Page 31 of Carnal Wagers

Liam swiveled his seat around. “You sure it’s her and not…”

I shook my head. She was too young to fit the profile and European-born-and-raised to boot. We’d know more about her once Brody cross-referenced her image with facial recognition through every database available, but I highly doubted we’d find anything linking her to the Love Knot Killer.

The FBI knew five things about LK. The killer was female over forty and likely a flower enthusiast, given her choice of poison was a tea brewed from hellebore and foxglove petals. She was either a mother or avenging a mother, and most importantly, she had a personal grudge against the O’Leary family. All her victims had been intimate with either my da, my brothers, or me.

“Did you get a DNA sample?” Brody asked.

“No.” Not the most practical thing to do in a pub.

“You need to get one.”

I rolled my eyes. As if it were that easy.

“Well, tell us then.” Liam stooped over the back of his armchair. “How was this succubus? She tempt even you?”

“She was…” I leaned against the edge of my desk and cocked my head, trying to find the words to describe her. “Unexpected.”

Chapter 9

I didn’t have to look back to know Cillian O’Leary’s eyes tracked me out of the pub. That quiet, menacing gaze of his put all my senses on high alert. With all his attention focused solely on me, after he made it clear with his radio silence over the years that I was never supposed to have it, a bolt of exhilaration zapped through me. I bit my lip and sashayed my hips a little bit more than usual. I was going to flip the script on him.

For years, I steeled my spine against the whispers and jeers to prove to the French socialite society I was more than a jilted wife, that even if I couldn’t keep a husband, I was damn good at building and managing a business. A little payback went a long way to soothe a bruised ego. Let’s face it, his wed-and-dump act stomped on mine, then threw it to the dogs. Now it was my turn.

Once I walked two businesses down, the prickling on the back of my neck subsided. I smirked and ride-hailed a cab on my phone.

He wasn’t what I’d expected. Dangerous, controlling, definitely a little bit of a prick, but something in him simmered beneath the surface and bubbled through fractures in his placid facade. Something was begging for a break from his routine. If I dug my ballerina nails into the cracks and split them open, all his broken bits might just spill out. From that point on, he would be putty in my hands. This was going to be fun.

I rang Erel as I strolled down the block with some added bounce to my steps.

“Is it done?” I asked in French the instant he picked up.

“You’re lucky Franc works fast. Confirmation just came in.”

Perfect, I knew he could get it done. My distant cousin was fantastic at his job. One of the best things my brother ever did after he took over as the caïd of the Côte d’Azur milieu, besides marrying Tessa, was to take on the fidgety, skinny son of a second-removed great-uncle as our family hacker.

“Good, because I can promise you he’s about to try to look me up.”

Fellow pedestrians frowned at me, their heads turning to follow me as I passed.

“Damn foreigners,” one muttered to his companion.

For a moment, I considered going after them to ask directions in my strongest French accent to mess with them while I pinched their wallets for the fun of it, but I waved the thought off. I had bigger fish to fry.

“What did you do?” Erel asked.

“Aw, big grump, you worried about me?”

“You? Never.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

I held my own against most of the men on my brother’s payroll in the De Villier estate’s boxing ring, having been trained in Krav Maga, Muay Thai, kickboxing, and other styles from a young age. A woman couldn’t afford to be precious and innocent in our world. Otherwise, the wolves descended and took advantage of every drop of blood their teeth could slobber over.

“So what’d you do?” Tessa’s voice perked up.

“I did what I do best. I worked him.”

“And he believed you?” she asked.