Page 39 of Forbidden Need

“Or they did it,” Connel said. “Paying them off is nothing. Some guys like that just need a word.”

“A word,” she said, pointing the toes of her lower foot to press them into his groin. “A word from you isn’t the same as a word from some street scum.”

“This was a professional job,” he said, squeezing her foot. “You knew that.”

“I did.” Because she’d said that to others several times. “It wasn’t an accident or random.”

“Enemies?”

She shrugged. “Almost too many to list. Anyone who didn’t like his politics. Anyone he investigated as a cop. Anyone who wanted his council seat. Anyone who wanted him out. He made decisions that affected people’s lives every day. Sometimes his decisions went their way, sometimes they didn’t.”

“He was asking questions.”

The comfort of his massage spurred her on. “About corruption. Who was taking bribes, whose allegiance was where.”

“Maybe he asked too many questions.”

“You talked to your brother about your father?”

“No. We haven’t talked about it at all. I wouldn’t even know where to start. How do I tell him our father could be in league with Silvio Manzani?”

The way Razer looked at Connel’s profile chilled her.

“No could be, Macushla,” Connel said. “He’s on the take.”

As if she hadn’t had enough shocks that week, it wouldn’t compute. Wouldn’t filter through. Her father… what was he saying?

On the take… how…?

“You can call us liars—”

“I don’t think you’re liars,” she said to Razer, staring into the ether. “It’s like… I can’t wrap my head around it. I think that’s why I blew it off as a possibility…”

The motion of the car and the massage kept her drugged until they stopped. She scrambled to put on her shoes as Connel got out. His hand appeared inside for hers and he kept their link tight as they went upstairs.

On their arrival at the loft, Whisper sprang up from the couch. “Did you get her?” Razer and Connel stepped aside, left and right, revealing her to the woman holding the martini glasses. “I made margaritas!”

She smiled at the gesture. Connel let go of her hand and cupped her head beneath her ear, making brief eye contact, before striding toward the kitchen, cousin in tow.

“I’m surprised you’re still up,” she said, slipping off her shoes and Connel’s jacket.

“Looks like you weren’t,” Whisper said, though she wasn’t wearing much more in a tiny pair of panties and a guy’s shirt, Razer’s probably. “You just marched right in there.”

It took her a second to figure out what she meant. “To the cops? Why does that surprise everyone? Conn is innocent.”

“Of this murder? Yeah. Of fucking you…? You didn’t want anyone to know, right?”

Whisper put one of the two glasses in her hand. Another two sat by the pitcher on the coffee table.

“Not so much that I’d see an innocent man go to jail.”

“So it was civic duty?”

“Don’t forget my grandfather is the victim. I don’t want the wrong person punished; I want the right person punished.” She sipped the drink. “This is good.”

Whisper smiled, tucking her feet under her. “I’m a pro. So civic duty?”

She exhaled and curled her legs on the couch too. “It wasn’t a conscious decision like that. I turned on the news to check the time and… I reacted. I was there telling the truth before I thought about it. Was he at the club?”

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