Page 2 of Reckless Sinner

With the demands of my job, I hadn’t exactly had time for more than a few one-night stands. I wasn’t one of the guys who liked to go out and rack up women and restaurant bills like it was a contest. Many lawyers were like that, but I had a reputation to cultivate. I wasn’t going to be one ofthoseRussos. I needed to be different from my family legacy in every way and if that meant being more discreet in my occasional liaisons and picky about my alcohol limit, then so be it.

So maybe it was the dry spell getting to me, but looking at this woman… heat slid slowly down my spine, setting each one of my vertebrae on fire as it went. I’d love to get my hands around those hips, peel that tight blouse away from her breasts…

“Dante.” Alan Weston smiled at me.

I never quite knew how to feel about Alan. On the one hand, he’d always been kind to me, a bit paternal in a detached way, which I appreciated. God knew I could use a goddamn role model who wasn’t my father. But on the other hand, I’d grown up in a family that taught me to be wary of everyone who wasn’t in our inner circle, especially anyone who worked with law enforcement in any way, and I couldn’t shake that instinct to keep a distance.

“Mr. Weston.” I smiled back politely. “Seems like we have quite the turnout today.”

“Yes, we certainly do.” Alan put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Please, allow me to introduce my daughter, Delaney. I think you two might have met briefly before…”

Thatwas where I knew her from. “At the office Christmas party, yes, I think we were introduced then. Lovely to see you again, Miss Weston.”

Delaney Weston. Probably the last goddamn woman on the planet I should be attracted to. Sleeping with the daughter—or even flirting with the daughter—of your boss was never the way to get ahead unless you were a particular kind of slimeball. And if youweren’tthat particular kind of slimeball, everyone would assume you were. I knew if I were her I’d sure assume I was only after her because of the political doors her father could open.

Delaney smiled and nodded at me, drawing herself up like she’d just remembered she was supposed to be professional. “Congratulations on the promotion, Mr. Russo.”

Everyone looked at her like she’d just ruined a surprise party.

“Ah, yes!” Jack Lerner smiled and spoke quickly. “That’s why we’ve called you in here. Everyone, we would like to formally announce the promotion of Dante Russo to junior partner at the firm here. With our caseload expanding and only one other junior partner we thought it was past time that Dante’s hard work and dedication to the firm be acknowledged and rewarded.”

“And with the certain movement of other people—” one of the board members murmured conspiratorially, “—probably best that you have another pair of hands to pick up the slack, isn’t that right, Alan?”

Okay, nowthatpart confused me. I’d known about the promotion of course but what was this about certain movements and picking up the slack?

It wasn’t unusual for senior partners to then leave a firm and start up their own company rather than wait to see if they could get their name on the door. Some left even earlier than that. Could it be that one of the men above me was about to strike out on his own? If so, that would be even better news for me, I could slide right into that opening…

Alan cleared his throat pointedly, apparently annoyed by the board member’s words. “Yes. Well, I think a congratulatory toast is in order, gentlemen?”

As we all drank, I couldn’t help but slide my gaze over to Delaney again. She was already watching me, an intense look in her eyes. Hmm.

Maybe approaching the boss’s daughter wouldn’t be such an unwelcome thing after all, at least not to Delaney.

CHAPTER2

Delaney

Iknew who Dante Russo was.

Everyone with a passing understanding of the current criminal and law situation in the city knew of the Russo family. They were right up there among the most powerful of the mafia families in our city, and they’d entrenched themselves in it so deep that I wasn’t sure they could ever be dug out.

My father saw it differently.

He’d always hated crime, or so he said. He always spoke in public about how dedicated he was to protecting the victims who were coerced into seeking mafia ‘protection’ and opposing the senseless violence that these families perpetrated.

Personally…

I loved my father. Of course I did. With my mother gone, he was always there for me, affectionate but stern, tough but fair. He wanted me to succeed and would encourage and support me. But my father wasn’t perfect. And the man that I saw at home, behind closed doors, wasn’t the same man he presented to the public. I did think my father hated the mafia. But not because they were bad people. He hated them because they were a threat tohispower.

That was what my father wanted. Power.

So of course when Dad told me that he had brought on Dante Russo to be an associate at the firm, I’d been shocked. I’d watched with every other person in the world of law, or even adjacent to the world of law, wondering who would take Dante Russo once he graduated. Speculation had flown thick and fast through the offices of New York’s law firms.

The fact that Dante was a lawyer at all was a crazy idea. The mafia didn’t let their own go. You never left the family. You certainly didn’t leave so that you could join the ranks of the enemy. But then we’d all reached the logical conclusion—Dante must be some kind of fixer for his father. A man on the inside.

Nobody dared say it around him, or even speak it too loudly when he wasn’t in the room. It was always whispered. There was never any evidence as far as I knew, but who needed evidence when it came to the Russos? You justknew.

When my dad had chosen to take Dante into his firm… the hullabaloo had been insane. I’d asked my father if he had lost his mind a little.

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