of the truck and barely made it to the building’s door before it locked shut. The effort it took to hall the limp body up the stairs distracted the Trilogy men. The firecracker beside me lifted her gun, clearing her throat, and drew all their attention to her. Their hands full with the man’s body, they didn’t have time to grab for their guns.

Enzo’s eyes went wide the moment they met mine. “This is a misunderstanding.”

“Too fucking late,” I said, firing off three rounds, and all the men crumpled to the ground. I looked over to Rae, watching her reaction. She didn’t blink an eye at the violence, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d completely misjudged her. It didn’t bother me as much as it should have. I grabbed my phone and sent off a quick text to the clean-up crew. I pushed the door open, holding it for Rae, and we headed back to the Rover. “Nico is going to fucking lose his shit.”

“Why?” she asked. “You got the guy you were looking for, right? Or at least one of them.”

“That I risked another reason for the Trilogy to target you,” I said without thinking.

“Wait,” she said slowly and got back in her seat. “What do you mean they’re targeting me? No one said anything about that.”

I looked at her sideways. “Sorry, Firecracker, but that’s also something you’d have to ask Nico.”

Some sick, self-sabotaging part of me hoped she asked Nico. I didn’t know why, but I had a feeling that if she found out the truth, she’d be gone within the hour. She was already working her way under our skin and making us sloppy. Beck lost a mark. I screwed up the surveillance. Nico brought her here at all, which was borderline masochistic.

I huffed a breath through my nose as I drove away a strange feeling of impending…something…hanging over me. I never claimed to be the most perceptive guy in the world, but if I were a betting man, I would put all my money that this girl was going to be trouble.