feeling is mutual.” I don’t step but a few feet into his overly large office, and I never take my eyes off of him.
“Why exactly are you barging in here like the damn police?”
“I hear that may have happened a time or two recently.” I can’t help the small smile that tugs up the corners of my mouth with knowing the man is in trouble. He’s always been too flashy to avoid detection for long.
“Get to the fucking point, Black. I’m sure security is already on the way up to forcibly remove you from my property.”
“And how much longer will you own the property?” I take a few steps closer and find joy in the way he slinks back.
I’m not the scrawny guy I was nearly two decades ago when I came here for the first and only time.
“Deacon,” he growls, but there’s more fear in his voice than anything else. “I didn’t think the feds were hiring lowly security businesses as muscle these days.”
I’m not surprised he’s kept tabs on me over the years. I knew deep down he always saw me as a threat to his empire, or at least to the one and only heir he managed to have, but hearing it from his own mouth makes me damn near fucking giddy.
“Tell me about the Russians.”
Clear confusion draws his brows in and before he can even open his mouth, I already know coming here will be fruitless.
“I don’t have any business with the Russians.”
I turn to leave, no longer interested in wasting my time with the idiot.
“Wait!” he screeches. “What’s going on?”
“Does the name Nikolay Petrovich ring any bells?”
“No. Who is he?”
Dani has always been one to keep secrets, especially when she thought her trust fund was going to be compromised.
“Dani is missing. I’m pretty certain a Russian Syndicate has her.”
He falls back into his office chair as if he’s been shot in the chest.
“You’ll find her,” he demands. “I’ll do anything.”
“That might actually mean something if I thought you had the ability to pay for my services.”
I turn to leave once again.
“Deacon, please!”
I don’t turn back around. I don’t tell him that no matter how big of a piece a shit he is or how broken his daughter left me that I’m already on the case. Let the bastard stew in his own shit for a little while.
“Let’s go,” I grunt as I walk past Flynn.
Chapter 10
Anna
Deacon glares at the delivery guy leaving the suite when he finally decides to show back up. He’s been gone half the damn day, and I don’t even want to think about the fear that tried to settle back in when I woke up and he was already gone.
“What the fuck is going on here?” His eyes scan the numerous packages spread around the living room of the suite. “Did you buy out the damn mall? I fucking told you to stay here.”
“Nieman’s delivers,” I tell him with an eye roll and ignore his irrational anger. “Are you hungry? I had the kitchen stocked as well.”
His eyes continue to dart all over the room, and I inwardly smile when I see them pause on the lingerie piled up on the coffee table. From my experience, every man is a sucker for satin and lace.
“I put it on your tab,” I tell him just to amp things up a bit, a little retaliation for leaving me alone here all day.
“I’m not paying for all of this shit.” His voice is much calmer than I’d like.
“It’s not shit,” I snap. “That’s the entire Agent Provocateur spring line.”
“It looks like a waste of a thousand dollars.”
I snort a laugh. “If only it were that inexpensive. It’s the softest satin you’ll ever touch. Go ahead. Pick a piece up and feel.”
His eyes dart from me back to the lingerie, and even though I know he’d never do it, I love that he has to think about it for a second before he spins around and heads to the kitchen.
“You’re paying me back,” he yells from the kitchen amongst the snapping and opening of several cabinets. “You have enough food in here to last a month. I doubt you’ll be here that long.”
Just the threat of being stuck here for that long makes my body seize up. I fly off the couch and rush to stand in the doorway. Deacon is bent at the middle, looking in the refrigerator, and God, the things those jeans do to his ass.
I snap out of that thought when