Better When He's Brave
Page 59

He swore. “What’s going on, Reeve?”
I twisted a piece of hair around my finger. “I’m going to go talk to Nassir. I can’t keep hiding out in this condo. Conner needs his hand forced and the only way to do that is if he can get to me. I’m going to see if Nassir will put me to work in Spanky’s. Race seems to think he’ll be game for anything, including keeping me alive, as long as it lures Conner out into the open.”
I expected an immediate argument. I expected him to yell and to blow his top. I expected him to question my sanity and whether or not I had a death wish. Instead he swore softly and asked, “You’re going to strip at Spanky’s?”
I was telling him I was going to put myself directly in the line of fire and he was worried about me getting naked in public? It startled me so much I laughed. “No. I have no rhythm and no desire to get pawed at by sweaty and drunk strangers. Plus G-strings go where no article of clothing should ever go. I’ll ask him to put me behind the bar or something. I’ll figure that part out later. You aren’t mad?”
He sighed. “I don’t love the idea. It leaves you really exposed.”
“You understand that if Nassir gets a shot at Conner, he isn’t going to sit him down and have a drink while he waits for you to show up and cart him off to a maximum-security prison, right?”
“I know exactly how Nassir works, Reeve. I know what’ll happen if he gets close enough to Roark to do any kind of damage.”
I breathed out. “Okay.”
He grunted and I heard what sounded like someone tapping on glass. I figured he must have retreated to his car so we could talk.
“I gotta go. A junkie broke into a bank and tried to rob it with an assault rifle. It didn’t end well.”
Good Lord, his job was disheartening. I don’t know how he did it day after day. I let loose the hair I was playing with and tucked it behind my ear. “Take care of yourself, Detective. Or better yet, get home in one piece so I can take care of you.”
“No one has ever wanted to take care of me before. That makes being careful all the more important. For you too. Stay safe.”
He hung up the phone and I couldn’t believe the amount of relief that washed over me. Honesty like that was unheard of in my life. I looked at my purse and thought about how deceitful I had been with him from the beginning, planning a murder under his nose from the second he dragged me into his office. Maybe I needed to come clean about it all, tell him that I was still thirsty for retribution, and that taking out a bad man with a bullet was still something that made sense to me. Maybe he needed to know what my plan had been from the beginning now that I knew I couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t want to be a killer. I wanted to be someone he could love. I sighed and tapped the edge of my cell phone against the center of my forehead. Only I could get my hands on something I wanted so badly and be prepared to mess it all up in the next heartbeat.
I fancied myself up a little while I waited on Race. I had seen the girls that Nassir put to work, and none of them were anything to sneeze at. Sure, most had the hard, worn look that came from being part of the Point, but under that they were all stunning, like Keelyn. She might have man-made boobs and an attitude that even a rabid hyena would be afraid of, but there was no denying she was a stunner and that most of it was God-given. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw a little sex appeal Nassir’s way while I was asking him to keep me alive.
Race knocked on the door exactly an hour later. He had put on a pair of pin-striped pants and a black sweater with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His boots were black and looked expensive and foreign. The only thing out of place in his polished look was the edge of the white wife beater peeking out under the collar of his shirt. He looked like he was on his way to work in a financial firm or at a law firm not to a strip club in the middle of the day. Race Hartman was an odd character, and I knew it was in my best interests to never underestimate him.
His gaze skipped over me from my curled-up hair and heavily made up face down to my legs that were bare under the hem of a simple sundress. Before Titus, I would have donned a miniskirt that showed more than it covered, and found the most revealing top I could find, but now I knew the subtlety in sex could be an effective weapon if used correctly.
Race’s mouth kicked up in a grin as I closed the door and started down the hallway with him hot on my heels.
“He’s going to ask you to dance. With those legs you would make a fortune.”
I wrinkled up my nose even though he couldn’t see it. “No way. I already told Titus I wouldn’t do that. He’s begrudgingly rolling with this plan as it is. I’m not going to give him a reason to pull the plug on it before it even begins.”
“Nothing wrong with dancing for a living. Honor made more money than Bax did when he first started working for Novak by taking her clothes off.”
I gave him a look over my shoulder. “Keelyn. She might’ve made a lot of money but she lost herself doing it. Why do you think she left?”
His eyebrows dipped down into a deep vee over his evergreen-tinted eyes. “I thought she left because Nassir wouldn’t let up on her. He’s been circling her forever. I think that’s one of the reasons he doesn’t like me. She and I used to have a thing when we were younger.” He smirked at me as we hit the elevator that led to the underground garage. “Granted I used to have a thing with half the city back in my heyday. But she was always one of my fondest memories.”
I rolled my eyes at him and poked the button to take us down a little more violently than was necessary.
“One of your fondest memories and you don’t even call her by her real name, just her stage name? How do you think that made her feel?” I sniffed a little and tossed my hair over my shoulder. “I’ll tell you how it made her feel. Like she was nothing more than a body, a sex object, like she was only good enough for sex and the fantasy, nothing more.”
His smirk fell away and I could see the gears and motors that worked his powerful mind start to fire. He leaned back against the wall of the elevator and a frown pulled at his handsome features.
“She never said anything to me. Before or after.”
When the doors opened into the garage he grabbed my elbow and held me still so that he could lead the way out. He moved with an alertness and a tenseness I was getting used to in the men that kept this place alive. He was vigilant and moved with purpose, so I let him guide me along.