And then there was the real reason her devastated expression bothered me.
I cared about her.
I’d tried not to. I’d kept my distance from her. Hell, I’d literally placed a wall between us so our interactions would be limited to minimal contact only. But it hadn’t helped. All it had done was make me long for her. To crave her company.
Which I couldn’t have.
I’d worked with Kelly for over five months now, and early on I’d observed everything she’d done. She’d been an excellent server, and even though she remained unaware of this, she’d become my right arm man—or woman, as the case may be—in this branch of my family’s business.
She was so effective at the laundering techniques we used that I’d been able to leave her to her own devices for the most part, to let her do her job largely sight unseen.
But now, we had a problem. Her brother had stuck his nose in that business. I’d probably have to deal with the ramifications of that in the near future, but for the moment, the person I most needed to deal with was Kelly.
Once we entered my office, I sat her down in my office chair and knelt before her. She appeared shell-shocked, like someone who’d been thrown out of her orbit. It brought up so many feelings inside me. Concern for her. Regret that she was suffering. Fury on her behalf toward her brother.
“Can I get you something?” I asked her, but she didn’t seem to hear me.
The restaurant had officially closed to customers by then, and I left her for long enough to see to the rest of the staff’s departures. Then, I retrieved some drinks from the kitchen, one an ice water, and the other something much stronger. I shut the office door behind me. She appeared to need both the drink and the quiet.
She sipped at the shot of Jack Daniels whiskey I’d brought, wrinkling her nose and making a face when she did, but continuing to drink it just the same.
Good girl.
After she’d consumed about three quarters of it, she turned her eyes to me, her features shadowed and bleak. It made my chest hurt to look at her.
“I’m so stupid,” she whispered, and while I didn’t agree, I waited to see where she might go with this. “I thought I could hide what I’ve been doing from David, but I should’ve known better. I should’ve known something would happen and he’d find out.”
“Find out what?” I asked, carefully.
“That Ian’s gone and you’re here. That I’ve received a promotion and am making more money. He’s probably going to call my parents and start rooting around for answers.”
“Why would he care about how much you’re making?” I felt incensed. What was he doing? Taking her pay for himself? Why the hell would he do that?
“I don’t think it’ll be the money itself that he cares about as much as the idea of where it’s coming from,” she said miserably, but I was confused. That money was coming from her job, a job she believed to be absolutely legitimate. And on paper, it was.
“What do you mean, Kelly?”
She inhaled deeply, an action that made her chest rise and fall. I did my best not to notice. I still desired her and allowing myself to take in such a detail would drive me insane. It didn’t help when she rubbed at the place below the dip in her collarbone, drawing my attention to the movement of her hand.
Like always, her attire covered this area completely, she’d worn a turtleneck sweater that displayed no cleavage or bare skin of any kind. But it didn’t seem to matter to my lusty brain. Since I’d already touched the velvety soft skin of her back and, even more enticingly, one of her breasts—albeit briefly over her clothing—such a memory had proven impossible to forget.
“David thinks you’re…” She struggled to get the words out. “He thinks you’re a part of the Italian mafia. That you and your family are criminals.” Then, the tears that’d been shimmering in her eyes fell, streaking across her fair complexion. “I know it’s not true, and I’m sorry.”
Her words felt like daggers to my heart. She’d assumed the best about me rather than the worst, even though the worst happened to be the truth. I deliberated on whether or not I should divulge that truth now.
Kelly was smart as a whip, but also sweet and naïve. Somehow the darkness and cruelty of the world had left her unsullied. Or maybe she simply repelled it like light does darkness.
She maintained this blameless quality about her. One I was relatively certain I’d never had, not even as a child. It made me want to place an impenetrable bubble around her to keep her safe and uncorrupted. Before meeting her, I would’ve thought such true spotlessness didn’t really exist.
But it did. She did.
And it drew me to her like a magnet. Even though it shouldn’t.
“I never intended to cause problems between you and your brother,” I began, my mind spinning with various different scenarios I could give her to explain this away.
As much as I’d like to be honest with her, I didn’t feel that I could. If I shared the truth with her, she’d likely leave and not return, considering me to be some awful villain. Which, to be fair, I pretty much was. But the idea of her hating me, of her thinking of me like that, made me cringe. I didn’t want her to hate me, even if it would eventually become inevitable.
Then, there was the issue that always came up for our family, the one of loyalty and trust. All long-term love interests had to go through this process of proving themselves as devoted to us, even if they weren’t devoted to our cause.