The corners around Jay’s eyes tightened and she realized she’d said too much. She’d never told him that her sister’s death was her fault. Bracing for the inevitable questions, she was surprised when they didn’t come.
“What’s this Kevin’s last name?”
For a brief moment she thought about not telling him, but knew Jay would find out anyway. “Murrell, but I still don’t want you involved in this. I’m going to pay him what I owe him then explain that I was fired from the Serafina. He’ll likely be pissed, but he won’t have a reason to come after me and he’ll have his damn money.”
Jay just snorted and reached into his jacket pocket. When he held out his hand, palm up and handed her two familiar diamond earrings, her heart stuttered. “Where…how?”
“Wyatt bought them back,” he said, dropping them into her hand.
Ellie ran her free hand over her face. Now she owed him for that too. Her throat tightened and she struggled to find something, anything to say to Jay, but couldn’t force the words out.
Finally he broke the silence. “I need to call Wyatt so why don’t you go change and get some rest?” He was cold now, remote, and she hated it.
She shook her head. “I don’t want—”
“I don’t care what you want,” he snapped, the tendons in his neck pulled tight as he turned away from her.
Though she should have expected it, the verbal shut down was like a slap. Feeling lost and exhausted, she made her way upstairs and tried, but failed to bury the pain at having ruined everything with Jay. A hot shower wouldn’t fix anything, but it might get rid of that strip club stench.
* * * * *
Wyatt nodded once at Iris and Hayden as he entered the security room at the Serafina. Almost immediately they stepped away from the different personnel they were talking to and headed for Iris’s office on the east side of the expansive room. Video monitors covered an entire wall and there were eyes on each one. Tuning out the steady hum of activity, he strode down the ramped walkway that looped around to where the offices were, avoiding the trek through the middle of the security area.
He met Iris and Hayden as they reached the door of her office. Smiling at him, despite the tension in the air, Iris brushed her lips over his and it took all his restraint to not take it into something deeper as his instinct demanded. Now was definitely not the time. But he loved that she didn’t hide her affection for him. He knew some people thought he’d given her the job because she was his wife, but he didn’t care what anyone thought. Former military, trained in too many weapons to count and tough as nails, she was more qualified than anyone he knew.
Once the three of them were inside, he shut the door, then pressed a button on the panel that gave the glass wall overlooking the security pit a frosted look so no one could see inside.
“So Ellie’s really okay?” Hayden asked, his concern for his brother’s girlfriend real.
“Yeah, she got a little roughed up, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. I thought Jay was going to kill the owner of Teaser’s.” He glanced at Iris, who was leaning against the front of her desk, before he looked at Hayden. “I’m going to have Vadim doing a lot of research in the very near future on Leonard Smith, but I need you to make sure Jay won’t go after him.” Wyatt had seen the look of rage in Jay’s eyes and was thankful the man hadn’t done more than he had to Smith.
Hayden nodded. “Of course.”
“I’m serious. No little visit to rough him up, nothing. He can’t be seen near that guy. What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this room, but Smith’s security guy…I know him. I have no idea why he was working at Teaser’s, but he’s a cop. Or used to be or more likely he’s working undercover because he didn’t do anything to call in backup or tell Ellie to press charges. I have no idea what the story is and I don’t know how Ellie knows him, but he’s a witness to me, Ellie, Jay and Brannon being there. We now have a connection to that garbage so make sure Jay stays away.”
Expression grim, Hayden nodded. “Got it.”
Wyatt semi-relaxed, knowing Hayden would make sure Jay listened to reason. Wyatt planned to tell Jay exactly what he’d told Hayden and Iris, but the man listened to his brother more than anyone. Except Ellie. Ellie. He still had no clue what she’d gotten herself into but he was damn sure going to find out. “Where’s Vadim?”
Iris’s jaw twitched ever so slightly. “He had to take care of something personal, but he did a little digging into Ellie’s background. More than what your initial background checks on employees cover. He covered pretty much everything he could find, but what’s most interesting is the phone call she received this morning. I’m guessing it was right before she ran. She was on the phone for a little over a minute before the call ended. The owner of the cell phone is Tadeo Bejar—he just got out of prison and runs with Carlo De Luca’s crew.”
