Rake (Wolfes of Manhattan 4)

“I read the tabloids. I know all about you, Reid. The Wolfe of Wall Street.”

I cleared my throat. “Actually, it’s the Wolfe of Manhattan.”

“My bad.” Rock chuckled again. “So what’s the plan with Nieves?”

“I’m going to pump her for info.”

“You sure that’s all you’re going to pump?”

“For God’s sake, Rock.”

“Am I wrong?” He laughed again.

“You know, most guys wouldn’t want their little brothers poking their castoffs.”

He guffawed. Literally. It even sounded like guffaw.

“Nieves Romero is a hot little number and a fucking lioness between the sheets. She’s nothing compared to what I have with Lace, but bro, if she’s offering—and I’d bet your father’s fortune she is—go for it.”

“What if I’ve already poked that?”

Another guffaw. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?” I asked. “I’ve got a hot number waiting for me in the bar, and yeah, she’s been innuendoing all evening.”

“Lacey wanted me to ask you to go easy on Zee,” he said.

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“We’re all leaving tomorrow, but you’ll still be here. We want her cooperation, but not at the cost of her mental health.”

“You seriously think I’d do something untoward to her? To one of our father’s victims?”

“No, no. Of course not. It’s just… Your way of getting your way is usually…you know. Sexual.”

He wasn’t wrong. “I believe I can seduce her,” I said.

“I believe you can too. That’s not the point. The question is whether you should.”

“Look,” I said. “I feel just as bad for Zee as the rest of you do. She had the shitty luck to come into contact with Derek Wolfe, and she paid the price. But if we look at it another way, she was actually really lucky. She lived through the ordeal, and as far as we know, no one else did.”

“Doesn’t mean she owes us anything.”

“Did I say that? But all of our lives are on the line here, including your wife’s. We’re all implicated, and if Zee has information that would clear us, we need it.”

“She doesn’t have that kind of info, Reid,” Rock said. “All she has is her own story.”

“Which will prove what kind of guy Dad was, and that there were many more out there who wanted him dead.”

“But there aren’t. Not with Zee’s story, anyway. They’re all dead. Hunted and killed. The only thing Zee’s story will do is make her a suspect instead of us.”

Again, Rock was not wrong. We could easily prove Zee wasn’t in New York the night of the murder, but what good would her story do other than to fuck with Dad’s character? It still wouldn’t absolve any of us of the crime. In fact, it would only give us more of a motive to off the psycho.

Something niggled at the back of my neck. That something called a conscience, which right now I wished I didn’t have.

“Why?” I asked Rock. “Why didn’t any one of us inherit Dad’s lack of conscience?”

“It’d make this a lot easier if we had.”

Truth be told, I was probably the closest to Dad’s lack of conscience. On more than one occasion, I’d ignored the angel on my shoulder in favor of the devil. Usually for business, though, not for personal gain. And never for sexual gain. I’d never bedded a woman without her explicit consent.

But wasn’t this business? I couldn’t run this business from a prison cell. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to prison for killing the bastard when my hands were sparkling clean.

Okay, maybe not sparkling, but still clean. I hated the mofo, but I didn’t kill him. Neither did Rock, Roy, Riley, or Lacey. I believed all of them. Hell, Lacey didn’t even have any motive.

“So about Zee,” Rock was saying.

“What about her?”

“We can sure use her story, but please don’t push her.”

“Is this you or the wife talking?”

“Both, to be honest, but Riley most of all.”

Riley. My kid sister, who had suffered more at our father’s hands than the three of us guys combined.

Riley, who I used to envy because of our father’s attention.

Boy, had I been dead-ass wrong.

For Riley, I’d do anything.

Even this.

“All right, brother. For Riley. Tell her I’ll treat Zee with kid gloves.”

It was a promise I knew I’d keep.

Didn’t mean I wouldn’t sleep with her, though.

5

Zee

That innocent eighteen-year-old girl had a plan.

Acceptance to Smith. Yeah, it was an all-girls school, but she didn’t worry about that. She looked at it as a gift. She’d be forced to spend more time on her studies. Her beauty wouldn’t be a hindrance in a group of all women. No one would envy her for the physical characteristics she couldn’t control.

The girl had aced the SAT and ACT, hitting a perfect score on the latter. She wanted to break free from the acting and modeling career her mother had forced on her and expand her horizons.