Page 145 of Square Deal

Luca grabbed the back of my neck and death-marched me out of the club. Steve yanked a car door open. Luca got in first. Steve threw me in the middle and slammed the door shut behind us while Chase sat in the front with the driver.

“Hey, Al,” I grinned. “Long time no see.”

Alice peered over her shoulder and shook her head before pulling off the curb. “One of you fine gentlemen gonna tell Mr. Crenshaw that you picked up Mr. Lawson?”

“On it,” Luca mumbled as he texted my traitor of an assistant.

I should have known Spenser would sell me out. He was tooeasily bribed with food, and he’d live at Luca’s restaurants if he didn’t have to work.

“For the record, Spense didn’t snitch,” Luca clipped. “Pretty easy to find you when your every move is all overTMZ.”

“Thanks for the ride, Ms. Alice,” Chase said.

Alice preened like a peacock, fluffing up her silver hair. “Well, you’re certainly welcome,” she beamed. She looked like a grandma, but drove like she was in theFast & Furious.

“How’d you get in this gig?” he asked. Chase could make small talk with a brick wall, but I didn’t want to hear it. Right now, I just wanted a handful of aspirin and a banana bag.

Alice swerved through traffic and took a shortcut to miss a road closure.

The car rammed a pothole. “Fucking de Blasio,” Alice and I muttered at the same time.

Al smiled—sweet as sugar—at Chase. “I was a truck driver in the Marines for twenty years. When I got out of the service, a buddy of mine was running for Congress, so I started driving his bus during his campaigns. Moved up, took on different clients, and somehow ended up driving for this sad sack,” she said, jerking her thumb backward at me.

“Well, thank you very much for your service, ma’am,” Chase said.

Alice pooh-poohed his manners. “Just call me Al like everyone else. No need for the ma’am.”

I craned around Steve to see a swarm of paparazzi flocked around my building like vultures. She peeked in the rearview mirror. “Back entrance okay with you, Mr. DeRossi?”

“Since when do you work for him?” I hissed.

Alice cocked an eyebrow at me. “Since he hauled your sloppy drunk ass out of a club. You want me to throw you to the wolves and make you go in the front?”

It was rare that Alice talked back to me. I could count those moments on one hand.

Well, maybe I couldn’t count right now. The number of fingers on my hand kept wavering between eight and ten.

There was a chorus of seatbelts unlatching, and I was unceremoniously shoved out of the car.

“Better make it quick,” Alice warned.

Luca passed her a tip he pick-pocketed from my wallet. “Have a good night, Al.”

Steve fisted the back of my suit and perp-walked me to the service elevator. Tires screeched as Alice burned rubber getting out of the building. The ride up was only forty-five seconds, but Steve didn’t waste a single second. He looked like he was about to disembowel me.

I’d be up for it if it meant I wouldn’t have a hangover.

The place vaguely resembled my apartment. Then again, it had been a while since I’d been here. Between country hopping, I had spent every free moment at Hannah’s.

Fuck.

I stumbled to the kitchen just in time to unload the contents of my stomach into the sink. It was mostly liquor.

When did I redo my kitchen? This was swanky.

Someone whistled behind me. “So this is how the other half lives.” It was Chase. “Nice place, Lawson.”

Luca scoffed. “His? This is my place.”

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