Page 16 of Saving Scarlett

“So, are you going to ask her about it?”

“I’m not going to do anything just yet. I’m gonna wait things out and see if I can learn more about her relationship with her father first. I don’t want to get on the bad side of his organization, but I am trying to protect his daughter and I’m sure he would want me to do just that. I will have to talk with him eventually, but I don’t want to make any rash decisions.”

Even as I said it, my mind whirled with how I needed to handle the situation. Nothing from my interactions with Scarlett made me believe she was being deceptive, but I needed her to come clean with me. I just didn’t know how I was going to talk to her about her father, and I didn’t know how I was going to talk to her father about her.

“Roger that, Boss. Anything else?”

Rubbing my hand over my eyes, exhaustion made it hard for me to think. “Keep your ears to the pavement for any movements or communications regarding Scarlett, her husband, or her father, and report back if you hear anything. I need to get some sleep. At least for a little while.”

I hung up the phone a moment later, brushing my teeth and climbing into my bed. For a long while, thoughts warred my body for dominance, but my need for release was a physical entity in the room that I couldn’t ignore.

Finally giving into the urge, I tossed my pants to the floor and slid my hand up my already rigid cock, my eyes rolling back at how fucking good it felt. With the frustrations of the past few days coursing through my system, I stroked myself harder, picking up the pace and closing my eyes as a reel played behind my eyelids. Images of a woman I should have not been envisioning at all flooded my mind without my permission, but the way she’d run her fingers across my tattoos, the way her eyes lit up when she laughed… it was impossible not to.

My breathing quickened, my orgasm approaching so much quicker than it usually did. I shuddered as my orgasm hit, ecstasy surging from my head to the tips of my toes as I tried to catch my breath between gasps, and all my thoughts centered around the one woman who shouldn’t have been on my mind at all. But as I cleaned myself off and collapsed onto the bed, I couldn’t find it in myself to care.

The rhythmic tapping of keys filled my ears as I pressed the phone closer. “Talk to me, Phantom. What have you got?”

“I’m in, Boss,” he said between slurps and crunches. “Took some finesse, but Ivy’s files are mine.”

Shoving my feet into my boots, I headed out onto the deck. “Slow down and start from the beginning. What exactly did you uncover?”

Phantom let out an excited laugh. “Encrypted correspondence between Ivy and known crime syndicates across the city. Money transfers in untraceable crypto. Records of meetings and transactions that link him to every major player in the underground. And a hit ordered on Joshua Prejean. This is huge.”

I stopped in my tracks, mind reeling. We knew Ivy had Mob ties, but confirmation brought a new edge to the danger Scarlett faced. If her own father was entangled in a web threatening her husband’s life, nowhere was safe. Although I didn’t know how her father was involved in the hit Joshua took out on Scarlett’s life, her husband and father’s business dealings were much too shady to not be a coincidence. And if her father wanted her husband dead…

“Send me everything,” I said, resolve clear in my voice. “We need to get a better grasp of what’s going on.”

“Already on it.” Keys clacked furiously through the phone as I hung up, my fists clenching at my sides, fury and focus coursing through me. Taking down Joshua was one thing, but Ivy raised the stakes. If it was a war they wanted, I’d bring hellfire to their doorsteps. For Scarlett, any cost was worth paying, but I didn’t want her hurt in the process.

I paced as I waited for the files, thoughts racing. Scarlett had no idea the viper in her midst, the man who was supposed to love and protect her while plotting her husband’s murder—the husband who was supposed to love and protect her while plotting her murder. Rage simmered in my blood, but underneath lay a shard of sorrow. However monstrous, Ivy was still her father. The betrayal would cut deep when the truth came to light. Joshua’s betrayal had already hurt her enough, leaving wounds I wasn’t sure would ever heal.

As my mind reeled, my phone chimed with an incoming message. I read Phantom’s brief note then downloaded the encrypted attachment, entering my password with steady fingers. The archive opened, casting Ivy’s sins in stark relief.

Emails arranging hits on Joshua’s men, exchanges with Cartel leaders across the South, ledgers documenting payments for trafficking guns and drugs—the evidence was damning. Scarlett’s name jumped out repeatedly, her movements tracked and reported. She was a pawn in their game, her life held cheap by all involved.

Jaw clenched, I forwarded the archive to my secure cloud storage. Ivy’s days were numbered, but caution was critical with Scarlett in the crosshairs. I had to keep her away from New Orleans until the viper was defanged.

My phone rang again as I scrolled through everything in front of me, Phantom’s concerned voice coming through when I answered with a grunt.

“What’s the plan, Boss?”

I exhaled, my focus icy calm. “I’m going to keep her out of his reach while we tear their empire down.”

Chapter 15

The Survivor

Still rubbing my eyes, I stumbled out of the bedroom when I woke to find Bane standing in the living room, already dressed for the day. We’d already been at the cottage for three days, most of which I’d spent either lounging, reading, or sleeping. Although I knew Bane spoke to Phantom often, checking on things back in New Orleans and plotting, I chose to remain ignorant for the most part. Ignorance truly was bliss. Instead, I’d finished reading Huckleberry Finn and had moved on to The Catcher in the Rye, which was a very different book, indeed.

With the fall weather cooling the air, we spent a lot of time on the deck, but in the evenings, we played games, mostly Life or Monopoly, which he totally let me cheat on. We’d also finished watching the first few Final Destination movies, so I was now too terrified to fly, drive, or ride a roller coaster. There was an ease about our interactions that I didn’t want to question. It was something I would rather just enjoy because I realized it wouldn’t last forever. Eventually, he would go back to his own life—which kept him on the other side of the law, and I would have to pick up the pieces and begin anew—something I didn’t want to think about.

Although there was a sexual tension between us that bubbled just below the surface, at least for me, we were friends, or something like it, and it was exactly what I needed.

“How did you sleep?” he asked, closing his laptop. “I made coffee.”

Before I’d answered the first question, he’d already turned around and headed into the kitchen. Smelling the coffee, I followed him. “I slept pretty well. Why are you so chipper this morning?”

When he turned around to hand me a cup of coffee, a grin was already tugging up the side of his mouth. “I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being chipper.”

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