Page 89 of Caught Up

I almost said no just for him calling me bro, but my curiosity won out. “What’s in it for you?”

“I’m empire building.” He gestured toward our feet and the hoots and hollers echoing through the hull. “I recognize that this might be temporary and want as many valid businesses as possible to balance it out. Plus,” he said, grinning, “I’ll always welcome another way to launder money.”

I shook my head. “It has to be legit. I’m not after McKinney’s building just to turn it criminal.”

He frowned. “So it’s really not a mob thing?”

“It’s really not.”

He eyed me, considering. “Fine. You in or not?”

The full two million would clear me out. All my savings and both stock portfolios. It was too much risk. I didn’t know much about Tyler, but it was obvious he had a brain underneath all that blond hair and understood how to be discreet. The fact that no one but Stefan could find him proved that. He also seemed to value the importance of diversification, something I couldn’t say for my father or his compatriots. As far as silent partners went, I could have done worse. Most important, I couldn’t afford to do it without him, so it wasn’t like I had much of a choice.

Praying I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life, I offered my hand to Tyler.

He grinned as we shook. “This is going to be fun.”

Somehow, I highly doubted that.

28

Lauren

“So, you’re, like, together now?”Ryan asked.

It was late the next morning, and my roommates and I were gathered in the kitchen, Taylor and Ryan seated at the island while I cooked pancakes and caught them up on everything they’d missed.

“I don’t know that I’d go that far,” I said. “We more agreed that it wasn’t as casual as we first thought.”

“No labels,” Taylor said. “Very cool. Very modern.”

I chucked a blueberry at her head.

She dodged out of the way, and Walter went skittering over the hardwood after it.

I turned back to the stove and poured a few more pancakes. Nic had texted me late, apologizing for not being able to make it back. Afterward, I’d tried to go to sleep, but I’d been too wired, too worried about what he was up to, if he was okay. I hadn’t missed the way he flinched every time I touched his side. Whatever wound was there was still healing, and it made me wonder how often he got hurt, how dangerous his line of work really was.

I’d gotten another text early this morning from him saying that he’d made it back to his apartment safely, and finally, I’d been able to pass out. We’d agreed to try for something less casual, but I hadn’t really stopped to consider what a relationship with Nic would look like. How many nights would I spend sleepless and worried about his safety? How often would he have to race off to follow his dad’s orders? I could imagine countless scenarios in which it happened.Post-sexagain. While running errands. In the middle of date night at a restaurant, him leaving me to awkwardly finish my meal alone.

Whatever Nic was working on to go legit, I hoped it would happen soon; I didn’t think I had it in me to be along-termmob moll. Almost as bad as the thought of him getting hurt was the thought of him hurting other people, possiblyinnocentpeople. There was already too much darkness in Nic’s eyes. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to watch the last spark of light fade entirely.

I flipped the pancakes, thinking back over the past few days, wondering if I’d been too quick to overlook certain things. Nic had agreed that there would be no more secrets between us, but I couldn’t shake the thought that there was more he was keeping from me. Like theoh-so-carefulway he said he wouldn’t putmoretrackers on me . . .

It made me wonder what other lies Nic was telling, by omission or otherwise. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but there was an uneasy feeling in my gut that wouldn’t go away, and I’d learned to trust it over the years. It had rarely led me astray.

I scooped three pancakes onto a plate and turned toward Taylor, setting them in front of her.

She picked up her fork and stuffed one in her mouth, mumbling “thank you” around it.

“You’re welcome,” I said, turning back to the stove, distracted.

I felt unsettled, like I had unfinished business. Not just with Nic, but with my sister, too, and even though I’d planned to spend the day filming, I decided to go see Kristen first to try to have an adult conversation with her for once instead of falling back into our usual childhood bickering.

By the time I sat down to eat, Taylor and Ryan were done with their food, and Ryan was filling us in on Ben accepting Ryan’s offer to work together.

“He’s bringing over his own client list,” they said. “It’s smaller than mine, but that’s good, because I’m trying to do less work, not more, so I can hand some of mine over to him.”

“Was that who you were FaceTiming earlier?” I asked.

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