The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy #1) - Tijan Page 0,74

stories on Matt compared to those on others was disproportionately in his favor. Almost a landslide.

His answering growl confirmed my question. “I hope not. She’s a pain in the ass.”

I was starting to enjoy this. “You guys ever sleep together? Because she reports on you a lot—like a lot a lot.”

Silence. Again.

My eyes widened. “Are you for real? You did Camille Story?”

He was moving in his seat, adjusting and rolling his shoulders back. “What? She’s hot. And I was wasted.”

“She never reported on that.”

Screw enjoying. I was loving this.

I asked, “Did you reject her? Is she one of the girls that she says you bang for a night and then toss ’em out like garbage?”

“No.” A beat. “Maybe. I don’t know. She took pictures of my dick. She was going to post them on her site, but Kash found out and slapped her with a lawsuit that would’ve bankrupted her four times over.”

“Kash does stuff like that?”

“Kash takes care of us. Either physically or with this shit. He scared the crap out of her. She backed down, signed a contract that she had to destroy all of those pictures—and he got her first site shut down because of it.”

“Oh, whoa.” I remembered when she disappeared for a month.

“We have to watch out for her if she’s there. She’s scared of Kash, though. He’s the reason she posts only half the crap she wants to. She can’t afford to run across him again.”

Really.

What more could I find out about this guy who was crawling into my bed?

I couldn’t stop myself. The need to know was too high. “Who is Kash to your family?”

Matt glanced at me.

“I mean, what exactly does he do? How’d he grow up with you guys?”

“He hasn’t told you?”

I shook my head, slowly.

Matt’s eyelids shuttered closed for a second before lifting to continue watching the road. He spoke tightly. “I think you should wait for that conversation with him.”

Damn it.

“But Bailey.”

“Yeah?”

His tone softened considerably. “Kash takes care of us, and that’s not because he’s paid. He took that role on himself, and even I don’t know the reasons. I’m just saying, he’s complicated. If he tells you everything, then you’ll know more than any of us.”

“You don’t even know?”

“I know some. I know…” He bobbed his head to the side. “I know what I’m allowed to know, I guess I should clarify. Kash is … like I said—”

I finished for him. “Complicated.”

“Yeah.” His hand tightened on the steering wheel, and then we were slowing down. The turn signal was put on and we were going down another road. This one wasn’t as empty as the others had been. Cars were lined up along the side of the road, and the farther we traveled, the more compact they were becoming. They weren’t normal cars, either. They were rich ones. Bentleys. Navigators. More than a few brand-new Audis. A couple Rolls-Royces. Range Rovers. Porsches. A Bugatti, even.

“Who plays in this tournament?”

Matt spared me a grin, slowing the car again, as the rest of the traffic had backed up to where we were. We weren’t moving, so he sat back, his wrist resting on the steering wheel, and he went to switching on some music.

A knock came on the window.

It was one of Matt’s usual security.

“The manager said we can pull around and come in through the back entrance, but the loft isn’t available. Your father gave specific permission to the party occupying it to have it for the whole day. She’s tried to get in touch with your dad, but he’s unavailable right now.”

Matt swore. “What about Kash? He can override those orders sometimes.”

“We’ve been, uh”—his eyes darted to me, then back—“trying to get in touch with him ourselves, about another matter. His phone was turned off.”

Turned off. That’s not a big deal.

Right?

But there came those nerves again. It wasn’t a common event for me, but I had reached out to him a few times over the last few weeks. A simple text, and every time, Kash had replied right away. Sometimes he could call.

He’d never had his phone off.

“Shit.” Matt leaned back, scowling. “There’s no point in coming if—”

The guard’s phone went off and he showed us the screen. “It’s the manager. Hold one moment.” He answered it, moving away. We didn’t wait long before he came back. “She said the party left on their own. They’ve moved to another location. We’re cleared to go in.”

We couldn’t move, but within ten minutes a caravan of vehicles was leaving the