Page 320 of Hate Mates

Only a couple months ago, I had been awoken to find Gavriel’s men banging on my door, demanding I come to the club to meet with Don Azzaro himself. As I’d ridden up to the third floor, a chill had run down my spine as dread had filled me. I’d known something had happened to my father, but no one had been talking.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to push the memories away, only to be assaulted by the luscious smell of Gavriel’s clove and citrus cologne.

No! His family is responsible for Dad’s death. There is nothing luscious about Gavriel Azzaro. Nothing.

My feet carried me blindly out of the elevator and down the hall until we were at what used to be my father’s office. Gavriel opened the door, and when I walked in, initially, all I could see was my father’s blood still coating the carpet. The smell of iron and something rotting filling the room. I could even still feel Gavriel’s hands wrapped around my biceps to keep me from collapsing into the pooled blood as I demanded to know where my father was, then turned to Don Azzaro and growled through my teeth when he told me I didn’t need to worry about it. That the family was going to take care of all expenses and they were sorry for my loss.

“Elin.” Gavriel’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I shook my head and looked around the office. There were small signs of where my father had been, but it had also been rummaged through, no doubt purged of anything that could be incriminating. Walking up to the built-in bookcase on the wall on the left between two windows, I ran my fingers over the shelves, noting the books that were gone. “I see you purged the Azzaros from the room.”

“Well, couldn’t have anyoneunaffiliatedin on our business, could we?” There was a sneer to his tone, but I didn’t react. There was nothing about this new relationship between us that I found pleasure in. It was a necessary thing to get to the point where I could take from them what they’d taken from me.

When I knelt to move a book, which was really small, hidden box in disguise, I heard Gavriel making his way toward the desk. Tipping the book back, I clicked the button and slipped my hand under the bottom, what I was looking for falling into my hands.Dad had left a note for me in his home that had simply told me to retrieve the thumb drive there for future protection. Pushing the book back into place, I opened the double doors that lined the bottom of the shelves and sighed dramatically.

“Really? You had to take the good whiskey?” Slamming the doors shut, I slipped the thumb drive into my pocket and headed toward the desk, where a laptop sat open next to Gavriel, who stood next to my father’s chair.

He shrugged. “Your father always really good taste in that aspect.”

“He had impeccable taste. The best of which was me.” I said it to get under his skin. Gavriel hated how much time my father would take off to spend with me.

His shoulder lifted. “Well, you can’t help who you . . .” His eyes roamed over me again before he continued. “. . . spawn. Though, he could have made you a little less of a spoiled shit.”

“Asshole.”

“Bitch.”

We stood there, locked in a staredown for a moment.

“Well, now that it’s clear we still don’t exactly like each other, can we get down to fucking business?” His eyebrow lifted again in a suggestive question. “I mean, literally. We are partners in running a sex club, whether we like it or not. A very successful, predominant, exclusive one at that. If we can’t figure out how to work together, then it’s all going to go to shit. Dad worked too hard on this place for us to let it burn to the ground.”

TWO

Gavriel

My cock twitched at her words. She was feisty as hell and didn’t back down for anything. That was one of her strongest attributes, except for when she was doing it to annoy the hell out of me. Though, Elin had a point. “Let me buy you out, then. Two million. Cash in the bank by the end of the week.”

She stared at her father’s chair as she turned it toward her and, after a moment, let out a heavy breath. Sitting down, she pulled up to the desk and responded flatly, “No.”

“You’re going to turn down two million that easily?”

“Password?” It was as if she hadn’t heard me or didn’t give a shit about what I’d said.

“Your father’s birthday.” I watched as she typed it in, and the home screen popped up. She started going through the files on the desktop, and the fact she hadn’t answered me had me on edge. I was never ignored. “Answer me.”

“It doesn’t change my answer.”

“You didn’t answer me.”

Her eyes swung up to look at me, and I tried to hide the catch in my breath. Why had I not noticed just how fucking stunningthis bitch was. She was gods damned beautiful. “I thought, as your father’s second, you would be proficient enough in reading between the lines. Thought you would understand that my nonanswer and me asking for the password to the laptop would be answer enough. Obviously not.” Turning her attention back to the screen, she scoffed. “Fucking idiot.”

“So, you’re going to stay in business with someone you hate?”

She clicked on the most current operating statement and glanced over the numbers before closing it and bringing up the club calendar. Elin had been given the last quarter’s numbers, but she hadn’t seen the most current set of books. The fact that was the first thing she’d gone to piqued my interest. Saying nothing else, she continued in silence, bouncing between the calendar and the financials.

I was leaning on the edge of the desk next to her and I couldn’t help but notice the intelligence in her dark blue eyes and the way her nose twitched when she saw something interesting on the screen. It was adorable, really, but then there was that mouth of hers. It was going to be a problem. Her father had stepped in a few times to keep her from harm, and I was wondering how long she would last now. She wasn’t under our protection. The assignment of her father’s assets to her included a full NDA on any and all matters connected to the family, but she had no loyalty tous.

“I can smell the smoke burning,” she grumbled.

“Well, stop thinking then.”

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