Blood
Dante
He waited until we were ten feet clear of the porch before he turned on me.
“What the fuck are you doing, Dante?”
I’d been waiting for it. I’d known it was coming the second he’d seen us together. My brother didn’t miss things. That was his whole fucking reason for being.
“Don’t start,” I warned him.
“I’d have to be blind not to notice there’s something going on between you two.”
I spread my hands. “There’s nothing going on between us.” Like I hadn’t kissed her within an inch of her life last night, then gotten her off on my hand.
He wasn’t fooled. “Yeah, right.”
“She’s not the leak,” I said.
He widened his stance and crossed his arms over his chest. “That what she told you?”
“That’s what I know, okay? I’ve been with her all goddamn weekend, Nico. She doesn’t know anything. Hell, she didn’t even know what we did until I walked in with Izzy.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Despite what you think, not everybody is as skeptical as you and me. Some people are just innocently going about their lives—”
Nico scoffed. “Listen to yourself. Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”
“Fuck off,” I retorted.
But he had a point. I wasn’t acting like myself. Hadn’t been since I’d seen her standing there like a princess in that silk gown. I did know one thing, though.
“She’s not the leak.”
Nico spread his hands. “She’s smart. She’s pretty. She’s exactly the type of person who could face an outfit like that. How do you know we’re not the ones being played here? Maybe Malakov installed her, and he’s using her to get to you. To us.”
I shook my head.
“You know he likes the lookers,” Nico cautioned.
I rolled my eyes. “Christ, you’re paranoid.”
“And you’re a fool.” He strode to his motorcycle, lifted his gloves off the seat, and started pulling them on. “Vincent warned us there was a leak in that gallery.”
“He never said it was her.”
“He never said it wasn’t,” he snapped back. “She’s playing you, brother. Can’t you see that?”
I gritted my jaw. “You think everyone’s guilty.”
“What’s happened to you, man? Six months ago, you’d have sat that woman in a basement and let Rocco do his thing until the truth came out one way or the other. Now I walk in here and you’re sitting across the table from her like she’s the goddamn family lawyer.”
“She’s not part of this,” I gritted out, suddenly realizing I really meant it. My hands balled into fists. He might be blood, but I wasn’t above punching my brother in the face. It’s how we’d settled many of our grievances over the years.
“Or maybe you don’t want her to be.”
I glared at him. “Just look at the transactions, okay? If you find anything that points the finger at her, I’ll let you throw the first punch.”
“For real?” His eyebrow quirked.
The bastard hadn’t won a fight with me since the ninth grade. And that was only because I’d been distracted by Janey Campbell, who I later found out had been paid by my brother to walk past me in her bikini.
But that was Nico. He didn’t play fair either.
“You won’t,” I warned him. “She’s clean. And she made a good point about the fence. Focus on that. We need to figure out who else is doing what we’re doing.”
Nico stared at me for a long moment. “What has any of this got to do with the shipment? If it wasn’t her, and I’m not saying it wasn’t, why are we wasting our time here?”
“Because someone tried to kill her yesterday.” I cleared my throat. “Someone other than me.”
Nico stared at me. “What? Who?”
I shrugged. “Went to her apartment to pick up some stuff and the door had been forced. Nothing was taken.”
He frowned. “You sure?”
“Positive. Whoever broke in wasn’t looking to rob the place. They were looking for her.”
There was a moment’s silence. An eagle cried out overhead. One of the guards, who were keeping a discreet distance, crunched across the gravel.
Eventually, Nico said, “Why?”
“Because maybe whoever ambushed our shipment was using her gallery to launder their money. Maybe that’s how they found out about the paintings and our product.”
Nico’s eyes sharpened. “You think that weasel Alberto told them?”
“Could be.” I glanced back at the cabin. “How well did you vet the assistant, Chloe?”
“Pretty thoroughly. Couldn’t find any connection to Malakov, or any other organized crime group.”
“What about Central America?” I asked.
He grunted. “I’ll take another look.”
“And speak to Vincent. See what he has to say about her.”
“Will do. Think he’s meeting Valentina today anyway, so I’ll ask him when I see him.”
I nodded. My mother and Vincent were old friends, going back to the days when my father had been alive. But for as long as I could remember, he’d been her chief fixer and money man.
“You going to tell her about Evelyn?” I asked, knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret. She’d see right through him in a heartbeat. I was a slightly better liar, but even I could only fool her for so long. The woman was a human lie detector.
He shrugged as if that was obvious. “You can’t hide this from her.”
I gave a gruff nod. “Okay, then.”
A corner of his mouth twitched. “You prepared for the shitstorm?”
I squared my shoulders. “I’ll be ready.”