Velvet Fire - Ashby Crime Family Romance
“I said I’ll consider it, and I will.”
He tensed, ready to fight but choosing not to instead.
“Great. Thanks Ma.” His words came out bland and insincere but Sadie let it slide.
“Excellent.” She took a long sip of her whiskey neat and then turned her attention to Kat. “Anything going on at Emerald Isle that I need to know about?”
Kat froze at the question. All traces of her earlier good mood had vanished. “That’s why I’m here now and not at the office.” Her gaze landed on Jasper first. Then me and finally Calvin, and I had a bad fucking feeling in my stomach.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Jasper barked at her.
“Fuck you, Jasper,” she spit back. As CEO, Kat was no pushover, and she could get under Jasper’s skin better than the rest of us. “One of our concierges brought a matter to my attention that needs to be addressed. Father Mueller.”
“What about him?” Sadie was instantly tense at the name of a man we knew well. He was a priest in name only, using his position to work with The Crusaders for all manner of disgusting shit from securing kids to providing safe passage for the worst fuckers on the planet.
“He was seen escorting two teenage girls into a suite where a few businessmen were staying. Claimed they were members of the church but we all know that’s bullshit.”
Kat shook her head, thick black waves falling around her shoulders. “I put surveillance in that block of rooms,” she said and her gaze slid to Calvin who wore a murderous, drunk expression.
“You want to let them do some bad shit to those kids just so we can get them?” I put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from saying or doing something he’d regret in the morning.
“You know as well as we all do, Calvin, that the law looks the other way when it comes to the church unless we have concrete proof.”
“Illegal proof,” he shot back. “Which means those fuckers will still be out there and now the world will know his victims. What about them, Kat? Or are you so far removed from all of this that you don’t give a shit?” His last words sucked all the air out of the room.
Kat flicked her hair off her shoulders, a move she did to find her center before she looked back at Calvin. “I’ll let that pass because you’ve been drinking,” she said, sending glances to each of us. “But what the fuck else do you expect me to do about this?”
He turned to Sadie and for a second, I thought he was suggesting something…shit, something he better not be suggesting. “There are ways to set them all up that don’t require stacking up any more fucking victims. Or is this about keeping the numbers up for the quarter?”
“I said I’d let that one pass, Calvin. I’ll still kick your ass if that’s what you need to remember who you’re talking to.” Kat’s midnight blue eyes sparkled with the same crazy that lived in all of us, that need to fight and dominate everyone around us. As the lone girl among us, Kat had it in spades.
His lips twisted into a grin and I lost the thread of the conversation when my phone buzzed with a message that brought a smile to my face. Ask and ye shall receive.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Kat said, a gleam in her eyes because she knew I wasn’t listening. “What do you think Virgil?”
All eyes were on me and I shrugged. “I think we need to be smart about things while the fucking FBI agent is sniffing around all the time. If we can fuck The Crusaders in another way, we should try it.”
Jasper smirked. “Losing your taste for blood?”
I smiled back at him. “Want to test that theory for yourself, desk jockey?”
He flipped me off and I laughed, and just like that our crazy dysfunctional family dinner was back to normal.
And my mind was full of Maisie.
In nothing but that fucking necklace.
Chapter Sixteen
Maisie
“How does it feel to be a real life grownup?” Charlie’s gray eyes sparkled with mischief as he looked over his tumbler of Irish whiskey and waited for me to answer.
I shrugged and knocked back a shot of tequila before chasing it with a gulp of icy margarita. “Don’t know. I’ll let you know when I start feeling like a real life grownup.” Still living in a room at my aunt and uncle’s house didn’t exactly scream adulthood. Neither did getting a brand new car as a graduation gift, even though I was grateful as hell for it. “Eventually I’ll have to get my shit together.”
“You’re only twenty-one Maze, you’ve got time. My mom and dad pressuring you to get a job or something?”
“No. I mean not yet anyway, but it’s only a matter of time. Enough about me, tell me how it feels to be an official badass?” Only a few weeks had passed since he was patched as a member of the Mayhem Chapter of the Reckless Bastards.