Enough was enough.
“Why are you two acting so weird?” I huffed, looking back and forth between my brothers. “And what’s with the interrogation? I thought we were here to talk about Danica Rose, not my personal life. Somebody better start talking.”
Luka rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh. “All right, Stefan,” he said. “Why don’t you get down to it?”
Instinctively, I held my breath. Of course it would have been too much to hope that the Russian mob would just disappear on its own. But that was exactly why I’d bargained with the devil—er, Mrs. Malone. In order to make the Bratva go away. Was she not holding up her end of the agreement? My stomach started to churn.
Stefan nodded. “Okay. The reason I’m asking about your life is because…there’s still a very real possibility looming that DRM will go under and all of us will end up jobless and starting from scratch—”
“If not actually murdered in our sleep,” Luka cut in.
“Luka!” Stefan scolded.
“Sorry,” Luka said with a shrug. “I’m just saying.”
“Anyway. I’m still not convinced we’ll be able to work things out with the Bratva, so I’d like all of us to have a contingency plan in place. The subject certainly bears consideration,” Stefan finished.
“Hope for the best and prepare for the worst?” I added.
My brothers nodded grimly.
“I can appreciate the practicality,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Yeah,” Luka said drily. “Thanks for that, Dad.”
“Look, at the end of the day I’m not trying to run anyone’s life—I just want to make sure we’re all okay.” Stefan looked grim as he drank his coffee.
“What will you do if the agency folds?” I asked him.
I felt a little sick just saying it out loud. I didn’t miss what KZ Modeling had been, but Danica Rose wasours. My brothers and I had built the agency back up from the charred ashes of personal and professional ruin that our criminal father had left it in, and it would break my heart if it was taken away from us. Especially because of something our father had done.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Stefan confessed, leaning back in his chair. “Especially with a baby on the way. But I’ll be fine. I’ve made a ton of business connections and I know I could hit up my contacts and find someone looking for help running their company.”
Smiling, I added, “And with Tori’s Linguistics degree and her gift for languages, international business would be a natural next step if it comes down to it.”
“Indeed,” Stefan said. He looked over at Luka, who nodded.
“Brooklyn and I will be okay too,” Luka said. “I’m sure if we put feelers out, we’d find clients interested in any kind of advertising and marketing firm we started. And actually, with Brooklyn’s background in modeling and my MBA, we could encapsulate whatever type of modeling business we want, and use her experience and connections to get it off the ground.”
Now both of my brothers were looking at me expectantly, and I realized that this meeting was more aboutmyplans than theirs. They seemed to have everything well in hand, but they were obviously worried about what would happen to their little sister if DRM folded.
I was both touched and annoyed at their concern. After all, I was an adult, too. A grown-ass woman with a fancy photography degree, a banging portfolio under my belt, and—most importantly—years of professional job experience
“Guess I’ll find out if art reallycanpay the bills,” I said lightly.
They exchanged a look.
“What about Ford?” Stefan asked. “You think he’d be okay with supporting you for a bit, if necessary? Just until you figure things out.”
Bristling at the insinuation that I might not be able to pull my own weight with my photography gigs, I lashed out with, “Well he can certainly afford to cover me, can’t he?”
I was feeling more snappish than they’d probably expected, even though it wasn’t their fault that we were in this mess—and it really wasn’t their fault that I’d entered into a contract first with Ford and then with his family…both of which were bound to make me miserable at the end of the year. But I still wasn’t ready to admit any of that to my brothers.
They had no idea I’d gambled all of our futures—and the future of Danica Rose—on my fake marriage, hoping against hope that the upcoming year would give us enough time to pull off thisdeus ex machina.
I decided I’d better head them off at the pass before they could ask more questions about me and Ford, so I volunteered, “I was actually just speaking with Andrew Apellido about a job opportunity recently. Have you heard of him?”
“Andrew Apellido?” Luka’s eyebrows went up. “Holy shit, dude’s a legend! I love that guy. He launched a new magazine project a few months ago. Stefan, have you checked it out?”
