Page 17 of His Sacrifice

“Finish eating.”

She shook her head. “Not until you tell me why you came into the bookstore, Creed.”

I wasn’t going to be able to get anything past Jada. She wasn’t going to be pacified by some lame reason easily. “How much has Tatum told you about the Banachis?” I asked.

“As much as she should have,” she hemmed. “Just the basics.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You know about the whole kidnapping, right?” I had been around Greer for long enough to know that even though Leo didn’t want Apollo telling her what we were doing, she always knew, but she knew to keep it to herself.

She rolled her eyes. “Uh, yeah. Seeing that made me scramble for two weeks and have to deal with someone Murphy sent to help out at the store; I know about that.”

“You didn’t like Denis?” I laughed.

Jada flitted her hand. “He was just fine. Got the job done. I just like having Tatum around because she helped make the day go by fast. Denis was all work and barely any talk. I got bored.”

“That’s because Denis works for Leo. Leo doesn’t deal well with all talk and no work.” Leo was known as a good and kind boss, but that didn’t mean people walked all over him. They knew if they worked hard, Leo would compensate them well.

Jada scoffed. “And that is why Leo Banachi will never have a job at Happily Ever After. I need someone to chat with and have a good time with while selling books.”

“I’m sure he’ll be heartbroken when I tell him his hopes of working at Happily Ever After are dashed.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure he will never financially recover,” she joked.

“What else has Tatum told you? Or what you already knew about us?”

She flattened her lips. “Am I supposed to be truthful right now, or just tell you what you want to hear?” she asked.

“Truth, gorgeous. Always the truth when it comes to me.”

She quirked her lips. “Well, you can’t live in Chicago without knowing the Banachi name, so I know what everyone else thinks. You guys are the mafia, and no one should mess with you unless they want the wrath of Leo raining down on them. You guys are his minions that do his bidding, but everyone is just as afraid of you guys.”

“No one needs to be afraid of us.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Unless they mess with you.”

I shrugged. “I won’t argue with that.”

“So you are the mafia?”

“We don’t like names, Jada. Leo is a businessman, and as you said, Apollo, Murphy, Princeton, and I are his minions. Everything we do is on the up and up as far as people know.” The only people who knew the not-so-legal things we did were the people who also weren’t on the up and up.

“Are your eyes brown because you are so full of shit?” she asked sweetly.

“You sure your hair isn’t red because you’re so feisty?” I countered.

She smoothed her hand down her pitch-black hair. “I will have you know, this is my natural hair color. Thank you very much.”

“Right,” I drawled.

“Is my hair really what you want to talk about right now?” she asked.

“As long as it’s distracting you, yes.”

She wrinkled her nose and glowered at me. “What were you doing at the bookstore the other day?”

“You already asked me that, and I’m trying to figure out if I can tell you why.” Honestly, I didn’t know. Telling her about my plan seemed like the best idea, but I wasn’t sure she would so easily play along. I needed her to act like she had fallen in love with me, including acting like it in public.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re infuriating, Creed?” she snapped.

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