Sadie's Game (Ashby Crime Family)

“Good try, but everyone at the Bureau already knows my father disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I doubt you’d want them to know he worked for your family.”

It was Kat’s turn to laugh, and she made a show of it, throwing her head back and laughing loudly.

“No, sweetheart, I doubt you want them to know. It’s the fucking FBI. They already know, and if they thought something nefarious was going on, we would have been questioned already by people well above your pay grade.”

To her credit, Beck didn’t show any visible response. A closer look would reveal tension in her shoulders and jaws, but she smoothed them out quickly. Instead, she took a step back and stalked out of the shop, the chip on her shoulder infinitely bigger and heavier now.

“Thanks, girls.”

Kat’s frown returned. “Fuck Beck. I’m the only one who can talk shit about you.”

I nodded my appreciation anyway, confident now that Kat was marrying Terry for all the right reasons. She didn’t need him even though he was big and tough and could protect her. She was marrying him because she loved him, had loved him for most of her life.

Kat would be fine.

Just fine.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sadie

“Why do you want to change the name?”

Jasper stared down at the blueprints and renderings spread across my desk. I had them done for the new Lucky Lopez club.

“Everyone already knows Lucky Lopez as a brand, and believe me, no one will stop coming just because the girls wear better shit to take off and sit in more comfortable chairs.”

“I want this place to be all new, Jasper.”

“But we’ve spent years building up the brand and the name. It’s reckless to change it now. Leave it,” he insisted. His tone said the matter was closed.

I was about to argue when the door smacked open hard. Jasper and I both reached for our guns, relaxing when we identified the intruder.

“What can I do for you, Calvin?”

My baby boy glared at me with hate in his eyes. “You tried to get Mueller to kill Bonnie.” His words weren’t filled with accusation. He stated it as fact, and I nodded. “But you didn’t know he was a Fed when you offered him your pussy in exchange for murdering my wife!”

I could feel the surprise emanating from Jasper because, yeah, I kept secrets from everyone. It was how I operated. “And?”

Calvin flashed a bitter, angry smile. “Even after you fucked him, he refused to do it. Pathetic.”

I laughed. “This coming from a man who fucked a drug addict and knocked her up? Please.”

“No.” Calvin shook his head. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you and the sick things you do to get your way.”

Jasper straightened to his full height at my side and shook his head. “Who Sadie fucks—or who any of us fucks—is nobody’s business but our own.”

I looked at Jasper, wondering if Beck’s little dig was true. Had he taken my advice to fuck her into submission?

“It is my business if she’s using sexual favors as payment for killing my wife.”

Calvin glared at me hard. Hate turning his face and eyes red. “That’s why you had to do it yourself.” Realization dawned, and a small smile flashed. “The alleged pedophile was as big a piece of shit as…whatever.” He bit his tongue, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out where he was going.

Calvin thought I was a bigger piece of shit than Mueller. That was hard to take sober.

Someday. I told myself that his hesitation meant someday we could salvage a relationship.

“You’re right. I offered money, but Mueller wanted to fuck me instead, so I let him, but not so he would kill Bonnie. I let him because it got me the proof of what your precious fucking wife was up to.”

His eyes darted back and forth, trying to take in the new information.

“Does that make it better or worse, Calvin?”

He sighed, shook his head, and stormed out with as much anger as he’d stormed in on.

Jasper sighed and dropped a hand on my shoulder. “We knew this would happen, Ma. We just need to power through this part.”

I stared at the glass in Jasper’s hand, glistening with condensation that turned the amber liquid a soothing gold color. A glass of Velvet Fire would help me power through.

“I just didn’t think his reaction, his anger, would bother me as much as it does.”

Jasper nodded. “Turns out, you’re human after all.”

A huff of laughter escaped at his words. “Unfortunately, it has always been my greatest weakness.”

“As long as Cal is still committed to protecting the family, we’re good. The rest will come in time. I hope.”

Sometimes Jasper was so much like Colm that I hated it. He had more focus in one day than Colm had in his entire life, but they were both cold and ruthless, which made Jasper more terrifying and more feared than his father ever was. The only saving grace was that my son was more capable. He didn’t let his vices consume him. He drank when he wanted and fucked when and whoever he wanted, but it never, ever, interfered with the business.