Tales of Darkness & Sin - Pepper Winters Page 0,66
help me. And I know you want to help me.” I stroke my fingers in circles at her hips. “Understand?”
“Yes,” she rasps out.
“Does your father ever go out of town?”
She nods, eager to answer. “Yes.”
I reward her by pulling her to my bare chest. She burrows against me, seeking my warmth. “Did he ever take you?”
“Sometimes.”
I rub my palm up and down her spine. “Where would you go?”
“Paris. London. Milan.” She shivers. “He went to New York a lot, but I wasn’t allowed to travel there.”
“What did he do in those cities you went to?”
“He went to meetings, but I had to stay in the suite.”
“Do you know what kind of business he did in New York?”
“No.”
“Do you want a blanket?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Then you need to think long and hard about anything that could be useful to me.”
She pulls away to study my face up close. A few freckles I hadn’t really noticed before dot her nose and cheeks. Her green eyes are rimmed in a darker green that makes them seem more intense when she bores her stare into you.
“I’ll try,” she assures me, though doubt shimmers in her gaze.
“I need more than a lousy attempt, little girl. I need answers.”
She squints her eyes as she thinks. “I know he sees a guy named Monroe in New York. Travis Monroe.”
“Stand up,” I bark out.
Her eyes well with tears. “I-I-I can f-figure this out. J-Just give m-me a s-second.”
“I said stand up.”
“Okay,” she chokes out, scrambling to her feet. A tear skates down her cheek, clinging to her jaw.
“Get into the bed.”
She swallows and nods. I shamelessly stare at her ass as she crawls onto my bed. Her eyes meet mine over her shoulder, questioning what to do next.
“Get under the covers. I’m going to look into this Travis Monroe. When I come back, I expect you to have thought about every trip and every overheard conversation. I’m looking for that sonofabitch, and you will help me if you enjoy feeling warm.”
I rise from the chair, motioning for her to get beneath the covers. She moans as she draws the blankets up to her chin, her teary green eyes searing into me. I make my way over to the dresser, lingering, so she can see that I’ve left my gun out. It’s a test. With one sharp look, I make sure she knows it’ll end badly for her if she fails this test.
“Are you hungry?”
She shakes her head. “Bo, um, fed me before…”
Before he tried to stick his dick inside her.
“I want answers by the time I get back.”
Rather than waiting for a reply, I storm down the hall and down the stairs. Once in my office, I flip open my MacBook and start scouring through the data I’ve collected on Westwood.
Nothing on Monroe.
But, I do find a lot of travel receipts to New York. He always stays at the same hotel. The M House. If I had to guess, it’s owned by this Monroe guy. Now I need to figure out how and why Westwood slipped out, undetected and what his business is with Monroe.
I spend hours digging. While in New York, I’ve learned he spends a lot of money at a casino called Heist. Millions. All at this casino. From an outsider’s standpoint, it would appear to be that he’s gambling it away.
I’m not blind, though.
He’s using this casino as a way to funnel money away from his umbrella of assets. Westwood goes there at least monthly and drops a million or two each time. Because he’s loaded, it doesn’t seem that noticeable, but when you’re looking for it, it’s obvious as fuck. I want to keep digging but hours have passed, and my eyes are bleary.
Tomorrow, I’ll continue to dig.
I turn off the lights and head back upstairs. Slowly, I creep into my bedroom, unsure what to expect. A girl holding a gun or trying to escape or even passed the fuck out.
Instead, I find Melody sitting up, the blankets tucked under her armpits as she frowns at me.
“Still awake?” I skim my gaze over to the dresser where the gun remains untouched.
“Cayman Islands.”
I arch a brow as I saunter over to the bed. Her green eyes skim over my bare chest before she darts them back up.
“I heard him talking to someone on the phone once, and he mentioned the Cayman Islands.” She cocks her head to the side. “We only ever vacation in Fiji. One day, at breakfast, I asked if we were going to travel someplace