Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 100680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“I’m not saying that he takes the drugs, sweetheart,” Regent told her. “I’m telling you that it looks like he imports and sells them. And that a bad batch of the drug has killed several people across the city.”
She sucked in a breath. Not good.
But she still couldn’t believe that Dayton . . . no. “He’s a good man.”
Regent didn’t try to argue; he simply nodded. “He might be a good man. Good men can do things that are against the law. But that batch of Mixology killed people, sweetheart.”
Right. Aston stared down at her shaking hands. She’d stabbed a man tonight and she didn’t even feel bad about it.
Maxim had been hurt.
And now his brothers were talking to her about her boss and drugs . . . why? What did this have to do with anything? And why tell her this?
“Why are you telling me this?”
Regent looked to Victor.
“Pajamas. Bare feet. Knife.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” she asked Victor.
“He’s reminding me that we owe you. That you belong to Maxim, which means that we need to look after you. Not put you in any more danger.”
“What danger? What do you mean? This was just a simple mugging, wasn’t it?”
“Three men drag a guy into an alleyway to beat him up and stab him at three in the morning,” Regent said. “Sure, it could be random. Did you see these men approach before they attacked him?”
“No,” she whispered. “But earlier I thought I was being watched as I walked home from the pool. So maybe they were lurking around.”
Regent straightened. “You were followed home?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone. But it could have been them, right? So it could be they were looking for someone to mug.”
“I don’t like this,” Victor muttered.
“What time was that?” Regent asked.
“Around eleven.”
“You went swimming on your own at night?” Regent asked.
“Umm, yes.”
“That won’t happen again,” he told her.
Sheesh. Bossy.
Regent ran his hand over his face. “Did they seem to be looking for his wallet, his keys?”
“No.” Oh God. She felt ill. Her mind raced, trying to pull this all together. “Do you . . . who do you think attacked Maxim if it wasn’t random?”
She couldn’t understand the connection between them telling her about her boss and this attack. She wasn’t sure she believed what they were telling her about Dayton either.
Although . . . Dayton was acting weird lately.
“Aston? Are you all right?” Regent asked.
“You should have waited,” Victor said. “He’s not going to be happy.”
Regent sighed. “I wish I could. But the sooner we discover who attacked him, the better. I can’t wait. I don’t have that luxury.”
“Does Maxim know what you suspect about my boss importing and distributing those drugs?” she suddenly asked.
Regent stiffened.
“Fuck,” Victor muttered.
“Well? Does he know?” And was that the reason he’d gotten close to her? To see what she knew? A few weeks ago, someone had died at his club. The timing worked out.
It had seemed too good to be true that he might be interested in her.
Seemed it was.
“Yes, he did,” Regent replied. “But—”
“You need someone to spy for you,” she blurted out, finally connecting the dots. “On Dayton. To see if he’s importing drugs.”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Dayton has been good to me. He hired me without any real references. And he’s never done anything to betray me.”
Unlike Maxim.
Oh God. Had he ever wanted her?
“You need to listen to me, Aston,” Regent said firmly.
But she was beyond listening. She didn’t want to hear his explanation. Standing, she limped toward the door, trying to ignore the pain in her feet. Fury and hurt battled for supremacy.
“I want to go home now. I don’t have any money, but I figure you owe me that much.”
“You need to stay off your feet,” Regent told her.
“I don’t care. I want to go home.”
Regent ran his hand over his face. “I know what you’re thinking, but Maxim only recently learned about Dayton’s involvement in the drug trade. He didn’t get close to you in order to use you.”
Okay, that soothed some of the hurt. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t use her to spy on Dayton now that he knew.
“He didn’t know?” she repeated.
“We only discovered it a few days ago, we told Maxim on Friday night.”
Did that have something to do with why he’d been busy all day?
She frowned as she looked over at Regent and Victor. “I don’t know anything about Dayton being involved with drugs.”
“All right, that’s good.” Regent didn’t look happy about that though. “In all likelihood, he wouldn’t mix his legitimate and illegal businesses together.”
Shoot. Crap.
She didn’t want to go against Dayton. And yet . . . there was a bad batch of drugs out there killing people.
Victor moved to her. “You need to sit.”
She sighed but let him lead her back to the sofa. Once she was back sitting down, she wrapped the blanket around herself again.