Liars and Liaisons by Sav R. Miller

33

The blue-haired woman’sbeen giving me the absolute stink-eye for the last half hour. She keeps a tattooed arm stretched beneath the table, petting the little black dog sitting by her chair, but her striking golden eyes remain on me.

Across the table, two inky-haired men nearly matching my height sit; the one with icy-blue eyes has his arm slung over the tattooed woman’s chair, his index finger toying with the ends of her hair as he peruses a menu. I remember him from the political fundraiser—Aplana Island’s Mayor Wolfe.

The other stares at Violet as she tries her father’s phone for the billionth time, his almost-black gaze a bit sullen, as if he finds her attempts useless.

He has her nose. It’s longer, thicker, but the slope is the same. And the eyes, they’re hers too—just darker. Angrier. Eviler. I can understand her wanting to put distance between them; that’s the kind of darkness no light gets through.

I’ve already forgotten their names, but the scrutiny from the little diner’s other patrons makes me remember why I don’t go out in public. It’s been so long since I left the estate for longer than a short trip down the mountain that I’m stricken with that familiar urge to flee.

My eyes mark the exits; the one caveat to the whole situation is that we’re outside, so at least escape wouldn’t be that difficult. I’d have to throw Violet over my shoulder to get her to accompany me though. She’s not short, but I don’t think she’d be able to keep up.

To be honest, I’m not sure she’d want to after my fucking confession in the SUV. I don’t know what possessed me to be so brutally honest, if it was the orgasm or my father making me spiral, but the words tumbled out before I had the chance to stop them.

And she didn’t say it back.

Tough break, Grayson. Between that and NEAA’s dean needing alibis to prove I didn’t do something I definitely did, today’s not been my day.

The blue-haired woman leans across the table, narrowing her eyes at me. “Why are you still here?”

I blink. “Where else would I be?”

She wrinkles her nose. “You smell like sex. What have you been doing to my cousin?”

Folding my hands over my chest, I give her a small smirk. “Seems like you already know the answer to that.”

Her brother shifts in his chair. Pointedly.

“Is that what you do?” the woman continues, her voice growing in volume. Evidently, her fuse is quite short. “Hire women to clean your house and then fuck them?”

“Not always. I made an exception with Violet.”

Her face reddens, and I see the family resemblance. “You know, I could have you reported for abuse of power.”

I try to smother my smirk, but it doesn’t particularly work. At her side, Mayor Wolfe chuckles, tugging on her hair.

“M’eudail, need I remind you how we began?”

“That’s different,” she says, shrugging him off. His hand just falls to the back of her seat, waiting. “Violet is sweet and innocent, and I don’t want him ruining her.”

“On the contrary,” I tell her, gesturing in her direction with my glass of iced tea, “your cousin’s the one ruining me.”

That seems to satisfy the little guard dog, and she goes back to petting her actual dog while Violet’s brother continues staring at me. I meet it head-on, aware of the rumors that follow the man around like a ghost.

Even if you don’t live on the island, the entire East Coast has heard of Violet’s brother in some capacity. The nickname Dr. Death isn’t given lightly or without due cause.

I simply don’t care.

Violet groans, slamming her phone down on the table. “Something isn’t right, you guys, I’m telling you. My mom isn’t even answering the phone. If Dad was in jail, why wouldn’t she reach out to me?”

“Maybe for the same reason you never told her about your father’s debt,” I supply with a shrug. “She likely thinks she’s protecting you.”

Violet’s brother’s gaze hardens. “What debt?”

She shoots me a glare. “It’s nothing.”

“I wouldn’t call half a million dollars owed to the Persico family nothing, but perhaps our definitions are different.”

The table quiets, and Violet stares daggers at me. “Is this really the game you want to play right now?”

My nostrils flare, the urge to say yes and to keep pushing her buttons rearing up inside me like a tsunami wave. I’m punishing her for either not revealing her feelings or for the fact that they don’t exist at all, and neither seems very fair.

If I’m actually in love with her, I shouldn’t want to push her to feel the same. It needs to be organic and real, and that can’t be forced.

Otherwise, I’ll be no better than Nate or my father, and everything I’ve done to prove I am will be moot.

“What else could have happened to your father?” the British one asks.

She chews on her bottom lip, then glances at me.

I hold my hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, don’t look at me. I had nothing to do with him being arrested.”

“That’s what I’m saying though. I don’t think he was arrested.” She turns to her brother, flattening her palms on the tabletop. “When have you ever known criminals to involve the police?”

He lifts a broad shoulder. “It’s not uncommon for law enforcement to be on a don’s payroll.”

“Or other government agencies,” the British man adds.

“Right, but the Persicos are notorious for being as straitlaced as possible. They wouldn’t even let me make payments with any money I didn’t earn through taxable work.”

“What the fuck?” the tattooed woman mutters, scooping her dog into her lap.

“Your work through him is taxable?”

I nod. “Everything I do is legitimate. She’ll get a form at the end of the year when she goes to file, and I keep receipts of everything I’ve ever paid out.”

“I sent my father the checks. They’d only take payments from him even though all of the debt was in my name. They run it through some database to verify my employment, and they don’t mind, apparently, that I’m not the one racking up the fucking debt.” Violet pauses, inhaling. “I know he paid them, so there’d be no reason for the Persicos to ask the police to step in. They want to seem like a legitimate organization, so they’d want to keep the police away from their illegal doings since they’re definitely not in cahoots.”

