I stared back.
“What are you doing here?” he finally blurted as he approached my desk.
“Cleaning up this pile of horseshit. That’s what I’m doing.”
“What’s wrong with it?” he snapped.
“What’s wrong with it?Did you do all of this?”
“I had everything under control?—”
“No, you didn’t. I saw your thirty-five bullet-point note of utter confusion.”
A flash of annoyance moved across his face and then stayed in place. “I asked what you’re doing here.”
“Working.” I held up the stack of papers I’d spent the last hour reorganizing. “We’re behind on payments and shipments, and it’s only been a week. What did you do exactly? Come in here and shuffle everything like a deck of cards?”
I knew he was really mad when his face tinted red. “Did Dad ask you to come back?”
“Yes.”
The color stayed in his face, but his eyes flicked away. His nostrils flared like a bull’s and I was the red flag. “Asshole only gave me a week.”
“Don’t take it personally,” I said. “This is a really shitty job most of the time. You’re better off being in the field and handling the drop-offs and collections.”
He continued to look furious, like I wasn’t even there.
“What happened with Wolfe?”
“Dad wouldn’t change his mind.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because this business is mine. Dad says he accepts that I’m with Wolfe…he just doesn’t accepthim.”
“But he’s a rat?—”
“He’s not the rat, and you fucking know it.”
He stilled on the other side of my desk, his angry eyes meeting mine.
“It seemed like you liked him.”
“I did. Until I realized he was a liar.”
“He’s not. The only reason I’m alive is because of him.”
“Unless he’s the one who sent Warren?—”
“You don’t believe that either. There’s no way anyone could possibly believe that.”
Leo held my gaze for a moment before he looked away. He took a step back from the desk and released an angry sigh. “If you reallybelieve that, then it’s pretty fucked up that you came back. So Wolfe just sits at home while you work for the people who hate him?”
I didn’t take the bait. “The rat will get caught sooner or later, and everyone will know Wolfe is innocent. Just a matter of time…”
A heavy silence passed between us as he stared at me. He looked angry again, more like furious. “Dad says you’re the smart one, but you’re a goddamn idiot if you believe Wolfe is innocent. He leaves Cosa Nostra and comes to us out of nowhere. Seduces the boss’s daughter just to humiliate his new employer. Learns our trade just when the Skull King comes to monopolize the powder market. Too much of a coincidence, but you still believe him because he’s a pretty man who gives you good dick. Pathetic.”
It was obvious he and my father had spoken about this because they seemed to parrot each other perfectly. I wasn’t sure if my father was the one influencing my brother, or if it was the other way around. “I guess time will tell.”
