Hard Bastard: A Second Chance Mafia Romance Page 3

  “Well. Here’s to your homecoming.”

  We clinked glasses and drank. He smiled at me, crossing his arms. “You look good, kid.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “You look fine yourself.”

  “Please. We both know I look better than fine.”

  “You look healthy.”

  “I assume that means you want to drag me into the bathroom and have your way with me.”

  “Not exactly.” I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Oh, sorry. I think I had that backwards. You want me to drag you.”

  “Of course. I do love an alpha caveman making me do his bidding.”

  “You say that like you’re joking, but we both know what you like.”

  I paused, biting my lip, and quickly sipped my drink to cover my embarrassment. Gage always did know exactly how to push my buttons, and apparently ten years hadn’t changed a single thing.

  That was probably the craziest thing about our conversation. Ten years had passed, and I was ready to run the hell out of there when we made eye contact, but as soon as we sat down together it felt just like old times. I knew I should probably stay away from Gage, since I shouldn’t let myself get involved with an old flame like him, but I couldn’t help myself. Gage just had that magnetic personality that drew me toward him, closer and closer.

  I couldn’t walk away now even if I wanted to. It only took maybe ten minutes, but I was already hooked. Besides, I didn’t know anybody in town anymore, not really. All of my old friends moved away, and plus, I hadn’t really seen them in ten years either. When I moved to Seattle, I had to start all over. I tried to keep in touch with my best friend at the time, but we just slowly drifted apart. As far as I knew, she was living in Philadelphia and had a kid.

  Gage made Ashertown feel like home again, which was just so strange. I didn’t know how he did it, but just talking to him made me feel like I was where I belonged. Ashertown had felt like my home for a long time, even years after we moved to Seattle, but that feeling had long since passed. I hadn’t missed Ashertown in a long while, had barely even thought about it.

  Gage brought all of those feelings back and much, much more. That cocky smile on his face brought back some memories that I hoped were long buried.

  I went to order another drink from the bartender, but two men suddenly appeared behind Gage. One man was overweight and ugly with a creepy smile on his face. The other man was thin and intense looking with a large, crooked nose.

  “Gage,” the thin one said. “We gotta go.”

  He cocked his head at the guy. “What do you want, Alex?”

  “We got a call. Finish up here and meet us outside.”

  The fat one gave me a creepy smile as the two men walked away.

  Gage sighed. “Guess I have to get going.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Business associates.”

  I nodded. “Okay. You work weird hours, huh?”

  “Can’t control the collections business. When you get a call, you gotta work.” He stood up and dropped some cash on the bar. It was way too much.

  “Gage, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Sure I do.”

  “That’s too much.”

  “That’s okay.” He leaned toward me. “What’s your number? I think you need to be shown around town one more time.”

  I took a sharp breath and then gave him my cell number. He nodded, typing it into his phone. I had a nagging feeling that I was making a mistake, but Gage was the only person I knew in town anymore. It would be pretty damn lonely without a single person I could meet up with for drinks.

  Besides, he was harmless. Nothing was going to happen between us.

  “Good seeing you again, Sadie,” he said.

  “Yeah, you too.”

  He smirked one more time at me and then walked away. I watched him go, admiring the muscles in his body as he disappeared out the door.

  Nothing was going to happen to me. It didn’t matter that I was dripping wet and practically panting at the sight of him. He was my old boyfriend and I wasn’t going to let myself get involved with him ever again. Even though neither of us wanted things to end, I couldn’t bring myself to do that again.

  I couldn’t risk it. I just couldn’t.

  But he looked so damn good. I finished my drink, sitting there alone at the bar, and I kept thinking about Gage. About the things we did together, the times we had together, the way he made me feel when I was with him.

  Most importantly, I kept thinking about his body against mine, and how stupidly badly I wanted that again.

  Chapter 4

  Gage

  I wanted to fuck up that fat piece of shit and the idiot with the crooked nose for pulling me away from Sadie. I was in the fucking zone, completely and entirely focused on her, and I knew she was feeling the same way. I could remember exactly why I was so into her when I was younger.

  I followed Boris and Alex out to the parking lot and got into Alex’s beat-up piece of shit black sedan. “What the fuck happened?” I asked him as he started the engine.

  “Kuzma called. Evgeni was picked up by the fucking cops.”

  I grained. “For what?”

  “Who fucking knows? We’re supposed to get down to the precinct pronto.”

  “Fucking hell. I thought we bribed those pigs for exactly this reason?”

  “We did. We still fucking do. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  “Fine, okay. Let’s drive.”

  Alex pulled out and sped down the street. The precinct jail wasn’t too far away. I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window.

  “Thinking about that piece of ass?” Boris asked from the back.

  “No, you fucking pig shit.”

  “Fuck you, Gage. No need to be an asshole.”

  “Pussy,” I mumbled, staring out the window.

  Truth was, I was thinking about her. I couldn’t fucking help it. I could still practically feel her lips wrapped around my cock, could see her body bobbing up and down as she sucked me. I could feel her spine under my fingertips as I fucked her from behind, the way she moved and twisted, the way she rode me. Fuck, I could even hear her laugh as we drove fast and reckless down the highway in my piece of shit convertible.

