Chapter Six
After showering and throwing on a pair of black jersey shorts, Aiden sat at his shitty kitchen table, drinking a cup of black coffee, and tried not to stare at Kat sleeping on his couch. He’d given her one of his shirts to wear, but it lay unused on the ottoman. Her beat-up tennis shoes sat in an orderly fashion on the floor next to her. The lightweight blanket he’d brought out for her was wrapped tightly around her and her knees were drawn up to her chest.
She looked like a human chrysalis, but he had a feeling she would awaken no different than before: scared, troubled, and extremely distrusting.
Please, Irish. Just let me take the couch.
When she’d pleaded with him like that, his gut twisted and he wanted to murder whatever haunted those light blue eyes.
He lifted his mug and took a big swallow of the bitter brew. Looked like he’d jinxed himself when he told Jax that odds were nil of anything happening with Kat, and now Jax was unreachable for two fucking weeks. He’d have to figure out how to help her on his own.
Man, he’d really fucked up. He’d agreed to watch Kat for a few weeks and report back to her sister, not get involved in her life. That was exactly the thing he swore five years ago he wouldn’t do anymore. Instead of helping, he only ended up hurting them.
Or worse.
But despite that promise he made himself five years ago, he couldn’t stay away from a certain red-haired woman with eyes like brilliant topaz.
As though they’d sensed his thoughts, Kat’s eyes opened to look at him from across the room.
He glanced at the clock on the microwave. Quarter to two. Good. That meant she’d had about ten hours or so. “Afternoon, kitten.”
Her arms emerged from her blanket cocoon, and she pushed into a sitting position in the corner of the couch. She kept her knees up to her chest. He wondered if that was simply a comfortable position for her or an unconscious attempt to protect herself.
She tucked her long hair behind her ears before wrapping her arms around her legs. “Hi. I’m sorry I slept so long. You should have woken me.”
“Only been up about ten minutes myself. You sleep okay?”
“You know,” she said, her brows drawn in, “I did actually. Usually I don’t sleep much if I’m not in my own place. I must have been really exhausted.”
“You want coffee?”
“Mmm, God, yes. Black, please.”
She unfolded from the couch and padded barefoot across the hardwood floor. Even un-showered and sleep-tousled, she managed to look beautiful. For the few seconds she passed through the window’s slanted square of sunlight, she transformed into some kind of sun goddess. Her hair blazed like fiery embers and her freckles looked backlit by the glow of her translucent skin.
When the shadows in the room dulled the mystical features his overactive imagination had given her, Aiden gave himself a mental right hook. The typical mental slap wasn’t near what he needed to tamp down the insanity that was becoming a regular thing in his head around this woman. He needed to man the fuck up and see her as what she was: his friend’s future sister-in-law in need of help. Because that was all she could ever be to him.
Aiden poured her a cup of coffee and set it in front of her. She grabbed it with both hands, blew across the surface for a few seconds, and then took a small sip. Her eyelids slid closed and she made a sound that made him think of anything but drinking coffee.
Before his imagination got carried away (again), he decided it was time to get answers. He’d involved himself in something big, and if he had any hope of keeping them both above water, he needed to know what they were dealing with.
“It’s time we talk, Kat.”
The blissed-out look on her face disappeared. She lowered her gaze, bit the corner of her lip, and drew up one leg to hug to her chest. But then nodded her agreement.
“Who were those guys tailing us last night? What do they want?”
Taking a deep breath, she said, “They work for a man Lenny owes money. We skipped town to avoid his debt, ended up here, and managed to stay off grid.”
“Until your boyfriend got arrested and it went on public record?”
She nodded.
“So when did they show up in Alabastard?”
She quirked a brow in his direction. “Not a fan of the city?”
“Not particularly, no.”
The chipped edge of the table suddenly became of great interest to her. She poked at it with her nail. “I don’t know how long they’ve been here, but they made themselves known on Friday night just before I left work.”
“The note you said wasn’t yours.”
“Yeah,” she said before taking another drink of coffee. “I found it on my windshield.”
“How much does your boyfriend owe this guy?”
He wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone with as light a complexion as Kat’s to pale. She lifted the mug to her lips and took a fortifying sip as though the strength of the beans could give her the strength to continue the conversation. Apparently it didn’t give her enough to meet his gaze.
Boring a hole through the center of the table, she said, “Twenty thousand.”
