Page 8 of Ties That Bind Us

“You did! Damn, I gotta admit I had my doubts. Was she as crazy as we thought?”

I chuckled to myself at the irony of the situation. She was crazy all right, just not in the respect we thought. “Even crazier.”

“Beautiful. I can’t wait to hear all about it. Just meet me at Snooze in a half hour,” Leo conceded.

“Fine. See you then.” I clicked the phone off and slid it into my pocket. I gave the room a once-over, making sure that I wasn’t leaving anything behind—except for my dignity, that was.

I snatched my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed my best friend, Zane. He was my right-hand man, but his legitimate job was private investigating. The guy was a whiz with computers and could track down nearly anyone with record speed. That certainly came in handy in the crime world, and now apparently, my personal life.

“Nick. What’s up, man?” Zane greeted me when he picked up.

“Doing good, buddy.” I waved at the receptionist on the way out of the hotel, signaling I was checking out. This wasn’t the first time I had brought a girl back to this hotel, and she already knew the drill. I gave fake names every time but she recognized me and gave me a condescending look each time, just charging my card. “Hey, I need a favor. I need everything you can find out about a girl from the restaurant last night.”

“Is this for business or pleasure?” he teased.

“I’m not sure yet.” I laughed to myself. “Thing is, I don’t know much about her.”

“No problem. All I need is a name,” he said.

I sighed, rubbing my temples. My silence gave me away.

“Nick, tell me you at least know her damn name.” Zane’s voice was a mixture of amusement and irritation. I knew what I was asking him to do was nearly impossible.

“She said her name was Juliette, but I don’t believe that. I met her at the restaurant, so maybe try there, see if there are any credit card receipts or anything on surveillance,” I offered, trying to give him something to go off of.

“I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job, bro. What does she look like?”

“Brunet, dark-chocolate eyes. Five six, five seven, definitely Italian. Probably midtwenties.”

“You realize you just described about thirty percent of women in New York. This could take weeks.”

“I don’t care how long it takes.”

“Easy, killer, I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. I’ll get on it and let you know as soon as I find anything.”

“Thanks,” I snapped, before hanging up.

I was already amped up, so I tried to put my mystery girl out of my mind for the time being, but that was easier said than done. My mind kept going over everything that happened, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

It was about a fifteen minute walk from the hotel to my building, which would leave me a few minutes to change clothes before catching up with Leo. If I was going to be seeing my dad, I at least needed to look presentable. I didn’t want to give him another reason to think I wasn’t capable of running the business when he retired.

He had been on this kick for years. He was nowhere close to retiring but had started grooming me to make sure I would be ready when he was. As the eldest of his three sons, I was next in line to take over the Caponelli fortune and run one of the largest crime families in the United States. For most people, it might sound intimidating, but I lived for this shit. I had grown up around it and there was never any doubt one day I would take over for my dad as the boss, and shape this organization into my own.

We were mostly in the weapons trade and counterfeiting. Thousands of guns, rounds of ammo, and fake bills came in for distribution every week through New York, and most of it came through our hands. My dad had dabbled in the drug trade at one point, but there were too many loose ends in that for us to get too involved. That was Moretti territory, and generally we stayed away from all things Moretti. We weren’t exactly rivals, but we weren’t all that friendly either. My parents lived in Harrison and the Morettis lived in Oyster Bay, right on the other side of the Long Island Sound. We’d been battling for control of the ports for as long as I could remember. The Morettis’ investment in illegal drugs and substances brought more police attention to the area than we wanted, and it was always a danger to shipments we brought in through that avenue. Years ago, we’d tried pulling our forces together, but that had ended in complete disaster, and the partnership was over before it even had a chance to begin. We were cordial with the Moretti family for business purposes now, but we only dealt with them when we absolutely had to.

When I got to Snooze, my brother was already sitting in our regular booth in the back. We met here at least once a week, sometimes more. Their breakfast burritos were out of this world, and that was exactly what this hangover needed. I made my way to him and sat down on the bench across from him.

“You look like hell,” Leo asserted, sliding his coffee cup over to me. “You need this more than I do. Dad decided to meet us here instead of the warehouse.”

“Fantastic.” I rolled my eyes. “That’s exactly what I need after the morning that I’ve had.”

“Was she that bad?” Leo smirked, clearly on the edge of his seat for this story. I had a feeling it was going to be slightly less climatic than he was looking for.

“No, actually she wasn’t that bad. She was incredible. The best sex I ever had. Absolutely mind-blowing.” I gave him a mischievous grin, knowing full well he wanted more details, but I wasn’t going to give them to him. The waitress slid two plates in front of us with our regular orders. They knew us well around here. Leo shot the new blond waitress a wink and I made a mental note to harass him about that later.

“Really?” Leo asked. It wasn’t often I bragged about my one-night stands. I had yet to find a girl who really did it for me. Sure, they could get me off, but no one had made me feel as good as Jules had last night. I felt so ridiculous even calling her that. I needed to put a name to that paralyzingly gorgeous face. A real name.

I nodded, taking a gulp of coffee. The liquid burned my throat but I needed something to take the edge off. “And I woke up this morning and she was gone. Slipped out without a fucking word.”

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