Page 113 of A Dirty Business
I was bracing myself. “What happened to him?”
“I had him killed. That’s what happened.”
“You did?” My tone was sharp. Everything in me was on high alert. Her brother had been convicted for their father’s death.
“I mean, we set it up, but we didn’t do it. The kid did. He just needed proper motivation, but yeah. We got the son to kill the father, and now it’s almost karma that you’re banging the daughter. Funny how that all works out, huh? Especially when Dominic made sure you were never here. He never wanted you to run into the girl, said you’d fall for her. She was a looker even back then, but we put out word not to touch her. That was a promise to the father, that she’d be left alone. But you see, I can’t fulfill that promise if she’s the one singing on us?”
“She’s not,” I ground out.
Good fucking Christ.
I started to stand up. “Why am I here? Tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
I took out my phone.
Me:I want a guy on Jess at all times. I think my uncle might do something against her.
He was staring at my phone, and he pointed at it with his wineglass. “What’d you do there? Just now. You sent a text off? To who?”
“To Ashton.”
He nodded, easing back into his chair. “That’s good because you’re here for two reasons. One, I need to know if the woman you’re banging is turning evidence on us, and if she’s not, then we got a whole other problem on our hands.”
“It’s not Jess. I’ve had men on her and a tracker on her. It’s not her.”
The wino lunacy charade was gone, and my uncle was back in power. He was clear and alert, and he was studying me like I was his enemy. He nodded, slower this time, and he spoke, his voice all serious. “Let’s hope it’s not your woman because if it is, then I’m going to have to take out her family. Can’t get rid of another one and let the other two stew.”
“It’s not her, so who’s the other choice?”
He stared at me, long and hard. “The other choice is that family from Maine. They could be behind everything.”
“What do you want me to do?”
He stood up from his chair, taking a sip of his wine before moving back to the table. He lingered, staring at something before he put his wine down. He picked up a folder and brought it over. “You handled your father. You handled the uncle situation. Now.” He nodded to the folder as I opened it. A picture stared back at me, and I knew who thisperson was. “That’s the ringleader for the Maine family. I’ve told you about them. Worthing Mafia is what they’re being called, but you know one of their cousins. He used to work for you.”
Justin Worthing.
I picked up the picture. “Are you serious with this?”
“I am. He’s got a brother on the force, a Detective Worthing. They’re using him to move in on us, and they’re going to keep coming.”
“What do you want me to do about this?”
“I want you to handle it.” He moved back, sipping his wine. “Handle it how you’ve handled all the other situations I’ve sent your way. You’ll have to rope Ashton in on it because his family runs the cops in town. Worthings are moving in on their territory too.”
He was asking me to “handle” more people.
“You might want to ask the reason why you had a Worthing at your club, too, while you’re at it.”
“Excuse me?”
“You had a Worthing working for you. Don’t think I didn’t consider that maybe you were the one plotting against me?”
He had better not be threatening me. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Now he went eerily still, and there was a whole layer of ice filling the room around us.
