Page 19 of Ruthless Sinner

There were little things, though. After a couple weeks, he said I could feel free to stay the night even when he had to go out. I’d snooped around the place but been unable to find anything, so I’d eventually just gone to sleep in his stupidly huge bed.

I’d woken up at around four in the morning to Marco coming home. I hadn’t been able to see, since he didn’t turn the light on and I was pretending to be asleep, but I’d smelled it on him—that hot iron scent of blood.

He’d taken a shower and by the time he’d crawled into bed with me he’d smelled only of his shampoo and soap, but I’d known what I’d smelled before.

But it was just another one of those things I didn’t know how to bring up.

I was sure that my supervisor was getting impatient with me, but how impatient, I had no idea until I was dancing and Jade the manager informed me that someone had bought me for the night.

“Who?” I asked.

I was technically available to anyone, but nobody besides Marco had done so. Probably because they’d all seen Marco stalking me like a shark for a month and then figured they wouldn’t try to muscle in on his girl, even if his girl was technically still open for business. This club had just seen what would happen if you stole someone’s girl and nobody wanted to be the next Dmitri Preston.

But now it seemed someone had crossed that line. Decided that my profession meant Marco couldn’t put up a fuss.

Why would he, honestly? It wasn’t like we were exclusive. He could’ve been sleeping with other women the times I wasn’t with him, for all I knew.

Jade nodded towards the bar, where an older man sat nursing a whisky. “Him. Newcomer, but seems to know what he wants. Probably a floater.”

“A floater?”

“One of those men who goes to a different club every time. Usually it’s because their reputation would be ruined if people found out they went to clubs like these. Or they’re married. Or both.”

I followed her gaze to the older man and my heart leapt into my throat.

Shit. It was Johnson, my supervisor.

When your supervisor comes in person to check up on your undercover assignment, you know that you’re in hot water. “I’m happy to service him,” I said to Jade, hoping my tone was casual enough. “Any particular room?”

Jade had me go to the Peacock Room, one I’d never been in before done up in rich blues and greens with hints of purple, and a few moments later Johnson was led in.

I glanced at the two-way mirror. From what the girls had told me, nobody watched or recorded the sessions, unless there was an issue with a customer. “Sir?” I asked. I didn’t know how to proceed from here. I’d been told not to go to the Bureau while undercover, just in case I was being followed, but I never expected my supervisor to show up at Cozy Bunny unannounced.

Johnson, to his credit, only looked me in the eye and not at my pasties. I appreciated that. “Agent Lancaster,” he murmured, keeping his voice low, but loud enough for me to hear over the music. “I don’t appreciate my chain being yanked around.”

I instinctively straightened my shoulders, shifting from a more seductive pose to the at-attention position I was used to at the bureau. In my other life. It felt like such another life, now. “Sir, I’m not yanking anyone around.”

“You’ve been in close contact with your mark for nearly a month now and you’re telling me you still don’t have anything? Time is of the essence here.”

I matched his quiet tone. “Sir, the Russo family isn’t quick to trust. Nor should they be. They have a lot of allies but also a lot of enemies and they just had a murder in their territory. Everyone’s still a bit on edge.”

“It’s not all that difficult, Lancaster,” he said, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his slacks. “Just ask him where he’s going and what he does. The guy’s chatty in bed, everyone knows this. It’s why we decided to go this route. You were there, you helped make the decision that this was the best course of action…”

“I know that, sir,” I said, putting up a hand to stop his tirade. “But with all due respect, Marco Russo isn’t as stupid as he acts. I’m starting to suspect there’s more… calculation to him than we first thought. And we’re not the only ones who know that sex is his weakness. His family knows that too and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to rouse Vincent Russo’s suspicions. I’ve already been with him longer than any other girl and that’s going to get them concerned. I have to be squeaky clean. I can’t give them any reason not to trust me when they see that their son is interested in me.”

Johnson shook his head. “We’re short on time, Lancaster. The D.A.’s up my ass because of Dante and some big thing he’s convinced the Russos are planning. We need intel. This isn’t an operation you have the luxury of spending years on. We need to take them down or it’s going to be my ass, which means it’s going to be your ass.”

Ah. The D.A.’s office. That was the real reason Johnson was here. He had some other people blowing smoke at him because they had their big operation and wanted to be able to use ours to get it—or have us get out of their way.

I took a deep breath. “Look, sir, I will do my best to speed this up. But the D.A. isn’t the one in the field, here, and they’re not trained for the field. You and I know that a good undercover operation needs time. You can’t act too soon. I’m going to try and get in better, start probing, but I’m not going to blow this whole thing because I was reacting to pressure from some blowhard safe in his little law office who doesn’t know what we’re really dealing with. All they see are the rules, we’re the ones in the trenches.”

I kept my voice even the whole time, but it was a struggle. I didn’t want to seem insubordinate, ungrateful, or even rebellious, and I sure as hell didn’t want any passers-by or people in the next room to hear me.

But I also didn’t want to be told I was doing a bad job just because I was trying to do this right. What did Johnson know of being undercover? Had he ever done this? Had he ever prostituted himself out in the name of catching the bad guy?

Sure the sex was great—the sex was annoyingly amazing—but that didn’t change what I was doing! He should try sleeping with someone, seeing that person naked and vulnerable and intimate, and then try to plan how you’d betray that someone. He should give it a shot sometime. Bonus points because that someone could kill you with his bare hands!

I took a few more deep breaths. I had to stay calm. I wasn’t going to be dismissed as a rookie who couldn’t handle herself or told I was being an ‘emotional woman’.

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