24. Hayden
24
HAYDEN
“ Q uit whining at me, cat. I already fed you,” I complained to the mewling creature standing on top of the table like he was king of the castle. “And get off of there.”
I scooped the little animal up and put him back down on the floor. How he managed to keep getting up there was beyond me, but he and his two sisters seemed hell-bent on destroying my apartment and getting into as much mischief as possible. There were cat toys and litterboxes everywhere, and I was covered in tiny scratches from their needle-sharp claws.
Shame they were so fucking cute and that I was already thinking of myself as their father.
I shook my head at how pathetic I was. “I need to get a life,” I mumbled.
“Or just get laid,” Liam called from the couch, a pile of papers in his hands, and the movie I’d been watching still playing in the background. “I mean, why start with something as big as getting a whole life, when you can niche down to focus on why you’re actually such a stick-in-the-mud?” He glanced up. “How long has it been since you had a girlfriend anyway? You’ve never brought anyone home to meet us.”
I raised an eyebrow at his questioning. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I’d invited a teenage girl over. I thought I’d asked my brother over to review a contract, not give me shit about how much sex I’m having.”
Liam grinned like I hadn’t just given him shit. “That long, huh?”
“Fuck off.”
He laughed and went back to poring over the contract while I paced up and down the small living room impatiently waiting for him to be done. I was so wired I was practically crawling out of my skin.
“I could set you up with one of Mae’s friends, if you want? Or maybe someone from my office? You’re always going to the movies alone, why not take someone with you once in a while? A couple of the women at work asked about you after the award thing the other day.”
I stopped pacing. “Why?”
Liam rolled his eyes behind his black-rimmed glasses. “Oh, I don’t know. Might have had something to do with the fact you walk around looking all bad boy. According to Mae, that shit is catnip.”
I glared at him. “I meant why would you set me up with someone? I don’t date. And I don’t need to get laid.”
“So you’re just going to be celibate forever then?” He sighed. “I know that shit with Kara really messed you up.”
I cut that shit off real quick. “I don’t want to talk about it. ”
Liam eyed me. “You never do.”
“Would you?” I snapped. “I already think about it every fucking day. The last thing I want to do is talk about how I had to deliver her baby in a shitty Saint View slum house. Or about how if I’d let her go, Caleb would have hurt Ripley or Jay. Or you.”
Liam wasn’t ruffled by the vague hint of panic that still laced my tone whenever I thought about that time.
“That didn’t happen,” he assured me. “We’re all fine.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t remember it every time I look at one of you.” Or every time I thought of her.
Which was the whole reason I hadn’t dated in years. Hadn’t even touched a woman.
When you’d done the things I had, seen the things I’d seen, you didn’t just give yourself a free pass to be happy.
I didn’t deserve that, and I knew it.
Liam sighed and tossed Luca’s contract onto the coffee table. “Then why the hell are you even considering that contract? You know very well what Luca is involved with. Not much of it is legal.”
I gripped the back of my neck with both hands. “I know! I know, all right! But that contract is offering me everything I’ve ever wanted. And all of that is legal, right? I read it all, every word. It’s on the up and up, isn’t it?”
Liam sighed heavily. “From what I can tell, and from the research my team did into Luca’s business investments, yes. He seems to be using the profit from another restaurant he owns in the city as start-up capital for this. It’s all above board, taxes filed, all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It’s a very good contract. If it were anyone else offering it to you, I wouldn’t think twice in telling you to accept it. ”
I groaned. “You think I should turn it down.”
Liam shook his head. “I can’t make that decision for you. You know the risks. It’s up to you if you want to roll the dice. But if it were me, no. I wouldn’t take it.”
I let out a huff of air and frustration. It was so easy for him to say that when he had a beautiful house, a job he was passionate about, enough money in the bank that a twenty-thousand-dollar check hadn’t felt like a lottery win, and family to come home to at night.
I threw a hand out, indicating the shitty apartment I’d lived in for five years. “If you lived here, in this shithole, had no job, no prospects, no family…would you still turn it down? If that contract was offering you all of your dreams, would you still say no?”
He screwed up his face and then slowly shook his head. “No, you’re right. I probably wouldn’t.”
“The contract is good,” I confirmed. “When Luca says he isn’t running women anymore, we have no proof to the contrary.”
Liam nodded.
I barely hesitated this time. “Pass me a pen.”
Liam still didn’t seem sure, but he did it anyway.
And just like that, with the ending credits of Pulp Fiction playing in the background, I became head chef and part owner of the restaurant of my dreams.
I left Liam continuing our Quentin Tarantino marathon, two out of three cats curled up asleep in his lap. He’d refused to budge before he got to watch the end of Kill Bill , but I was too impatient to wait. I got in my truck and drove it into Providence, my heart rate picking up with every mile I passed, and the signed contracts burning a hole in the passenger seat beside me.
I didn’t really expect anyone to be at the restaurant, considering the place had only just been auctioned off in the last week, but Luca’s car was parked out front, and the lights inside were all on.
I’d only planned to push the signed contracts beneath the door, but when I leaned on it, it gave way beneath my weight. “Hello?” I called out.
The sound of a nail gun stopped, and Luca stuck his head around the corner of a freshly plastered wall.
“Chaos,” he called. “Excellent. Come on back. We’ve got decisions to make.”
I slowly walked through the space that had become a construction zone in the short time since I’d last been here. Around the other side of the new wall, a kitchen area was being put together, and beyond that, heavy dark doors were being installed.
I came to a stop beside Luca and squinted at everything going on, a team of three guys bustling around with tool belts hanging off their hips and plaster dust on their boots.
