Page 56 of His Deadly Lies

“Your mother wanted eyes on the girl. I staked out her house, but she never came home.”

My father’s right-hand man took on the duty himself? Something about this stinks.

“Just because she never came home doesn’t mean the cops are coming our way,” I reply with a frown.

“Well, you might want to prepare. Her roommate is in a panic and pointing fingers. Someone that loud? The cops listen.”

I press the button to disconnect the call, blood rushing from my face. “I believe,” I tell the others with forced calm, “we’ve got a bigger problem than some stolen merchandise, Papa.”

16

CARTER

Ricardo stares at me with his fingers absently twisting the gold ring around his middle finger, the only sign of his irritation with today’s meeting. It seems like Mia just got a call about a threat to the business, and having it come so close on the heels of his verbal beatdown at her hands?

Spells trouble.

I step close to my nephew, leaning down so that he’s the only one who hears me whisper, “Ricardo, perhaps we should allow them to discuss their private issues while we review changes to security.”

He doesn’t even look at me.

Like the obstinate little fucker I helped raise, Ricardo shakes his head. “This involves us,” he snaps back loud enough to draw Edward Balestra’s attention, which is the last thing we need, considering the shit hitting the fan.

“Come again?” he asks Ricardo, cooly.

Mia is practically nuclear at this point, and all the coffee in the world isn’t going to help her.

Ricardo sighs and offers them both a smile. “My apologies. Carter simply wonders if the issue with the phone call would best be resolved with our assistance.”

This fucking punk is getting his rocks off testing me. Why he wants to come across as some kind of badass now has nothing to do with Mia, I’m sure. The two could not be more opposite, and up until this point, he’s shown no indication of wanting to make a good impression on her for any kind of long-term relationship.

Which is fucking fantastic in my eyes.

In fact, Ricardo has always been preferential to blondes with huge asses and a docile temperament. Not women like Mia.

So why the hell is he pulling this hotshot shit now?

“No,” she answers quickly. “Thank you.”

Mia turns her back on both of us. It’s a dangerous move and is sure to strike a killing blow to Ricardo’s ego. I might actually enjoy watching the two of them go at it. Verbally, at least. The thought of him touching her anywhere on her body, the thought of him kissing her and tasting the sweetness of her tongue—my cock jerks awake at the absolute wrong moment.

Because Ricardo needs to keep his grubby little hands off of her and start watching his tone.

“Are you sure?” he pushes.

I’m seconds away from gripping the back of his shirt and storming out with him in tow. Maybe throwing a few punches and getting my aggression and exhaustion out on him.

“Papa, there's more to the story than meets the eye,” Mia is saying, ignoring Ricardo entirely. “It goes beyond whatever happened last night with the reporter and the shipment. We need to move quickly to find the leak, plug it, and make sure the cops find nothing when it comes to Alice.”

She starts her talk, and Ricardo shifts away from me, physically inserting himself between her and the desk. “What we need is to discuss a course of action together,” he insists. “Both families are involved now. Your reporter covered our engagement story. Whatever is going on, if it involves her, then it involves us all.”

The punk is right, in a way, but this is not a good tactic to get on Mia’s good side, or her father’s, for that matter.

“Ric—” I start to say.

“Stop.” Mia cuts me off with a sweep of her hand, her chin jutted out, and her sideways look cold. “You don’t talk.”

I clench my jaw tightly, muscle ticking, as she turns to the boy to no doubt put him in his place. “Ricardo has been told about everything that happened at our club, matters I assumed would be confidential for at least five minutes. Here he is speaking to me about our stolen shipments. Want to tell me what’s really going on between the two of you because it seems to be secrets spill from your lips faster than lies, Carter.”

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