Chapter Twelve

The puck screamed across the ice, streaking right through the goalie’s skates and smacking into the back of the net.

Ryan raised his arms and cheered. His teammates echoed his excitement, skating over and clapping him on the back for putting them ahead with five minutes to go in the game. The line skated off the ice and headed to the bench as another set of his teammates jumped onto the rink for the face-off.

Breathing hard, his muscles working overtime from the intensity of the game, Ryan grabbed his water bottle and gulped down some liquid for his parched throat. He momentarily parked himself on the bench with the line change, his buddy Marshall joining him.

“Good job,” Marshall grunted with a pat on the knee.

“Gotta keep up with you,” Ryan said, since Marshall had scored the first goal for the recreational league team they played on. They’d been playing together for years—since all the way back in varsity, when they went to the same high school together here in Vegas. Marshall was as close to the inner circle as anyone could be.

“Hey, need to ask you a question,” Ryan said, lowering his voice as he tugged off his bulky gloves. Their other teammates were fixated on the game, cheering on their guys. Marshall motioned for Ryan to continue. “You told me a few weeks ago about Stefano being questioned by some of your attorneys for other crimes.” Marshall had tipped him off before the investigation had reopened, but had been away on a family vacation for two weeks so this was the first time Ryan had been able to catch up on the details.

“Right,” his friend said as he tightened his skates. “Some of my colleagues are working on that.”

“Do know anything more about it? Because a detective brought me in for questioning a week ago. He talked to Shan, Colin, and Michael as well.” Ryan used his sister’s given name, since that was how Marshall had always known her. “My grandmother, too. He asked a lot of the same questions that the guy who investigated the first time around did, but some different ones as well. He really seemed to want to know who my mom was friends with and if there was anyone new in her life at the time,” he said, speaking as casually as if they were catching up on the latest sports scores. It was damn nice, in a strange way, not to have to dig in and serve up his messy family story to someone. Hell, Ryan couldn’t even remember ever having had to tell Marshall at all—he simply knew because they’d grown up together.

Marshall gestured with his clunky gloved fingers for him come closer. Ryan scooted over as the other man lowered his voice to a thread. “Listen, you didn’t hear this from me,” he said, beginning with his usual caveat when he shared something he wasn’t supposed to share. Ryan never violated that trust. “Stefano’s girlfriend came to us a few months ago. She told us she had some information.”

Ryan’s eyes widened. The cops had tried to talk to the shooter’s girlfriend at the time of the murder, since she’d lived with Stefano, but she’d skipped town then. No one had found her, and Colin had told Ryan at the time that there were rumors that Stefano had had her killed.

Ryan never believed those rumors. Didn’t seem plausible. Skipping town when you found out the guy you loved was going to prison? That was much more believable. Still, her absence had been one of those unsolved mysteries.

“She left town then. But no one could find her,” Ryan said. “Where’d she go?”

“Woman’s shelter in Idaho, of all places. Turned out she was pregnant. Stayed there ’til the kid was born. Wanted to lie low and keep away from the cops. She has a seventeen-year-old son now. Stefano’s kid.”

“Holy shit.” His jaw dropped. “So that’s why she left?”

“Yeah, and that’s why he took the job from your mom. Needed money for the kid. She said she didn’t know at the time that he was doing those kinds of jobs,” Marshall said, with narrowed eyes, suggesting he didn’t believe that line. “Anyway, once he was behind bars and the investigation was obviously over, she went back to her family in Reno with the baby. But it turns out some of his friends have been keeping an eye on her and the kid. It was a promise these guys made to always look out for each other. So with Stefano in the big house, his buddies looked after the girlfriend, helped out her and the kid, all as a favor to Jerry. But here’s the thing. Those friends were in the Sinners.”

“Are they still?”

Marshall shrugged. “My guys don’t know yet. All we know is Stefano asked them to keep his kid out of the way of the Sinners. He wanted his son to have a shot at a new kind of life, different from his. So his friends protected the kid for a long time, but apparently they haven’t done such a good job lately, and he’s been getting into trouble. The girlfriend’s not too happy about them breaking their promise to keep her son safe from the gang.”

