Second (Betrothed 6)

“Great.” Conway rose to his feet. “I’ll let you talk specifics.” He gave me a nod before he walked out.

“Tell your wife I said hi.”

“Will do.” He shut the door behind him.

I turned back to Charlotte and got down to business. “I can launder a lot of money for you since Conway is your client. He can pay some of your salary in cash since I know his books so well. You have a good boss.”

“Yeah, he’s great.” She crossed her legs and pulled her hair over one shoulder. “He spoke highly of you.”

“Well, I’m the best,” I said with a smile. “I earned that reputation.”

She smiled back. “I’m sure you’ve earned your reputation in other ways too.”

After we finished with our meeting, I walked to my office door and opened it. “We’re gonna make a lot of money together.” I turned to her and slid my hands into my pockets as I waited for her to walk out.

She grabbed her purse and stepped up to me. “I’m sure we will.” She opened her bag and grabbed a business card sitting inside. She turned it over, wrote down her number, and handed it back to me. “Maybe we can go out for a drink and talk about it more.” She was the most famous lingerie model in this country, and she was the one who put the moves on me.

It was incredibly flattering. I took the card from her hand and slid it into my pocket. “I’ll call you.”

When she got what she wanted, she smiled. Then she flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked out, strutting down my hallway like it was the runway instead of a stuffy bank.

My eyes moved to her ass in the short dress, and I watched her hips shake. But then I was distracted by something else.

Heath leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, and he watched her go with the same interest. He whistled under his breath as he watched her walk, staring at her ass like it was a billboard on a freeway. “Damn.” He walked up to me and finally turned his gaze on me. “Can I get a copy of that?”

It was annoying when he stopped by my office at the lab, but it was far more annoying when he showed up here. I stepped inside my office. “Don’t show your face here again.”

He closed the door behind him and followed me. “What?” He stood in a t-shirt despite the freezing temperatures outside, ink up and down his muscled arms. “It’s a bank. There’s money here.”

“This business has nothing to do with our business. Do it again, and you won’t get paid.” It really didn’t matter where he showed his face. It would piss me off, no matter what. But Hades was in this office, and I didn’t want my drug business anywhere near him. I went to my chair behind my desk.

He sank into the chair where Charlotte had just been sitting, his knees apart and his thick arms on the armrests. He glanced around my office and took in the bookshelves and artwork. “Pretty snazzy place.”

“Did you hear what I said?”

His eyes shifted back to me, his smile fading away.

“Don’t come here again.” I didn’t care about the threat in his eyes, the malicious expression on his face. If killing him wouldn’t start a full war, I would pull out my pistol and shoot him right now. “You have my number. You know my other place of business. You even know where I live. No need to come here.”

He sat there in silence, watching me with those arctic blue eyes. He was so still, it didn’t seem like he was breathing.

“I’ve been cooperative, Heath. But don’t test me.” It was stupid to provoke him when things seemed to have smoothed over, but I didn’t want him anywhere near Hades. Sometimes Sofia stopped by and brought Andrew. This place was supposed to be safe.

“Don’t test me either.”

I held his gaze and didn’t back down. “Hades is my partner, and he left the drug business. So, I don’t want you near him or his family.” Maybe that admission would make him understand. Hades and I were finally friends again, but I knew that could disappear in an instant if he thought his family was at risk.

Heath retained his coldness. “You’re trying to protect your boy.”

“If you want this to be a long-lasting relationship, respect my wishes.”

“We both know I wouldn’t be here right now if you behaved like a good little boy in the first place.”

I was seriously tempted to grab the pistol and shoot him.

As if he could read my mind, he grinned. “There better be six bullets in the clip. Because it’s gonna take that many to stop me.” It was as if he had X-ray vision, piercing right through the wood to where I stashed my ammo. He leaned forward. “Give me my money, and I’ll be on my way.”