  It wasn’t like me to get hung up on some chick, let alone some ex-girlfriend that I hadn’t seen or heard from in ten years. I took a deep breath and let it out. I was going to have to keep my shit together if we were going to pull this off.

  Part of my job was to drop the bribes off to the cops. Normally, I left that to Boris. Evgeni was a friend and typically managed some of the drug dealers over on the south side of town. It was pretty fucking strange that he got picked up since he never actually touched the drugs, just managed the guys that did.

  We sped down the road and eventually pulled into the parking lot. We climbed out of the car and headed toward the front entrance.

  “Let me talk,” I said.

  “You’re outranked here, Gage,” Alex said.

  “I know these guys. I drop off the bribes.”

  “Actually, I do that, asshole,” Boris said.

  “Yeah, well, you’re a slob and a prick. I get along with them better.”

  He grunted but didn’t argue. Both of those statements were factually correct and I guess he didn’t feel like contesting it.

  We headed up toward the entrance and stepped inside. The desk sergeant, a guy names James Rawls, looked up, a bored and tired expression on his face. He sighed when he saw me. I gave him my biggest, best smile possible.

  “What do you want?” he asked as I approached him.

  “Good evening, Sergeant,” I said.

  “Gage.” He sighed. “It’s late. What can I do for you?”

  “You guys picked up a friend of mine. I want to check on him.”

  “What’s the name?” Rawls asked.

  “Evgeni. Came in just tonight.”

  He nodded and typed. I glanced back at Boris and Alex.

  Rawls grunted. “Right, he’s here.”

  “What’s he here for?”

  “Doesn’t say. System hasn’t updated yet.”

  “Rawls. You know me. You know my associates. We’ve been good to the precinct, haven’t we?”

  He looked nervous. “I don’t know, Gage.”

  “We have. You know we have. I’m here to get my guy back. If we need to put some bail money in somebody’s hands, we’ll do that.”

  “Bail isn’t set yet. Won’t be until tomorrow at best.”

  “Don’t act dumb, Rawls.”

  He leaned forward. “We can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

  I leaned toward him. “Can’t do what? The things we’ve been doing for a while now? My friend Boris over there brings you guys a little package full of money and you overlook some of our business dealings. It’s been very lucrative for both of us.”

  He nodded. “Fine. Maybe that was the old deal. But something is changing.”

  “What’s changing?”

  He shook his head. “More pressure from the top. We can’t just let this one slide.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What aren’t you telling me, Rawls?”

  “Sorry. That’s all I can say.”

  I clenched my fists and wanted to smash the guy’s face, but I resisted. Clearly, we didn’t have as much power over the cops right now as we once did.

  Alex stepped up behind me. “Sergeant, what’s the problem here?”

  He glanced at Alex. “Step back, sir.”

  “I’m just trying to understand.”

  I could tell Rawls was getting uncomfortable. An uncomfortable cop was a dangerous cop, and I didn’t feel like making a bad situation worse.

  “Come on,” I said to Alex, taking his arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  “The fuck?” Boris asked. “Why do we fucking pay these pigs if they don’t help us out?”

  “Get out of here,” Rawls said to us. “Get the hell out. Check on your friend later.”

  “Come on.” I led Boris and Alex out of the main lobby and back out front. “You idiots. Don’t you know how to be fucking subtle?”

  “No,” Boris said.

  “There’s something going on,” I told Alex. “Rawls seemed to want to tell me, but couldn’t.”

  “Fuck,” he said. “We’ll have to go back to Vadik with this.”

  “Looks that way.”

  He grunted. “Fine. You two stick around here. I’ll go.”

  “No,” I said. “First, we’re going to wake up that damn lawyer.”

  Alex grunted. “Why do I have to come for that?”

  “You know where the lawyer lives.”

  He laughed. “Okay. Fine. I’ll go to Vadik after.”

  “Fine.” I looked at Boris. “You stay here.”

  “Why?”

  “In case someone else shows up, you can tell them what we’re doing.”

  “Okay then. All good.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Alex and I got back into his car while Boris found a bench to wait at down by the road. He couldn’t stay on police property, so he was going to have to sit around near traffic and kill time. I doubted anyone else would show up, but there was always a chance.

  Alex headed back into town. The lawyer’s name was Rogers, if I remembered right. I had to deal with him one time when I got picked up for threatening someone and harassing him. Rogers got the charges dropped in two hours, and three hours after that I was back breaking the knees of the asshole that got me arrested. That was a pretty good night.

  I didn’t know why Rawls seemed so hesitant about the whole thing, though. He’d been one of the more amiable cops in the past, but clearly something was happening in their department. Might have something to do with them cracking down on us, but I had no real clue. I could only guess, and that wasn’t worth the time.

  It was going to be a long and boring night, I could already tell. At least I had the memory of Sadie’s body against mine to keep me going.

