Vicious Seduction

8

CHAPTER 6 ORAN “My son has been missing for months, and the woman he was dating is now married to a Byrne. Do you really expect me to believe those two facts are unrelated?” Wellington stared icily at me from across his desk. I was struck by how dispassionate he was on the subject. He believed my family was responsible for his son’s disappearance, yet he didn’t show an ounce of outrage or resentment or even the tiniest bit of pain. If my child had gone missing, I would have been an inconsolable ball of fury shredding the very fabric of the city until my child was back home. Wellington acted like it was a car that had been stolen, not his son. “I expect you to be a man of business capable of using logic. My cousin was married to his wife well before your son went missing. If I was going to look for a culprit, I might be more interested in a certain Russian you’ve been doing business with. Did he tell you how he miraculously ended up with our stolen guns, then came after us when we confronted him?” Wellington studied me intently. I knew very well that he didn’t know anything about our business with the Russian and that he certainly wouldn’t know I’d muddied the truth. All I needed was to nurture the uncertainty he was already facing about his son’s disappearance. The truth was, my family had killed his son, but Wellington had a s**t ton of enemies. Figuring out which one of us was to blame would be a monumental task. How likely was it that the man sitting across from him putting forth a business proposition had been responsible? Oh, the irony. “What is it you’re here to say?” he demanded gruffly. He hated for me to be right, but he couldn’t deny I had a point. I took the win graciously and reserved my gloating for a later date. “As I mentioned, we’ve had an issue with stolen shipments recently. We need to make new arrangements.” “And what could possibly entice me into helping you?” This was it. The lynchpin. I’d thought long and hard about this question because having the right answer was crucial. “Aside from the fact that we own half the police force in the city, which makes life a hell of a lot easier, my cousin is now married into the Moretti family. Conner Byrne recently married Renzo Donati’s niece.” I let the information sink in. As the owner of one of the largest shipping companies in the world, Wellington would be familiar with the Italian family who controlled the docks throughout New York via the dock workers union. Wellington and all other shipping companies were in never-ending negotiations with the dock workers. Having an inside connection would be priceless for him. “I’d say family dinners with the Donatis would be enticing for a man in your profession. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t believe we have enough common ground to form a mutually beneficial arrangement.” Wellington steepled his hands together in contemplation. “What exactly did you have in mind?” “Once a month, I’ll need a quarter of a container. That’s it. And as for Donati, how does dinner on Sunday sound?” “I suppose we could see how dinner goes…” He trailed off, his gaze unfocused as he contemplated the possibilities. “You could bring Lina with you. She’s absolutely stunning.” I decided to test the waters, wanting to see his reaction. “I don’t suppose you’re the sort to share?” I hadn’t expected him to lash out. He wasn’t the type. But the degree to which he was unbothered was somewhat unexpected. Not even the slightest twitch in his eye or flare of a nostril. “In this world, nothing is off-limits for the right price.” Wrong answer, asshole. “Good to know. Our first sit-down might not be the place for her, but it’s something we could explore.” His answering smirk was so goddamn slimy, I was going to need to shower off the filth when I got home. I couldn’t understand why the hell she put up with a man like him. I wanted Lina as part of my plans to humiliate Wellington, but I’d be doing her a favor. I had to win her over so she’d leave the bastard. Lawrence Wellington only cared about power. That was frighteningly evident to me now more than ever. His son. Lina. He didn’t care about either of them. A glance around the room didn’t reveal a single family picture. Not one. Instead, framed news articles of Wellington’s business acquisitions and personal accolades adorned the walls. Meaningless decorative bobbles and crystal placards engraved with awards he’d received throughout the years lined his bookshelves. I wondered if he wasn’t legitimately certifiable— some sort of sociopath incapable of love and empathy. He was a narcissist at the very least. The one good thing about his limitless ego was the fact that he was so absorbed with himself that he failed to detect his own downfall sitting before him. I wondered if he could hear the clock counting down to his own Armageddon. I could hear it, and the steady beat was music to my ears.

CHAPTER 7 LINA “You never cease to amaze me.” My business partner and dear friend, Cosmo, stepped back to admire a bust I’d outfitted with the red dress I’d sewn last week. He took in the piece as a whole, then moved close to examine the seams and stitching. “I hope that’s a good thing.” I grinned, knowing exactly what he meant. “Girl, this dress is even better than I imagined. I don’t know how you do it.” He paced around to the back and adjusted the straps. “You think it’ll stay on? There’s not much to the back.” “I know it will because I wore it out last night.” Cosmo spun around, spearing me with a salacious stare. “You don’t seriously think you can say that without telling all, do you?” He rested his hand on a c****d hip. “Where, why, and who? I want all the deets.” I chuckled and sat in one of the workshop chairs. We rented a thousandsquare-foot studio as our base of operations. It was a converted factory building, so the rent was good, and the light was even better. It housed bolts of fabric, a sewing station, a standing-height cutting table, another smaller table for business discussions, and racks and racks of clothing. It was a good workspace, but I preferred to work at my home office. I liked to shut out the world when I worked. As much as I adored Cosmo, he could be more distracting than a small tornado. “Just a guy I’ve been seeing. We went to dinner—nothing special.” I hadn’t told Cosmo anything about Lawrence because he would have gone into cardiac arrest if he had known the details. Cosmo could be a smidge overly dramatic.