Free Fighting For Irish (A Fighting for Love Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Gina L Maxwell Page A

that?”
    “Depends on who you owe, I suppose.” Her foot still on the floor started bouncing. “Look,” he said, leaning over his forearms on the table. “I’m gonna do whatever I can to help you, but you gotta tell me what we’re up against here.”
    “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    “Why do you want to help me?”
    Aiden leaned back in his chair, wondering what to say when he didn’t know the answer himself. He drummed his thumb on the table a few times, then half shrugged. “Maybe I have a superhero complex or I’m an adrenaline junkie. Or maybe I find it hard to turn my back on a friend in need.” Even if you’d be better off if I did.
    “You barely know me.”
    “I know you don’t deserve to deal with the repercussions of your boyfriend’s bad decisions by yourself.”
    Kat seemed to be turning things over in her head. Probably weighing options and consequences. He drained the rest of his now-cold coffee and tried to practice the patience he didn’t have. Old feelings bubbled just beneath the surface. The ones that demanded he act and make her threat go away by whatever means necessary.
    “His name is Antony Sicoli,” she said at last. “He used to be a big-time mob guy in New York before he decided he preferred the picturesque mountains of Tennessee. Lenny borrowed money, gambled big, and lost even bigger. Now Sicoli wants his money back.”
    He dragged a hand over his face and scratched his jawline. He’d been hoping she’d say it was a small-time bookie, but he’d known better after what he had to do just to shake the apes the night before. “Then, yeah, you can expect them to want more than twenty grand for skipping town. The mob typically takes offense to that sort of thing. And if I’m not mistaken, the note said they’ve got someone on the inside with the cops and you have until tonight to come up with the money?”
    “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
    “How much do you have?”
    “None. Since Lenny got locked up, all I have is an emergency fund so I could get out of here. Something tells me they won’t be amenable to settling with a few measly hundred bucks.”
    Aiden got up from the table and poured himself another cup of coffee while he let things roll around in his head. That anyone could expect an innocent woman to take the fall for her asshole boyfriend’s mistakes was seriously fucked up.
    Unfortunately, morals didn’t come into play when dealing with callous criminal bosses like this Sicoli character. The only people who mattered to a guy like that were his own family members. The rest of the world consisted of pawns to move around in his game of making money, and if any pawn dared lose his money, the pawn was taken out of the game.
    Permanently.
    Turning around, he leaned his hips against the counter and took a sip of coffee. “So what’s the plan?”
    Kat let out a half-scoff, half-snort sound. The kind made when desperation clashed with hopelessness. “You mean, short of robbing a bank?”
    Aiden studied her as she got up with her mug and crossed to the counter next to him and placed it in the sink. Then she ran the water and started washing it. He would have told her she didn’t need to do that, but she had the same look Mary Catherine used to get. He could always tell when something bothered his younger sister. She cleaned until you could see your reflection in every surface.
    As she soaped and rinsed the mug for the third time, she said, “My plan was to give them the slip last night and leave town.”
    Absently wresting his full cup from his hand, she emptied it and restarted her process. He supposed he didn’t need the extra caffeine anyway.
    “Which,” she continued, “I guess I did, but not in the way I’d expected. Now I don’t know how I’m going to get any of my stuff, or the money, or—”
    “Kat.” Aiden cut her off before her anxiety reached critical mass. Taking the mug from her, he put an end to her nervous ritual and turned her to face him. “I