CHAPTER 26

LEXIE

They ordered steak, pork and a bunch of weird sounding dishes Lexie couldn’t really pronounce. But what stole her heart was the salad.

The Frisee salad aux lardons, she remembered Crow saying, even though she couldn’t repeat his accent.

“I lived a few months in France, came back four weeks ago,” he said.

But when she asked why, he just shrugged and looked at Lucian.

“Business,” Lucian finished.

Crow said “nothing to worry about,” and that was it.

She trusted him.

They’re gangsters. Or work for the mob. Or they are the mob. I don’t know yet.

She would find out, they’d tell her. She was supposed to run away from men like this, but she’d grown too attached to them. To the way they saw her, how they touched her.

It had been almost a year, wait, maybe more… since she’d been with someone, and suddenly this happened and she couldn’t stop herself from going deeper and deeper into this… relationship?

Don’t kid yourself, girl. This isn’t a relationship. Chill.

They now stood at a gaming table, she grabbed the dice, Crow and Lucian blew on her hand and she rolled them. She chose the winning color for the third time in a row, she was going mad with excitement, the rush of winning made her laugh like crazy, kissing Lucian and Crow as the croupier handed her her chips.

She sat on the Blackjack table, she wasn’t as lucky there, played some poker, even baccarat… in short, she tried everything there was to try, and before she knew it, it was time to go back.

She sighed.

“Win some, lose some, right?”

The guys smiled.

“How did you do?”

She didn’t even have to check. She was forty-seven dollars below the four thousand they all started with.

“I hate myself!” she yelled on the jet, into the darkening horizon, “I was like, fifteen hundred dollars up at one point, but I got carried away!”

“Did you have fun?” asked Crow.

She sighed and sat on her comfy seat. Lucian was opening a bottle of water on the fridge and offered, but she and Crow were fine.

“Yeah. Would’ve been much more fun if we beat the house but…” She shrugged with a smile, “thank’s a lot guys, for this trip.”

“No, thank you,” Lucian said, “you really helped us out today.”

She nodded.

“You’re something else,” Crow said, his eyes fixed on her, making her shiver.

“That, you are,” said Lucian as he came back to the front of the jet, sitting next to her and Crow, and kissed her hand, “I’m glad we met you.”

She laughed, “oh, I’m glad you did.”

They laughed.

“Not counting how we met you. Everything else has been incredible.”

They all went silent.

No one really talked about it, and it didn’t matter.

“Guys, I’ve been thinking.”

Both of them turned their complete attention to her.

“I don’t want to say something that could mess things up.”

They tensed up, she could see it. It was almost imperceptible, but Lucian, for example, lost his perfect smile for a second. Crow did not move at all. Didn’t even blink.

“But you really know how to treat a woman.”

They relaxed.

“Not any woman,” Lucian said and Crow finished his sentence, “this is new for us, too.”

She held their hands. She’d never felt more free. Her work was valued, and the sex. Oh my God, the sex. She felt like she could tell any of her fantasies to them and they’d go along with her. It’s like we know each other from a previous life or something…

Still, there was one thing that bothered her.

“Guys,” she said, “I didn’t do my job properly.”

Lucian lowered his water, “what do you mean? You did great.”

“I didn’t want to say so, and I don’t want to fuck anything up. Not with you or your friends.”

“Tell us,” said Crow.

“Well, you saved a lot of money this quarter, right?”

Lucian nodded, Crow remain attentive, his eyes not wandering for a second.

“Listen. Don’t hate me for this. Maybe I’m wrong, and nothing will come out of it—”

“Just say it, honey,” Lucian interrupted, Crow held her hand, she knew she could tell them anything.

“What if this mistake has been happening for a while?”

“You mean—”

“Yes, Crow. Two hundred thousand dollars just this quarter, including the money you were supposed to pay. Who knows for how many years.”

It took them a few seconds to process that kind of information.

“I’ll call Oscar,” said Crow.

“No,” Lucian said, “I’ll ask him to check this out. But only after he finishes with this quarter. I’ll tell him it was our idea.”

“He’s been doing his job for a long time, maybe we needed a new set of eyes on the books.”

Lexie smiled.

“Besides,” she said, “he’s got his hands full. He’s managing the clubs, too.”

“He knows he can hire as many people as he needs,” Lucian said, “he’s stubborn, hopefully he won’t take this the wrong way.”

“Business is business,” Crow finished, “I don’t give a fuck if we hurt his feelings.”

Lucian looked out the window, deep in thought.

She was glad she said it. It was the right moment.

They all saw the sun go down the horizon as they got closer to their destination.

It was supposed to be a soothing sight but she couldn’t help but feel like she messed up.

“We’ll send you the files,” said Crow, breaking the silence.

Lucian turned to him, nodding, “good idea.”

“You can work on them so when Oscar finishes with his fuck up, you’ll have everything ready. The sooner we get this fixed, the better.”

She was about to say no, she didn’t want to meddle in someone else’s job, but these were her men. She couldn’t let them down.

“Ten percent cut, as—”

“No,” she interrupted Lucian. She would earn more than twenty grand if she was right with the previous numbers.

“But we agreed—”

“And I say no. It’s a lot of money. Your money. I’m going to help you with this. And if you must pay, because of pride or whatever reason, we’ll see what the market rate is. I’m not taking advantage of a little problem I found.”

“But—”

“No, Crow. This is business.”

Lucian smiled, then Crow. Then she did.

“Come here,” said her tall, blue eyed man, and kissed her.

“We have to keep our professional and personal life separate,” she said, extending her hands to Lucian, then going over to him, sitting on his lap, “let’s not fuck this up.”

“Oh, you’re bad,” he said, chuckling, “you’re very bad.”

“I am, didn’t you notice?”

“I noticed,” said Crow, “I like it.”

They laughed again. She felt empowered. Sexy. Ready to take on the world and kick its ass, a small revenge for all the bad years she’d gone through.

She was acting more and more like one of those girls in black and white films. Film noir, she thought, with a smile, I’m a femme fatale.

She just had the most amazing day and nothing was going to ruin it.

Then she remembered.

All those femme fatales in the old movies. They all ended up badly.