Page 9 of Love In The Shadows

I laughed. “Good to know.”

She eyed me. “Something tells me that you already knew that.”

I grinned, pulling the condom off and walking over to the bathroom to flush it. I wasn’t leaving my DNA here for anyone. “Just tryin’ to be modest, darlin’.”

Elise laughed. “Right.”

I walked back over and reached around her to unhook her cuffs from the bed frame. “You okay?”

She nodded and turned around to lie against the pillows, her chest still heaving faster than normal. She rolled her head over to look at me as I started to get dressed again.

“Now it’s back to the aww shucks routine? After that?” she asked, giving the space on the bed beside her a pointed glance. She laughed again as she shook her head, her smile bright and her eyes dancing. “Who are you, cowboy?”

I considered her for a moment. I wondered if there was a reason Richie had sent her along with me. Was there more to this exchange than just headboard banging sex? Was he using her? I still didn’t know if she’d been paid for my pleasure or if she was just an adventurous girl, somehow mixed up with the Sanderson group. On the other hand, maybe she was just a regular at the club. I had no idea.

I flashed her a smile. “Tell you what, Elise, I’ll give you the deets next time I come in.”

She laughed and sat up. She pressed a kiss to my cheek. When she pulled away, her eyes were half-closed. “Deal.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Bennett

Elise walked me back to the private room where Richie and his pals were still having a good time. Thankfully, Richie no longer had a blonde head between his legs, working him over. Instead, he had a cigar in his hand and was puffing away, shooting the shit with a couple of his cronies and other members of the Sanderson clan. He glanced up as Elise and I entered the room and grinned.

“He wired?” he asked, his question directed at Elise. All heads turned toward us. She shook her head.

So, that was what that was all about. Dalton sent me to go fuck some random chick just to make sure I wasn’t wearing a wire. Well, damn, that was certainly one way of doing it.

Richie dismissed Elise with a jerk of his chin and then turned his gaze back on me. He grinned. “Did you show Elise a good time?”

Elise squeezed my arm before running off. I watched her disappear out a side door before I crossed over to sit on the couch opposite Richie. Cinnamin appeared with a fresh bourbon and handed it to me with a smile.

“Well, I know she sure showed me a good time.”

Richie laughed, and his guys joined in a beat later. He leveled his cigar at me. “You know what, Mr. Starr, I like you. But we got a problem?—”

Everything inside me went stiff. My heart stopped beating, and it hurt to force air into my seized lungs. “A problem?”

Problems with a guy like Richie Dalton usually ended with a bloody body, the trunk of a car, and a shallow grave somewhere out of town.

“None of these guys have ever heard of you,” he said, gesturing at the two men who flanked him on the long, leather couch.

I glanced at each of them before returning my eyes to Richie. “Well, that’s to be expected, Mr. Dalton?—”

“Richie.”

I nodded. “Okay. Richie.” I took a drink and then set the glass on the table in front of us. “We come from two different worlds, Mr. Dal—uhm—Richie. See, I’m more of an international businessman, and you—from what I’ve gathered—are more of a local businessman.”

Richie squared his shoulders and narrowed his eyes. After a long stare, he flicked his hand to his left, then his right, dismissing his two men in turn. They exchanged a dark look and then rose from their places, buttoned their jackets, and filtered out of the room, leaving Richie and me alone. He leaned forward.

“All right, Starr, let’s talk. What is it that you’re looking for here?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I leaned back, looking as casual as possible. Like everything wasn’t riding on the next ten minutes of my life.

“I’m going to shoot straight with you, Richie. I have a warehouse full of weapons. They’ve been sitting for months in need of a new home. I won’t bore you with too many details, but it’s enough shit to equip a small African nation. The problem is that my original customer was killed by a drone strike that was intended for the opposition and not my guy. Fuckin’ mess. In any case, the whole thing leaves me in a bad position. I'm stuck with a bunch of weapons I don't need. All of my assets are tied up in this horseshit, and I need a new customer. Someone who can move this product quietly here in the States and replenish my bank account.”

Richie leveled me with a stone-cold stare that would probably make a lesser man shit his pants. “I’m only going to ask you this one time, Starr. Are you working with the fuckin’ feds? Cause this reeks like a setup. You got snipers and SWAT out front, waiting to bust my ass the minute I shake on this deal?”

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