Chapter 13
“I can’t even pretend not to be hungry,” Daniela murmured as she stepped into the kitchen.
Cormac turned at the sound of her voice, went hot all over at the sight of her. She was in her robe, her hair down in soft waves, and she had on a little makeup, so it was clear she’d already showered and started getting ready.
He’d woken up hours ago, been unable to sleep, so he’d done calisthenics, showered, checked in with his brothers then started working on breakfast. “I made a cheesy breakfast casserole.”
“I think you might turn me into a morning person.” Her words were only slightly accusatory.
Back when they’d been together, they’d started most mornings naked. She’d sworn she wasn’t a morning person then too. But she’d certainly been up and ready to go back then. He wondered if she remembered all those mornings.
“Sit. I’ll bring you some,” he murmured, trying to shove all those memories down.
She made a beeline for the coffeepot instead so he started plating her food as she poured and doctored her coffee.
“You know, you don’t have to come with me today, despite what my brother said.” She sat at the island with her coffee in hand.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight. And I want to get eyes on the people who work for your brother anyway. Is there anyone I should be aware of other than Brown? Anyone who might be a weak link in your brother’s organization?”
“Ah, yeah, I can think of two people at least. One Greg had talked to—independently of me. I don’t know if anything ever came of it, but he approached a guy named William Young.
He manages a couple clubs for my brother and he might dabble in other stuff, but I don’t know what.
I’m pretty sure Julian moves money through his clubs though. ”
“I recognize the name,” Cormac said as he made his own plate. Micah had noted a financial connection between Julian and Young in his superficial dig into the Hill family. “His places are pretty popular. It looks like he sold them to your brother but manages them still?”
“I don’t think he sold them willingly, but I don’t know for sure.
I heard that he had some gambling debts.
Big ones. And my brother bought them up and forced him to sell to cover said debts.
I haven’t seen a paper trail or anything but it seems to be pretty common knowledge in the family that’s what happened. ”
“And Temple never said anything more about him?”
“No, but like I said, he wasn’t just working on bringing down my family. I think he was working Young to see if he could get him to testify against either my brother or father. Or just to give him intel. And I’m just guessing.”
“Do you know of any cops or judges that Greg was targeting?”
She set her fork down for a moment, eyed him carefully. “I’ve got some names. How does that help?”
“I need to know who hated Greg enough to torture and kill him. We know Lebedev did it, but he’s hired muscle.
Someone else is pulling the strings. And if his boss didn’t order him, someone else did.
I’m not sure I believe that Kir Popov didn’t, but we should be looking at everyone Greg was building a case against. Because Lebedev came after you.
Someone else is still out there that knows about your connection to Temple.
It sounds like Lebedev was on a fishing expedition with you, but he still knew of your connection.
And he was confident enough to shove a bunch of strangers into a freezer in the middle of the day to ambush you.
That’s bold. Whoever ordered him isn’t going to stop until they get what they want from you.
” That wasn’t necessarily true, but Cormac wasn’t going to stop digging until he figured out who’d sent Lebedev after Dani.
She nodded slowly, then took another bite. “Fine. I can give you some of the information I’ve got. Maybe it’ll help us narrow things down.”
Clearly she wouldn’t give him everything.
He hated that she didn’t trust him enough but also understood why.
“Thank you. I have another question,” he said after demolishing most of the casserole on his plate.
“Logan Brown was overheard talking to someone about a warehouse on the water. Or he called it the ‘river warehouse.’ But we can’t find anything in your brother’s property records that matches that description. Do you know what he’s talking about?”
“Who’s we?” She set her fork down again, leaned back in her chair to watch him with those dark, penetrating eyes.
Cormac had already talked to his brothers, had their okay to tell her more about his family, but it was still hard to open up like this.
He didn’t think she would ever knowingly put his siblings in danger—she wasn’t wired like that—but he hated the thought of putting any of his family in the crosshairs. “My brothers.”
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Two.”
She stared at him for a long moment.
“And two sisters,” he added. “Including the one you sort of met.”
She blinked a couple times and went back to her food. Then paused again. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to trust me—because I want to help you escape your life.” And because he’d never stopped loving her.
He’d tried to deny it, but she was an ache in his chest that had never dissipated.
He could never be with her, not long-term, probably never again given the way he’d screwed everything up.
But his feelings still hadn’t disappeared.
He tried to keep that part locked down, could never admit it to her. Because that would drive her away from him fast. She wouldn’t believe him anyway and he couldn’t blame her.
But he could make up for his previous choices. It wouldn’t change the way he’d hurt her, but he wanted her to have the future she deserved. Even if it was without him.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He wasn’t sure what that meant.
“Okay, I believe you.”
He heard the truth in her voice, and the always present pressure in his chest eased a fraction. Before he could respond, she continued.
“My brother owns or at least uses two warehouses I’m not supposed to know about. I looked up the addresses but couldn’t find much information on them. Both owned by the same LLC.”
“How’d you find out about them?”
“Placed an AirTag on Logan’s SUV once.” She looked smug.
Cormac grinned slightly. “Did you ever try to check the buildings out?”
“No,” she said, already shaking her head.
“Julian had ordered him to drop me off one time and he left quickly after a phone call. He was really agitated so I just tucked one under the front passenger seat and then retrieved it later. I wasn’t even sure if the information was worthwhile but…
” She shrugged. “The more I know about my family’s business dealings, the better.
I’ll give you the addresses. Maybe your brothers will be able to figure out who the owner is. ”
“Thank you.” He nodded to her empty plate. “Still hungry?”
To his surprise, heat flashed in her gaze at his question and he realized where her mind had gone.
He definitely understood it because his seemed to be there all the time around her.
Their chemistry had always been intense, and it hadn’t gone away.
He wanted her with a hunger that defied logic, but knew there was nothing he could do about it.
Unless…
She scooted back her chair abruptly and picked up her plate. “I’m good, but thank you.” Her words sounded overly formal, but he let her go when she practically fled the kitchen.
Maybe he was making more progress than he’d realized.