Lucius (Acquisition Series #4) - Celia Aaron Page 0,13

how could I have come near a woman like that and not fucked her? It doesn’t make sense.”

“That’s … that’s the question you’re left with?” He slides his palms down his cheeks.

I shrug.

“The more important question is, if all three of us suspect we’ve seen her before, is that a good sign? I don’t think so.” He pulls at my collar.

“No free peeks.” I smack his hand away.

“Just let me look at the bruise, you big baby.”

“This is stupid.” I groan and place my laptop on the couch beside me and strip out of my dress shirt.

“Holy shit.” He crosses his arms as he comes around to get a better look. The bruise is almost black with a yellow halo around the edges. Ugly, and about the size of a saucer, it’s going to take a while for it to fade.

“Like it?” I ask.

“She could’ve stopped your heart. You know that? Could’ve thrown off the rhythm with the impact, and you’d be dead without the bullet ever breaking your skin.”

I grimace. “That would’ve been anticlimactic.”

“It’s not a joke, Lucius.”

I meet his gaze. He’s still young. Has a good heart. Nothing like Sin and me. I want him to stay that way. “Look, you know how many people I’ve … dealt with in the past. This is nothing new.”

“I know.” He gives me a stern nod. “Of course I know. But this is different. You let her get close. Close enough to almost end your life. That’s never happened before. You underestimated her, and it almost got you killed.”

“It wasn’t underestimation. It was more of a—I don’t know—”

“I saw the way you were looking at her.” He sighs.

I smirk. No point denying it. I want a taste, even if it’s poisonous as fuck.

“You’re a lost cause.” His tone is almost sad, and I definitely detect disappointment in his puppy dog eyes. “I’ll get some ice for the bruise. You may even have a sternum fracture. Hard to say without imaging.” He strides to the kitchen.

I’m just glad he didn’t spit out some bullshit about me going in for a—

“You know, it wouldn’t hurt for you to get seen by …”

I ignore the rest of what he says and pull my laptop back to me. Another email has popped up. I delight in receiving information, and even more so now that I have such an interesting target. One with a body I wanted to bend over that boardroom table, not giving a shit about the consequences. Evelyn’s good looking, no two ways about it, but more than that, she’s got some fucking steel in her spine. Some fight. And fuck, my cock twitches to life just thinking about the way she felt in my arms. Pulse racing, her lips parted, fear and anger in her eyes, like she wanted to run but also stab me through the heart at the same time.

Teddy wraps the ice pack around my chest as I keep reading. Before I know it, it’s afternoon, and I’m not much closer to finding out Evelyn’s true identity. I’ve learned quite a bit, though. Where she lives, her habits, her recent past, and a few interesting tidbits about what she’s done with the companies she’s strong-armed.

Her schtick wasn’t just a schtick. She might not be the real Evelyn Delacroix with an MBA, but she knows what she’s doing. She doesn’t break up companies and sell them off like a lot of bloodthirsty capitalists do. Her numbers add up, and she’s pulled two companies from the brink of extinction.

“Teddy, I need another bottle.” I hold up the empty whiskey, then look around. “Teddy?” Shit, he must be back at the hospital. The little prick is saving lives when he should be here refilling my glass.

My phone pings, and I check the message. More information, none of it particularly vital.

Private number: Evelyn Delacroix is a ghost. I’ve tracked her back to her first position working for a hedge fund in New York. She climbs the ranks, bounces around from bank to bank, then goes out on her own. She pulled the capital from an account in the Caymans to start her business, but that’s as far as I could go.

An account in the fucking Caymans? Is she a drug kingpin? If so, I’m down. But something tells me that’s not the case. There’d be no reason for her to come after me. I trade in sugar, not the other white stuff. Not to say I haven’t done a ton of dirt in