Page 26 of Echo

“Are you really going to ask Wizard to look into him?” I asked, my eyes widening.

“After we’ve wrapped shit up with the ring we’re taking down, fuck yeah.” His eyes heated. “Gotta make sure he doesn’t pose a risk to you, even if your contact with him is limited.”

Any irritation I felt over the idea melted away. “I love how you look after me.”

“I’m never gonna let anything bad happen to you, Violet,” he vowed. “Every inch of you is mine and only mine.”

I didn’t hesitate to agree. “I am.”

“Never had much of anything that I could call all my own, but you gotta know that I take care of what’s mine.”

11

ECHO

“Why did I let you talk me into this again?” Ash grumbled, yanking on the collar of his tuxedo shirt.

“You have the least ink and went to fucking law school. You can pull off the high class, rich motherfucker better than most of us,” I grunted as I watched him on the video monitor from our hotel suite. “Now stop acting like you’re uncomfortable in a monkey suit.”

“Iamuncomfortable in a monkey suit,” he grumbled. But he quickly dropped his hand and put on a smile when Cynthia—formerly known as Jean—reappeared at his side.

“Hello, darlin’,” he drawled, his natural Texan accent thicker than normal.

Ash was the club secretary and our legal counsel. He’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the only child of a Texas politician and his wife, who pretty much had a kid because it polled better. But instead of becoming a spoiled douche, Ash had been an A student and got scholarships to cover his bachelor’s and law degree. He’d worked for anything extra that he needed, not taking a single penny from his Mom and Dad.

They played the proud parents, even when he went to work as a public defender, putting a positive spin on it to make themselves look good. Then he went and joined the Hounds of Hellfire and got involved in shady shit that no one could nail us for…because of Ash.

Which put us where we were now. He was playing up his role as the senator’s son—who we’d made to look like he’d been a recluse all the years since he dropped out of the media.

It probably made me an asshole, but I laughed hysterically when Ash’s parents called, trying to reconnect. Clearly, they’d thought he was returning to their society and wanted to take advantage of the situation or clean it up, depending on his motives. He told them to go fuck themselves.

The best part of having Ash play this role was that we didn’t have to burn one of the aliases that Ace and Wizard had built. We simply had to resurrect Ash’s former self. He wasn’t happy about it, but he’d agreed, even without King threatening him.

“Elias,” she greeted with a beaming smile.

Wizard snorted, and Ash shot a scathing look at the nearest security camera.

I gave Wizard the side-eye and muttered, “Because Baylor Chadwick is so much better than Elias Prescott III?”

Wizard’s amusement faded in an instant.

“That’s what I thought. Now get your head in the fucking game.”

Cynthia put a perfectly manicured hand on Ash’s bicep and licked her lips.

I grimaced, feeling relieved that it was Ash and not me out there.

“I just ran into Dev and Hema Pillai. Didn’t you go to law school with their son?”

Ash plastered a charming grin on his chiseled face and nodded. “Rishi and I go way back.”

“We must get together with him and his wife!” she gasped with a girlish giggle that almost made my ears bleed. “He’s running for Congress. I’m sure if you decide to go into politics like your father, Rishi would be a valuable ally.”

Cynthia had done her homework before approaching Ash. Luckily, his parents would rather die than admit he was a patch with the Hounds of Hellfire. They’d stuck to any facts that made them look good, building trust in Ash without us having to do a damn thing.

“Are you at all worried that she will try to make him husband number seven instead of her next mark?” Wizard wondered casually.

Ash choked on his champagne, and I swallowed back my laughter when it sent him into a coughing fit. He was gonna kick my ass if I gave him any more reason to. Hopefully, Wizard would keep saying stupid things to get me off the hook.

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