Page 11 of Heartless
“I’m calling my marker.”
No hesitation.“Who?”
“Her name is Sienna Winslow.”
“You know Edo’s rules: no children and soft kills for women.Accident or suicide?”
Fuck.I’d almost forgotten who I was talking to.“Just need information, and I want her isolated.She’ll be at the Silver Shell on Friday.No one touches her.”
“You got it, son.”That was it.Business talk was done, so Zook got personal.“My Bianca’s visiting at the end of the month.”He grunted.“Two marriages.Still single.That girl, apple of my eyes, but fuck I wish she would settle down with a nice Italian boy.”
After she’d lost her mother at the age of fourteen, her father, Dario, had wanted nothing to do with a grieving teenage girl with an artistic soul.Having no kids, Zook had claimed Bianc as his own.
With the subtlety of a herd of elephants, he said, “You’re not getting any younger, Jake.You have money and you’ve built a good life.”
And that was thanks to him.Zook had taught us how to make money and invest it to make more.We’d also learned how to play dirty against competitors while keeping our hands clean.Three years after Sile and I had taken over the sports bar, we’d bought the bar from him.Two years after that, I’d bought and fully paid for my first house.Shortly after that, I’d acquired my first piece of land.
I knew where that conversation was going but I let the man, who’d been a friend and a mentor, continue.“What you need now is a pretty wife who can take care of you and make you babies.”
I wanted neither a wife nor babies.Not with Bianc, a magnet for drama who I loved like a pesky baby sister.Not with anyone.
“I’ll take care of Bianc.”
“You always have, son, since she was a bambina.The two of you have always been close.”
I veered toward the underground car park of the penthouse.“Still not Italian, Zook.”
“Every man needs a legacy, Jake,” he said before ending the call.
Mine will be the destruction of Nigel Morrison.I needed to find out how much value Sienna Winslow held for her father.Then I was going to fuck her, break her, and make him fucking watch.
Chapter Four—The Silver Shell
Sienna
After closing the bathroom door, I stepped into my bedroom.There, Gabby was perched on the loveseat with her legs crossed.She was gorgeous in her skintight red dress and matching very high-heeled sandals.Once I had her attention, I threw my arms wide at my sides.
