Page 49 of Never Say Never

"Stop that," I chastised as I walked over to the desk and snatched up a few tissues. I cleaned up quickly before I adjusted my clothes and made sure I was appropriate. "Will you get to work? We've got things to do."

Paul stood up and licked his lips. "Yes, sir. I'll see you later." He winked.

I shivered as the door closed behind him. The man was the devil. Just when I thought I had found the depths of my own depravities, there he was showing me new ones I never thought I'd crave. Now all I could think about was him under my desk, my legs spread as he bobbed his head up and down my cock while I tended to my emails. I wanted it so badly, my chest ached. As I rubbed at it, I sat behind my computer and booted it up.

I have got to get him out of my head. That man is driving me insane.

My legs still didn't work, so I didn't bother getting up to lock the door. It would have to wait. Instead, I got started on my day. It wasn't long before I regretted not locking that damn door.

"York, we've got a problem," Hunter said as he burst inside.

"Sure, let yourself in," I said. "I wasn't doing anything at all."

"I'm serious, sir." He locked the door before he moved to my desk swiftly, the look on his face filled with so much concern that I paused. "Marianna is dead, along with her husband, Diego.”

I stiffened. "What?"

"Benito Vitale's housekeeper? They just found her and her husband executed. The husband was tortured on the floor of their home."

My body bristled. Shit. I'd just had that feeling that something was wrong. It had been a niggling little thing, some twinge in the back of my brain that she had been acting differently. She'd pulled away a bit. Maybe she felt like she was in danger too.

I tried to think about who I had talked to. I analyzed the visits I'd had with her. Each one I had felt as if we were as safe as we were going to be. I'd wanted witness protection for her and her family, but my bosses said no, not until she gave more than crumbs. They wanted to make her squirm. I knew she was trying to remain loyal to them, to keep quiet. Whether it was because she felt she owed Benito or she was terrified of the Vitales altogether, I wasn't sure. However, she had been my lifeline.

"Boss?"

I glanced up at Hunter. "Yeah?"

"There's something else."

Heat swept through my body. "What?"

"Some of the information that we've been gathering on the Vitales, Acetos, and Triads have been leaked. We're noticing them pulling back from some of their favorite places and disengaging from certain people."

"All of them?"

"All of them."

I shot out of my seat. "Shit!" I slammed my fists onto my desk as anger coursed through my veins. Just like that, I was fucked. My boss wouldn't hear me out about this, it would be on me. And on top of that, it meant somewhere, somehow, we had a mole. Whether they were doing it intentionally or not, that remained to be seen. I sank into my chair. "Give me, uh... give me a minute to think about this before we move forward."

Hunter searched my face. "Yes, sir. If there's anything I can do..."

"There isn't."

Hunter nodded, excused himself, and exited. I watched him go before I leaned against my chair and sagged into it. There was no way around the colossal mess that I had started during this investigation. A botched raid, my informant was dead, and we had a mole. I shouldn't have been surprised, each of the families we were after were ruthless and capable of anything, but I'd gone into the job with so much ego just knowing that I could do it. That I could be half the man my father was.

"Shit!" I snapped.

Every bit of calm, coolness that I usually possessed was gone. I wanted to punch something until my knuckles bled and all of the frustration poured out of me. Instead, I pinched the bridge of my nose and blew out a deep breath. Slowly, my resolve returned. I opened my eyes, staring at my computer in disbelief.

I had to start over from square one.

The sun disappeared long ago, but I still plugged away behind my computer. I'd searched every file, made possible new contacts for informants, and had developed several plans that still didn't feel right. More raids, more operations, more information to be gathered. Every step-by-step process felt like a mental slog. Like it was never going to be good enough. If I kept failing, how would that look? My career would be ruined and that was just the small things. If this war was allowed to continue, innocent lives would be lost.

And it would be on me.

"York."

I looked up. Paul stood in the doorway, a frown on his face. I wasn't used to seeing that. His smile was gone for once and I wished it would come back just so that I felt a little bit better.