Read Hit Me (The Bailey Boys #2) for Free Online

dangerous,” she said. “If you are seen here, drinking with me... I am the poisoned chalice.”
    “I survived kissing you.”
    She looked away, felt color rising to her cheeks.
    “How was your evening at Hermanos, Señor Bailey?”
    His eyes narrowed a little at that. For a man who assessed every possible risk, her use of his name and knowledge of his evening were warning signs.
    “It is okay,” she went on. “I asked about you. I wanted to know what kind of a man would do such a thing.” As if the kiss had been all his doing.
    “And what did you find out?”
    “That you and your brother came here from London earlier this year. That you have a reputation: a hard man, not to be crossed. That you have just spent the evening working for Hristo Markov, who is a man who would not hesitate to have you killed if he saw you here now.”
    He put his hands on the table. “I’m getting up now,” he said. “And I’m leaving.”
    “That would be sensible.”
    But they had already gone way beyond sensible.
    He didn’t make any further move to leave.
    “We go inside, yes?” she said. “Sitting out here, it scares me a little.”
    §
    They passed through the public bar to a smaller room. A few people sat at the handful of tables, but it was a lot more private than sitting in the main bar, or at the outside tables.
    “So why would Markov have me killed just for having a drink with you?” Lee was studying Imelda closely, trying to work her out.
    “You met him, yes? Hristo is a man who doesn’t fool around.”
    “And you’re with him?”
    She looked away.
    A waitress came over for their drinks order. When Imelda looked up again, Lee was studying her, still waiting for a response.
    “It’s complicated,” she said, finally.
    “Isn’t everything? I’m learning that. On the face of it everything’s so easy here. Laid back. But scratch the surface...”
    “...and you find Hristo.” It was like talking to Fearless the other day. She didn’t know where to start, how much to say. “In answer to your question, I was with him, yes. But not now. It is just... he is not an easy man to leave, if you understand?”
    “Possessive.”
    She nodded. Their drinks came, and she took a long sip of her Negroni, savoring its sharp bitterness. Lee had whiskey on ice.
    “We don’t... you know.” She felt the need to explain, to excuse what had happened before.
    “I could tell.” He was joking. Teasing her. He knew – she’d thought she had disguised what had happened as he held her, but clearly not.
    “I could have just walked,” he said. “Out there, when you told me about Markov. I don’t need complications.”
    “What stopped you?”
    “Your eyes.” He paused, drawing her into his look. “Something in them. I couldn’t just walk away.”
    “You could walk away now. You should.”
    Instead, he raised his drink again, took a sip, clenched his jaw as the spirit burned his throat.
    She realized then that she had come here to use Lee Bailey. That thing where a part of her mind understood what she was up to, but hid it. Did she have a split personality, or was it simply that she had many protective layers, a defense built up over the years?
    Use him for that raw, animal response he had woken within her. He had stirred up needs she had long since suppressed and forgotten. Responses she had never even known she had.
    But use him also for who he was. Lee Bailey. One of the Bailey Boys. A gangster who might just prove to be a match for Hristo Markov. She didn’t know how, but...
    She looked at him. He said he had seen something in her eyes. Well she had seen something in his, too. Something that stopped her now, made her feel that setting out to use him was not right.
    Why must things be so difficult?
    She sipped at her drink, studying him closely.
    “What is it?” she said. He’d been flexing one fist: straightening the fingers, then clenching again. “What did you do?”
    He smiled, something that transformed his