Wyatt’s expression darkened. “Nobody buys me.”
“Then what are you doing with him?” I asked, anger flaring.
“He’s useful.”
“To you, he’s useful. To me, he’s a controlling monster that needs to be destroyed.”
“We don’t think so differently, you know.”
“If you brought me here to gloat about my father, I’m leaving. I have more important things to do.” I turned to go, fuming.
“Louisa, wait.” He stepped toward me. “He’s useful because I can play him.”
That made me pause. “Play him?”
“He thinks I’m his. Because of that, I can get information from him about his people.”
“You mean, you’ll spy?”
“Something like that.”
I cocked my head at him. “That’s not very loyal of you.”
“I have no loyalty to your father. He gave me money, and I gave him favors. He and I are even.”
I nodded, pursing my lips. I understood that he was saying, but it worried me. I needed to be able to trust him, but it would be difficult knowing that he was willing to do something like turn on his ally so easily. I wanted to work with Wyatt, hell, I wanted Wyatt in a lot of different ways. But I needed to trust him above anything else.
“Why do you want to work with me?” I asked him.
“Because I see something in you.”
“What?”
“Desire.” He stepped closer to me. “You want the same things I want.”
“Yet I’m a spoiled mafia princess.”
He smirked. “That’s right. You are. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“You seem to think so.”
“I can pass off as a rich snob,” he said. “The wealthy, they tolerate me, but they know what I really am. Every time I talk they see my hard past, my hard mentality. But you, you were born to be around these people.”
“I don’t see how that’s important.”
“You want to run this city? They run this city. We’ll need them.”
I nodded slowly. “What are you going to do about my father?”
“I’m going to talk to the police chief. I’m going to tell him to keep up the good work, and then I’m going to tell your father that I tried.”
“Good.”
He came closer and pulled me against him. “Were you worried?”
“About what?”
“That I was betraying you.”
“Yes,” I said.
“You don’t have to be worried about that.”
“Yes, I do,” I said.
He smirked and pushed my hair out of my face. His thumb traced a line down my lips. “So closed off. So many barriers.”
“You need barriers to do what I do.”
“Maybe. But I want to strip them away.”
“You want to strip away something else.”
He smiled. “True.”
His kiss felt like it did the first time: intense and passionate. I gave myself to him again, letting his tongue enter my mouth as I kissed him back, our bodies pressed together. I was dripping wet and excited beyond description as I stood in that room.
We were really doing this partnership. He was going to help me defeat my father, and then we were going to rule the city together.
“Wyatt.”
We broke out kiss off and Wyatt looked annoyed. Ethan stood in the entrance to the room.
“What?” he asked.
“We need to speak.”
He frowned then released me. “I’ll be back,” he said, stepping away.
I watched the two men disappear out the front door and couldn’t help but lean back against the wall.
All of this was insane. I was trusting so much to this man and bringing him into my business, and yet I truly barely knew him.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself, and didn’t want to. This was happening, like a wave rising and falling against the sand, sweeping everything out of its way.
13
Wyatt
I hated being pulled away from Louisa. I was hard as fuck and my blood was ringing to take her, but I knew that Ethan would only ever go against my orders and enter that house if it were important.
Still, I wanted to crush the little bug under my boot and go back to Louisa.
“It’s Myers,” Ethan said once we were out front.
“What about him?”
“He’s making trouble. He made some threats, apparently approached some other lawyers in the area.”
“Which ones?”
“Riley. Johnson. Gray.”
I shook my head. “That dumb bastard. They came right to you with this?”
“Gray did. The others spoke through him.”
I nodded. This was a problem, though I couldn’t say that I hadn’t expected it.