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Elaine lifts her eyes toward the heavens. “And how do you know it exists?”
“Heard about it from Wilfred. He goes every month.” Sylvia lays the fact out like it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Elaine’s lip curls. “Wilfred from the closet at The Sweet Side Supper Club?”
“You know another Wilfred?” Sylvia asks with no small amount of snark.
“I guess that explains why the floor was so slimy.”
Everyone turns to where Valerie is still tucked against me. Elaine stares at her for a beat before throwing her head back, yet again, on a long laugh. She reaches out to pat Val on the shoulder. “You are a funny girl.” She points at me, brows lifted. “I’m assuming she’ll be part of our new business venture?”
My brain stumbles. “Our new business venture?”
Elaine’s smile is wide as she meets my gaze. “I think you and I can make a lot of money together.” She turns to her mother, lifting the back of Sylvia’s shirt to retrieve the pistol shoved into the waistband of her trousers, disarming the older woman before she’s even realized what’s happening. “Plus, you owe me a favor.”
I smooth one hand down my wife’s spine, stopping at the small of her back. “I will forever be in your debt for tonight.”
Elaine’s smile holds. “Not forever.” She shoots Valerie a wink. “And I would have had to be involved anyway. I can’t tolerate someone like Warren thinking Sweet Side is a safe place to conduct his business.”
A dark sedan pulls up beside us and an older, well-dressed man gets out of the driver’s side, rounds the front, and opens the passenger’s door. Elaine sets a time for us to meet in the morning before settling into the car. Sylvia blows Val a kiss from her spot in the back as they pull away.
I waste no time getting my own wife loaded up and buckled in. We’re pulling out of the lot less than a minute after Elaine, and I let my foot weigh heavy on the gas.
Val twists in her seat, looking behind us as we speed away. “Do you think Warren is dead?”
“I think that’s a question we are never going to ask anyone.” I glance in the rearview just to be sure no one’s following us. “Same with Jessica. And we know nothing about what happened tonight on that boat and even less about their whereabouts.”
Val watches out the back a few seconds more before slowly facing me. “Are we really going to start a business venture with Elaine?”
"I think you mean, are we going to start another business venture with Elaine?" I reach across the console to clasp Valerie's hand in mine. "Because, if you'll remember correctly, I was already Mafia adjacent."
I LEAN BACK in my office chair, mind wandering since my presence is less than unneeded. Valerie and Elaine have been going over the parameters of the business proposition the latter brought to our office this morning. Her idea to develop yet another of Sweet Side’s ageing strip malls into a destination shopping center of sorts isn't a bad one, and I'm interested to see where it will go. But, since it will cater specifically to women in Elaine and my mother’s demographic, my input is all but useless, so I've kept my mouth shut. Happily.
I love seeing my wife in her element, and Valerie is most definitely in her element. The woman is both brilliant and wickedly smart, proving her business savvy as she asks questions that would have never occurred to me. By the end of our meeting, Elaine is armed with a list of information she needs to collect, and questions she needs to answer. Everything from how she plans to market to her target audience, to what sort of designs the women she's hoping to draw in would prefer.
Once she's finally gone, I close the door behind her, and lure my wife behind the desk under the guise of needing her to look over some paperwork. I hardly let her get in place before I lift her onto the surface, dropping back into the chair I've occupied all morning as I flip up the gathered fabric of her sundress and slide my palms up the soft skin of her thighs. “You’ve worked hard this morning, wife.” I let my thumbs tease along the lace of her knickers. “I think Elaine was very impressed with you.”
Valerie sucks in a breath, her voice a hushed whisper when she asks, “You do?”
“I do.” I hook my fingers into the elastic at her waist. “I was very impressed with you too.”
Valerie lifts her bottom off the desk so I can drag her knickers down. “You were?”
“Absolutely I was.” I leave the scrap of pale pink lace at her knees. “But I’m always impressed with you, Darling. You are a fucking gift.”
My wife’s full lips part and her fair skin flushes as I lift her legs so I can duck under the tangle of her knickers. “Do I count as a gift if you had to pay for me?”
I know she’s still struggling with the way things had to go between her father and me. Val has attempted to reimburse me for the money I sent the old prick more times than I can count, and I’ve refused each and every one of them.
As I will continue to do.
“I would pay for you ten times over, wife.” I lean in to slide my lips up the inside of one creamy thigh, reveling in her scent. “Especially since I get to feast on this lovely cunt every day.” I give her slit a long, lascivious lick, greedily lapping at her slick flesh. “I’m more than getting my money’s worth.”
EPILOGUE
VALERIE
"HOW ARE YOU feeling, Darling?" Fynn has one palm spread across my lower back as he directs me into the main ballroom of The Pearl, a super swanky, recently updated hotel just outside Sweet Side.