Something about Marshall’s info aligned with John Winston’s questions. If the girlfriend was talking after all these years, maybe mentioning names that had been off the radar during the first investigation, it would make sense that Winston had been asking about any other people in his mother’s life. “Wait. Were these buddies involved in my dad’s murder?”

“That’s the part we don’t know. That’s the part no one knows. It’s not even my case. It’s not even at the level of a case yet, to be honest. Just an investigation. All I know is the detectives are looking into it. And you did not get this from me.”

The coach slapped the white wood of the bench, and pointed to the ice.

Ryan, Marshall and the rest of the line hopped over and went out on the rink, returning to the game. As Ryan skated, he mapped out a plan. No reason he couldn’t try to work the case, too. John Winston might be the lead detective, but Ryan could play that role on his own. It was his family, his life, and his story. He knew how to figure things out, and how to put two and two together. And he had a damn good notion of some of the people that he’d need to go see.

Later that night, he scheduled a piano lesson with a local teacher.

* * *

“Wish me luck,” Sophie said as she pushed back from the table after a fantastic sushi lunch with Holden and her good friend Jenna.

Holden stood first and cupped her shoulders. “I know you can do this. Everything is going to go great with Clyde. Just tell him to keep his grandson’s paws off my ex-wife,” Holden said with a wink.

“If only you’d kept your hands on me I wouldn’t be worrying about my biggest donor to the community center trying to pawn me off on his grandson,” she said and squeezed his arm. Holden swatted her rear with a light touch.

“Like that? Is that what you want?”

“No. Put some gusto into it,” Jenna said in her husky, sexy, Australian-accented voice.

Sophie waved them both off. She wasn’t sore, per se, from her spanking two nights ago, but she was keeping this patch of bodily real estate for Ryan’s possessive hands only. Actually, all of her body. True, they’d made no such promises. But after the time they’d spent together, the things they’d done, the messages they’d exchanged… Well, there was no way in hell she wanted to even dabble with anyone else.

“No gusto please,” she joked then glanced at her watch. “I’m off. Enjoy your green tea ice cream.”

“We will,” Jenna said eyeing the dessert dishes the waiter had just brought to the two of them. “Just remind Clyde how important the community center is in and of itself. And that building the new additions is not dependent on you dating or not dating his grandson.”

“Absolutely.” She gave a big thumbs-up. She knew what to do. She certainly knew how to handle herself in front of old, rich men, in front of young, rich men, and in front of nerdy, rich men. She’d handled herself just fine when she ran InCode. She’d made pitches. She’d stood up in front of groups of people. She’d asked for funding. And she’d presented on the strength of her vision.

That was what she would do with Clyde. Besides, she didn’t feel her romantic life, one way or the other, needed to be a part of her conversations with him. If she were a man, surely no one would expect her to date someone’s daughter.

She hopped into her Aston Martin and headed to Clyde’s office. He greeted her with a handshake that lasted too long, then a kiss on the cheek that left too much whiskery scratch on her skin. She wished he wasn’t so touchy, but she reminded herself the man hadn’t crossed any lines. He was simply more affectionate than she would have liked. No crime in that. Just a wee bit of discomfort.

In his office, she reviewed the final plans for the Beethoven concert benefit as well as the community center. When she was through, Clyde smacked his palm in approval on his grand oak desk. “I am delighted to be able to help fund this. It is so great to have a place for young people to be able to go and stay off of the streets and out of trouble,” he said, and she couldn’t deny that she loved his giving heart and his spirit. He reminded her in some ways of John, and his mission to help make the city safer and better. They each had their own style of going about it, but the goal was the same.

A better Las Vegas.

Clyde stroked his chin. “Say, do you know who’s here today?” There was a glint in his gray eyes.

Sophie cringed inside, then she plastered on her best smile. “I can’t even begin to guess.”

