Ruthless Sinner (Ashby Crime Family)

As if that would ever fucking happen. “How about a plate of nachos or loaded fries to go with ’em?”

“Just the beers,” he growled and then smiled. “So, about that number?” He reached out and grabbed my wrist, attempting to pull me closer, but I held my ground.

“If you don’t get your hands off me, the only number you’ll get is 911. Got it?”

His friends laughed, and his expression immediately darkened as he barked out a bitter laugh. “You and what army?”

“Just me,” I assured him calmly and took a step back. “I’ll be back with your drinks.”

Some days, this job tested my ability to remain patient with drunk assholes. But whenever I got a customer like Baldy, I tallied up his bill in my head and imagined what I would buy with my earnings.

I had my eye on a rose gold ear cuff that sparkled with diamonds, and so I returned with an unflappable smile and set their drinks down in front of them.

“The name is Mo if you need anything else. Mo,” I repeated and tapped my nametag. I turned to walk away just as two uniformed officers entered Midnight mass.

“Officers. You here for food or booze, or both?”

“Yes,” the older one answered with a friendly smile and a laugh. “We’ll take the table in back.”

He pointed to the spot where Jasper and Terry often sat when they talked business out in the open. “A word with Mr. Ashby and two IPAs.”

“Coming right up.” Before stopping for their drinks, I sucked in a deep fortifying breath as I made my way to Jasper’s office and let it out slowly as I knocked on his office door.

“What?” The one-word bark vibrated on the other side of the door, and I rolled my eyes. With each passing day that Sadie stayed in her coma, his attitude grew worse. He was bossier, more ruthless, and more focused on every little detail of every Ashby business. It was exhausting to watch so, I knew he must be beyond fatigued.

I stepped inside to find Jasper on the phone. Signs of exhaustion appeared around his eyes and mouth, the tense set of his shoulders, and the way his brows were fixed in a perma-frown. His dark hair, though? Not a strand out of place. And when he stood, I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that not his shirt or his pants would dare hold a wrinkle. Even the high-end fabric was terrified of its ruthless wearer. He held up a finger without looking my way, giving me plenty of time to drink him in.

Why, oh why, did he have to be so damn appealing?

“What do you want,” he barked when he caught me staring.

I blinked and glanced at the phone in his hand, noticing the black screen. “Two of Glitz’s finest are at the back table waiting for a word with you.”

Jasper’s lips twitched with a knowing smile as if he could read my thoughts. He walked closer and closer until he was in my personal space, right in my face, and licked his lush pink lips. “Was that all you wanted?”

Ah, grumpy fucker was in the mood to flirt. Too bad I wasn’t in the mood, not even for him.

“From you? Yes.” I ignored the way my body pulsed with need at his woodsy masculine scent. The way my clit zinged to life as I caught the flare of desire in his green eyes.

I wanted him, without a doubt, but Jasper Ashby was the head of an international crime organization, not to mention CEO of a billion-dollar business. He was the exact opposite of the settling down type. He didn’t have white picket fences or baby showers in his future. It was blood and guts and mayhem for him for the foreseeable future. Until he took his last, violent breath.

“They’re waiting,” I told him and sauntered off to get the beers for the officers and a Velvet Fire for Jasper.

I knew the deal with Jasper and the business. That was a big part of the reason I lived in a penthouse suite at Emerald Isle and got chauffeured around town like a goddamn mafia princess. I knew family secrets, and more than that, I knew how to keep my mouth shut.

Ashby secrets were vaulted, and, as Sadie promised all those years ago, I was rewarded handsomely for that. So when I strolled up to the table with three drinks on my tray, I pretended not to notice Jasper sliding an envelope to the older of the two uniformed officers. It was no big deal to me, nothing I hadn’t seen before. Heard it too. I knew they owned plenty of law officers, especially in Glitz, Vegas, and Mayhem, but also all around the state. It was how they operated, how they stayed ahead of the law, and I just accepted it all as normal.