Page 85 of Merciful Lies

I don’t bother to sit. It’s early yet and only a few regulars are inside the bar, imbibing their cocktails and letting loose.

The Vipers’ Den is a popular hangout. It’s Friday night, so I know we will be packed.

It isn’t a place just for my guys, but for locals and people looking for a Manhattan vibe in a Jersey City bar. The Den is dark with a sleek city theme, all iron, steel, and cement.

It’s clean too. No drugs. No whores. No fights. Nothing obvious, anyway. Nothing that would make any hotshot cops curious.

I don’t need that kind of aggravation.

I prefer to conduct business in my office below, but this woman is not an associate. She’s nothing to me at all. And my patience is wearing thin.

“I’m a married man, Miss O’Doyle. And you and me, we’re nothing.”

“Oh please, your marriage is just a nuisance. A pittance that can go away with a simple signing of papers. We can have something good. I can fit in here,” she says, and she is eyeing me like a spider eyes its dinner.

Repulsion fills me and I let her see it. She shrinks back.

“Nico, my f-father is gonna cut me off. And worse. He’s gonna sell me to some old as dirt business associate and send me to live in some Eastern European country I can’t even pronounce if I don’t come back and tell him you said okay to this,” she begs, and I see something I want to ignore.

I see fear.

Fuck.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT-ANNA

Idon’t recognize the security guards standing outside the Vipers’ Den. But I haven’t met all of my husband’s people yet.

They must know Maria, cause they greet her and let us in.

I’ve been married to Nico for months, but I’ve only ever been in the Den twice. I don’t know who he’s told about me, or what anyone knows about me.

Suddenly, I feel foolish. Maybe surprising him isn’t such a good idea.

“What are you waiting for?” Maria smiles.

“Come on,” she says, tugging my arm.

But I feel sluggish and insecure. A sinking feeling is dragging me down, and it starts in the pit of my stomach.

I look for Nico among the scattered people. But first, I see Angel. He sees me, too.

Angel looks at me and his eyes go wide. He looks shocked. Like oh shit surprised.

It is not the kind of expression you make when you are happy to see someone. And that’s weird.

He starts to head my way, but before my husband’s cousin can reach me, I see him.

I see Nico, and a heavy weight lands right on my chest.

He’s standing with his elbow on the bar, his body angled towards someone, and he is leaning down.

I guess he is trying to hear what the other person is saying over the thumping bass of the music.

It is always so loud in here.

Then he straightens his back, and I see who he is talking to. It’s a woman. She’s pretty and young.

Really pretty and young.

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