Shane sits behind his desk, wearing one of his impeccably tailored suits that fits the contours of his body so perfectly, it could have almost been painted on him. His hands are steepled under his chin as he stares at me, his eyes running over my face and body as he appraises me. I lick my lips as I sit opposite him, waiting for him to tell me why he has summoned me to his office this afternoon.
“Conor tells me you hacked into the security feed of that hotel within a few hours?” he eventually asks.
“It wasn’t a complicated system,” I say with a shrug, immediately shifting to my default mode of playing down my talents. Now that I have his attention, I’ve shown him all I need to for now. Stay humble. Don’t let people know just how good you are until you absolutely have to. Then they will always underestimate you. Another lesson my father taught me that I will never forget.
Shane narrows those incredible green eyes at me and I shift uncomfortably under the heat of his gaze. “How exactly does a girl from …?” he flashes an eyebrow at me and waits for me to fill the blank.
“Minnesota,” I remind him of what I told him and his brothers a few days earlier. I’ve told so many lies that I used to worry that one day I’d forget the truth myself.
“How did a girl from Minnesota end up working for Nikolai Semenov?”
My heart starts to hammer in my chest, but I perfected the art of lying under pressure a long time ago. Now, it comes as easily as breathing. I look at him calmly. Time to bring my A game! “I hacked into a college system for the daughter of one of his men. I impressed him with my skills and he offered me some work. I guess he just kept being impressed because within six months, I was living in his house and I was his go to tech person.”
“You lived with him?”
“Yep.”
“How did that happen?” he frowns at me.
“He was a very paranoid and suspicious man. Before long, he was in need of my services on a daily basis. It made sense for him that I would move in.”
“And did it make sense for you?”
“Well, Nikola Semenov was a hard man to say no to,” I say with a shrug. “I didn’t have much choice.”
“So, you were his personal hacker? That was all?”
I shift in my seat again. “No,” I reply as I look down at the floor.
“He fucked you too?” he asks, and I flinch at the ease at which he asks me that question.
“Sometimes,” I admit. This part was the truth, at least.
“And you were okay with that?” he tilts his head to one side as he stares at me.
“Again. He is a hard man to refuse. So, I didn’t,” I say with a shrug as I glare back at him. I won’t allow him to use my body and my choices to intimidate me.
His green eyes roam over my body, reminding me of a panther sizing up its prey. But something about the way he looks at me has the heat searing between my thighs. The truth is, Nikolai Semenov made my skin crawl, and I hated every moment of his hands or his lips on my skin. But I had needed him, and I am not against using any means at my disposal to get what I want – or to simply survive. The prospect of Shane Ryan, or any of his hot brothers demanding anything from my body, however, makes me shiver in an altogether different way.
He clears his throat. “Rest assured, there is no expectation that you provide those services around here,” he finally says.
I nod at him and experience an unexpected twinge of disappointment. That would certainly make my time here more interesting.
“That’s not to say my brothers won’t try,” he adds with the flicker of a grin. “But you’re under no obligation to agree. They were raised right. So, don’t feel bad about turning them down. They can have their pick of any woman from our club downstairs.”
I nod again, and it takes all of my effort not to scowl at him. He has just made me feel completely worthless, and incredibly small, and I expect he knows it. I wonder if that was his intention. From the little I’ve managed to find out about the Ryan brothers, they are all business and little pleasure. I know that can’t be completely true. Men like these have to blow off steam sometimes, but whatever they do, they are discreet about it. No relationships to speak of. No scorned exes waiting to dish the dirt. No jilted one-night stands who are desperate for revenge.
The Ryan brothers have many business enemies for obvious reasons, but very few people who seem to hold a grudge for any personal ones. At least, none that I could find. I’ve hardly been able to dig up anything at all on their personal lives, other than the fact that they moved to New York about ten years ago, quickly rising through the ranks until they became the undisputed heads of the Irish Mafia. Their reign has been challenged many times, but never successfully. Perhaps Shane Ryan is worried that if I get too close to his brothers, I might get too close to him.
I sit up straighter in my chair. “That’s good to know. Thank you,” I say with a forced smile.
He rubs a hand over his jaw and his tongue darts out to lick his lower lip. An image of him using that tongue somewhere else on my body forces itself into my mind and I squeeze my thighs together to stem the rush of heat there. Behave yourself, Jessie!
Shane picks up a brown folder from his desk and hands it to me. “I want you to get access to this man’s life. Bank accounts. Medical records. College. High School. Employment. I want to know everything about him.”
Taking the folder from his hand, I resist the urge to peer inside. “Who is he?”
“Someone I am very interested in,” he replies coolly. “Do you have what you need?”
“I have my laptop, so I can get what you need. But I could do it faster with access to a desktop too,” I reply as my eyes flicker to the computer on his desk.
“I’ll arrange for a desktop to be delivered for you tomorrow. You can set it up in the library.”
“Okay. When do you need this information by?”
The noise of his cell phone ringing interrupts our conversation, and he pulls it from his pocket, frowning as he glances at the screen. “As soon as possible,” he snaps. “I need to take this.”
I realize I am being dismissed and stand up with the folder in my hand. “There’s no rush for the desktop. I’ll have the information to you by tomorrow,” I say before turning and walking out of his office with a deliberate sway of my hips. This is my chance to show Shane Ryan exactly what I’m made of and prove to him I can be an indispensable asset to him and his brothers. It offers me the perfect cover while I continue my true goal in life, to find the man responsible for murdering my entire family.
