Page 17 of Kiss of Death
He pressed his hands to the glass, like it would somehow give him better access to her. His whole body was hard. He was held in the same trance she’d put him under when he first saw her dance. This time it felt worse for him though, since he had the taste of her on his lips and knew how she felt in his arms while he was nestled in between her thighs. He wanted to crawl inside of her and leave her just as fucked up as she had him.
He scrubbed a hand down his face when he felt his sister come stand by him. Was he crazy? He had to be insane to feel what he was feeling toward a woman he hardly knew, and yet it wasn’t enough to get him to look away and put some distance between them. If anything, it just drew him closer into her web. He was curious, wondering why she had this effect on him and if she felt this craziness too.
“You want to talk about her?” He heard the amusement in his sister’s tone just as the song ended and morphed into another one with a little more bass.
He shook his head, hoping she would drop it, but going by the heavy sigh that followed her question, he knew she was going to badger him until she got something out of him. The only problem with that was he didn’t know what to say when it came to his poison Ivy.
“I think we should, O. I haven’t seen you obsessed over a woman—anything really.”
“I’m not obsessing,” he murmured but still hadn’t taken his eyes off of Ivy. The pull to watch and be painfully aware of her was too strong to ignore.
“I’d believe that more if you could take your eyes off of her when she’s around.” Gia chuckled. “I’ve never seen you like this, not even with that cunt of an ex.”
That had Otto’s full attention. He never heard Gia express herself when it came to the women he fucked and the few he occasionally brought around. He kept his private life private for a reason, and the only reason he ever brought his ex around was because he thought he loved her and foolishly wanted her to be a part of his family.
Otto had let his heart lead him astray with his ex, and when his eyes glanced down toward the stage to see Ivy spin around on that pole, he wondered if he was about to make the same mistake with her.
Why had his logic and rationale been completely snuffed out when a pair of pretty eyes crossed his path?
Ivy is more than a pair of pretty eyes, and you know it.
“Do you know anything about her?” Gia’s question silenced the nagging voice in his head, thankfully.
Gia had come to stand next to him, her gaze on the club below them. He didn’t have to look at her to know she was watching Ivy now too. He knew his sister was trying to figure out what the appeal was and why Ivy had this hold on him. Otto would love to hear her theories, but none would probably fit.
“You ever meet somebody and even before they open their mouth it’s–”
“Like you’ve known them all your life,” Gia finished for him. “You don’t know what it really is, but you just click and logically it doesn’t make sense.” She glanced at him and then back down to Ivy. “But it feels like they’re supposed to be in your life.”
Otto looked at his sister and was surprised at how easily she’d been able to put into words what he’d been feeling since he met Ivy. He didn’t understand it himself, and there was still a part of him that warned him to be wary of her. He couldn’t tell if it was just his cynical self rearing its ugly head or if there was a real reason he needed to keep her at a distance.
“When did you become an expert?” Otto teased.
Gia scoffed and he watched her cheeks turn red, and just like that he realized Gia hadn’t been putting a voice to him and Ivy, she’d been putting a voice to her and Smoke.
He cursed. “Smoke? Really? Come on, Gia.”
Gia shook her head and pushed off the glass to go back toward the office desk. “You shouldn’t throw stones. You don’t know shit about Ivy. At least me and Smoke talk.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “And besides nothing is happening. He’s here to help Sofia, and as soon as she no longer needs the Unhinged Brothers, they go home.”
“And you stay here,” Otto whispered as his sister took a seat at the desk. She busied herself with papers he’d already organized and gone through.
He pushed off the glass and headed toward her. He felt both relief and a little sad at his sister’s predicament. He didn’t care too much for Smoke. The asshole enjoyed being a prick, it was like some default setting, and his sister could do a lot better. But he also knew how much it sucked when you couldn’t help who you liked, no matter what they did to you.
He leaned his hands on the desk. “You want to talk about it?”
She didn’t even bother to look up from the papers. “You want to talk about Ivy some more?”
Checkmate.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Gia smirked when Otto kept his mouth shut.
“What are you looking for? I’ve been over those papers already.” Otto shifted the conversation toward work, knowing neither one of them were willing to speak on things they themselves weren’t sure about yet. He and Gia were a few years apart, but they had always been eerily similar in the way they processed things. Always in their head even if they were wearing their heart on their sleeves.
“Smooth change in the subject, bro. I’m looking for the papers on the new hire. We hired two other girls aside from Ivy, and only one of them showed. I can’t find the records on the third girl to call her in.” She stopped her search and looked at him. “You didn’t toss anything out, right?”
Otto shook his head. “No, we came up here and watched the security tapes, and when you went downstairs, I went through the papers to organize them.”
Gia cursed. She shot up from her desk and headed over to one of the filing cabinets. She rummaged through the contents and slammed the file shut when she didn’t find what she was looking for. “We’re idiots.” She turned around. “We were so busy worrying about the dead body, we never checked to see if anything was out of place up here. The personal files on both new girls are missing, along with the files on Des, Mary, Ivy, and another girl. Someone was in this office before they dropped the body on that stage.”
