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

Dinner revolved around only one thing—being nice and interesting enough that Laney and Allegra wanted to grab more drinks afterward. Boone and I were careful not to broach any topic that might link Allegra’s background to ours, so we kept personal shit vague. Boone was a mechanic, which wasn’t technically a lie; he just didn’t work as one. And when Allegra asked what I did for a living, I said I was in between jobs.

It didn’t feel awesome trying to get Allegra to reveal shit about her work, and not because of her family. Her ID might say she was in her twenties and named Alex, but we knew better. The girl was still a kid. She shouldn’t be here.

After dinner, Boone excused himself to go meet up with Ma, and Ace wasn’t too happy about leaving. She wanted to stay and work with her daddies, even though she had no idea what we were doing. It didn’t seem to matter.

Laney excused herself too, to go to the bathroom.

I stuck my card into the leather binder the server had brought us, not even looking at the receipt. Wasn’t my money.

I didn’t know where we’d go from here. The casino downstairs would be too much of a distraction. It wasn’t exactly a place to get someone drunk and extract information from them. Fuck—what would TJ say, huh?

So far, we hadn’t learned much. We knew Allegra was actually in charge of the crew of three Venetian employees who would handle Lange’s birthday party, and we’d learned her new “work project” was fun. That was all. Digging deeper, asking for details about the client, would look too suspicious.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?” Allegra cocked her head at me, and she was grinning.

It made me narrow my eyes. Was she about to drop the act?

“What do you mean?” I played dumb and leaned back in my seat.

She bit her lip, calculating, without a hint of wariness in her eyes. “My real name isn’t Alex.”

Oh, she was actually…yeah, okay. Fuck pretending, then. “I know who you are.”

She sat a little straighter and lifted a brow at me. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Simple. “’Cause it’s none of my business. This is your workplace. For all I know, you’re up to something and need to stay under the radar.” Man, I hoped that wasn’t the case.

It was great to have TJ as a buddy, great to have him on my side, but that could change. You didn’t wanna get too involved in anything that was their territory. It was why we had to tread really fucking carefully around Allegra.

“It’s just a job,” she replied with a slight shrug. “I want to show my parents I can manage on my own.”

Hmm. This was more than a job, though. It was a position that required four years in college, for one.

“I think you’re here on a job too,” she stated and lifted her chin. The challenge in her eyes dared me to defy her. “The question is, how involved is Laney? Because she was very eager to bring me with her tonight, and she couldn’t stop talking about you. You, specifically, as if she was trying to set us up. But the second I saw it was you…” She trailed off, not needing to spell out the obvious. She knew I was gay.

I couldn’t help but smirk a little. I didn’t see any reason to get worried or nervous, but I had to hand it to her. She was alert.

“It can’t be about me,” she went on. “You and your brother wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

Oh, we were plenty stupid, though she was right in this case. Allegra was protected. Hell, even by us. If she faced problems anywhere, Boone and I wouldn’t hesitate to help, just like we could count on TJ and DJ to have our backs.

“At this point, it’s better we go through your cousins,” I told her. “We won’t involve you.”

That did something to her. It was as if she’d been struck—hard—and her eyes flashed with a plea. “You can’t. TJ would pull the plug on me so fast. Please—can’t we handle it between us? I’m at my wit’s end here. If they start meddling again, I swear I’ll leave the state.”

I felt my eyebrows rise at the desperation in her tone. She wasn’t kidding around. She didn’t want her family involved one bit, which made me curious about her situation. How much did she think she was hiding from them? From my understanding, the women in their family had virtually no privacy, mainly because they kept their security tighter than a virgin asshole.

“You realize the guys have eyes and ears all over the Vegas, right?” I had to make sure she understood that. “If you haven’t told them you work here, they’ve figured it out on their own.”

“Of course they know,” she responded in a rush. “It was DJ who helped me set up a new identity. But they gave me a warning—slightest indication of trouble and they’ll tell my dad. And he doesn’t know. Well, not the whole story. He knows I’m working.”

Uh-huh. Even that was naïve. Her father was one of the highest-ranking members of their organization. Trust, he knew everything.

“Look.” She leaned forward, evidently ready to bargain. It was written all over her face. “If you’re gonna go through my cousins to get something that you’d originally intended to get directly from me, it means it’s something I can do. The way I see it, they don’t have to know a damn thing. I know how to keep quiet. Do you?”

It wasn’t a matter of being able to keep quiet. “I have a responsibility toward your cousins, Allegra. You gotta understand that.”

“Which is always about my safety!” she pleaded imploringly. “I know you’re obligated to tell them if you think I’m getting myself into trouble or whatever. But I’m not. I clearly have something you want—so it’s up to you. Is this, whatever you want, gonna put me in