Page 29 of Blood Ties

The minute he left, I took a quick shower, pulled on the clothes he’d mentioned—after I smelled them to see if they were indeed clean. Making a mental note to ask Alessio to call my dad, I crawled between the sheets and I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

“Make Up Sex”—Machine Gun Kelly and blackbear

Once Voodoo brought Nivea inside, I followed Venom and Facet into the conference room they used for their meetings they called “church.” We took a seat at their table. A few minutes later, Hawk joined us.

“What’s going on?” Venom asked, cutting right to the chase once Hawk was seated.

A humorless laugh escaped me. “Don’t think it’s just a friendly visit?”

Venom cocked a brow at me and drew his chin back a bit. His actions told me he knew better.

My chuckle was humorless as I shook my head. “Sorry, I’m in the middle of an absolute shitshow.”

I explained everything from when I took the job until that moment. I ended with, “So here we are.”

“Christ, I can’t believe the stepmom is trying to frame your girl for murder.”

I didn’t correct his assumption that Nivea was my girl, but neither did I confirm it. The last several days of being with her had taxed my self-control to the limit.

“Frame her? No. She’s going straight for the jugular. For some reason, she put that hit out on Nivea. I’m pretty sure I know why, but I don’t have the proof. That’s where Facet will come in.” I motioned to Facet before I continued.

“I think when it took me longer than she expected, she hired someone else. Whoever it is, they’re good. They’ve been on my ass the whole time. That’s why I decided to come here—her dad wanted her out of Chicago. Initially, we were headed up to my brother’s lake house. Somehow, the other guy knew that’s where we were going and was waiting for us there.” I shook my head.

“How do you know he was there waiting, if you changed your plans and came here?” Venom rested his forearms on the edge of the table and folded his hands.

“Because Matthew Bulgari is her father,” I reiterated.

“That is one bad motherfucker, Prez,” Facet confirmed.

“You know him?” Venom asked Facet, who shook his head.

“Not personally, no. But word gets around. If you know, you know, and trust me when I tell you,I know. I had an associate who worked with him on a job. It was right after I got out of the army—before I came here. The stories he told made even me nervous. Matt Bulgari’s got some insane connections,” Facet explained.

“Better than yours?” Venom asked Facet with a raised brow.

“Yes,” Facet replied.

Venom rubbed a hand over his mouth as he considered everything.

“What’s the motive? Did the biological father change his will, leaving the money to the daughter?”

“Nivea.”

“What?” Venom looked over at me in confusion.

“Her name is Nivea—the daughter,” I clarified.

Venom shot me a calculating look. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he gave me a subtle nod. “Did the biological father leave his money to Nivea? Maybe that’s the motive,” he corrected.

I glanced at Facet in question.

“Well, you’d be pretty spot on. I hacked into the attorney’s computer and it turns out, about two months ago, Justin changed his will. It now specifies that, upon his death, if it was a result of natural causes, his fortune gets divided between several charities, his wife, and any living, natural-born children—but everything stays in trust for five years.” Though he was explaining everything, Facet’s fingers were obviously flying over his keyboard because all I could hear was the rapid clicking of the keys.

“Forfive years? Who does that?” I frowned, running a frustrated hand through my hair.

“Someone who is afraid he’ll be killed for his money?” Hawk chimed in with a shrug.

“Makes sense,” Venom agreed as he slowly stroked his graying beard.

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