Leaning down, my mouth grazes against her ear. “I’ve never claimed to be a gentleman, and I won’t apologize for lying when it ended with you shaking around my cock.”
“Did I?” She tilts her head. “I don’t remember.”
I grin. “Now who’s lying?”
She hums, bringing up her fingers and smoothing them down the opening of my jacket. I stare at the movement, my hands clenching into fists to keep from reaching out and dragging her into me. To remind her just how much she loved how I made her feel.
“And this is the new job you’re starting?” she murmurs, keeping her attention on every place she touches. “Working with my dad?”
“Just a new venture,” I murmur. “Broadening my horizons. I didn’t know he was your dad.”
Her head tilts, as though she’s taking in what I say and letting it sink into her brain, slotting it away to use against me later.
I’ve never met anyone quite like her.
She’s unnerving in a type of way that makes your skin crawl. She’d be a fantastic interrogator.
Her fingers wrap around my jacket and she rises up on her tiptoes, dragging me down until her lips skate across my jaw. “Nicholas. Brayden. Whatever the fuck your name is… stay the hell away from me and stay the hell away from my family. You aren’t welcome here.”
She drops her hold and pushes me roughly before turning around and walking away.
8
EVELINE
Oscar Norman, the mayor of Emerald, is a flashy man who spends more time worried about lining his pockets than he does about his morals. I first met him when I was ten years old and Nessa had him over for steak dinner and a “chat.”
I, being the kid I was at the time, thought he was her boyfriend. But I should have known better because Nessa never did anything without just cause, and soon enough the Westerly name was bankrolling Oscar’s political science degree. Over the years, I would watch with rapt attention while she pulled his strings like a marionette, funneling him down the narrow avenues she wanted him to take, until one day, he became a household name.
Exactly like she wanted him to be.
I assumed his loyalty to Nessa was just as strong as mine. They seemed to have a bond, and she’s the reason he was worth a damn at all. But I soon realized what a foolish notion that was after she died on his boat and he didn’t even show up to her funeral.
Cut off all ties with us and hasn’t come back around since.
Oscar Norman is a fraud, hiding behind a curtain of debauchery while portraying the image of a morally upstanding family man. And as I watch him being bent over his desk while the city commissioner rams a cock up his ass, that’s never been more obvious.
“Can you turn that shit down?” Cody scrunches his nose, reaching beside his triple monitor computer and grabbing his noise-canceling headphones. “Not all of us want to hear the men running our city moaning like stuck pigs.”
I smirk, tossing a piece of popcorn into my mouth as I keep my eyes on the screen. “Please. They wouldn’t know how to run this city if their lives depended on it.”
He chuckles, running a hand through his dirty-blond locks. “You’ve got a point.”
“Hey,” I say, never taking my eyes from the screen. “Can you do me a favor?”
“You mean another one?” he asks, spinning in his desk chair to face me. “You know, rigging a hidden camera in a government official’s office isn’t exactly easy. A thanks would be nice.”
I nod. “Thank you. I need you to look into someone.”
He pushes up his wire-framed glasses as he sits forward in his seat, placing his elbows on his knees. “Color me interested. Who?”
My insides twist, and the fact my body reacts so viscerally to even the thought of Brayden Walsh pisses me off. I crack my neck, trying to alleviate the tension.
A slow smile creeps along Cody’s face. “Someone’s got you fucked up.”
I narrow my eyes. “Someone’s annoyed me, if that’s what you mean, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to kill him.”
His grin grows larger and with it so does my irritation until it’s a living, breathing, snarling thing inside me. “Do me a favor?” I snap. “Stop psychoanalyzing and stick to what you know.”
Cody’s face drops. “God, you’re such a bitch.”
Grinning, I pop another piece of popcorn in my mouth and shrug.
“You have serious issues, babe,” he says just as a long groan sounds from the computer in front of me.
Both of us divert our attention back to the screen, watching as our dear mayor stands up from his precarious position, semen dripping out of his ass and down his thigh.
Cody makes a gagging noise. “I could have gone my whole life…”
I move forward, the roller of the mouse pressing into the tip of my finger as I press save and download the recording onto a USB drive.
“It’s just sex.” I glance at Cody. “I bet the commissioner would fuck you too if he knew you were the mysterious Oz. He’d probably come just from the thought of being able to use you himself.”
He grins, his cheeks tingeing pink. “Yeah, well unfortunately for him, I like to fuck not get fucked.”
“Semantics.” I smirk.
The computer pings, letting me know the download is complete, and I reach forward, snatching the USB. Satisfaction settles in the center of my stomach and spreads outward as I slip the drive in my cleavage, tucked into the underwire of my bra.
“For your personal spank bank?” Cody wiggles his brows.
“For insurance,” I correct.
“So who is it?” Cody asks.
“What?” Standing up, I stretch my arms above my head, the ripples and pops of my tight muscles making a relieved sigh escape me. I walk over to the red couch against the far wall and grab my jacket off the back cushions.
“Whoever it is you’re debating on murdering.”
My stomach tightens as a flash of green eyes and leather flits through my memory. “Brayden Walsh.”
Cody hums. “Never heard of him. What do you need to know?”
“Everything.” I slip my arms through the sleeves of my trench coat and untuck my hair from the collar, spinning around to face him.
“Babe, you’ll need to be more specific.”
I grit my teeth, wishing he’d stop asking so many questions and just do what I need, but I stifle the strong urge to snap because if I don’t play nice I won’t get what I want. Moving across the room, I stop directly in front of him. “I am being specific.”
His eyes flick down to my chest, and if I didn’t know he was gay, I’d bend over and give him a little show to ensure he gave me what I wanted. But unfortunately, Cody isn’t seducible, so instead I have to be friendly.
“I want to know where he sleeps, who his family is, whether he got gold stars on his fucking elementary workbooks. Everything.”
Cody’s brows rise and he lifts his hands up in front of him, palms facing out. “Sure. Sure. Give me a couple weeks.” He pauses. “You know, if you want some more help with things, I’m here.”
I stand up straight, the edge of the USB digging into the skin of my breast.