  Chapter 5

  Sadie

  The next morning, I had a small hangover but at least I was on time to work. I got into my cubicle and sat down, surveying my little domain as I unpacked my belongings.

  I placed the mafia file on the desk and stared at it. I leafed through it again when I got home from the bar and again I found myself getting sucked into it. I wanted to help, wanted to get those awful guys, but I didn’t know if I should.

  Actually, I knew I shouldn’t. I knew I should stay out of it and take some easier cases where there was no real threat to my life. Truthfully, I wanted to get involved because I loved the rush of winning a case like that. I knew it would be dangerous, but it would also be incredible for my career.

  Not many ADAs got to put away real mafia guys. That sort of publicity was almost always reserved for the top DAs in whatever county was prosecuting, or whoever the top dog was. Meanwhile, I was being given this golden opportunity.

  That should have told me something right there. That my boss didn’t want to touch the case should have told me everything I needed to know about it. I was ignoring that fact, though. I was choosing not to look too deeply into that fact, because if I did, I knew I’d run screaming in the other direction.

  “Sadie.”

  I looked up. Rick was standing at the divider. “Good morning,” I said.

  “Come with me.”

  He turned and left. I got up quickly and caught up to him. We walked briskly together down the hall and back into his office.

  He shut the door and walked around his desk, gesturing for me to sit. Hesitant, I sat down in front of his desk.

  “Something came through last night,” he said finally, pulling out a file. “I thought you might like to see it.”

  He handed me the folder. I knew I shouldn’t take it, but instead I opened it right away.

  The man’s name was Evgeni Morov. He was a mobster with the Petrov Family, the same guys that were in my dossier back at my desk. Evgeni looked like a middle of the road kind of guy; not a big boss, but not a small fish, either. Apparently, he ran a bunch of drug dealers down in the south corner of the city, mostly meth and crack but some prescription pills, too.

  “Why am I looking at this guy?” I asked.

  “We picked him up last night.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “He tried to sell to an undercover cop.”

  “You’re kidding me?”

  He laughed. “I’m not. I don’t know why he did it. He decided to make some extra cash on the side, I’d bet.”

  “How much did the cops get?”

  “A lot. All of it on video. It’s a slam dunk case.”

  I laughed. “You’re not kidding. This is huge.”

  “I want you to prosecute.”

  I cocked my head, surprised. “Me? Why?”

  “I want you to prosecute all of these mafia bastards,” he said. “This is an easy one.”

  “I don’t know, Rick. I’m not sure I want to take this on. I don’t even have an apartment.”

  “We can help you find one. In the meantime, forget about your dire living situation by drowning yourself in work.”

  I sighed. I had to admit, I was really tempted. I thumbed through Evgeni’s rap sheet, which listed a couple counts of aggravated assault, a couple counts of intent to sell, and one account of grand theft auto. Each time, the charges were mysteriously dropped.

  I knew what that meant. Either someone got bribed big time, or they made some threats that were impossible to ignore.

  This was going to be dangerous, even if it was an easy case. If I took it, I knew I was going down a path that I could never get off of.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

  “Great,” Rick said. “Take that file. We’ll send you down whatever else you need as soon as possible. I’d also get down to the station when you can.”

  “Okay.” I stood. “Thanks for this.”

  “No, thank you. It’s going to be tough, but I know you can do it.”

  I nodded, turned, and quickly left his office.

  I knew I was making the wrong choice, but I couldn’t stop myself. This case was the sort of thing that could possibly make a career. Plus, I became an ADA for this sort of thing. I wanted to put bad guys behind bars, and Evgeni was absolutely a bad guy.

  As soon as I got back to my desk, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the number. I didn’t recognize it, but for some reason I decided to answer it anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, beautiful.”

  I paused. “Who is this?”

  “It’s Gage.”

  That surprised me. “Gage. It’s pretty early in the morning.”

  “Is it?” He laughed. “Shit, you’re right. Sorry, I had a crazy night with work. I didn’t realize what time it was.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “More than okay. I just wanted to see if you’d like to accompany me out tonight.”

  I looked around and bit my lip. “I don’t know. I have a lot of work.”

  “I won’t keep you late, then. Come on. What else do you have to do? Come meet some people, spend a little time out. You’re basically new in town, you know.”

  He did have a point. I needed to make some new friends, and maybe going out with Gage would help me do that.

  Who was I kidding, that’s not why I wanted to do. I wanted to be close to Gage again. There was no other reason to accept his strange invitation. What kind of collection job kept someone out all night long like this?

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m staying at the Holiday Inn, room 337.”

  “I’ll meet you in the lobby at eight. Wear something to impress me.”

  “Gage—“ I want to tell him off, but he had already hung up.

  That arrogant bastard. Who did he think he was telling me what to wear? The man was so frustrating, just the way that I remembered him. And yet the more frustrated I got with him, the more I wanted to be around him. He was an impossible conundrum.

  I turned back to my desk, took a deep breath, and dove into work. I had a long day ahead of me, including going down to the police station to find out more about this Evgeni guy.