Chapter Thirty-Seven
Colton
I found Cooper and Steele in the wine cellar, surrounded by dusty bottles and memories. They were sampling a vintage bottle Cooper had uncovered in the cellar, their heads bent together like old times. Some things never changed, even if everything else had.
“Don’t you two have legitimate businesses to run?” I leaned against a barrel, accepting the glass Cooper offered.
“Some would argue this is legitimate business.” My brother’s grin held echoes of his wilder days. “Quality control.”
“Very legitimate,” Steele agreed, though his eyes held that calculating edge I remembered from when he and Cooper had worked together. Before they’d both chosen different paths. Better paths. “Almost as legitimate as corporate law.”
I caught his meaning. We were all playing roles now—the respectable vintner, the entrepreneur, the bank’s chief counsel.
“Speaking of legitimate,” Cooper swirled his wine thoughtfully, “did you ever think we’d end up here? You with a baby on the way, me making honest wine...”
“You? Honest?” I couldn’t help but give him a rough time. “The man who once convinced the Louvre their security was impenetrable just to prove it wasn’t?”
“That was Steele’s plan,” Cooper protested. “I just provided...creative assistance.”
Steele chuckled, the sound echoing off stone walls. “As I recall, your ‘creative assistance’ involved seducing the head of security’s daughter.”
“Wife,” Cooper corrected. “And it worked, didn’t it?”
I watched them banter, these men who had once moved through shadows with deadly grace. Now Cooper grew grapes and doted on his daughter. Steele had traded heists for his restaurants, clubs and hotels, with a family of his own.
“Do you ever miss it?” I asked suddenly. “The old life?”
Cooper’s expression turned thoughtful. “Sometimes. The thrill of it. The challenge.” He smiled slightly. “But then Clara runs in with some new drawing, or Allegra looks at me like I’m worth a damn...and I don’t miss it at all.”
“The work was never the point,” Steele added quietly. “It was about proving something. To ourselves, to the world...” He trailed off, his eyes distant. “Now I have Ashlynn and Ember. A son on the way. Better things to prove.”
“And better ways to prove them,” I agreed, thinking of Isabella sleeping upstairs. Of our child growing within her. Of all the legitimate battles still ahead.
Cooper refilled our glasses. “Remember that job in Morocco? When everything went wrong and we ended up hiding in that spice merchant’s basement?”
“Three days,” Steele groaned. “My sinuses never recovered.”
“But we got out.” Cooper’s voice held meaning. “We always got out.”
“This is different,” I said, understanding his implication. “The bank isn’t some mark you can con. The stakes are higher.”
“The stakes were always high.” Steele set his glass down. “But now we have more to lose. And more to fight for.”
“That’s what worries me.” I studied the wine in my glass, thinking of Isabella’s determination to return to London. “Before, it was just us taking the risks. Now...”
“Now we have families to protect,” Cooper finished. “Which is exactly why we have to end this. All of it.”
Steele nodded slowly. “The bank, the trafficking, the whole network. We take it down properly. Legally, if we can.”
“Since when do you care about legal?” Cooper smirked.
“Since my daughter started asking questions about what I do.” Steele’s voice was quiet. “Since I realized I want my son to be proud of his father’s name.”
I understood that. The weight of legacy, of what we’d leave our children. The need to make the world better for them, not just safer.
“Looking at this place now,” I gestured at our surroundings, “it’s hard to believe how far it’s come. From helping you with the legal battle to help Allegra reclaim the property to...this.”
“Worth every effort,” Cooper said, his voice softening. “She’s made it more than just a vineyard. It’s home now.”
I nodded, glancing around the cellar. “Been looking at that restored villa just over the next ridge. Once this business with the bank is finished...Isabella loves it here. Being close to family, the slower pace.”
“Really?” Cooper’s eyes lit up. “You’d leave London?”
“The city’s lost its shine. After everything we’ve uncovered...” I shrugged. “Besides, Clara should grow up near her cousin. And whatever trouble you get into, I’d rather be close enough to help.”
“Or to bail me out,” Cooper smirked.
“That too.” I smiled. “The place is perfect, ready to move in. Similar views to this one.”
“Following in your brother’s footsteps?” Cooper grinned. “Never thought I’d see the day you’d choose country living over your London penthouse.”
“Maybe it’s time for Ashlynn and me to get a place here too,” Steele mused.
“An entire new generation among the vines,” Cooper smiled.
I thought of Isabella upstairs, of how fiercely she fought for justice. Of how she’d transformed my carefully constructed world of precedents and procedures into something more. Something meaningful.
“Speaking of,” Cooper’s tone turned serious. “We need to talk about London. About how we handle this.”
“Carefully,” I said immediately. “By the book.”
“The book won’t be enough.” Steele’s background showed in his clipped tone. “These people, they operate within the law while breaking every human decency. We need more than legal precedent.”
“We need proof that will stand up in court,” I argued. “Evidence that can’t be dismissed or buried.”
“We need both,” Cooper cut in. “We need your legal expertise, brother. But we also need our...particular skill sets.”
He meant their old talents. The ability to move unseen, to crack any security, to become whoever they needed to be to complete a job.
“No one gets hurt,” I stipulated. “Nothing that can’t be defended in court.”
“Agreed.” Steele nodded. “We do this clean. But we use every advantage we have.”
“Including the fact that they don’t know about us.” Cooper gestured between himself and Steele. “To them, you’re just the bank’s too-curious counsel with an art expert girlfriend. They don’t know about your brother with the shadowy past and his former partner, or that we’re all ready to take them down, once and for all.”
He was right. It was an advantage we hadn’t fully utilized yet. The board knew me as their reliable chief counsel—controlled, predictable, safe. They had no idea about the network of skills and resources I could access through my twin brother and his former accomplice.
“We’ll need more than that,” I said slowly. “We’ll need—”
“Already handled.” Steele’s smile was shy. “I still have contacts. Legitimate ones now…mostly. People who owe me favors. People who can help.”
“And people who want to see the bank fall,” Cooper added. “You’d be surprised how many powerful people are tired of their shit.”
I considered their words, weighing options with a lawyer’s precision and a brother’s trust. “We do this smartly. We do this carefully.”
“We do this right,” they agreed in unison.
The cellar felt different suddenly, less like a hideout and more like a war room for our future. The dusty bottles and ancient stones had seen centuries of secrets. They could hold ours too.
“To family,” Cooper raised his glass. “And to finishing what we’ve started.”
“To justice,” Steele added.
“To both,” I said quietly. “To making things right.”
We drank in silence, each lost in thoughts of what lay ahead. Of the battles to come and the peace we fought for. Of the families sleeping above us, trusting us to build a better world for them.
The wine tasted of history and hope and home. Of everything we’d gained and everything we still had to protect. Of the men we’d been and the men we’d become.
Everything we fought for. Everything we had to lose.
Everything that made the fight worth winning.