The Banker (Banker 1)

Bates watched me, his hostility slowly filling the room. “How’d that go?”

I skipped the details. “I haven’t stopped thinking about her.”

“Then it went really well. You’re usually bored by the time you get into the shower.”

I definitely wasn’t bored this time. She was the only woman in my bed, and that seemed to be perfect for me. My fingers drummed against the table as I pictured the way she looked underneath me. With her ass in the air and her face pressed into the sheets, she was the sexiest thing in the world.

Bates studied me for a moment longer. “I was hoping this interest would burn out like all the others.”

I knew my brother was suspicious of her, but I believed she was harmless. If she really had negative intentions, she wouldn’t be so cold and distant. It seemed like she genuinely hated me, but her attraction to me kept her in place. She wasn’t like the others, the ones who threw themselves at me in the hope something would stick. “She’s harmless, man.”

Just like every other time he made a speech, he sighed before he spoke. “I did some digging. I didn’t like what I found.”

“How many parking tickets does she have?”

Bates didn’t laugh. “I’m serious, Cato. She’s Siena Russo.”

Was that name supposed to mean something to me? “Russo is a common surname, Bates.”

“She’s the daughter of Stefan Russo.”

Now that name did mean something to me. Stefan had a drug enterprise. He smuggled his goods in cigars. He’d asked me for money on many occasions, but I always turned him down because we could never agree on a mutually beneficial interest rate.

Bates held my gaze, knowing this information was important. “You don’t think it’s a strange coincidence that she follows you around and gets a job working where you sleep almost every night?”

I was the most paranoid man on the planet. I didn’t trust anyone—except my own brother. Even then, that was difficult to do sometimes. “You think this woman is here to take me down? What’s she going to do, Bates? She can’t get a gun past security, and she certainly couldn’t fight me off. Even if she did, how is she going to get me out of here? I admit it’s a weird coincidence, but that doesn’t mean she’s guilty of anything.”

Bates tensed visibly like a snake, as if he wanted to lunge at me with a knife raised. “I know you like pussy, but come on. How stupid are you?”

“I’m not stupid. I’m just not afraid of a woman who’s a little over five feet tall. She’s been working at that gallery for five years, so it’s not like this was all some setup. If it is, then she and her father have been plotting this for a long time.”

“Actually, she hasn’t spoken to her father in five years. When her mother passed away, they stopped speaking.”

I hardly knew this woman so I shouldn’t care about her feelings, but sympathy immediately tugged on my heart. Not only did she lose her mother, but she also lost her father. “Why?”

He shrugged. “From what I can gather, Siena blamed him for her mother’s death. She wanted him to walk away from the business because it wasn’t safe. Her mother was taken as a hostage and then murdered. That’s when Siena turned her back.”

Again, I shouldn’t care. But I did care. “She didn’t want anything to do with the business.”

“I guess not.”

“Which is why she got a job at the gallery.”

Bates shrugged again.

“She’s not a threat, Bates. She’s just a woman trying to get by. Everyone in Italy has ties to the criminal underworld. It’s impossible to meet someone who doesn’t.”

“I still think it’s too much of a coincidence. If she wants nothing to do with the underworld, why is she working for you?”

“She wants to decorate my house with artwork, not work in one of our offices. She’s still sticking to her own discipline.”

He shook his head. “Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t think I am. The last thing I want to say is I told you so.”

“If she has no connection to her family, then what’s the harm?” I questioned. “It’s not like she has a group of men she’s reporting to. She’s completely on her own, and even though she’s got a serious attitude, one woman is no threat to us.”

Bates dropped the argument because he knew he didn’t have a case. “I just wanted you to know. Do whatever you want with the information.”

I was glad my brother told me all of that, but not because I thought she was a serious threat. Now it all made sense. She didn’t want anything to do with me because she knew what kind of lifestyle I led. She knew I was at the top of the hierarchy of the underworld. She knew I was dangerous, and being associated with me for too long would put her right back where she didn’t want to be.