Free Vice (Tortured Heroes Book 1) by Jayne Blue Page A

a club. Of course there was an element. I couldn’t control what the patrons did, but I could damn sure keep it off the premises and my people clean. Otherwise, this could become seriously bad juju.
    Just like jumping on one of my employees was bad for business. What the hell had I been thinking? I’d come so close to pulling Jase back into my apartment last night and giving into lust more powerful than I’d ever felt. That wasn’t me. I wasn’t that girl. I’d had exactly two boyfriends my entire dating life and only slept with one of them. A staggering disappointment. I wasn’t a prude, but I had bigger plans. No time for romantic drama or losers.
    Everything about Jase Randall screamed bad idea. A man with no past. Swirling ink and swagger. And the scar on his chest. Every instinct in my head told me he’d gotten it through violence. A gunshot wound probably. Half the lines he fed me about how he ended up in Lincolnshire sounded like complete bullshit. But the parts that seemed true tugged at me. Losing his parents like that must have gutted him. I found myself wishing I’d known him then. Simmering heat coursed through me at the thought of pulling him close and holding him through the worst of it. God. Just what I needed. Another lost boy. More like lost cause. And for all I knew, Northpointe was just another stop on whatever shiftless existence he had.
    On impulse, I picked up the phone and dialed Uncle Cy. On the second ring, I almost hung up, but he’d see the Caller ID anyway. Plus, shitty as it made me feel, I had to know.
    “Hey, Dev. Everything okay?” he said, his gravelly voice shouting over some type of machine. A jackhammer probably. Uncle Cy had just broken ground on a new sports complex on the edge of town.
    “Good! I’m good. Sorry if this is a bad time. You can call me back later.”
    “No bad time where you’re concerned, babe. What’s up?”
    I bit my lip. Again, this felt like some kind of betrayal. But I had to know. “Nothing major. I just wanted to follow up on our conversation. Were you able to find anything more out about that dishwasher I hired? Jason Randall?”
    The background noises faded. Uncle Cy must have moved inside or away from the machinery. “Is there some problem? Has he done something?”
    “Oh. No. Actually, the opposite. He’s working out great and I was even thinking of having Boomer train him for the floor.” I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. Now I was lying to both of them.
    “Hmm. Well, I got an email this morning from my guy. Nothing really bad to report. Yet. Still really preliminary.”
    I didn’t like the tone in Uncle Cy’s voice and my heart skipped a beat. Great. Just my luck. Jase was probably a serial killer or something.
    “But what?”
    “Honey, just hold off, okay? Let him be a dishwasher for a little while longer. Or nothing at all if you’ve got a vibe. This is exactly why I need you to talk to me first before you bring anyone new into that place.”
    “But you just said there’s nothing bad to report. What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Nothing, honey. Nothing. Don’t worry about it. My guy just wants a little more time to get the job done.”
    My mouth went dry. It sounded like the same runaround Uncle Cy gave me every time I asked about Mandy. Like there was some bigger piece of information he held back.
    “Okay. So I’ll maintain the status quo for now. But you promise you’ll give me a call the second you find anything out? Good, bad, or indifferent? I mean … on all of the stuff you’re looking into for me?”
    He sighed into the phone and I could just imagine the look on his face. Grim, irritated, pained. “Yes, babe. Have I ever let you down?”
    The truth was, he hadn’t. He’d been overbearing, meddlesome, sometimes downright disapproving, but he always did exactly what he said he would even if I didn’t like or agree with it. And that was a rarity for the men in my life.
    “Thanks, Uncle Cy. I mean