Wyatt let his wife’s words sink in. De Luca was a piece of trash Wyatt would love to see run out of his city. There was a criminal element in Vegas Wyatt didn’t mind. They broke laws and sometimes caused havoc, but they also took care of the people in their neighborhoods. He could respect that. Things weren’t always black and white, something he’d learned at a young age. De Luca was like a cancer who cared for no one but himself. He had a history of violent behavior and his little enterprise had grown steadily over the last five years. Wyatt had been keeping an eye on him and now he planned to do more than that if that bastard had threatened Ellie. “Does she have any ties to De Luca?”
Iris shook her head. “Not that V could find and not that Hayden knows of. Personally, I can’t see prim and proper Ellie involved with low life criminals. We’ll need to talk to her and Jay though.”
As if on cue, Wyatt’s phone rang and Jay’s number appeared on caller ID. “Hey, I’m with Iris and Hayden, I’m putting you on speaker,” he said as he answered, waiting for Jay to okay it.
“Hey guys.” There was an edge to Jay’s voice Wyatt had never heard. The man was like titanium under pressure, but not now. “Ellie’s upstairs so I’m going to make this quick.”
After Jay relayed all the details of why Ellie had run Wyatt asked, “Does she know if this Kevin is involved with a Tadeo Bejar? He just got out of prison and he’s with De Luca’s crew.”
The silence on the other end seemed to stretch for an eternity. “She didn’t mention the name, just that her ex contacted her. Maybe Bejar and Kevin were inside together? Can V—”
“Yeah, I’ll have him look into both of them. Go get some rest and take care of Ellie. I’ll call you with any updates.”
Wyatt knew Jay wanted to argue, but his friend just grunted and hung up. “If Kevin stole from De Luca and is now trying to get in with his crew, there’s no way De Luca knows what he did. And there’s no way he’s going to go to De Luca about Ellie. Even if he lies and says she took his money, that means he’d have been sitting on the information for eight years.”
“But Kevin still wants her to rob the Serafina,” Hayden said.
“It’s probably his in with De Luca’s crew,” Iris continued. “Which is a bold move. He stole this guy’s money, but now wants to work with him.”
Wyatt nodded, thinking of the clusterfuck that had just been dropped into his lap. He had a ton of paperwork to do and a thousand other things that simply couldn’t wait and now one of Vegas’s criminal elements wanted to rob him. Using one of his most trusted employees no less. “Send V to see me as soon as he gets back,” Wyatt said to Iris, who nodded before tilting her head at Hayden.
The other man quietly left the office, shutting it behind him. As the door clicked into place Iris wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I think you need a hug,” she murmured.
He chuckled lightly, some of the tension draining from him at her touch. “I need a big fucking drink. But I’ll take the hug anytime.”
Chapter 6
Jay pressed his hand against the master bathroom door, curling his fingers against the wood
as he listened to the shower running. He’d just gotten off the phone with Wyatt and should be following up with other contacts, doing his own damn research on Ellie’s ex, but he didn’t want to be anywhere but with her.
The fact that she’d left him raked against his insides like razor wire, but the agony and fear in her voice when she’d told him why she’d left was impossible to ignore. He wanted to be angry with her and he was, sort of, but more than that, he wanted to break through that wall between them. The one that made her think it was okay for her to run away. He loved that she wanted to protect him, but the fear he’d seen in her eyes today was too much. There was nothing she couldn’t come to him about, nothing he wouldn’t take on to protect her.
He’d also seen self-loathing in her beautiful brown eyes. When she’d confessed that she’d been the reason her sister died, the shame in her expression and body language had been too much. He knew her sister had died in a car accident, but Ellie never talked about her family or her life before college. It was like a giant blank slate.
Every time he tried to push for details she shut down or changed the subject. Didn’t matter how hard he tried, Ellie was stubborn. That silence was about to change though. They were going to face this threat head on together.
Stripping off his clothes, he tossed them onto the bed before opening the bathroom door.
“Jay?” Her petite body was blurred behind the thick glass wall enclosure of the shower.
“Yeah.” He sounded gruffer than he’d intended. Clearing his throat he continued, “You okay?”
“Fine.” A clipped answer that didn’t give him a hint of what she was feeling.