years taking a toll on the small brick building. The inside looked exactly the same. Hell, even the red velvet curtain looked as if it were the same one from fourteen years ago. The memory of what he had done behind that curtain soured his stomach, even as his dick started to harden.
He didn’t get far before he was stopped by the thugs, which he expected. What he didn’t expect was to see his old pal Jimmy. He wasn’t the kid he had been. Lots of years of hard living had turned the young-faced kid into an overweight and tired-looking man.
Like Lucien, recognition flashed in those bloodshot eyes.
“Lucien Black. Well, fuck me.”
“Jimmy you’re looking . . . older.”
“I look like shit, but not you. Living the life, aren’t you?”
Lucien wasn’t interested in walking down memory lane, so he said abruptly, “I want to see Santucci.”
Jimmy’s smile showed his yellowed teeth, of which he had fewer than he’d had as a kid. “Santucci’s busy.”
Lucien leaned closer, his voice deceptively soft. “I’m not asking. Unlike you and your boss, I jumped into the deep end of the pool and lived to tell about it. We both know what that means, so stop wasting my time.”
The cocky grin faded from Jimmy’s face, because he knew that Lucien had made alliances with men who gave people like Santucci nightmares. Even as a legitimate businessman, Lucien didn’t turn his back on friends, regardless of what side of the law they chose.
“Follow me.”
Santucci looked exactly the same, and like Jimmy, he knew exactly who entered his office. Unlike their past encounter, Santucci stood and came from around his desk to take Lucien’s hand into both of his.
“Nice to see you again. Can I get you something—a cigar, Scotch, a woman?”
“No, just information.”
Santucci waved to his men, and they all filed out of his office as he gestured to a chair. “Please sit.” He returned to his spot behind his desk before he asked, “What do you want to know?”
“The job you offered me—did someone encourage you to offer it to me?”
Confirmation burned in his shrewd eyes. “I wondered if you’d ever figure it out. Same reason I didn’t bail you out from jail. I was told not to.”
Someone had been playing the fucking puppet master with his and Darcy’s lives. Fury burned like a fire in his stomach. “Who was it?”
“You aren’t going to believe me.”
“Who, damn it?”
“Your very own Sister Margaret.”
Lucien didn’t know who was behind the curtain, but he sure as hell wasn’t expecting that answer. “Are you fucking with me?”
“No, she used the argument that my soul was damned, so I should do something good. She didn’t realize the kind of work you would be doing for me and had a change of heart because she didn’t think a life of crime working for me was in your best interest. Anyway, being Catholic, I couldn’t refuse a nun.”
“Son of a bitch.”
Lucien was seething by the time he barged into Sister Margaret’s room, but before he could peel a layer of skin from the old witch’s bones, she brought him up short by saying, “So you spoke with Santucci. I should have expected that.”
“Do you think this is some kind of game? This is my life—Darcy’s life—you’re fucking around with.”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“More like who.”
“Honest to God, Sister, if you answer another one of my questions with a fucking riddle, I am going to send you to hell myself.”
“Keep your skirt on. I watched out for you because I knew you were hurting and people do stupid things when they’re emotional. I was protecting you from you. It’s why I let you sit in juvenile detention for a bit. Now you need to go; I’ve had too many visitors for one day.”
“What?”
“Darcy and that Ember girl were here earlier. I told them a few things and now you know all that I do.”
“Why would you look out for me when you always hated me?” Lucien demanded.
“I didn’t hate you specifically. I just don’t like children.”
“And yet you worked in an orphanage.”
“God calls whom he chooses. Sister Anne was there to offer to you children all that I lacked.”
Her eyes grew serious before she added, “Sister Anne was the finest person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She asked me to look out for you when she was gone. I was merely fulfilling her wishes.”
And once again Lucien felt the burning behind his eyes. For this old bitch of all people. She