He let out a low whistle. “That’s a decent amount of scratch. They charging interest?”
Her eyes finally lifted. “Do they do that?”
“Depends on who you owe, I suppose.” Her foot still on the floor started bouncing. “Look,” he said, leaning over his forearms on the table. “I’m gonna do whatever I can to help you, but you gotta tell me what we’re up against here.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why do you want to help me?”
Aiden leaned back in his chair, wondering what to say when he didn’t know the answer himself. He drummed his thumb on the table a few times, then half shrugged. “Maybe I have a superhero complex or I’m an adrenaline junkie. Or maybe I find it hard to turn my back on a friend in need.” Even if you’d be better off if I did.
“You barely know me.”
“I know you don’t deserve to deal with the repercussions of your boyfriend’s bad decisions by yourself.”
Kat seemed to be turning things over in her head. Probably weighing options and consequences. He drained the rest of his now-cold coffee and tried to practice the patience he didn’t have. Old feelings bubbled just beneath the surface. The ones that demanded he act and make her threat go away by whatever means necessary.
“His name is Antony Sicoli,” she said at last. “He used to be a big-time mob guy in New York before he decided he preferred the picturesque mountains of Tennessee. Lenny borrowed money, gambled big, and lost even bigger. Now Sicoli wants his money back.”
He dragged a hand over his face and scratched his jawline. He’d been hoping she’d say it was a small-time bookie, but he’d known better after what he had to do just to shake the apes the night before. “Then, yeah, you can expect them to want more than twenty grand for skipping town. The mob typically takes offense to that sort of thing. And if I’m not mistaken, the note said they’ve got someone on the inside with the cops and you have until tonight to come up with the money?”
“Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“How much do you have?”
“None. Since Lenny got locked up, all I have is an emergency fund so I could get out of here. Something tells me they won’t be amenable to settling with a few measly hundred bucks.”
Aiden got up from the table and poured himself another cup of coffee while he let things roll around in his head. That anyone could expect an innocent woman to take the fall for her asshole boyfriend’s mistakes was seriously fucked up.
Unfortunately, morals didn’t come into play when dealing with callous criminal bosses like this Sicoli character. The only people who mattered to a guy like that were his own family members. The rest of the world consisted of pawns to move around in his game of making money, and if any pawn dared lose his money, the pawn was taken out of the game.
Permanently.
Turning around, he leaned his hips against the counter and took a sip of coffee. “So what’s the plan?”
Kat let out a half-scoff, half-snort sound. The kind made when desperation clashed with hopelessness. “You mean, short of robbing a bank?”
Aiden studied her as she got up with her mug and crossed to the counter next to him and placed it in the sink. Then she ran the water and started washing it. He would have told her she didn’t need to do that, but she had the same look Mary Catherine used to get. He could always tell when something bothered his younger sister. She cleaned until you could see your reflection in every surface.
As she soaped and rinsed the mug for the third time, she said, “My plan was to give them the slip last night and leave town.”
Absently wresting his full cup from his hand, she emptied it and restarted her process. He supposed he didn’t need the extra caffeine anyway.
“Which,” she continued, “I guess I did, but not in the way I’d expected. Now I don’t know how I’m going to get any of my stuff, or the money, or—”
“Kat.” Aiden cut her off before her anxiety reached critical mass. Taking the mug from her, he put an end to her nervous ritual and turned her to face him. “I know it sounds tempting, but you can’t spend your life running from your past.”
Yeah. He didn’t miss the irony of him doling out that particular brand of advice. At least his past could only haunt him mentally and emotionally. Kat’s would kill her if it ever caught up with her.
“I didn’t plan on running forever,” she argued. “Just until I make it to somewhere I can hide. I hear Mexico is lovely this time of year.”
“Sweetheart, the devil himself wouldn’t vacation in Mexico in the middle of August.”
Crossing her arms and lifting her chin, she said, “That’s not the point.”
“You’re right, it’s not. The point is, if you run now, you’ll wake up every day for the rest of your life wondering if today is the day they find you. Looking over your shoulder will become something you do so often you’ll forget which direction is forward. That’s no way to live, Kat.”
“I don’t have a choice, Irish. What else am I supposed to do?”
“Let me help you.”
“What? No way. Are you crazy?”
“Probably, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“Forget it. I’m not dragging you into this.”
“I’m already in. I got in up to my eyeballs when I put you on the back of my bike last night.”
