Right.
Like miracles were ever that kind.
While I wasn’t afraid of a rockstar, I was concerned about the publicity. We had a rep in Manhattan, but Daniels’ was worldwide. The last thing I wanted was Acuig shares taking a nosedive because of noxxious fans deciding to fuck with the stock market to get back at us.
Because I knew Finn would tell me that nobody would connect the dots between the Five Points and Acuig Corp, I didn’t bother telling him any of that. Instead, I just said, "She’s hot."
Finn shook his head. "You always think with your dick, man."
"Like you fucking don’t," I groused. "I looked into her—"
"I bet you goddamn did."
"You make that sound like I was jacking off outside her bedroom window," I grumbled. "I just looked into who and what she is."
With a mocking glint to his smirk, he murmured, "And who and what is she?"
I rubbed my chin. "Smart."
"So?"
"I read a lot of her articles—"
"Jesus, how fucking banging is she?"
I glowered at him. "I read." Sort of.
"You read reports," he corrected. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen you pick up a newspaper. Or a book." He frowned, like he was deep in thought. He wasn’t doing it to be irritating either, just genuinely trying to think back to a time when he’d seen me with a book. Which was probably school.
"This was research."
"Research," he repeated with a nod. "Okay. So, what did you uncover?"
"Da’s not happy with her because she’s asking about Paddy."
"You told me that already."
"She’s not the kind of person who’d waste her time on a story that wasn’t there."
"The inference being that there’s more to his death than your father thought?"
"I think so." I rubbed my chin. "All we know is that an Albanian shot him." I shook my head. "That, and how he killed Jurkavic in retaliation, is all he’ll tell us."
"True. But why would he lie?" His brow puckered. "Are you just looking for conspiracies where there aren’t any?"
"No, she is. I’m telling you, though, she wouldn’t waste her time if she didn’t think there was something to the story."
He kicked up his leg and let his ankle come rest on the opposite knee. Settling back in the seat, he murmured, "Exactly how hot is she?"
I snorted. "I’m not just thinking with my dick."
"You sure?"
"Positive. Anyway, Jemima made sure my balls were drained for a good two weeks."
Finn snickered. "Jemima—the human Dyson."
"Exactly." I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d called my sometimes girlfriend over for a quickie because I’d met with Savannah Daniels.
"Why do you think it matters to her?"
"I asked her."
"You’ve met with her?" he sputtered.
"This morning," I confirmed. "She says she wants to write Da’s biography, and thought this would be a way of getting in his good books."
Finn coughed out a laugh. "Are you shitting me?"
"No. I wish I was."
"She’d have been better off just approaching him with a biography in mind."
I grimaced. "Trust me, I know. I told her that."
His eyes widened. "She really wants to write his biography?" he muttered to himself. "Who the fuck would read that?"
"No one?" I retorted dryly. "It couldn’t be published until we were all in our graves."
"True. What the fuck? Does she have daddy issues or something? Have a crush on him?"
"Something happened to her when she was a kid. The mafia has fascinated her ever since. At least, as far as I’ve managed to uncover."
Finn narrowed his eyes at me. "Sounds as if you’d like to uncover a whole hell of a lot more than that."
"Yeah," I agreed simply. "The truth."
"About Paddy? Why? Why dig up the past? She was doing it to get access to your da, but now that’s out of the window, what’s the point?"
I growled. "Why aren’t you listening to me? Because she wouldn’t waste her time if there wasn’t something to uncover. Doesn’t that make you question shit? Make you wonder what the fuck happened that day?"
He blinked. "We were, what? Sixteen?"
I nodded. "Paddy helped us. He deserved more than to die that way."
Finn pursed his lips. "I don’t disagree, Aidan, but I don’t see how raking up the past is going to help."
"I’ve never felt right about him going the way he did." I shook my head, then I told him something I hadn’t told anyone. "He called me. The night he was shot. I was with Harriet Crossley."
"You didn’t pick up?" Finn queried quietly.
"When I was with the high school mattress?" I snorted. "Course I fucking didn’t."
I had so many goddamn regrets from a life led astray at an early age, and not picking up that call was one of them.
"What do you think he wanted?"
"I’ll never know, will I? But maybe he knew he was being followed? Maybe there was something shady going on? You know that triggered that spat with the Albanians." I reached up and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I just have a feeling."
Finn sobered up. "Really?"
I hummed.
Gut instincts and me didn’t get along well. Hadn’t done since I’d listened to Finn that day and found my brother being raped by a priest. Now, when I got the stirrings of one, it always set me on edge.
I grimaced. "I just think I need to see this out."
"What’s your game plan? I assume your da thinks you’re going to have her killed?"
"He’s dumped it on my desk," I confirmed. "He won’t check up on things as long as she stops digging around. She doesn’t write under her full name so he doesn’t even know she’s a woman."
"It is weird that he’s trying to silence someone who could give him closure on Paddy’s death," Finn agreed, his brow furrowed. "Okay, so, you’re going to have her continue her investigation on the downlow?"
I shook my head. "No. I asked her to have all her material ready for eight PM tonight."
"You’re going to finish the investigation yourself?"
Slowly, my smile grew. "No. It was enough of a challenge to light a fire under her ass. I spoke with a lot of her past bosses. She’s not the kind of woman who likes to have something taken away from her, and she’ll carry on working regardless.
"I scared her today though."
I knew for a fact that wasn’t something that happened often.
Finn mocked, "Your ma would be proud."
I rolled my eyes. "I don’t get my rocks off by scaring women, Finn, you know that. She just had to understand the severity of the situation. If I hadn’t taken an interest in what she was investigating, she’d be dead by now. She needed to realize that sniffing around, in situations like these, leads to repercussions."