“Shit, Felix.” Turning back to her work, she continues to scan page after page. “You scared me.”
“You knew I’d be by.”
Glancing back into the hall, I listen for sound upstairs. Footsteps. Talking. Even snoring. But I hear nothing except soft chatter from the street outside. So I grab the safe door and slowly draw it closed.
When Anne looks across in curiosity, I explain, “Keeps the sound out. He won’t hear us.” Pulling the door shut, I look down at my watch and set a timer. One hour at the most before my brain is swimming and oxygen is running low. “What have you got?”
“Not much.” Frustrated, she drops back to sit at the desk Tim has pushed up against the wall. “He’s paying his taxes. He has no weird clientele coming in. This place is crawling with cops every single night, so I find it hard to believe he’s dipping into the family business without your knowledge.”
“You’re telling me he has the name, the building,andthe rep, but he’snotmaking money on the side?” I bark out a laugh and make my way closer. “No, darlin’. Men like Malone don’t walk away from what he did without having something better to go to. I know him. Okay?” Stopping at her side, I place my blade beneath her chin and drag her face up.
Instead of panicking, a salacious smile spreads across her lips just a second before I take her tongue with mine. Call me a freak, but I get a sick thrill in my veins knowing she was with my brother only hours ago.
“You look good, baby.” I bite her tongue. Her lips. I drag her closer, and when she attempts to pull back, I slide my hand into her hair and hold her tight. “Have you missed me?”
“Yeah.” Panting, so her chest heaves and her tits are on display all for me, she pulls back just far enough for me to see the way her eyes burn with lust. “I missed you.”
“Is he in love yet?” Releasing her, I bring my hand up and wipe blood-red lipstick from my lips. Her eyes watch my every move, which only makes my smile wider and my cock harder. “Does he care?”
“I think so.” Drawing a deep breath, she exhales again and goes back to work. “He takes me to bed and works through his frustrations.” Flicking through a shoebox of receipts, she dedicates only a fraction of her brainspace to her work. “He talks to Archer a lot. And this other cop, Charlie Fletcher.”
Archer, my baby brother with the biggest balls, considering he walked when no one else ever had before. “Tim introduced you?”
“Nuh-uh.” She drags her bottom lip between her teeth while she works. “I asked a couple times, but he never budged.”
“So hedoesn’tcare about you?”
“He seems to. He protects me when things get rough at the bar. He keeps an eye on me even when he’s working. He’s asked me to spend the night sometimes. But nope.” She shakes her head. “He’s never introduced me to his brother.”
“And Fletcher?”
“Just another cop. Friendly enough. When he’s here, he spends most of his time with a woman.”
“Same woman each night?”
“No. New woman every single time I saw him. But he’s not around as much anymore. The shift has been noticeable, so I actually started to wonder if he and Archer were on the outs with each other. Guys fight, don’t they?”
“Seems that way.” Sliding my gun back into its holster on my hip, I flick my blade in my hand. In. Out. In. Out. “What about Arch?”
Thoughtful, she shoves the box of paper away and yanks a folder from the shelf to flick through. “What about him?”
“What’s up with the woman? The doctor?” I sit on the edge of the desk and smile the smile of the devil. “She’s educated. She’s successful. She’s a fuckin’ spitfire who doesn’t much like the idea of a random guy in a diner saying hello to her and her kid.”
“Her kid?” Finally, Anne looks up at me with a frown. “She has a kid?”
I shrug in response.
“Archer’s kid?”
Again, I shrug. “He’s not the type to get serious with someone. So I found it kinda hard to believe myself. But I heard her with my own ears. The girl pointed at Arch on the TV and called him Daddy.”The knife goes in. The knife goes out.“Either they’re living happily ever after, in which case, I’m gonna wanna pay a visit and learn more. Or she got knocked up, and he’s playing part-time daddy. Still,” I flash a wide grin, “Uncle Felix is gonna need to meet the tike, huh?”
Pushing up to stand, Anne moves to the opposite side of the small room and searches through books. She takes each down, opens it up, flips through the pages, then she turns it upside down and shakes to make sure nothing falls free.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Felix.” While she works, she glances back for a moment to meet my eyes. “I didn’t know he’d had a kid. Tim didn’t say anything. The kid obviously isn’t being brought to the bar. And like I said, Tim refuses to mix pleasure and family.” With flattened lips, she turns back to her work. “He kinda reminds me of you in that regard.”
“Hmm.” Pushing away from the desk—open, close, open, close—I come up behind the beautiful vixen and place my free hand on her hip. She wears a tiny skirt and a tight shirt, the perfect outfit for a thirsty man like me. “He’s my big brother, after all. It’s not crazy to think we might have similarities.”
Sliding my hand beneath her skirt, I groan when I find a lacy thong and her ass instantly pushing back against my cock. “You still wet for me, beautiful Anne?” Sliding her panties aside, I press two fingers into her dripping pussy and grin when her body shudders. “You want me?”