“Of course not,” Charlie said.
“You are the Wolfe of Manhattan.” This from Roy.
“I can be the Wolfe of Manhattan without preying on the defenseless. Damn.” I walked into the still-open elevator.
“Hey, bro, I didn’t mean—”
“Yeah, you did,” I said as the elevator doors closed, erasing Roy and Charlie from my view. No, I didn’t actually believe my brother thought so little of me. I was just pissed at this situation.
I arrived at my suite and laid Nieves on the bed in the second bedroom. Thank goodness Jarrod or Charlie or whoever had made these reservations had booked us all in two bedroom suites. I did not want to sleep on a couch tonight.
First things first. I removed the wristlet bag hanging from Nieves’s hand and unzipped it. A credit card, a couple bucks, and her ID. No hotel room key. All right. No problem. I reassessed my decision to let her sleep in my extra bedroom, made a quick call to the front desk, and booked her a room. Then I carried her to it, met a concierge there, and put her to bed.
Nicely done, I said to myself. This way she’d wake up somewhere other than my suite. As much as I’d enjoy a good fuck, I wanted to deprive myself for now.
So I’d be hungrier for Zee tomorrow night.
I needed to be in full Wolfe mode to get her into my bed, and I planned to do it.
Oh, I’d stay loyal to Riley. I wouldn’t push. No. I’d seduce Zee slowly. In fact, I’d wait. It didn’t have to happen tomorrow. It could happen the next day. The hungrier I got, the better I’d seduce her.
I’d make her want me.
When she wanted me, she’d want to please me.
And I’d convince her that the way to please me would be to tell her story.
Simple enough.
Back in my suite, I stripped off my clothes and went to bed in my boxer briefs. To my surprise, I fell asleep to visions of a black-haired beauty with immensely sad light-blue eyes.
I jerked upward in bed.
Someone was pounding on my door. My phone lay on the nightstand, flashing the time. Six a.m.
Certainly not Rock. He wasn’t an early riser. Riley and Matt were still on their wedding night. Ditto Roy and Charlie.
Had I ordered breakfast? Yeah, I had, but room service wouldn’t be pounding. I grabbed a robe from the bathroom, headed to the door, and looked through the peephole.
“Nieves,” I said under my breath.
Against my better judgment, I opened the door.
She blew past me and into my suite. “Nice try.”
“You were passed out,” I said.
“I could’ve slept it off here, and we’d be fucking right about now.”
Oddly, her words had no effect on me. She was hot, no doubt, but my dreams had been filled with another woman.
A woman I planned to seduce, but who I didn’t realize I actually wanted…until now.
Yeah, I’d have seduced her anyway, but now, I actually craved her.
“I’m afraid our ship has sailed, Nieves.”
“Has it?” she said. “Because I might be willing to part with some interesting information. For the right price.”
“If the right price is a romp in my bed, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.”
She smiled. “You do drive a hard bargain, but I’m willing to settle for cash.”
Cash I had, and plenty of it. “What do you know?”
“Uh-uh. I need to see the cash first.”
“Nieves, you know cash isn’t an issue for me. Give me what you’ve got, and I’ll decide if it’s worth anything.”
Nieves did have information. Somehow, she’d known about my father’s death before it actually happened, according to her sister and to forensics on the scene.
She’d also known before Rock had.
None of us were exactly sure how she and Leta were involved, but I had a suspicion it had to do with money.
Not so much a suspicion. More like I knew damned well it had to do with money. I just didn’t know how.
“This isn’t how it words, Reid,” she said. “I’m not a fool.”
“No, just a mercenary. I can respect that.” No lie there. Money was money.
She looked great, especially for someone who was most likely twelve shades of hungover. Which meant either she had a great hangover remedy or she just looked that good all the time.
Probably the latter. The Romero sisters were hotness personified. I’d been into it last night. What was wrong with me this morning?
“Then we understand each other,” she said.
“Do we? Because if you think I’m handing you any money before you tell me anything, you can think again.”
“Fine.” She smiled seductively. “I’ll give you a hint.”
“I’m listening.”
“When Rock and I dated, I came across something at his place. Something I never told him about.”
“And…?”
“That’s it. You want to know the rest? You pay.”
“For all I know you could have found a dead mouse and disposed of it without telling him. That would fit your current narrative.”
“You really think I’d fuck with you like that?”
“Already I know you weren’t above keeping something from my brother. So yeah, I think you’d fuck with anyone for a buck.”
She let out a short laugh. “You’re the one who called me mercenary.”
“I did, and obviously I’ll stand by it. Thing is, though, my brother didn’t have any money when you were with him. But you knew who he was, didn’t you?”
She twisted a strand of her long dark hair. “Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t.”
“Cut the crap, sweetheart, and don’t insult my intelligence. You knew damned well whose son he was.”
She raised her eyebrows. “It’s not like he changed his name or anything.”
“He didn’t, but the Wolfes are hardly a household name in a small Montana town.”
“That’s true.”
“So how did you find out who he was?”
“I do my research.”
“On small-town bikers?”
“On everyone, Reid. Everyone.” She met my gaze, her eyes serious.
There was meaning behind those words, but I didn’t for the life of me know what it was. I had to make her think I did, though.
“Do you?” I asked. “Because the Wolfes do their research as well, Nieves, and I’m pretty sure our resources are far superior to yours.”
She looked away.
Good. That got her.
“What makes you think,” I continued, “that you know anything we don’t know already?”
“If you knew, why did you question Leta?”
Good for her. She was smarter than I gave her credit for. “We question everyone,” I said simply.
She stayed quiet for a few seconds. Nicely done, Reid.
Finally, “Show me the money.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “A grand. That’s what I’ll offer. It’ll get you home to Montana.”
“I could get a grand from any high roller here.”
“Yeah, but you’d have to work for it.”
Her cheeks reddened. I’d struck a nerve. Yeah, I was being an asshole, but she was being a first-class bitch.