“I know, and now if something happens to you…” Her chin quivered as she did her damnedest to hold back the deluge of emotions passing over her face. She must have decided to go with anger because suddenly, using her good hand, she hammer-fisted him in the chest several times for emphasis with her words. “Damn it, Irish, you should have minded your own fucking business!”
Aiden banded his arms around her and held her tight as she tried to fight him with an exhausted strength as fierce as the nickname he’d given her.
In mere seconds she gave in, accepting his embrace as silent tears fell unchecked over her cheeks and down his chest.
One hand tucked her head under his chin while the other slid up and down her back to soothe and hopefully slow her breathing to match his strokes. He surprised himself at how natural it felt to console her, to be there for her.
Crying women had always scared the hell out of him. He never knew what to do or say. Normally, he’d awkwardly ask them not to cry or try plying them with things to make them smile again.
But comforting Kat and holding her in his arms felt so…right.
After several minutes, her tears ran dry until she was simply tucked against him, her arms still pinned between their bodies. She whispered so softly, he almost didn’t hear her.
“You should have left me alone.”
If it wasn’t for the danger she was in, she’d be right. But it wouldn’t be for his sake. It’d be for hers.
“Something tells me you’ve been left alone enough,” he said against her hair, his voice coming out as little more than a raspy growl. “I’m stepping in, whether you like it or not, kitten.”
She tipped her head back, their gazes colliding. With a furrowed brow, she seemed to search for some sign she hadn’t misheard him. Aiden wondered how many people had let this woman down in the past to put that look of uncertainty on her face.
He vowed to himself never to be on that list.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Aiden gently held the sides of her face and wiped the last of her tears away with his thumbs. “I’m not walking away from this,” he said. “I’m not walking away from you. Okay?”
She nodded almost imperceptibly, but the understanding that dawned on her beautiful face solidified their unspoken agreement. She would let him help her, which meant he wouldn’t have to go behind her back to do it. Which was one less lie, one less hidden truth. The lower he kept that count, the better.
Aiden watched her gaze skim down his face and stop at his mouth. Now that the other stuff was out of the way, their current situation of a half-dressed, close embrace started stirring things up on a more physical level.
Her hands relaxed and flattened on his chest and grazed his piercings. The slight touch on his sensitive nipples sent a shock of heat straight to his balls. Their breaths became shallow and mingled together in the few inches that separated their lips. The smell of coffee mixed with her lilac scent created a potent mix of old and new addictions.
His heart raced and stomach clenched, and in seconds she’d know how much he wanted her as his cock grew harder between them at just the thought of tasting those sweet lips.
He shifted his hands so his fingers splayed into her hair and cradled her head, then he slowly lowered his face to hers. The pulse in her neck leaped. Her lids drifted closed. And though it felt like an eternity, his lips were finally, finally, a hairsbreadth from knowing her kiss.
But at the last moment, Kat turned her face to the side.
Reality crashed in around him and doused his arousal. Mostly. Aiden released her and stepped back. What an asshole. Not only was she vulnerable and probably not thinking clearly, but she had a boyfriend. Just because the guy was doing time and didn’t come off as much of a Prince Charming didn’t give Aiden the right to make a move on her.
Not that he was respecting the boundary for the guy’s sake. He could give two shits about him. But he respected Kat, and even if he couldn’t understand her reason, the truth of the matter was she’d chosen to be with Lenny. So he’d keep his hands—and his lips—to himself.
He might be a lot of things, but a man who took advantage of a woman wasn’t one of them. Being raised by his mother and helping care for two sisters ensured he acted like a gentleman, even if he’d never looked like one.
“Sorry, that was—” Aiden cleared his throat and stared at a knot in the wood floor. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s okay,” she said, folding her arms around her middle. “Don’t worry about it; it’s no big deal.”
Wanting more and more a woman he couldn’t have was a huge deal. But he’d just have to embrace the blue balls until this thing was over.
“Do you wanna take a shower? My sister left a pair of her sweats here, and you can wear that T-shirt I gave you. Not the fanciest of outfits, but at least it’ll be clean.”
“That’d be great, thanks.”
Aiden nodded, then crossed to the bathroom to get her set up with everything she’d need. Xander even kept extra toothbrushes on hand for when he had overnight guests. Aiden hadn’t needed anything like that. There hadn’t been a woman who caught his attention since he laid eyes on a certain redheaded waitress.
