“So you took care of it?”
“Fucking Ciara?”
I stood silently staring at him, not in the mood for brotherly ass busting. “The article.”
“All taken care of, Cash. Club X is safe again.”
“Good.”
Stretching his arms above his head, Kane laced his fingers together and cracked his knuckles. “And I took care of Jake Richfield too, but that was more for fun than anything else. Men who hit women are fucking scumbags. They need to be taught a lesson.”
“Good.”
“What about Shank? What does he have to say about all of this?”
“He’s coming by later, so we’ll have to see.”
He waited for me to speak again, but I simply nodded and turned to leave. As much as I wanted to know what, if anything, Olivia had said to him, I couldn’t bring myself to ask.
“Do you still have an assistant? I didn’t see her when I got back.”
“I don’t know.”
“You should have known she wouldn’t do that to you or us, Cash. Not all women are like Rachel. For what it’s worth, I like Olivia. She’s genuine. That can’t be said about many people anymore.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe it’s time to let go of the past.”
I looked at him, surprised at his words. “You’re going to tell me to let go of the past?”
“This isn’t about me, Cash. I fight to escape my past every day. It seems like you’re happy to be stuck there.”
“Thanks, Kane. I’ll see you later.”
“My pleasure. Advice is always free.”
John Sheridan strolled into my office about an hour later with a look on his ugly face that told me he thought our recent misstep with Ciara Danson gave him the upper hand. Taking a seat in front of my desk, he leaned back and shook his head. “Fucking female reporter. You know she’s got a record? Petty theft or some kind of bullshit like that.”
“Give me a minute, John. I want my brothers here for this.” I picked up the phone and told Kane to come down to my office. Stefan’s phone just rang until his damn voicemail picked up, as usual. He was probably in his office fucking some girl.
“No problem. Better if we’re all on the same page anyway.”
Kane showed up quickly but had no idea where Stefan was. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he had any real part in anything that involved Shank anyway. Taking a seat next to the cop, Kane looked across my desk at me and gave me a knowing smile. We’d been through enough of these meetings that he sensed my distaste for them and Shank.
“Stefan is out at the moment, John, so let’s get started. Can we still count on your help with the police?” I asked, figuring it was best to take the bull by the horns. If he wanted more money or some other perk, we might as well get it all out on the table now.
“That reporter bitch could have made things difficult for me, Cassian. Thank God it disappeared so quickly.”
I smiled at my half-brother, agreeing for once with Shank. “That was Kane’s handiwork, thankfully.”
Shank turned his head and looked at Kane. Chuckling, he said, “Well, thank Kane then. You work fast, son.”
“I know my job.”
“So how are things looking on your end, John? Can we still count on you?”
Shank twisted his hideous face into an expression that made it seem like he was thinking for a moment about what I asked. I had a feeling he might want an increase in the twenty thousand we gave him every month, but he’d stick to our agreement.
“I think I can see my way to making sure my fellow cops don’t have this place on their radar, but you need to make sure things like that article don’t happen. I think it’s going to be slightly more to make sure things stay cool, though.”
I shot Kane a glance and then turned my attention back to Shank. “How much?”
“Another five grand will do it, I think.”
Five thousand more wasn’t exactly good news, but we needed Shank’s protection, and until we found some other means of keeping the police off our backs, whatever he wanted would be what he got.
“Fine. Five thousand it is.”
Shank got up to leave and clapped Kane on the shoulder. “Good to see you two again, and Cassian, thank you for giving my little girl a job. She tells me she loves it already.”
“She does?” I shot a look at Kane to see if he’d met Shank’s daughter yet and he shook his head. I hadn’t met her, so how could she be working for us already?
“Oh yeah. She tells me Stefan is taken good care of her.”
The idea of Stefan’s brand of taking care of someone sent a chill down my spine. Fucking around with Shank’s daughter was the last thing I needed him to do. Plastering a smile on my face, I nodded and prayed that my brother wasn’t doing anything that would cost us more money or worse, our lives.
“Good to hear it. Until next month, John.”
“Until next month.”
I waited until he left the building and turned to Kane. “I didn’t hire his daughter. Did you check her out?”
Kane shook his head. “No. I would have noticed someone with the last name Sheridan.”
“Fucking Stefan! We need to find him now.”
Kane took out his cell phone and called him, but like his office phone, there was no answer on his cell either. Only God knew where he was or what he was up to.
“I don’t know, Cash. If he’s fucking around with Shank’s daughter, we’re going to have bigger problems than some minor league reporter.”
“Have you seen anyone new behind the bar?”
“No, but then again, I haven’t been paying attention. Have you?”
Rubbing my temples to ease the headache already making my eyes hurt, I admitted, “No. I’ve been a bit preoccupied.”
Kane smiled at my allusion to Olivia. “Making any progress? Has she at least agreed to come back to work?”
“Yeah, she’ll be back on Monday.”
“Just as your assistant?”
Nodding, I tried to make it seem like that was good enough. “Yeah. I think it’ll be fine.”
He said nothing, but I saw in his eyes that he knew having her back in my life as my assistant would never be enough for me. With all that I had to handle with Stefan and Shank and everything in the club, I never needed what Olivia offered more. I just had to hope someday soon she’d take me back.
* * *
I entered Olivia’s office and found her busy at work on her laptop like she’d been every day since she returned to her position as my assistant a week before. Each day I watched her arrive at eleven and thought about finally talking about what happened between us—not the Ciara Danson bullshit but how I’d stupidly jumped to the wrong conclusion and shut her out like only I could. But I hadn’t said a thing about it, instead letting each day pass with not a word between us other than work talk.