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“No, I’m not going to charge either of you with anything,” the district attorney said. “If it were to become obvious that we have a tendency to charge folks who come forward with crimes someone else has committed—even months or years later—then we would have a hard time convincing people to come forward.
Above and beyond the fact of it being a hard sell to a jury, we don’t want to teach members of the community that they’ll be punished for bringing crimes to light.” Victor suppressed the urge to laugh at the man’s righteous stance; but it was accurate. It would be hard for them to find narks if the justice system in Philadelphia went around prosecuting them.
“What do you need from us?” Victor had already begun to feel bored with the meeting itself, since it was clear that the district attorney was weighing his options.
“I’d like to listen to the recording you made and see how well I think it would stand up,” the prosecutor said. “Once that’s done...of course, your brother is working with an organized crime ‘family.’”
“Right,” Danielle said, nodding.
“We’ll have to see if we can use him for anything,” the district attorney said, matter-of-factly. “But there’s a strong possibility of at least some charges. We’ll see.”
“You’ll keep me updated on what you decide to do?” The district attorney held Danielle’s gaze.
“Do you think your brother presents a danger to you, potentially?” Danielle smiled wryly.
“I would like to tell you that I trust my brother with my life,” Danielle replied. “But I have pretty compelling evidence at this point that he is not all that invested in my safety.”
“This must be hard for you,” the prosecutor observed.
“It is,” Danielle said.
“She and I have discussed this a great deal,” Victor added.
“If you want us to keep someone around your residence—undercover, of course, just someone to be available more quickly than standard police response—we could do that for you,” the DA said.
“Mostly I just want to know what’s going to happen—have at least a little advance warning,” Danielle said.
“I think that’s fair,” the DA said. He looked at the file he’d set up in front of him for a moment. “If we decide to move forward with charges—and if we decide to grab your brother—then we’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” Victor said. “We appreciate it.”
They stayed for a few minutes more, making small talk, and Victor thought—hoped—that Danielle had some sense of closure about the situation by the time the prosecutor told them that he needed to speak with someone else about an ongoing criminal investigation. Danielle stood first, and Victor once more followed her, this time out of the office, taking her hand in his as soon as they’d cleared the door.
“How do you feel?” Danielle shrugged as they walked through the building, towards the entrance, where Alan would be waiting with the car.
“I feel like I’ve handed my brother over to the cops,” Danielle said with a wry smile.
“Do you feel like you betrayed him?” Danielle considered that for a moment.
“I feel like if I did betray him, he betrayed me first,” she said. “I don’t owe him nothing.” Victor gave her hand a quick squeeze.
“As long as you’re okay with it, I’m backing you,” he told her. “Do you want to get dinner before we head back to the apartment?” Danielle grinned.
“You’ve been telling me about Butcher and Singer for a while now—why don’t you see if they’ll save us a table?” Victor grinned.
“Happy to,” he said. “And as soon as we get in the door I’m ordering you whatever cocktail you want.”
“You just want me to get tipsy so I’ll have sex with you in the car on the way home,” Danielle teased him. Victor chuckled and shook his head.
“No—that we save for a nigh
t when it isn’t Alan driving us,” he said. They’d begun talking about fantasies they had, and he was more than a little interested in indulging some of Danielle’s ideas—and some of his, considering how excited she’d been at hearing them.
Now that they were openly dating, there was no reason to be shy about anything, although Victor knew some of the ideas they’d talked about together would need a little forethought to pull off without public indecency charges.
“Whoever we get as an Uber driver is going to be pissed,” Danielle suggested. Victor snickered.
“I’ll make sure to give him a fifty-dollar tip in advance,” he told her.