And at the rate his interest in her was climbing, he’d be lucky to look at another woman ever again.
…
Kat finger-combed her damp hair in front of the bathroom mirror and cursed her old habit of turning her face before a man could kiss her. Not that her aversion for kissing had magically gone away, but she could have guided his mouth somewhere else if she hadn’t let herself go on autopilot.
God help her, but Kat wanted Irish’s lips on her skin so badly. To know how it felt to have a man like him—a man who cared enough to help a virtual stranger in a dangerous situation—touch her. Not as something to be used and discarded. But as though she were his lover.
Cherished. Revered. Respected.
And she’d been so close. The fresh scent of his soap lingering from his shower had drawn her in like a magnet. Her stomach had fluttered as Irish had bent over her. It felt like five years rather than five seconds for him to close the space between them. She’d closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment.
When a sudden chill had settled over her, she opened her eyes to find he’d let her go and taken a step back, glancing everywhere in the room but at her. All thanks to old instincts.
Then again, maybe he’d simply come to his senses at the last second. Getting involved with a plain waitress in trouble with the Tennessee mafia—if that’s what they called themselves—wasn’t a good idea no matter how you looked at it. She never should have let herself think she could have even a sliver of the fantasy.
Stupid, stupid girl.
Kat checked her borrowed outfit one more time. What Irish referred to as sweatpants were actually a nice pair of black Capri yoga pants. The comical part was the large black T-shirt that hung to her knees with white block letters across her chest that declared her as Tattooed and Employed.
Clothing as a subtle thumbing of one’s nose at those who would judge a man by his cover. If she had to guess, she’d say it was either a misguided gift from a concerned relative or a gag gift from a good friend. Subtlety wasn’t exactly Irish’s way. She pictured him giving people the finger if they looked at him wrong.
She snapped off two of the several hair elastics she always had on her wrist and used one to throw her hair up into a ponytail. Then she gathered the excess material of the enormous T-shirt at her waist, doubled it over, and used the other elastic to secure it so she no longer drowned in cotton.
Sighing, she grabbed the doorknob. She had to face her failed make-out humiliation eventually. Holding her head high, she entered the main room but found it empty. Disappointment at not seeing Irish squashed any remaining embarrassment.
He must have gone outside, though why he’d willingly go out in this heat she had no idea. Only one way to find out. Slipping on her shoes, she stepped onto the porch and took a second to acclimate to the suffocating humidity. In the distance, heat waves blurred the gravel drive lined with thick layers of moss-draped trees.
Clanging sounds came from the direction of the garage. Smiling, Kat jogged down the rickety stairs and halfway to the garage when something in the grass caught her eye and stopped her cold.
Five feet away from her, the biggest alligator Kat had ever seen was either sunning itself or laying in wait for a clueless city girl to happen by and offer herself up as lunch.
With its mouth wide open and making an awful hissing sound, the beast took a deliberate step in her direction.
She held her breath for fear even that might antagonize it somehow. What the hell was she supposed to do? Run? Stare it down? Play dead? Hypnotize it with a flute? She’d never watched Crocodile Hunter and couldn’t remember a damn thing from the one time she saw Crocodile Dundee.
It took another step.
Right then, Kat made a solemn vow to watch as much Animal Planet as possible until she knew how to survive every living species she would ever encounter, and even some she wouldn’t.
When she tried taking a step back, the alligator reacted with several quick moves in her direction. Which was when she fucking lost her shit and screamed like a little girl.
Irish, ever her savior, bolted out of the garage. “Knock it off, girl. Back up!”
She willed herself to obey, but the last time she tried that, it charged, so her body refused to comply. He bravely placed himself between her and the reptile, but the last thing she wanted was for him to get eaten protecting her. “Let’s make a run for the front door.”
“Nah.” He peered back over his shoulder. “She’s just being bitchy ’cause she doesn’t know you. I told you she doesn’t like strangers.”
“Who doesn’t?”
He nodded at the alligator. “Ally.”
The lightbulb over her head lit up. Her mouth fell slack. “Are you telling me that this gigantic lizard threatening to eat me and use my bones as toothpicks is Hissing Ally? You told me she was a cat!”
“No, I didn’t. You assumed she was a cat. I didn’t see any reason to worry you after the day you had yesterday. Come on.”
