“You can’t seriously just walk in here, threaten me, and walk out. We need to talk.”
“We don’t need to do shit. I have nothing else to say to you.” She jerks her arm free. “Don’t ever touch me without my permission again. The last guy who did that, well, let’s just say he can tell you what happened when you meet him in hell.”
I watch her walk out of my office, her head held high, the picture-perfect mafia princess that she is. I contemplate letting her go, but fuck that. She started this, and I’m not done. I catch up with her just as the doors to the elevator start to close. I slide between them.
Jazzy glares at me. We’re alone in the elevator. “There are cameras in here,” I warn her. “You know, if you did change your mind and decided to shoot me, you’ll want to have that footage erased.”
Instead of biting back, Jazzy turns her head and stabs a finger at the button for the garage when she realizes we aren’t actually moving.
“How’d you get up here?” I ask, just now realizing she wasn’t buzzed up.
With a sinister smile, she turns to face me again. “You’re an idiot. That’s how.”
“We’ve always known I was an idiot, but how did you get up here?”
“You haven’t changed the passcode you used when we were kids.” Her left shoulder lifts up and then drops. “Like I said, you’re an idiot.”
“Or maybe I left that code in the system on purpose, because I knew that you knew it. And if you ever wanted to, I don’t know, come and kill me or something, you could.” It’s the truth.Not the killing me part.But the security system has undergone multiple upgrades over the years, and I always make sure that, that passcode is still active.
“I’m going with the fact you’re an idiot,” she says.
My hand presses against the red emergency stop button on the wall. The cable car jolts, and I reach out and take hold of Jazzy, steadying her as I step closer and press her back against the wall.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
I tilt my head to the side as I stare down at her. “Testing a theory,” I say before I lower my mouth to hers.
Jazzy gasps, her lips parting, and I take full advantage, pushing my tongue past them. For a blissful three seconds, I feel like I’ve come home. That is until I also feel teeth bite down, and the coppery taste of blood fills my mouth.
“What the fuck? Did you just bite my tongue?” I pull away from her.
Jasmine reaches around me and disengages the stop button. The elevator resumes its descent. “Try that again and I’ll make sure I bite it all the way off,” she hisses at me.
Her cheeks are flushed. Her chest heaving and her eyes glassed over. She can deny it all she likes, but I know she felt it too. That spark we’ve always had, the same one we both ignored until prom night. It’s still there.
My mouth opens to tell her as much when the doors open to the garage and she steps out. I follow, my eyes bouncing around the space.
“Fuck,” I curse under my breath when I spot him. “Don’t say a fucking word,” I tell Jazzy, keeping my voice low.
She looks from me to Simon Carnegie, one of my father’s old associates and I guess now one of mine.
“Simon, I didn’t know you were stopping in today.” I give him an easy smile, one I’ve got well practiced.
“Jacob.” He nods at me and then turns his attention to Jasmine. I want to rip his eyes out of his damn head. “Miss Bianchi, I must say I am surprised to see you here.”
“Miss Bianchi is assisting Westmead on an acquisition. I heard she was in town and, well, only a fool wouldn’t take advantage of one of the country’s best analysts,” I tell him.
Jazzy looks up at me. Her lips form a tight line. “You should remember I’mthebest, Mr. Westmead, when I send you my retainer,” she says. “Gentleman.” She nods at us and continues on her way to her car. Turning just as she reaches it. “Oh, and, Mr. Westmead, if the proposal you’re offering isn’t in my inbox by end of business today, find someone else. I don’t work with slackers.” She smirks at me and then climbs in on the driver’s side.
I don’t think I breathe until I watch her car pull out of the garage.
Turning to Simon, I keep my face neutral. “What can I do for you?” I ask.
He’s only here because he wants something. Not him,them.The Court. The first time I learned about their existence, and my family’s involvement in the secret society, I was sixteen. The night they helped my father hide the mess I got myself into. The night of prom.
The Court is made up of six families, all old money and prominent around the country. There’s us, the Westmeads, the Carnegies, the Van Barons, the Wickenshems, the Ambinis, and Bradley’s family, the Levines.
Seeing Simon is like having a bucket of cold water dumped on top of me. The Court is the exact reason I left Jazzy that night. It’s the reason I still need to keep my distance from her. I can’t bring her into the shit that the society is involved in. Especially with who her family is. The two worlds, although they coexist within the city, do not and would not ever combine well.