Page 2 of Prohibited

“Good,” he said at last. “I’m glad we understand one another.” Then, he loosened his hand just enough that she could suck in a breath. He kissed her, hard, so that her lip started bleeding again. But he paid no attention, and he forced his tongue into her mouth, taking what he wanted from her as he always did. And she, in return, forced herself to perform for him. Shifting her body against his.

And the whole while, a voice inside her screaming at her to get away.

“I’ve thought of a way you can make it up to me,” he said at last, breaking away from her. He licked the red of her blood off his lips, the coppery scent of it on his breath as he looked down into her face.

“And how is that?” she said, also licking her lips, stomach turning at the taste of blood going down her throat.

“I need you to do something for me,” he said. “We’ve got a job to do and I need bait.” He smiled, the smile that he wore when he was about to hurt someone. “And I can’t think of a finer piece of bait than you.”

“What kind of job?” Eels swirled around in her stomach, churning and churning until she felt like she would vomit.

“Just a robbery,” he said, stroking her cheek again. “Don’t worry your pretty head too much, Evelyn. Just do what I tell you and everything will turn out perfectly.”

A robbery. He’d never asked her to dabble in any of his illicit dealings. It was her one consolation while being forced to remain in his orbit. Now that too was being eliminated. An ominous feeling filled her belly, but she nodded. “Okay.”

Walter smiled.

Chapter two

Ryan

“Let Joey deal this time.” Lindsay narrowed his eyes through the haze of cigarette smoke, frowning at Ryan across the card table. “Ryan’s cheating.”

“I’d never.” Ryan crushed the Lucky Strike he’d just finished smoking and lit another one. “You’re just bitter because you’re bad at poker, Linds.”

“Hard not to be bad at poker when someone’s cheating,” Lindsay fired back.

“Shut up, Pony.” Alex, whose arm was draped around the back of Lindsay’s chair, lifted his hand and snapped Lindsay’s suspenders lightly. “Cheating is part of the game.”

“He’s always been a tattle tale,” Ryan said, smirking at Lindsay while he raised his glass of applejack to his lips, ice clinking against the crystal.

“Oh, gimme the cards, Ryan.” Joey gathered up the pile of playing cards and began to make sense of them, shuffling them with effortless grace. “Can’t a man just win some cash without all this squabbling? This is a poker game, not a quilting circle.”

“I resent that,” Lindsay said, ignoring Joey’s statement, pointing directly at Ryan. “You just don’t like being caught.”

“Where’s Tommy at, anyway?” Joey said, words stunted by the cigarette he held between his lips as his hands worked to deal the cards.

“Should have been here a while ago.” Ryan drew a watch out of the pocket of his wool trousers and flicked the face open. “Couple hours. Probably got held up checking the quality of the product with the customer.”

A chuckle went around the table. Tommy was great at gaining and retaining customers, but he had a habit of overindulging with them.

“I’m sure Sandy will carry him in here in the wee hours of the morning,” Lindsay said. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Ryan put the watch back in his pocket. The game started, but while he was trying to focus on strategy and betting, his mind was still on his brother. Even though it wasn’t unusual for Tommy to overstay his meetings, especially with new clients, there was a knot that had been forming in Ryan’s stomach all day. Apprehension. He didn’t know why.

“Come to think of it,” Lindsay said, taking a Lucky Strike out of the box that Ryan had discarded on the table. “Weren’t you going to go with him, Ryan?” He struck a match against the edge of the table and touched it to the tip of his cigarette until it glowed.

“I was,” Ryan said. It was typical for them to go together to meet new clients. “But old Granger called me up andasked for a last-minute delivery. Impromptu get together with friends.”

“Old Granger,” Joey said with a sigh. A notorious client of theirs, wealthy as Midas, but had a terrible time planning in advance and often begged for last-minute deliveries of hooch. As irritating as it was, it was also unwise to turn him down because he offered twice as much money for the trouble. And he sometimes paid more when Ryan delivered because he had a soft spot for him. A hard spot, actually, Tommy liked to snicker. And it was true that he was enamored with Ryan, but he never did more than press an outrageous amount of money into his hand and insist that he stay for a drink and share some stories from the War.

Normally, he took some degree of pleasure in his afternoon whiskeys with old Granger, but today when the old man called him up, there was that ominous feeling in his belly, like he shouldn’t leave this one to Tommy. And for the first time, he’d almost told Granger no. But, he reasoned with himself, Tommy was perfectly capable of handling this on his own. He’d done it before in a pinch. Sandy, who had arranged the whole meeting, would go with him, along with Henry for good measure.

“Fold,” Alex said, across the table, laying down his cards with a look of distaste. Their eyes met and Ryan felt something twist in his stomach. He looked away quickly as he always did, and waited for the strange, uncomfortable feeling to subside. Even after he averted his eyes, he could still feel Alex looking at him.

“Fold,” Lindsay said. With a sigh, he pushed his chair back and got up slowly, straightening the hinges on his leg brace. Then he took up his cane and limped around the table.

“Where the hell are you going?” Joey barked after him.