Irish grasped her hand in his much larger one and tugged her in the direction of the garage. She did her best to bring her pulse to a healthier rate along the way. By the time he provided a sturdy box for her to sit on and returned to his place on the stool by his Harley, Kat had nearly recovered.
Then he leveled those intense blue eyes on her and gave her appearance a once-over. It seemed a normal heart rate would be next to impossible when she was with this man. His gaze hovered over her chest, and her cheeks flushed with heat.
Trying to draw his attention somewhere else, she gestured lamely to the T-shirt ponytail she’d made. “Um, I hope you don’t mind. I did this to make it fit better. I’m smallish and you’re pretty huge…” He stared at her, not moving, not saying a word. She demonstrated by wrapping her hand around the bunched cotton. “I mean, look. It’s so big I can barely close my fingers around it.”
Irish coughed behind his fist as he shifted, like he was uncomfortable on his low stool. When he spoke, his voice came out even more gruff than usual. “Kitten, you’re going to inflate my ego to dangerous levels with all that talk about me being so big.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and wished for a hole to swallow her up. “Oh my God. I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
A low chuckle caressed her eardrums and slid into her brain. “Relax, I know what you meant. I was just giving you shit.”
He was teasing her? God, when was the last time she’d had some good-natured teasing? Probably not since Nessie, which was a lifetime ago. How sad was that? Irish mentioned having sisters. He probably teased them all the time growing up.
She wondered if she could drop her defenses enough to remember how to tease him back. That could be fun. Normal, even. And wouldn’t that be a miracle.
He’d changed into a holey pair of faded jeans and white tank, both of which were smeared in grease with his shirt sporting the bonus V of sweat in the front and back. His hair fell over his forehead in small chunks at different intervals.
Needing a distraction before she started drooling, she scanned the garage. A makeshift table made of plywood and construction horses held various tools and gadgets and grease-stained rags. Several buckets held other tools and tool accessories, but nothing seemed to be in any sort of order.
“You haven’t been here very long. How’d you get all this stuff?”
“This is all my stuff from home. Xander brought it with him.”
“How do you find anything you need?” she asked.
He glanced around the room as though trying to figure out what she meant. “I know where everything is,” he said defensively as he set down one tool and went to grab for another. But just short of picking anything up, he paused, furrowed his brow, and looked around several times. “Mostly,” he mumbled.
Kat tried muffling her chuckle, but it didn’t work. He narrowed his eyes at her. “This further proves your Oscar theory, doesn’t it?”
“Just a little,” she said with a wry smile, showing him about an inch gap between her thumb and forefinger. “Honestly, though, I don’t even know why that reference came to mind. I haven’t thought about that show since I was a little girl. I used to watch it late at night as a distraction from…”
“Distraction from what?”
No way was she finishing that sentence, much less that thought. The memories of watching the show with Nessie were good ones. But the reasons they watched it weren’t, and she had no desire to revisit them any time soon.
Or ever.
“Why is your left arm covered in images of ocean life?”
Irish arched his brow in a way that told her he recognized the blatant subject change. Luckily, he was nice enough to go along with it. “My uncle lived in the Florida Keys and ran a scuba diving business. He’d send my mom these gorgeous pictures of the things he saw while diving.” He studied his tattoos as though reliving seeing the pictures for the first time. “And, I don’t know. I guess only ever seeing my neighborhood growing up, I was intrigued by the idea that something like that existed. It wasn’t just another place, but a whole other world.”
Kat understood what he meant. She’d felt something similar. Only, instead of wishing to see dolphins and sea turtles, she’d wished to know what it was like to have loving parents. But that wasn’t something you permanently inked in your skin.
“So,” she said, “the tattoos remind you of the daydreams you had as a boy of experiencing that life for yourself. Of the fascination you had with a world other than the one you knew.”
He half grinned before turning his attention back to his bike. “You make it sound kinda girlie, but I guess that’s about right.”
The sentimentality hung over them like a heavy blanket, making it hard for her to breathe. She needed another subject change. Preferably one a little lighter in nature.
“You know, I thought about what you said earlier. You’re right. Moving to Mexico is a horrible idea. I mean, look at me. I’d stick out like a sore thumb. But Scotland, on the other hand, is the perfect place for me to blend in. No one would look twice at me there.”
“What about your boyfriend?” he said with a quick sidelong glance. “Don’t you think you oughta wait till he can go with you?”
