St Just looked up as his brother walked in.
He had been working, frowning over some calculations that had just come in. Something was wrong again. They were expanding at the rate of knots, buying up a new place in Hollowford and now, this. He tapped the paper thoughtfully. He would get a copy of this, run it through with Bianca and decide what to do.
But something about his brother’s demeanour was off. Looking at O’Grady, he sighed. The man was such a softie when it came to women. He had been to lunch, presumably, with that shark, Barbara Watermann.
Finn St Just had taken an instant dislike to her and after one session of f*cking her along with his brother, he had stopped. He made polite excuses and refused to join them. He knew a woman with an agenda and if O’Grady was stupid enough not to see it, well, what could one do?
The woman had made it clear. Once she was Mrs O’ Grady, the wife of the most powerful man in this part of the woods, she would see that St Just was booted out.
As simple as that.
His brother might be a macho man when it came to business, killing people and moving things around. But St Just doubted if he had the clarity to see through women. He always ended up in bed with the most manipulative and scheming women in the world.
He ran his hand through his blonde hair. Bianca Cruz was an entirely different story. He was beginning to like her a lot more than he had ever done any of the other Pets they had taken to bed.
He watched as O’Grady barked orders at someone down his phone and sighed, drumming his thin, long fingers.
He smiled now as he thought of what the Pet had said as they lay in bed after he had f*cked her thoroughly one afternoon; ‘ the fingers of a pianist,’ as Bianca had said softly.
As her sweet face swam up in his memory, he smiled to himself
If only, he thought but he never got to finish the idea that had come to his mind.
His brother was before him, sinking down on the chair, rubbing his unshaven jaw, the dark, stubbled cheeks making him look more deadly, as he growled,
“Let’s go and f*ck the Pet, Saint.”
St Just raised his brows in mockery.
“But I thought you just came from a steamy encounter with the glamorous Watermann, the greatest anchor of all times, dear Barbara?” he sneered, unable to help himself.
He knew that O’Grady had an inexhaustible libido. But he could not help teasing his annoyed-looking brother.
As O’Grady shot him a dark look, St Just went on, grinning,
“She’s not so good in bed anymore, huh?”
O’Grady scowled outright.
“She’ll be an asset in the future, Saint,” he declared but even to his own ears, his words sounded hollow. His brother scoffed loudly.
Barbara Watermann was scheming. And by marrying her, he would be doing something more destructive to himself, than constructive, thought the Irishman, running his hand over his jaw. He sighed. Sex with her was…well, just copulating.
It had nothing of the fire and passion he had felt with Bianca.
He scowled. Why was he even thinking of Her? It was ridiculous to compare a woman of Barbara’s stature with a girl who had willingly sold her body! Bianca Cruz was just another wh*re.
St Just was saying something that registered belatedly.
“…gone to the pub with friends.”
O” Grady sat up, his heavily muscled chest tense as he comprehended what St Just had said.
“Who did you say had gone to the pub?”
Arching a brow drily, his brother repeated his words in a highly exasperated manner.
“Bianca. Our Pet. She tried to call me and then she sent a message.”
He stood up and walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink as he went on,
“She’s gone to the pub with some colleagues. You know, the one around the corner? Called Elysian Pub or something?”
He turned, a tumbler for O’Grady in his hand as well as he strolled over and went on,
“I checked with Barry. He’s there.”
He stopped as he registered the look of fury on his brother’s handsome face.
“What’s wrong?” asked St Just mildly.
“HOW DARE SHE GO OUT AND SOCIALISE WITH OTHER MEN, DAMN IT?” roared O’Grady, his large fist crashing on the table.
His tawny eyes glinted in interest as St Just studied his brother. He had never seen O’Grady get so angry over a woman. The Pets they had kept earlier used to go on shopping expeditions and visits to beauty parlours and O’Grady had never bothered to say a word.
But this?
And it was not as though Bianca was socializing with a vengeance.
She had just gone out for drinks with colleagues to avoid looking like an oddity.
Leaning back in his chair, holding his drink with a hand, St Just spoke gently,
“No need to get so het up, bro…”
But O’Grady was on his feet, chugging down the whiskey his brother had poured out for him, in one gulp.
“I’m going to drag that wh*re back. If I see her with a man…”
And with that ultimatum, he stormed out of the room, leaving his brother gazing after him speculatively.
*
Barbara Watermann had discovered what she had set out to do.
So St Just and O’Grady had a new ‘Pet’ in the apartment at Walters Park? She was going to investigate and read the wh*re the Miranda Act.
She picked up her expensive coat and sailed out of the room. As she sat in the car, she thought to herself; she was advancing in age. Her powers to charm men were growing dull.
And being married to O’Grady would bring a lot of perks.
Sh*t, she thought excitedly, he might help her to achieve her secret dream, own her own TV channel!
The man was loaded, so yes, once she was married to him, she would make him come to heel. The man was a brutal Mafia don, but he had a soft center…
Smiling, she sank back in the seat as her chauffeur expertly guided the car through the dark
streets.