“Doesn’t the hotel have its own laundry?” Dargo scowled.
“Sure, but some couple got freaky on one of our thousand thread count sheets. Can’t just throw those out. You know how it is. Some stains are harder to remove and need a professional.”
Vincent Dargo was a stain that Riley would dearly love to remove, but Dargo’s boss was more important. “Well, you won’t have that problem in the bridal suite tonight. God, I’ll be surprised if they f**k at all. That girl is so bangable, but she’s cold. Society women. You think you have a rough job. Try having a boss who tells you to go out and find him a wife with society connections and a fat ass. Oh, but she has to be pretty. Lucky me, I found one, but it was hard. I had to find a go between, if you know what I mean.”
Riley didn’t. Thankfully, the door dinged and opened to the ballroom level because Riley could practically see his brother vibrating with the need for violence.
Down the long hall, Riley caught sight of Jansen in his immaculate tuxedo. For all that Dargo looked like a thug, Jansen fit into society perfectly, a shark masked by designer wear.
He spoke to a man Riley recognized as a senator from Georgia. They were having an intense conversation. Chamber music flooded the halls. It sounded like the wedding was getting ready to start. Someone would start looking for Kinley soon.
“Gotta go.” Dargo rushed out to meet his boss.
Riley reached out and very calmly pressed the button to close the doors.
“I’m going to kill him,” Law said under his breath.
“I’m sure that would make you feel better.” Sometimes he thought snuffing the breath out of lowlifes like Dargo was one of Law’s ways to relax. Today, Riley understood. “When the time comes, make him suffer.”
“What do you think he meant?”
Riley had already reviewed the conversation in his head. He was pretty sure he knew what was bugging his brother. “You mean, why was he concerned with her ass?” He’d seen her pictures. Kinley Kohl had a luscious backside that she tried to camouflage with her clothing. He shrugged. “Maybe he’s an ass man.”
“His other girlfriends have all been model types, very thin. So thin that I’ve wanted to feed them a cheeseburger,” Law muttered. “Even Carrie was that way.”
Carrie Anthony had been beautiful, but neither Riley nor Law had ever been tempted by her. She’d been like their little sister, too. Beyond that, she hadn’t been anywhere close to their type. Sometimes Riley wished they didn’t have a type, but it was true.
Over time, he’d fallen into sharing women with his brother and Dominic. It was just the way he preferred things. Oh, it wasn’t that he couldn’t have sex on his own. He could totally do that, enjoy it even, but he didn’t picture picket fences and forever without backup.
Life in a trailer park, watching his mom pay for their food by whoring herself out, had taught him to always have a contingency, other resources. But finding someone who wanted to be involved with him and his backup had been next to impossible.
So if Jansen wasn’t attracted to juicy asses, why had he insisted on one?
The doors opened, and suddenly that was a problem for another day. It was time to get a move on. Workers rushed around them as they strode down the hallway toward the loading docks.
“About time,” Dominic said. He was dressed in coveralls emblazoned with the name of a local specialty cleaner. “Is that everything we need?”
He was holding a clipboard that likely contained a crossword puzzle and nothing else. It was all just a part of the ruse.
“This should do it.” Riley pushed the cart into the back of the truck.
Just before he was about to close it, Law jumped in. “I’ll ride back here, make sure the merchandise doesn’t get damaged in transit.”
He slammed the door shut.
“Don’t be a pervert.”
Now that they were about to escape the hotel, the worry that Law’s face had been captured by that hallway camera returned. Riley was right back to wondering how he would look in an orange jumpsuit. His guess? Not so great.
But some part of him was more fixated on the moment, was the tiniest bit jealous that Law had Kinley all to himself. He would very likely pick her up because it wouldn’t be nice to leave her in a laundry cart. He would cradle her to make sure she was safe. He would have that very fine ass sitting right on his lap.
Maybe Law wasn’t the only pervert.
“Can we go now?” Dominic asked. “Or do you want to ride in the back, too?”
His longtime best friend was so obviously not amused. “I’m good to go.”
He jogged around the truck and hopped in.
As they lost themselves in the Manhattan traffic, Riley’s thoughts stuck on the woman in the back of the truck.
* * * *
Dominic couldn’t quite take his eyes off the woman reclining in the seat of the private jet he’d chartered to take them to the James’s landing strip in River Run, Alaska. They’d been in the air for over an hour and she hadn’t moved yet.
She didn’t look anything like Carrie. He’d known it from the pictures he’d studied, but somehow he’d thought that when he got into the same space as Kinley Kohl, he’d see something that reminded him of his sister.
After all, they had both fallen for the same man—a cold-blooded killer who had offed Carrie and intended to do the same to Kinley.
Riley sank into the seat next to him. “Law says we’ll be flying all night.”