She recognized the set-up question because she got it all the time. It was a way for people who didn’t know her well to gauge the circumstances of her relationship with Lenny.
Some of them wanted to know their chances of getting in her pants. Some wanted to know if they could shake her down for information. Some wanted to know how much she meant to him so they could use her for leverage to get what they wanted from him. The question-asker always had an agenda, and her ability to determine which one they had so she could answer appropriately was a necessity for survival.
But for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out Irish’s agenda. A voice in her head screamed at her to tell him the truth, if only about this one thing. So she did.
“Lenny’s not really my boyfriend.”
That got his full attention. “He’s not?”
She shook her head. “Well, he was a long time ago, but not for the last…” She counted back in her head. “Eight years or so.”
“So why do you tell people you’re together?”
Kat shrugged and absently studied her nails. “Easier, I guess. It’s not like I was in the dating pool or anything.”
“I don’t get it. Why would you stick with him for so long, then?”
“Because I was too scared to live on my own, and I had nowhere else to go.” Wow, that sounded a lot less pathetic in my head.
“Nowhere?” he asked skeptically.
It was a loaded question, whether he knew it or not. Technically, she could’ve gone to Nessie—how many times had her sister asked her to come live with her?—but Kat never let herself consider the option. Vanessa had been studying to become a lawyer and then working getting her career off the ground. She didn’t need her broken younger sister dragging her down in the process.
And now that Kat was in serious trouble with a man who made hurting people’s loved ones look like a hobby, she sure as hell wasn’t bringing any of that to Nessie’s door. So that left only one answer to his question.
“Nope. Nowhere,” she said. “But since Lenny went to jail, I’ve learned that I can stand on my own two feet. So that’s exactly what I plan to do. I need to live for me now.”
A couple of minutes passed before he answered, so she started to think she’d said something to upset him. But then he gave her a warm half grin and said, “I think you living for yourself is a great idea. And if you wanna move to Scotland when this is all done, that’s fine. But first we’re going to make sure you’re free and clear of this Sicoli guy, so you don’t have to look over your shoulder. Okay?”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“I’m gonna go talk to the guys we ditched.”
Her brows knitted together as she waited for him to finish. When he didn’t… “I’m sorry, I don’t get it. What’s the punch line?”
“No punch line.”
“Irish, after what we pulled last night, you’ll be as good as dead. Besides, how would you even get to them? We have no idea where they are.”
“Don’t have to. I’ll go to your apartment. They’ll come to me.”
“And then what? Ask them to pretty please tell their boss not to come after me anymore?”
“You don’t think it’ll work?”
Kat’s eyes bugged out of her head. Was he effing seri—
A slow grin lifted one side of his mouth as he continued to work on his bike. He was teasing her again. Despite the fact that the subject matter was nothing to joke about, a small dose of giddy spread through her.
“Jerk,” she said as she punched him in the arm. Or what appeared to be an arm but actually felt like a two-by-four. He hadn’t even tightened up in defense, he was that solid. She’d never seen him have to throw punches at the bar like Xander sometimes did, but she couldn’t imagine taking a hit from him. He might not be Incredible Hulk bulky, but the guy was all defined muscle and controlled power.
“Sorry.” He gave her a smirk. “The look on your face was totally worth it, though.”
“Glad I could oblige,” she said wryly. “Seriously, Irish. What’s the plan?”
“Not much of a planner. Guess I’ll see what comes to me when I get there.”
“When we get there. I’m not letting you go there alone. They’re here because of me.”
“Exactly. Which is why you’re gonna stay here. There anything I should know before I meet these goons?”
“Like what?”
“Like anything you may have left out of the story? If I’m gonna be on a level playing field with them, I can’t have any surprises, Kat.”
She shook her head. “It’s just like I said. Lenny gambled Sicoli’s money away and now he wants it back.”
“Okay, then,” he said, grabbing a not-so-clean rag to wipe the grease from his hands. “By the end of the night, we should know where we stand.”
Kat swallowed hard and took a deep breath to try and settle her nerves. At the end of the night, if Irish was still standing at all, she’d consider it a success.
If he wasn’t, it would be her fault and she’d never forgive herself for endangering the only man to have ever shown her any compassion.
“Irish…” Her throat constricted, and the words wouldn’t come.
“Hey,” he said softly, leaning forward with his elbows braced on his knees. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Don’t go worrying about me, okay? I got this.”
She nodded and prayed to God he was right.