I jerk toward Grey. “How? How did you know?”
“You don’t think you’re under our roof by accident, do you?”
I press a hand to my rolling stomach. “I don’t anymore, I guess.” Confusion crinkles my brow. I don’t have time to mull over what Sylan means, he’s already talking again and he has my full attention.
“When someone like your father gets into business with us, knowing all of his assets makes good business sense.”
“Assets as in family? For blackmail. You dig up family connections, dirty kinks...whatever... on people for blackmail or so you can kidnap them to get what you want? But how did you know about me?” Since we’re not trying to tiptoe around details anymore, I don’t hold back.
Sylan narrows his eyes at me, a dark smile on his lips. “You’re not very good at covering your tracks. Nor is he. Or we’re just better at what we do.” Sylan skims his fingers down my skirt only to stop at the hem and trace the thin edge. Leaving me breathless as to what he would do next. Strip me, pull the leather up to real my bare ass cheeks to his business partners.
Drake pulls out his phone and flips it around to show me a picture of myself. A couple of years back. The day I walked into my father’s house. Back then I had pure titanium for a backbone and enough hope to drown out all the evil in the world. Despite the nagging fear my mother was right, I held onto that hope until my father shoved me out of his life and slammed the door in my face. I’d been so wrong and now I’m paying the price for it.
That was the day I found out who my father really is. A slithering snake. An opportunist who crushed others to get ahead. What did that make me?
Sylan cups my face, his thumb just below my jaw. I can’t help but lean into the warm, gentle touch a little. I’m only human.
“We’ve watched you from that day on, mo chroi. How do you think you found a roommate so fast when your last one bailed? Landed a job with no experience in a place like this? How not a soul has bothered you? You don’t think your father has other enemies who know about you?”
The relative peace I’ve lived all starts to make a lot of sense as twisted as it sounds. “Keep friends close, enemies closer. Or should I say daughter of the enemy?”
Sylan’s smile turns smug.
I take a sharp breath and ground myself inside from the pain his words cause. “Nikki?”
“Paid member of our establishment who doubles as a bodyguard.”
Betrayal, thick and black, sink into my soul. All the nights we spent talking. Me spilling my guts about my mobster father, telling her about all the nasty shit I had to deal with while her life was almost peaches and cream in comparison. All the fake sentiments she blubbered back about always being there for me. My ride-or-die chick for life.
How could she! Fucking bitch.
Sylan drew me out of my thoughts by taking both sides of my face in his palms.
“Answer me and we can move on from this. Get to the real reason you're here.” His voice became darker this time, slightly edgier, almost irritated. My lips quivered, drawing his gaze and what he did next drew a gasp of shock from both of us.
Or did he groan? I don’t know. I can’t focus at all on how good the mobster’s mouth feels on mine. He hauls me against his body so that I land on his chest, the heat of his body searing into mine. I feel a hard chest against my back and more hands on me than my shocked brain can focus on.
Callused hands take me by the waist and I'm leaning against someone's broad chest, my legs wrapped around Sylan’s waist.
Spreading my legs wide, my skirt gives enough to ride high. Between my legs I feel Sylan. His arousal is hard and thick pressing against me. “Sylan,” I whisper before he swallows my voice.