Soon he was escorting her to an office where a young, blond man was bent over his laptop.

“Taylor, my boy. I have someone I want you to meet,” Clyde said, and the young man looked up. He was handsome, sported a nice smile, and boasted straight white teeth that could only be courtesy of the best orthodontia money could buy. “This is Sophie, our city’s leading philanthropist, who is spearheading plans for the community center fundraiser.”

“That’s so great. I’m one hundred percent behind that.” He pushed back from the desk in his rolling chair, walked over to her, and extended a hand.

He had a strong grip, and Sophie catalogued that as a good thing. “Pleasure to meet you, Taylor. Clyde raves about his favorite grandson, and I promise I won’t tell the others he likes you best.”

Taylor laughed. “Excellent. I won’t tell the other fundraisers that you’re his favorite then, too,” he said with a we’ve got a secret wink.

“We’re in cahoots then,” she said, with a cheery smile for the fresh-faced law school graduate. “How are you finding the transition from law school to the corporate world?”

“My grandfather works me hard. The other day, for instance, he only let me take a one-hour lunch to play the cards at the MGM instead of the two hours he gives the senior partners.”

“I’m so cruel,” Clyde said with a hearty laugh.

After another minute of casual chatter, she said goodbye, and Clyde saw her to the lobby.

“That went quite well didn’t it?” he said, a huge grin on his face.

“He is lovely indeed,” Sophie said. Also six years younger than me, and I’m not a cradler-robber.

“Perhaps the two of you could attend the concert together,” he said, then snapped his fingers. “Wait. I have a better idea. Why don’t you go out before? Have a nice dinner. On me.”

She wanted to put her foot down, but she also didn’t want to offend this man who she needed in her court by turning down his grandson. Nor did she want to lie to him. She wanted to live a life free of lies, and free of trickery. She also wanted to operate on her own terms, not conform to the expectations of the men she worked with, whether they were back in the tech world or the titans of industry with fat wallets now.

“Oh, Clyde you are such a darling,” she said, stalling for time.

“What do you think about that?” he said, undeterred.

“Why are you so eager to set him up? He’s a handsome, smart, sweet man. Seems he could easily find a date on his own.”

Clyde lowered his voice. “I want to leave him the firm. And I want to know he’s with a woman who’s not going to try to take all my money,” he said in a you-get-my-drift voice.

Oh, she got it. She definitely got it. Because she had money, she wouldn’t need his. Clyde assumed she was the type of woman who’d sign a pre-nup. Well, maybe she was that type of woman. But still…the notion of why she was his top choice made her feel greasy.

“Also, you’re the most delightful young woman I know,” he added, as if that reason suddenly would hold water. “The two of you could be a wonderful match.”

Sophie had other ideas about what made a good match. Besides, who said she was looking for something serious? She was quite content with her life as it was, thank you very much. If she wanted anything right now, it was passion. It was sparks and fire.

It was Ryan Sloan, and the way he commanded her pleasure.

Oh God, just his name in her head sent heat flaring in her body.

Which meant it was time to nip this thing with Clyde in the bud. She’d run a multi-million dollar company for several years, and she hadn’t gotten to that position by letting the men she worked with try to set her up.

She touched Clyde on the shoulder with her fingertips. “Clyde, you know I adore you. And I could humor you right now simply to stay in your good graces, but I want to be totally honest. Your grandson is lovely. However, I’ve started seeing someone, and it’s going quite well so far. So I’m not really on the market at the moment.”

He frowned. “Is it serious?”

“Clyde,” she said softly. “It’s not a matter of whether it’s serious. It’s a matter of choice. I’m choosing to see someone right now, and likely I’ll be bringing him to the benefit. I hope this won’t affect your support of the center, but it’s important to me to be honest with you.”

Clyde took a deep breath and nodded, as if he were processing this news. She mentally crossed her fingers, praying she hadn’t messed up by being frank. She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t snatch away his funding.

