Page 47 of To Catch A Rook

My perfectly polished smile held in place while I inwardly cackled at the fun this night was turning out to be. Jediah’s parties were normally a predictable snooze of well-timed barbs and the trading of illicit information—snooze fests I needed to attend to keep a pulse on the ever-changing landscape of power. This palpable masculine tension was a scream in comparison.

“How did you two meet?”

Aaron’s authoritative tenor crackled in the air between us, and I offered him nothing but a coy smile.

“Do you remember the friend I mentioned when I ran into you at Quintessence? The meeting you ‘forgot’ to invite me to?” I dipped my head toward Lauchlan’s beaming smirk as he took a sip of wine from the crystal goblet set in front of him. “Lucky and I were just having a drink. Getting to know each other.” I shrugged dismissively. “I discovered he doesn’t like choking nearly as much as some men.”

The smirk transformed into choked coughs as wine sprayed from Lauchlan’s lips to cover the plate in frontof him.

My flippant taunts weren’t meant to wound—they had just enough bite to cause a mild sting; a sting Aaron could more than handle, and dish out, on a good day. Today, his glowering blossomed into a sanctimonious sneer, the perfect replica of his father.

“Perhaps he has never been properly choked.”

The energy of one of the most powerful men on this side of the country rolled off him in waves as he stared through the still smirking Irishman as if his eyes could set him on fire. “I’ll give you a pass to my club, my friend. My employees will attend to your most interesting proclivities.”

Lauchlan’s smile was innocent, but his eyes held a wickedness I would one day use against him.

“No need, mate. I’ve found the perfect person to satisfy my”—he moved his fingers into air quotes and raised the pitch of his voice in a mocking tone—“'proclivities'. But I hope you get a real good choking some day soon, yeah? Might loosen that stick out of your arse—”

“Lauchlan,” I interrupted coolly before Aaron could grind his teeth into a curb. “I never caught what you do for a living?”

Glossy green eyes turned their gaze back to me, and I just caught the glimpse of the roiling depths within them before they shuttered back to their brilliant hue.

“Tech, love. I’m in tech.”

Smoothly delivered, vague, and uninteresting. How practiced.

“I’ve never fully understood what that means.” I turned to the simmering man beside me and gently squeezed his bicep. “Have you, Aaron? Do you know what being ‘in tech’ means?”

The chestnut lashes of the Colombian man’s eyes rose with darkly amused interest as I cut through the tension radiating from his core. “At the risk of sounding ignorant, I do notknow what”—he mimed his own air quotes mockingly—“'being in tech' means.”

Kellan’s ill-timed interruption saved the suave Irishman with his rehearsed lines.

The Viking had finally found me—his piercing blue gaze locked onto mine like a missile and his massive form lumbered toward our table.

“Hillary.” He nodded curtly to Aaron, his gaze not breaking from mine for a second. “Rodriguez.”

Lauchlan stood and held a hand out to Kellan. “Lauchlan O'Donnell, mate. Heard lots of rumors about the big baddies on this side of the pond. Looking forward to getting acquainted.”

Kellan finally broke our silent staring contest to turn toward our cheeky guest, his limbs visibly freezing on the spot as he took Lauchlan in. His icy stare squinted—the barest hint of recognition flashing before he adopted the signature neutral mask of the true cartel leader he was.

“I don’t shake hands.” He positioned his body away from Lauchlan by taking the other seat on my left, boxing me between him and Aaron.

“Don’t do a lot of things, ay?”

There it was again—the smallest flicker of acknowledgment across Kellan’s features. Well, wasn’t this a tasty nugget of information? Was I Lauchlan’s only target, or was he casing our fair little town of the rich and famous?

If he was reckless enough to swindle Antonio’s sons, he was far more dangerous than I realized. I’d get Blackbird to up her surveillance.

I turned my attention back to the moody King of Iceland.

“How nice to see you.” I kept my tone level, folding my arms across my chest. “Does this mean your tantrum is over, or will I wait another six months like the last time?”

Aaron didn’t bother to muffle his snort; Lauchlan’s lips twitched into an amused smirk. The searing singe from Kellan’s glare may have burned a lesser person—but it barely tickled my funny bone.

Before he could bite out a snarky retort, the abrupt clang of a ceremonious gong sounded from a small platform built at the front of the large room, signaling the standing guests to take their seats.

“Thank you all for coming this evening.” Veronica Rodriguez’s smooth Spanish accent washed over the audience as she took her position at the podium on the platform.

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