Page 89 of Root

“Two hours ago.”

“It’s not even nine.”

He just looks at me, and I push a hand through my hair.

“Okay,” I add. “Fair enough. Fuck Fa—Nikolai’s a crack of dawn type.”

Only the raised brow gives away Tony’s amusement at my self-correction. He knows I’d never call Nikolai that to his face.

“Here’s his instructions for today.” He rips off a couple of pages from the open notepad and hands them to me. “You know the usual things, but this afternoon, he wants you to go to see Miss Smith.”

“About?” Oh fuck, if my cousin’s trying to hand off the crown… He and Rose are away doing…I don’t know what, but he better not be running off into the sunset.

I could run the business. Not like Nikolai, but there’s a whole support cast here.

Taking a breath, I run my gaze over the neat notes in my cousin’s strong writing. Nothing seems unusual, and he left an addendum about some business he has to take care of.

“It’s just a meeting he can’t make, you’ll take his place. The Smith family wants to know about the incident at Bunny’s, so…”

“Star attraction, that’s me.” Then, I frown. “Take Fred?”

There’s a knock and I turn. The giant that Nikolai assigned me when I was a punk ass sixteen-year-old stands there. His mouth lifts in the smallest smile and I scowl at him.

He’s gonna give me fucking hell over being my babysitter. We’ve become friends since that time all those years ago and though I have protection, I don’t need his shitty jokes.

Also, if he even so much as looks at Jess, friend or not, I’ll kick his ass.

“Fine,” I mutter.

“And Ms. Carabella?”

“She’s not a prisoner,” I say, but the stone-faced Tony just looks at me, so I add, “officially.”

He scowls.

“Keep an eye on her so I can have breakfast first?”

The day’s long, and when we finally reach the bar in the business district, we wait at the actual bar until we’re led to the back. I’m shown into a room where a pretty, young, fresh-faced blonde with killer eyes—as in there’s blood on her hands kinda killer—meets me.

“Nikolai sends his apologies,” I assure her. “He had to head out of town for a while.”

“You must be Rush. I’m Lucy Smith.” She smiles, but it doesn’t touch her eyes. “Tell me, what happened at Bunny Munroe’s.”

I do, telling her how Jess was stabbed in the process.

She nods, leans back in her chair. “She must be new, around the time of the changeover.”

“No, she was there before—”

“Rush, Bunny’s is on, or should be on, friendly territory. Something changed. And it changed when Bunny’s changed hands. It was meant to stay friendly, but it seems Ed, who ran it, lost it. Ed was the face for a while, but it wasn’t until the gang moved in that your stabbed girl did, too. Along with all the staff.”

“I heard it was the gang, the Ten64s.”

They’re involved in it somehow, but I’m fudging things. Jess didn’t say that. In fact, she said she didn’t know who owns it.

“Really?” she asks sitting back and running a thoughtful finger along her chin. “I’ve looked into them. They’re a nasty lot, but apart from some rumbles here and there, they don’t seem to have a real base here; they move around.”

In other words, if they do have a base, then that’s trouble.

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