The Job (Auctioned) by Cara Dee (highly illogical behavior txt) 📕

We’d barely gotten past introductions, and she already bugged me. Partly because I couldn’t find a single flaw in her. She seemed perfectly nice. She was beautiful, too. Big brown eyes, a dimpled smile, cute nose, wavy dark hair—she screamed of warmth and a bit of mischief. Like Ace.

So of course I had to hate Alex a little bit, because my brother couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Laney came back from the hostess desk, having asked how long our wait would be for a table, and she looked a little flustered. Big crowds weren’t her jam; I knew that much. It was why she preferred to work in an actual office and not anywhere near the hotel guests.

“Another ten or fifteen minutes,” she said over the din.

I put a hand on her lower back, then gestured to a table in the corner of the bar. “Go have a seat. Boone and I will get us some drinks. Whiskey sour, right?”

She smiled gratefully and tucked a piece of her blond hair behind her ear. “Yes, please. Alex likes wine and cider. I’ll watch Ace.”

I dipped my chin, then motioned for Boone to follow me.

We made our way to the circular bar in the middle of the floor, and I ordered beer for Boone and myself, a whiskey sour for Laney, a glass of white for Alex, and a soda for Ace.

He leaned in close and spoke in my ear. “You can’t go through with the act.”

I frowned at him at the same time as a fucker behind me bumped me closer to my brother. I sent the idiot a warning look before I turned back to Boone.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because her real name isn’t Alex,” he replied. “I don’t know why she’s working here under a different name, but that’s Allegra Colucci.”

Shit. Shit.

TJ and DJ’s cousin. Why the fuck…? I didn’t get it. “That doesn’t make any sense,” I managed to get out. My mind started spinning, and a bunch of things I’d picked up over the years came back to me. For starters, TJ’s family was several decades behind and would never allow a woman to work with anything illegal. And why else would the chick take another name? Then I thought about her age. I’d briefly noticed that Alex looked to be on the young side—for a hot second, I’d been impressed by her ambition to land a position like that at the Venetian in her early twenties. But considering she was objectively beautiful as fuck, her working as a party planner here didn’t necessarily mean she was skilled. And Laney had told me they worked in teams, so she wasn’t alone. All that said, though? Something smelled rotten, because Allegra wasn’t even twenty yet. I knew that for sure.

“When did you last see her?” I asked. Because I hadn’t been in the same room as Allegra since she’d been like twelve or thirteen.

“Couple years ago,” Boone responded. “Her pop hired me to upgrade his wife’s car with some security.”

I raked my teeth over my lip, wondering how the fuck we were gonna get closer to Lange’s files now. As part of the party planning crew, Allegra sat on valuable information. Whatever heist Darius was planning, I bet he’d want as many time frames as possible where he knew what was going on at another location. Allegra would know about the catering, about when meals would be served, everything from planned toasts to entertainment. In short, Allegra was key to pinning down a minute-by-minute schedule of Alfred Lange’s whereabouts during the birthday shindig.

There was still the man in charge of the Langes’ stay in general. We needed to get close to him too, because he would know even more. He’d have access to all reservations and when and where someone was being picked up by whatever car service they’d be using.

“I’ll call TJ tomorrow,” I said. “Whatever happens with Allegra, we’re gonna need his approval.”

Boone nodded firmly, then flicked a glance at something behind me. It was the bartender finishing up our drink order.

A thought struck me as I handed over a card to the bartender. “So that’s why you were eye-fucking the girl? You recognized her.”

Boone offered a confused expression before it morphed into amusement. “I wasn’t eye-fucking her.”

Sure, whatever. I’d said too much. I didn’t want him to think I still got jealous. “Okay. Let’s get back to the girls.” After pocketing my card again, I grabbed three drinks and left two bottles for Boone to carry.

Goddammit. I had to be more subtle. I didn’t want anything to get between us again, and that included my toxic possessiveness. I literally wanted to own the motherfucker. He was loved and adored by too many. I’d never suffered any shortage of friends—or hookups, for that matter—but Boone was definitely more lovable. He had a smile for everyone, whereas no matter how happy I was, I had a resting bitch face.

On our way back to our table, Boone stopped me in the middle of the crowd with a hand along my side. He got way too close, his chest against my back, and spoke in my ear again.

“I’m only gonna say this once.” His voice and close proximity forced a shiver through me, and I swallowed the unease crawling up my throat. “You don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll never hurt you again.”

Fuck me.

It was as reassuring as it was mortifying. I felt weak and pathetic. At the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to joke it off, because I needed to cling to that promise more than I was willing to admit. Even if it meant he suspected that I still had all the wrong feelings for him.

“Let’s focus on work,” I replied, because I had to change the topic. “Whether or not we can use Allegra, we still need as many details as we can get our hands on.”

I continued toward our table, unable to look back and read Boone’s expression. It was too