Page 19 of Hacker Beloved

My hand reached for Asher's pants, but he caught my wrist. "No. This was about you."

I blinked, realizing they didn't want me to pleasure them. "But you made me feel good."

CJ clicked his tongue. "This isn't a pay-for-pay situation."

Asher pulled me into his arms and held me. CJ ran his hand along my arm and smiled. We stayed like that for a while, but I faintly heard a phone chime.

Asher groaned. "The real world won't stop."

"I—I need to get the podcast done," I said.

CJ leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed one of his shirts. "Here. Slip this on, and I'll help you work on the podcast. While Asher deals with whoever just sent him fifty text messages."

8

ASHER

I leanedback on the bed and tried to will my hard cock to go down. CJ winked at me over his shoulder as he escorted Zayla out of the room. In the distance, I heard my phone ding. I rolled out of the bed and headed for the living room, where I left my phone on the table next to the couch.

Sixteen text messages from Antonio and four voice mails. I didn’t bother reading any of them. Instead, I click his name, and he answers immediately.

“What the fuck were you doing?” Antonio growled through the phone.

I grabbed the bottle of wine from the end table and filled the glass CJ had drank out of earlier. “Hello to you too. I thought you and Kat weren’t going to be reachable for a while.”

“That was the plan until this fucking op blew up,” Antonio said.

“What did you find?” I asked.

Papers crinkled on the other end of the line. “The team ran Zayla’s parents' names this morning. Her father worked for the Silk Dragon Syndicate.”

“I think I heard you wrong. I swore you just said Zayla’s dad had worked for the New York Chinese Mafia.”

"You heard me correctly," Asher’s voice crackled through the phone. "It's even crazier, her mother worked for the Russo family."

I let the details sink in for a second. Her mom had worked for one of the most dangerous mafia families in New York. "How did you find this out?"

Zayla’s parents had died over twenty years ago, so it seemed strange for this information to be available.

Antonio let out a sigh. "Remember when we went out to Houston to visit Jacob and Lily?"

A deep bond of friendship had formed between Kat and Lily when they met at the Ross Women's Shelter. When Lily's abusive ex-husband found out that Kat had helped her leave, he became dangerously vindictive. To ensure her safety, Kat called upon Antonio to intercede on Lily's behalf. Antonio reached out to his old friend, Jacob Black, CEO of Nova Satellite Security. An opportunity arose for Lily to take a job with NSS in Houston, and before long, she had fallen head-over-heels in love with Jacob. Over the years, we’d all traveled to Houston to see Lily and him. “Which time?”

“I think it was for their wedding when we met Brandon Quinn for the first time.”

Brandon had made a name for himself with his ability to take down serial killers. “He figured this out?”

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before Antonio spoke again. "No. I reached out to him, because his brother Paolo Manocchio works for the Russo family. Originally, I had no clue Zayla’s mom had worked for them. I wanted to know if he had a contact in the Chinese mafia we could meeting with. Turns out my call stirred up a hornet's nest."

This wouldn't be the first time we’d dealt with the mafia. "Let me guess, we have to show up for a sit-down?"

The mafia didn’t trust conversations over the phone or in a place they didn’t own.

Antonio's voice carried a sense of anger. "Yes. I hate that we need their help, or I would tell them to fuck off with their demand. Except both of these syndicates are old school. It’s not like we can have CJ hack their networks. I would be shocked if they even allowed internet near their dealings."

I nodded, even though Antonio couldn't see it through the phone. "So, I’ll go."

“Shit, it isn't that simple. They want Zayla at the table as well.” Antonio blew out his breath. “Kat and I leave for New York in the morning. We can meet up at the hotel and work out as much as we can before the meeting that night.”

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