And—
I gulped.
It had come from my business landline at the office.
I had not made that fucking call.
Which meant…
Someone who had access to my office had.
The call had come in during the day. Okay, easy enough. Where had I been that day? I traveled frequently, so there was a good chance I hadn’t even been in New York, in which case I could easily prove I hadn’t made the call.
I wrote a quick email to Terrence for him to check my whereabouts on the date and then rattled off another email to my siblings about the findings.
We hadn’t had any idea our father was about to be murdered. If we had? I don’t know what we would have done, but we hadn’t known, so the question wasn’t of any consequence.
Unfortunately, I still needed the rest of Nieves’s story. I’d asked Rock to contact her, as he knew her better than I did, but I hadn’t heard yet if he’d been successful. She was no doubt tending to her sister at the moment.
Who next?
Rock’s biker friends, Hoss and Manny, came to my mind. Rock had sworn they were good guys, but I wasn’t buying. They both skated between the lines of good ethics, especially Hoss. We’d already established that. I had a hunch they were involved in this mess more than we knew.
Then of course, there was Father Jim.
Disgusting and psychopathic Father Jim.
Obviously, he couldn’t be ruled out. Derek Wolfe had no doubt taken care of him over the years, but was the priest in a position to order a hit?
A hit cost money.
A lot of money.
Even more money to make sure several parties could be implicated, which had happened.
Father Jim might have had my father’s contacts, but would he have had the required money?
I didn’t know.
We’d already checked his financials. He made a modest income as the priest of St. Andrew’s, but we knew better than to take that at face value. He probably had money hidden somewhere. Our PIs were looking into it.
Did Father Jim even have a motive? Dad had taken care of him all those years. Why would he want to off his meal ticket? And his ticket to both of their repulsive appetites? Surely Jim couldn’t continue the “hunt” on his own.
Nausea crept up my throat.
How had we all been so blind to what our father was truly capable of?
Rock and Riley hadn’t been blind.
Molesting our sister was horrible enough. None of us had foreseen what he was ultimately capable of.
Zee.
Sweet and beautiful Zee.
One of my father’s many victims, and the only one—that we knew of—who had lived to tell the tale.
The tale we needed her to tell.
I’d said I wouldn’t push her, and I meant it. Oddly, my siblings, especially Riley, didn’t want me to push her either. I’d planned to seduce her and get what I wanted.
But those plans had gone to hell when I realized that…
I sighed.
That I liked her. I cared for her. I didn’t want to do anything to make her uncomfortable. My father had already done enough to her for ten lifetimes.
I wasn’t used to feeling this way. I loved women. Loved seducing women. Bedding women. But I’d never been in love. Women had always been playthings for me, and most of them were okay with that. I wined and dined them, and all was good.
Until Zee.
Zee, who refused my gift of expensive shoes.
Most women—at least the women in my circles—wouldn’t have.
Zee was clearly not most women.
And I liked that.
I liked that a lot.
I yawned as I shut down my computer. I didn’t need a lot of sleep, but it was time to call it a day. I had a meeting at eight with the contractor, and then I had brunch with Zee two hours later.
I brushed my teeth, undressed, and slid between the satin sheets of my king-sized bed.
Wishing a certain showgirl were snuggled up next to me.
19
Zee
My stylist wasn’t answering. I shoved my phone back into my purse as the limo navigated the streets of Las Vegas, delivering me to my brunch with Reid.
I’d slept well, which surprised me. No nightmares. No tossing and turning. And even though my alarm went off earlier than usual, I awoke with energy and a smile on my face.
Very unlike me.
I wasn’t complaining. Reid Wolfe had kissed me last night. A sweet kiss. A kiss that said, “I won’t push you.”
I’d searched the internet a few times in the last couple days. Reid had no shortage of beautiful women at his disposal, most of whom probably jumped right into bed with him.
In truth, part of me wanted to do just that.
He was gorgeous, but I’d met many gorgeous men who wanted me. As a showgirl, I was pursued often. I always said no.
Reid was a billionaire.
Pretty cool, but if anything, that was a turn-off for me. I had nothing against money—I wished I had a lot more of it—but money couldn’t change what had happened to me at his father’s hand.
No, his looks and money weren’t why I was interested.
I was interested because he was kind to me. I knew he wanted something from me, but he wasn’t pushing me. Of course, he could be playing an elaborate game. I was far from naïve, mostly thanks to his father.
The limo dropped me off, and I hopped out, navigating my way into the lobby and then through the casino of the grand hotel to get to the restaurant for brunch. Reid stood, dressed casually and looking yummy in dark blue jeans and a white button-down, waiting for me. His blue eyes brightened when he met my gaze.
“Morning,” he said.
“Good morning.”
He grabbed my hand—tingles shot through me—and led me into the restaurant.
“Mr. Wolfe,” the hostess said, “your table’s all ready.”
Once we were situated and our server had taken our drink orders, Reid smiled.
“How are you today, Zee?”
“Good, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yeah. I was hoping to get in with my