“Violet,” her brother says, rubbing his forehead, “you can’t seriously think they wouldn’t do whatever’s necessary to recoup their funds. Organized crime tends to run like a well-oiled machine. Just because you aren’t aware of their involvement with the police doesn’t mean—”

“Nate James threatened to hand my whole family over a couple of weeks ago,” she rushes out, not sparing me a single glance when she does. “He said he’d send the Mafia to them directly if I didn’t cooperate with him, or if I told anyone.”

The table falls silent again, and the little dog in the other woman’s lap whines, as if uncomfortable with the pregnant pause.

My heart stops dead in its tracks, short-circuiting like the tail end of a power surge in a hurricane.

“Well, actually, he threatened to murder me and then said he’d out my family if I told anyone what he was planning,” she continues, and I’m pretty sure this is what dying feels like. Pressure mounts on my rib cage, my chest, crushing me with its full weight as my vision drifts farther and farther away.

Toward a place with no light.

“What the fuck, Vi?” the woman snaps, adjusting the rose-gold piercing in her nose. “Why have you just been sitting on that information?”

“Did you not hear the threatened to have the Mafia sicced on my family if I snitched part?” Violet shrugs. “I didn’t know what to do. This whole… world is new to me.”

Fury burns in her brother’s eyes as he stares at her.

I can’t even bring myself to fully look in her direction, instead sneaking peeks through the corner of my eye. Anything else might send me into a spiral, and I’m desperately trying to keep the worst parts of me at bay right now.

Until I can find Nathaniel and kill him with my bare fucking hands.

“So, you think it’s a setup,” the mayor supplies, leaning back in his chair to pluck at a suspender strap. “Something Nate will use to ambush you.”

“Yes. The Persicos already proved once they’d send their own people after me. There was an… incident a couple of weeks ago.” I feel her eyes on me. “But maybe since no one ever found a body, I didn’t actually kill the guy.”

A deep sigh comes from across the table. I’m still grappling with the onslaught of new information, but I consider her words carefully. It would make sense that she didn’t kill him—she used a dull rock, and even after scouring the grounds, no one found a body. Perhaps she knocked him out, and he ran as soon as he regained consciousness.

I should’ve searched harder. The security cameras didn’t find anything, which meant the person either looped the footage or knew exactly how to walk outside their path.

And since Riley’s cyber team didn’t find evidence of camera tampering…

“What if it wasn’t the Persicos at all who planned to attack you?”

Violet turns, her brows raised. The rest of the table shifts their attention to me, and I swallow, an unrepentant fire burning in my lungs.

I did this. I brought her here, into my world, knowing how fucked up things were. Knowing how fucked up they could become, and I didn’t care.

All I wanted was my little slice of revenge for the way they had used and abused Sydney. I didn’t give a shit who was destroyed in the process, and here I am, living the same fucking scenario out once again.

Except Violet’s death isn’t something I will recover from.

* * *

“You can absolutely not gowith him.”

I’m bent over, lacing up a pair of oxfords. Violet stands directly in front of me, rage vibrating off of her in hot, palpable waves.

We came back to the estate so she could grab a few things before going to stay at her cousin’s house again. At least for the time being. I don’t feel good having her here even if…

Even if I’d rather be the one to protect her from my piece-of-shit family. I don’t deserve the right, but all the same, my chest aches to keep her tucked into my side at all costs.

“Someone has to fund the sudden trip,” I joke, trying to ease the tension from her shoulders.

“Kal has plenty of money, and you’re taking his jet.”

“He asked me to go.” I sit up, grabbing her hips and spreading my legs, pulling her between them. “I think I owe the man after defiling his baby sister, don’t you?”

“No.” She frowns, tears welling up in her eyes as I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. “You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“Not entirely true. I owe you a lot of things. At the top of that list, orgasms.”

My skin heats, and she blinks her tears away, liquid desire filling those beautiful brown, gemstone eyes instead.

“Then, stay here and give them to me.” She shifts, pressing her tits to my chin, and I’ll admit, I’m tempted.

I don’t want to go at all. I’d much rather throw her back on my bed and never let either of us leave the comfort of my room. The world could surrender to flames all around us, and the only thing I’d give a shit about was that she was with me, and I, her.

That way, when our souls inevitably exited this planet, I wouldn’t have to search for hers.

We’d go together.

And that’s exactly why I need to leave now. To make sure the world she lives in is safe and ready for that kind of commitment. So I can keep her around much longer, without the threat of harm from the people we know.

So, I let her lean in and kiss me. Even let her tongue sweep across mine, and I taste her like it could be the last time. Her hands tangle in my hair, and mine fall down to cup her ass, grinding her into me, even as I know nothing’s changed.

When I pull away, she blows out a long breath because she knows it too.

“If I’m attacked while you’re away, the only person you have to blame is yourself.”

I chuckle, watching her as she makes her way to my bathroom and starts disrobing for an afternoon soak. My dick stirs, temptation clawing a deep path through my sternum, but then I think about the meetings that Nate and my father are in back in New York and Violet’s belief that her father is in danger, and I shake it off.

We can take care of that when I return.

“The only things that’ll get you here are the ghosts.”