Page 9 of Kiss of Death
He rounded the car, and before he got in he heard Smoke’s loud voice boom through the night sky. “Make sure you use a condom and wrap that shit tight, O. It won’t stop all of your problems, but it can prevent a few.”
Otto flipped Smoke the bird before he got in the car, wondering if paying Dom a hefty amount would make Smoke disappear. He really hated the bastard.
Sofia watched Otto’s interaction with the woman who looked eerily similar to the one they had run into for the sit down. Sofia was both intrigued and worried by his response to her. They couldn’t afford the distraction Sofia knew the woman would cause, and yet she wondered if this woman was going to be the one who brought Otto to his knees.
“Smoke, tell your lady friend to go wait by your bike. We have business to discuss.” Sofia’s tone brooked no argument as she caught a glimpse of the way Otto watched his passenger. There was possession there, just like it had been at Bocca Felice. Except, at the restaurant there had also been concern etched in his eyes.
Otto quickly pulled out of his parking spot, and Sofia watched until his taillights disappeared into the darkness. The longer she stared off into the night, the stronger the feeling that something wasn’t right became. Sofia could almost feel the rug getting ready to be pulled out from under her feet, and she couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from.
“She’s a new hire. Her name is Ivy Barone, and she lives near the pink houses in Queens.” Smoke rattled off fact after fact about Miss Ivy Barone. He had one of his guys run a background check on her. It was the same one they ran on all of the employees working at Tres and Wolf’s casino when Sofia took over. She wanted to make sure there were no snakes hiding in her garden.
“Pink houses?” Sofia murmured. The area had been one of the worst neighborhoods in Queens and the five boroughs when she was growing up; even her father knew never to conduct business there.
“Is that neighborhood still the same, or did gentrification remodel over there too?” she asked Dom, wondering about Ivy’s history and why she landed at Tres Bellas of all places. The club was popular for Brooklyn, but there had been other high-end clubs in Queens she could have worked at.
“It’s gotten better but not by much, at least not enough for her to be going home alone this late,” Dom spoke as his fingertips brushed up against hers. His touch always ignited and calmed her at the same time. She looked down at their hands, wondering briefly if they’d ever have a chance at being a normal couple—or what normal would look like for them. She hadn’t come back here to rekindle what they once had, but that spark had started as soon as she got off the plane, and it wasn’t something that could be ignored.
Sofia remembered what it was like when she first saw Dom in a way other than a childhood friend. She remembered the need that consumed her and the way they danced around one another before finally stepping over that line. Sofia had seen relationships start and die painful deaths in Columbia, and she wondered how one of her best soldiers was going to fare against the pint-sized woman.
“She’s clean, but something’s not right about the background check we ran,” Smoke said.
Sofia turned to face Smoke. “How so?”
“It’s clean. There’s no indication as to why she ended up in New York—she’s not from here, even though her records state otherwise. Plus, no family contacts. So either her last name is a fake, her entire family is dead, or she’s adopted. I already pressed her in the locker room, and she kind of danced around my questions before giving me easy answers. I could keep an eye on her.”
Smoke smiled, always eager to help Sofia. She appreciated the help of the Unhinged Brothers, they gave her the leg up that she needed, but she knew Carter was going to need his club back and operating for themselves soon.
Sofia shook her head. “Your presence isn’t as inconspicuous as you like to believe. You’re hard to miss. We’ll get somebody on it. I don’t want to keep using you guys.” Smoke waved her off, silently letting her know it wasn’t a problem. She nodded in the direction of Smoke’s bike. “Word of advice; Gia isn’t going to give you the time of day if you keep fucking anything on legs in front of her.”
Smoke scoffed and rubbed the back of his neck. It was one of his tells, but she couldn’t figure out if she just hit the nail on the head about Gia or if there was someone else. “Gia isn’t on my radar. I told you I’m saving myself for you, boss lady. But you over here playing hard to get with this big goof standing next to you.”
Sofia shook her head and let out a laugh. “You need to behave, Smoke.”
“Where’s the fun in that? Nah, but if you need me on anything with Otto and Ivy, just say the word. We got the numbers, and whoever isn’t helping with the casino is bored, so they can help here too.”
Sofia nodded, and Smoke gave them a two-finger salute before walking back to his bike. She felt Dom’s breath tickle her ear as he spoke. “You know, I almost hope he falls for Gia so Otto can shoot him in his neck and put us all out of our misery.”
IVY SHIVERED IN THE PASSENGERseat.
It had nothing to do with the chill in the night air and everything to do with the man who sat beside her. There was no air in the car, even though the windows were open. Otto carried a presence now that she hadn’t picked up on in the club, and maybe that was in part because they were alone with nothing more than the center console between them. He seemed to dwarf the space of the car, making it damn near impossible for her to focus on anything but him.
He wore a crisp black shirt and every time he gripped the steering wheel, his arm would flex, making the veins pop. She licked her suddenly dry lips as she continued to study his side profile. The light filtering in from the street lamps allowed her to take him in without it being obvious.
She hadn’t seen any visible tattoos on him, though she was curious if any lurked underneath his clothes. She noticed the scars that danced up his arm and the one just under his right eye. It made her interested—more than she wanted to admit—in his history and him as a person. She wondered about his past and how close he was to Gia. Had they been best friends growing up like her and Eve?
She shook herself, knowing the more she wondered and found out about him as a man, the more of a connection she’d feel toward him.
And connections led to attachments—and attachments were the worst thing she could have with the life she was currently trapped in. She wouldn’t be able to do what needed to be done because she cared about someone other than her sister. If she didn’t keep her and her sister’s freedom a priority, they’d never escape the prison they were in.
“Are you cold?” Otto’s deep timber vibrated through her and made her shift in her seat. She shook her head. “Are you sure? That’s like the third time you’ve shivered in your seat since we got in the car. I can close the windows and put the heat on.”
Ivy did a double take, wondering how long he’d been watching her watch him. She thought for sure she was safe in the privacy of the darkness in the car. “No, it’s fine. I like feeling the wind on my face.” It gave her the illusion that she was free to be a woman sitting in a car with an attractive man.
Otto chuckled. “Me too. It gives me a sense of freedom. It was one of the reasons I used to ride and why I miss riding, now. Nothing but the open road in front of you with the wind on your face. I don’t think there’s anything better.” He glanced her way. “Well, maybe there is.” His lips pulled back into a smirk, and even in the dark she didn’t miss the heat in his gaze.
The air was suddenly sucked out of the car. She felt trapped under his gaze, willing the light to change to green so he could concentrate on the road instead of her.
Warmth pooled in her low belly the longer he looked at her like he was parched and she was his favorite sustenance. Her pulse rolled through her body like thunder in a summer storm. He licked his lips, and she could have sworn she felt his tongue press against her clit, and it made her squirm in her seat and shift her legs. Otto zeroed in on the motion, and it was starting to feel just like when she was dancing on stage for him at Tres.
