Page 73 of Wicked Attraction

Beck shook her head, trying to process the details I provided. That wasn’t my problem, so I kept talking.

“When that shipment went missing and Jack along with it, she didn’t even consider that Jack had betrayed her. Betrayed the family. That’s how loyal he was.”

Sadie had been worried and then angry after the first week of his disappearance. “We scoured the roads and everywhere in between for him. For a full year we searched for him. Then we found him.”

Beck gasped and looked up from her hands. “You found him?”

I nodded. “He was hiding in a trailer park out in the desert between here and California. He worked as a handyman for the park and picked up odd jobs that paid him in cash.”

She looked up. Life had returned to her eyes, color to her skin. “What happened to him?”

“The Crusaders highjacked his truck and shot him. He was worried Sadie wouldn’t believe him since he’d survived. He was more worried The Crusaders would come after you if they knew he lived.”

Sadie had been furious that The Crusaders would come after her employees. It was the last time they made that mistake.

“We nearly burned down Glitz and Vegas to avenge his so-called death and then set him up off the grid where he could live in peace and his little girl wouldn’t be in danger.”

Beck nodded as she took in everything I said. I waited with very little patience for her to put the pieces together. “You mean…he’s alive?”

I nodded. “He is. Alive and healthy and maybe even happy. And I’ll tell you where when you leave the Tri-City area for good. Forever, Beck.”

She nodded, seeming to go for the deal, but I didn’t buy it. When she looked back at me, I saw in her scheming blue eyes that she wasn’t accepting the deal. Not yet. “I need to think about it.”

I knew what she was thinking. “You won’t find him, Beck. I know you’re thinking of trying to do it yourself so you can fuck me over, so I’ll just wait for you to tire yourself out searching for him. And when you’re ready to accept my deal, you know where to find me.”

And once she did that, accepted the money, and left town in disgrace, it would be one less fucking thing on my plate. One less woman making my life difficult. One less woman driving me nuts.

That would give me time to focus on the two very important women who drove me utterly insane.

Sadie.

And Mo.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

Mo

I stood above my mentor, my protector, the woman who saved me. The woman who’d given me a job when I first came to the bright lights of Las Vegas.

It was hard staring down at Sadie, seeing her so small and frail. The typical hospital blankets had been replaced with a soft houndstooth blanket. Her skin was pale. Her blonde and silver hair was brushed straight back so that she looked more like an old lady instead of the badass boss bitch she was.

She’d fucking hate this.

The thought came to me instantly, and I was happy I’d come prepared. Even though Thomas had said she’d only woken up for a moment, I felt the woman who taught me all about the finer things in life would hate looking like some old hag who was happy to find bargain basement deals.

I crept to the door and looked out into the hallway, left and then right, to make sure there’d be no intruders for the next few minutes. Then, I closed the door and set up my bag full of luxury skin care products on the rolling table beside the bed.

I sat in the chair next to Sadie’s bed and got busy getting Sadie fixed up so she—at the very least—looked like herself.

After a quick cleansing and two-step moisturizing, I leaned over to pamper her face. I talked while I worked.

“Sorry I didn’t come sooner or more often, but I couldn’t, ya know? Seeing you like this is hard. Probably not as hard as it’s been for you, but I couldn’t do it.” I sighed and smiled at how the makeup put some color back in her skin. “You’re like a mother to me, Sadie. I should have been here more often. I’ve been really busy helping out at Lucky Lopez to make sure your eye candy is trained properly.”

I added a pop of blush pink color to her lips that almost gave the illusion that she was merely asleep, taking a quick break from being a badass for a nap.

If only that’s all this was.

“I know you never want to hear stuff like this, but you haven’t woken up yet, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Thank you, Sadie Ashby. Thank you for saving me, for helping me find myself and my inner strength. Thank you for teaching me that I was worth so much more than I ever realized.”

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