“I’ve been too presumptuous,” he said, contrition in his tone. “And I respect you for saying that. And of course I remain a committed supporter.” Then he fixed on a cheery smile. “And I look forward to meeting this man at the event.”

Oh shoot. There was that little matter. Now she had to deliver Ryan in the flesh to back up her thanks, but no thanks. To prove she was an honest woman.

“You will definitely meet him then,” she said, her businesslike bravado hiding her worry that she’d been too bold to think Ryan would be her arm candy.

She was going to need to ask Ryan to be her date. The possibility thrilled her, but he seemed to be playing it day by day. Would he even want to plan that far ahead?

As she drove to her next meeting, she ran through the best ways to invite Ryan to the event. What was happening between them was new and tender, and she didn’t want to ruin it by asking for too much. Would this type of date imply they were more than merely lovers? Was she ready to state that so boldly?

She shut off the questions momentarily when she arrived at the community center, parking behind a brown Buick. She rushed inside for a quick visit with Elle, who ran the center, updating her on the status of the fundraising.

“So glad it’s going well. We are lucky to have you behind this,” Elle said, gesturing broadly to the broken-down building and the basketball court with its cracked concrete surface, badly in need of the repair and revamp that they hoped would soon be possible.

“It thrills me to help,” Sophie said, as the dark-haired and insanely gorgeous Elle walked her back to her car, passing the basketball courts on the way, where teenage boys played hoops. A few of them stopped to stare at Sophie, and one even catcalled.

“Sweet blonde ass,” the guy said with a whistle. She couldn’t tell if it was the guy with ink all over his arms or someone else, and it didn’t bother her terribly.

But it bothered Elle.

Elle called the guy’s name then admonished him. “Watch it. Show a little respect, like we’ve talked about,” she said in a strong voice, and he muttered a low “Sorry.”

Elle turned to Sophie. “They’re works in progress.”

Sophie smiled. “Aren’t we all works in progress?”

Elle laughed lightly. “That we are. Lord knows I certainly am.” Then she turned more serious. “Thank you again for everything. I know we can do so much more for these kids when this comes together.”

“We have great donors behind this. It’ll happen.”

As she said goodbye, backing away from the Buick then heading in the direction of the Strip, her damn brain went haywire again, trying to figure out what was happening with Ryan. She muttered a curse as she turned onto the highway, dropping her shades over her eyes to shield them from the sun. She gripped the wheel tighter, trying to focus solely on driving. But still her mind whirred and raced as she played out scenarios and cycled through relationship permutations, just as she had with computers.

The questions rattled her brain and drove the tension in her body sky-high.

When she returned to her building, she felt like a radio station tuned in badly—all warped, fuzzy, and off-kilter. She’d been frazzled by what she needed to do next—push Ryan into something that might feel more serious, when he hardly seemed the type.

But then she shoved all those feelings aside once the front desk attendant told her there was a delivery for her. He handed her a silvery gift bag with slim handles, and instantly she was sure it was from the man she had a third date with. Desperate to open it, she clutched it tightly as the elevator shot her up to her floor.

The second she opened her door, she tore in and found a small white box, tied with a white bow, resting inside the red tissue paper. She pulled off the bow and removed the lid.

Wow. She lifted the satiny fabric. The panties were dark pink with sheer lace in front. But it was the back that knocked the breath out of her. The rear was comprised solely of crisscross satin pieces of fabric that would leave most of her bottom exposed. A cage-open panel, it was called, according to the tag.

She called it a prelude to multiple orgasms.

Sophie owned many pairs of pretty panties, but this was by far the most alluring. This took sexy to new heights. Moments later, her phone pinged with the notification that a message had arrived.

from: [email protected]

to: [email protected]

date: July 16, 3:48 PM

subject: Delivery

I hope you’ll forgive me that they aren’t pale pink.

from: [email protected]

to: [email protected]

date: July 16, 3:54 PM

subject: Forgiveness granted

I do forgive you. I forgive you so much I promise to be wearing these next time I see you.

from: [email protected]

to: [email protected]