Page 10 of Tristian (The Doherty Mafia)
The sexual chemistry between us was undeniable.
And what if I was wrong about her? What if Brendan was right? What if she played me.
My insane need to fuck her colored my rational thought.
I needed someone else’s point of view and opinion on Elsie. I needed to be sure I could trust her.
“What do you have to say about her?” It was Colin. His voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I blinked several times, trying to regain my presence in the room.
“What? Who?” I asked, looking around, a little dazed.
I realized the rest of my family had a conversation this whole time while I was lost in thoughts of Elsie. How fuckin’ pathetic.
“The chick you have in your apartment. The one who rescued Davey. What’s up with her?” Colin clarified.
I looked at my brother’s faces. They all waited for an answer.
I shrugged.
“Nothing’s up. There’s nothing to report,” I replied.
I just hoped they believed me.
“I spoke to Brendan and he’s not sure she’s telling the truth,” Killian added.
They didn’t seem to notice the deer-in-the-headlights look in my eyes.
I would’ve hated to have to admit I made her come with my fingers. And she liked it.
I was supposed to keep an eye on her. Make sure she was under surveillance the whole time so she couldn’t fuck us over. The last thing my family needed to hear was I wanted to fuck her.
“Brendan is being cautious. This girl saved his son’s life, he should be grateful,” Aidan said. He’d always been the softie in the family. Colin shook his head and exchanged a glance with Killian. I knew what they were thinking—they were in agreement with Brendan.
We couldn’t afford to be too quick to put all our faith in a chick we knew nothing about.
“What do you think? You’ve spent some time with the girl,” Dad spoke up. It took me a few moments to realize he was talking to me. I was still trying to pull myself together. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to talk about her with a straight face.
I shrugged again. It was the only thing I could do to pretend to not give a shit.
“She hasn’t done anything to make me suspicious. She told me she’s been cooking the books for him.”
“Is she an accountant or something?” Dad asked and I nodded.
“So she’s on his payroll?” Killian asked.
“According to her, he’s forced her to work off her father’s debt.”
“What kind of debt?” Colin cut in.
“One that he had to pay for with his life and his wife’s.”
That made them shut up. This was serious stuff. If Elsie was to be believed, Aldo had already killed her family in cold blood.
We took that shit very seriously in our family. We knew what it meant to lose someone who meant something to us.
I sensed it made our father visibly uncomfortable.
“But she hasn’t given us any reason to believe her story,” Colin reiterated.
“She hasn’t given us a reason to disbelieve her either,” I snapped. Probably a little too quickly for somebody who didn’t give a damn.
“You think she’s telling the truth?” Nolan asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m not going to treat her like she’s a guest at my home and share my bank details with her,” I replied. The others smirked at that.
The truth was, I still didn’t know how I felt about Elsie. I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.
My cock wanted something but my brain told me something else—and that felt like a greater war than the one we were fighting with Aldo.
I stopped by a pizza place on my way back to the apartment.
It was only after I left the house once Dad was done lecturing us on all the ways we’d teach Aldo a lesson—that I realized I hadn’t left any instructions for Elsie.
Was there even any food at the apartment?
I didn’t want her to feel like a prisoner at my place. I wasn’t in a position where I trusted her completely, but I didn’t want her to feel tortured or threatened either.
I’d never had people staying at my place, so being hospitable towards guests wasn’t something I was used to.
I arrived at the apartment and let myself in.
She wasn’t in the kitchen or the living room and I figured she was in the shower or taking a nap in the spare room.
I got the pizza, fries and soda ready for us on the kitchen table, then went looking for her.
She wasn’t in the apartment. I looked everywhere. Even under the fuckin’ bed. She was gone.
I should’ve known.
I never should’ve crossed that line with her.
I had a feeling in my bones this chick wasn’t as fault-free as she made herself out to be. She couldn’t be that sexy, that beautiful, that smart and that oppressed by Aldo too.
There was a catch.
She’d lied this whole time.