Luca was somehow still neatly polished, though he did have his shirtsleeves rolled to his elbows and a pencil tucked behind one ear.
“You don’t mess about,” I commented to him quietly.
“Every day this place sits empty with no customers is a day it’s not making money. I’m not about that life. Are you?”
I supposed I wasn’t. I was itching to get my hands dirty. I’d work out how to install ovens and tile backsplashes if I needed to. Whatever got this place up and running. While it wasn’t making money, neither was I. I couldn’t do that for too long if I didn’t want to blow through every cent I’d ever saved.
Which I definitely didn’t.
That money was all still earmarked for a place of my own. One that wasn’t majority owned by Luca Guerra.
But this place…it was a start. There was a nervous excitement inside me that hadn’t let up since I’d signed my name across the dotted line on that contract.
“When do we open?” I asked.
Luca twisted to look at me, his gaze dropping to the envelope in my hand. “You signed them, then?”
I handed them over to him.
He pulled the white papers with my signature on the bottom out and shook his head. “Well, look at that. I thought for sure I’d have to get down on my knees and blow you to get you to sign.”
I gave him a sidelong glance, making it clear I didn’t find him funny.
Luca sniggered. “Right. Chaos has no sense of humor and is maybe slightly homophobic. Got it.”
“Not homophobic. Just not interested in banging my boss.”
Luca slapped me on the back. “Good for you. I like that sort of attitude. Now come and see these plans. I want to show you what’s happening.”
He motioned me over to a workbench and unrolled a large piece of paper that had a crudely drawn but recognizable sketch of the restaurant. Luca took the pencil from behind his ear and drew circles toward the front of the rectangular map. “This is where we’ll have the tables. Right in front of the front window so anyone walking or driving past can see everyone salivating over the amazing dishes you’re going to create. We already had this wall installed which separates the dining room from the kitchen, and we’re going to have a mural artist come in and create something that everyone will want to have photos taken with. I want this place to be as social media friendly as possible. We need people talking about it on TikTok and the like, right?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know anything about those things. I just make food.”
“Sure. But you’re part owner now. It’s only fair I tell you everything I have planned for this place.”
Shit. I was acting stupid. Of course I needed to know everything going on. I couldn’t just hide in the kitchen anymore, like I’d done at Simon’s place. I gave Luca a nod. “Yeah, okay. Go on.”
“The kitchen will be your domain. Everything state of the art.”
I watched over his shoulder as he scribbled out more ideas and marked out placements for various things.
I pointed at the lines symbolizing the two heavy wooden doors that led to the back half of the building. “And this is the function room?”
Luca laughed. “Sure. At least that’s what we’re calling it on paper.”
I squinted at him. “What do you mean?”
He leaned one shoulder against the wall. “You ever heard of Psychos?”
I frowned. “The dive bar in Saint View? Yeah. I’ve heard of it.” Anyone who’d lived in Saint View longer than five minutes had probably heard the rumors about Psychos.
“You ever been there?”
I snorted. “Do you think I have a death wish? It’s owned by the Slayers’ prez and his family. They aren’t exactly my biggest fans.”
Luca folded his arms across his broad chest. “Then you haven’t seen the sex club they transform it into a few nights a month?”
“Seen it? No. It’s invite only, right? My most notable run-in with the Slayers was when they held me captive in their basement. I didn’t exactly get time off for good behavior.”
Luca stared at me. “Shit, really?” Then he shrugged. “Well, that should make you like this all the better. Because it’s come to my attention that their little sex club is making them a shitload of money. And frankly, I want in.”
I stared at him. “So…what? You want to turn this place into a sex club too?”
“Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner.”
I could barely believe what I was hearing. “You are joking, right?”
Luca shrugged a shoulder. “Why would I joke about something like that? Sex sells.”
I could barely believe the words coming out of his mouth. This was not what I’d had in mind for my restaurant. Not at all. I wanted something beautiful. Quiet. Somewhere people came because they wanted a quality culinary experience, not because they wanted to chow down some food then go have an orgy in the back room like they did at Psychos. No. No fucking way. “This isn’t Saint View, Luca! Providence is a nice place. The people here have money and…class. This will never be allowed.”
“Of course not. But a secret sex club is half the appeal of Psychos, and it’ll be the same here. What the town planning committee and the pearl-clutchers don’t know won’t hurt them. Like I said, on paper, that space back there is nothing more than a function room.” He rolled up the plans, fitting a rubber band around them to keep them from unraveling. He tapped them against his palm and looked past me to the street, a smile pulling across his mouth. “Sign’s here!” he called to the workmen.
He strode to the door, opening it and directing the two men delivering the huge sign to just put it down against the newly constructed wall until Luca’s guys could attach it to the front of the building. The sign was huge, taking both men to carry it and clearly designed to be a statement piece that attracted attention. They edged their way through the narrow doorway, turning once they were inside with more room to play with.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I swore beneath my breath. “You cannot call a restaurant that.”
But it was clear Luca already had.
Sinners.
He was naming the restaurant after my old gang. That name was associated with everything I just wanted to forget. The life I’d had. The person I’d been. The Slayers were never going to stand for this. After I’d walked away, the Sinners had sunk back into the shadows, while the Slayers had gone on their merry way, running their bar and sex club, and racking up big profits doing it, if Luca was to be believed .
But I had no doubt they were still there. Working for Luca. Waiting for their moment.
Luca was going to reignite a gang war with one simple little word.
Though to his credit, one thing did stand out in my head.
It was a great fucking name for a sex club.