Reeve (The Henchmen MC 11)

She needed a different book.

She had a headache.

Her shampoo was empty.

The latter I found out when I walked in to find her bare ass fucking naked in the shower.

She was probably closer to my mother's age - were she still alive - than my own, but goddamn the woman kept a hold of her body. And hate her as I might, I wasn't exactly unaffected. Which was precisely what she wanted.

She wanted me on my toes.

Sometimes when I came in, she was sugar sweet, other times, she was spitting venom. Sometimes she was as docile as a kitten. Other times, she was breaking the fucking plumbing.

The coup de gras was three days before when she managed to con one of her guards into opening her cell. And I think, with her seeming willingness to use her body to get what she wanted, we can all guess how she managed to do that. She had even made it halfway across the compound before she was taken down and dragged back.

The guard had to be put down too.

Which was fucking irritating.

Good men were hard to come by.

I couldn't go around shooting all the guys who fell into her snare. Or snatch. Or whatever the fuck method she was using to draw them in.

Maybe the worst part about her was that she wouldn't tell me who she was or what she had done to wind up where she was.

My tenure at the NBPD was not long enough to know who 'V' was and why the name was said in a tone that implied 'duh' from my guards. And because I didn't want to come off as incompetent, I couldn't go around asking.

"Oh, where is my dear Antonio?" V asked with an evil fucking smirk that implied she knew exactly what happened to her dear Antonio. It was four in the fucking morning. I was not in the mood for this shit. But if I didn't come when I was summoned, she would break something. I just didn't need that headache for the second time this week.

"Must have a Grade-A pussy for a man to overlook that evil in your eyes, woman."

"Well," she said, eyes twinkling with promise. "You could always come in here and find out," she suggested, uncrossing and recrossing her legs slowly.

"Might have lips like honey, babe, but bet you got a twat like a viper. I'll fucking pass on getting trapped in that."

"Alright," she said, lifting her chin, squaring her shoulders, showing me - perhaps for the first time - what a boss she must have been before getting trapped. "Let's cut the shit then, shall we? Richard is clearly gone. You have no grudge against me."

"Aside from being an epic pain in my ass every day."

"I am offering you a way out of that. With incentive."

"Can't talk business with someone when I don't know who the fuck they are or what the fuck they did, lady."

"You're all gristle, huh? I like that in a man."

"My goal in life, to be liked by the she-wolf."

Her smile just spread wider at that, but I swear to fuck, it was cold enough to freeze the balls off the Abominable Snowman.

"Alright, let's get acquainted then. I'm V. Vanessa. Lyon, at one time."

"The dead guy's old lady?"

"Richard hadn't had a collar on me for a good, long time, Mr..."

"Abruzzo," I supplied, crossing my arms, not sure if this was worth my time or not. I could have been shopping for a fucking vacation home in Aspen or some shit, but here I was in a prison cell talking to the guy I just killed's widow.

"Abruzzo. Of the Long Island Abruzzos." It was both a question and a statement. And her brows creased just the smallest bit.

"I'm the last standing Abruzzo."

"Oh, a coup. I love a man with ambition."

She didn't need to know that I had nothing to do with their slaughter. Either way, they were all dead.

"We've already established you can keep the flattery to yourself, V."

V.

Why did that sound suddenly so familiar?

"Noted. Well, Mr. Abruzzo of the cocaine trade, I am V, of the skin trade."

I dropped my arms, looking slowly around the room, making a point. "Looks to me like you're V of the makeshift prison on my compound, sweetheart."

"Oh, but I am so much more. With so many contacts. And so much money to be made."

"Right. That you'd be willing to share."

"Trafficking is a hundred-and-fifty billion dollar a year business, Mr. Abruzzo. I had a fair chunk of that before my dear husband decided to play warden."

"Babe, the fuck would I believe you for?"

"Go ahead and look around, Mr. Abruzzo. I think you will be more than satisfied with my credentials."

Somehow, I didn't doubt that I would find exactly what she said I would if I did look into her.

"So what exactly are you offering me here, V?"