callan
What the hell is Sakura doing here?
I gripped my drink tightly in my fist and peered at Jett while he made some sexist joke about something. But I couldn’t listen. I couldn’t focus.
Why is she in a bar–a bar run by the Redwood mob? Does she know how much danger she is in, just being here?
After forcing myself to breathe, I clenched my jaw. Of course she didn’t know the danger she was in or else she wouldn’t be here. But all I wanted was to storm right up to her high-top table and drag her out of the bar, throw her into the back of my car, and bring her home.
Jett finished off his second drink and laughed at his stupid jokes, cheeks round and reddening. I lifted the glass to my lips and let the contents roll down the back of my tightening throat, then glanced back over my shoulder at Sakura.
She crossed her arms over her stomach and glared at the table. Her friend looked in my direction, and I gritted my teeth even tighter. Whoever she was with looked to be older, more responsible. She should have known not to bring an underage girl to a bar like this.
Once I finished my drink, I turned back to Jett. This was going to be a long freaking night.
“Another two over here!” I called to the bartender.
The faster Jett got drunk, the quicker I could dump him back home and come back here to pick up Sakura and whoever she was sitting with. It wasn’t only the mob I worried about, but—I eyed the bartenders behind the bar—the men here also disgusted me.
The waiter serving Sakura and her friend walked behind the bar and gently nudged one of the guys making drinks. “Ichika’s friend is single,” he said to the bartender. “See the girl with those pigtails and short red leather skirt?”
Fuck.
I growled underneath my breath and gritted my teeth.
I swear to fuck …
If he went over there to talk to Sakura, I’d kill him.
Instead of following the waiter, the bartender thankfully turned to us, setting two new glasses in front of us.
“I’m good for now,” Jett said, shaking his head to the bartender.
“Come on, Jett,” I taunted. “What happened to all those frat days you used to tell me all about? When you’d drink until you passed out on the front lawn? I know you still got a couple left in you.”
He let out a low chuckle. “It’s almost like you’re trying to get me drunk.”
Fuck.
I flashed him the charmer smile and laughed along with him. “I already have your daughter locked down. No need to convince you to let me marry her all over again. That’s long gone. What would I get you drunk for?”
“To get out of those vacations she goes on,” Jett joked, his cheeks reddening even more.
Good, the alcohol is working.
“You got me,” I said, throwing my hands up. “If I get you drunk enough, will you let me get out of going on vacations with her twenty times a year? That’s too much traveling for an old man like me.”
“Old man?” Jett asked, calling the bartender back over. “Get these two old men over here more drinks.” He glanced over at me. “If you make it to my age and see what I have, Redwood is the only place you’ll want to be. That’s why I’ve been pushing you and Georgina to travel. You have to see the world while you’re young and stupid.”
Stupid.
Ha.
That must be why Georgina had been going on those vacations since we’d gotten married.
Three hours later, Sakura was gone, and Jett was nearly passed out drunk at the bar next to me. I had never seen the rich bastard this drunk. This was almost going to be too easy. Almost fucking laughable.
“Why don’t we get you home?” I said, pulling out my wallet to pay.
He shoved my wallet away and pulled out his own, like I had known he would. After he gave the bartender his card, he set the wallet on the bar top. I stared at it, needing to distract him so I could snatch it.
After cashing us out, the bartender handed Jett his card back. And Jett handed it to me.
“Put this away for me, son,” he slurred. “I need to get my jacket on.”
Perfect.
When he stood, he stumbled slightly but rebalanced himself on the chair. He took his jacket and struggled to put it on while absolutely shit-faced. I grabbed his wallet and card, slid it underneath the bar, and slipped his card along with Officer Diego Fernandez’s name and number right behind the license.
Once Jett finally put his fucking jacket on, I grabbed his car keys from him and guided him to his car. “No driving for you,” I hummed.
After stashing him into the passenger seat of his own car, I slipped into the driver’s seat and drove him home.
Besides his more sexist and now racist jokes that he started making—typical old-money prick—the car ride was relatively silent. I drove up his gated driveway and parked his car in the garage.
I guided him out of the car and to his living room when he stopped.
“We have to go back,” he said, slurring his words. “I left my wallet.”
“Why don’t you get off to bed?” I suggested because we couldn’t go back until someone from the mob found that wallet and looked inside it. The bartenders might pick it up to steal the cash, but once they saw that slip of paper with the number for a Redwood cop—who wasn’t corrupted—shit would hit the fan. “I’ll pick it up in the morning.”
He placed his hands on my shoulders to steady himself. “This is why we need you in the family, Callan. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to Georgina. I know I put you through a lot of hell, but look how it turned out.”
Like shit.
That was how it had turned out.
“It’s perfect,” I said, playing into his little fantasy.
“Perfect,” he repeated, then fell straight back onto the couch.
Passed out cold.
“Thank fuck,” I whispered underneath my breath.
I hurried out of the house and back to my car, opening the trunk and rummaging through it to retrieve the fake evidence I had put together about the shit Jett had on the mob.
Once the mob found the name and phone number, they’d search his house to figure out why he had a police officer’s number. And when they found this file that had pictures and shit that the mob had done—shit I had collected over the years—sitting in his office …
No amount of money could rebuild trust like that again.
The mob would order a hit on Jett. And I’d be the one to take it.