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“Make it a hundred. And a prepaid card to a detailing service.” Victor laughed out loud as they left the building together, hand-in-hand, and thought that if nothing else, going to the DA had put the question out of their keeping. Whatever happened next was a question for the law to answer; they would just keep on doing what they were doing.
*
“Of all the places to meet up he had to pick one of the most stereotypical ones in the city,” Danielle muttered to herself. She was standing near the Liberty Bell, somewhere she hadn’t gone since she’d been in high school; but it was where Sam had wanted to meet her. I’m probably at least a little bit crazy to meet with him like this.
The district attorney had told her a few weeks before that he had decided to move forward with Sam’s case. The recording had compelling evidence, and he thought that with a warrant and some luck, that they could have a cast-iron case on Sam’s involvement in a money laundering scheme, which would mean a good bit of jail time. Of course, Sam would know without a doubt that it was Danielle who had turned him in, who had given the DA the evidence, and the prosecutor had told her that she would do good to avoid her brother—not meet with him in private, anything like that. Danielle hadn’t really needed the warning.
But within a few weeks, the situation had changed. She’d been informed by the DA—quietly, privately—that they were going to use Sam to take down as much of the Bey family organization as possible. It wouldn’t be possible to take everyone out; the DA knew that. But with Sam’s knowledge of the organization’s doings, it would at least put a dent in their activity for a year or more.
Victor was waiting a little bit away; he’d agreed to come with her, to stand by in case something got dicey. Danielle had been fairly confident that things would go okay with Sam, or she wouldn’t have agreed to meet with him; but she was glad that he was there. She felt nervous in spite of generally thinking that Sam wouldn’t have begged her to meet with him—under the circumstances—with bad thoughts in his mind about what he was going to do. He didn’t have bad intentions; at least she didn’t think he did. He was cooperating with the DA, wasn’t he?
“Sis.” Danielle shook herself out of her thoughts as she heard her brother’s voice and turned her head to see him a few yards away from her.
“Hey, Sam,” Danielle said. She glanced around and caught sight of Victor, which comforted her; she would introduce her brother to the man she loved when they got past the first awkwardness of her finding out what he wanted to tell her. “This is a hell of a place to have a meeting.” Sam smiled wryly, looking for all the world—in that moment—like their father.
“I have to be careful where I go, these days,” he said quietly, moving closer to her. A group of tourists were clustered around the Liberty Bell itself, listening to a guide talking about it. After a half-dozen trips to look at historic Philadelphia landmarks in school, Danielle had the whole story more or less memorized.
“What’s going on? Why do you want to talk to me now?” Danielle crossed her arms over her chest and tried not to react to the sensitivity in her breasts, the soreness that came along with the pressure of her arms.
“There are some things you’re going to need to know,” Sam said. “First of all, I don’t blame you for turning me in. I wanted to make that clear.” Danielle raised an eyebrow, not quite believing him.
“You thought I’d betrayed you just for recording the conversation,” she pointed out skeptically.
“I’ve had some time to think about it,” Sam said, his voice dry. “I shouldn’t have put you in that position to begin with. I could have really fucked up your life if things had been even a little bit different.”
“I’m glad you’re willing to acknowledge that,” Danielle said, her voice a little stiff. Things felt so strange between them, and Danielle couldn’t help feeling sad at the suspicion that they always would. It didn’t seem fair; she had already made terms with the fact that her brother was likely to be out of her life from the moment she’d turned him in to the DA. She didn’t need the grief renewed.
“I nearly fucked your life up,” Sam said. “Least I can do is be honest about it. I guess really it was just that I felt jealous—there you were making more money than me, and legit. So, I wanted to get back at you. It was wrong, but I can’t deny I did it.” Danielle stared at her brother, stunned by the baldness of his confession. He was that willing to admit it, to apologize—even obliquely—for what he’d done?
“So, what brought you around?” Sam’s smile looked wry again.
“Well getting arrested opens up some opportunities for thinking,” he said. “And then too, being in protective custody as a key witness…” He licked his lips. “I can’t stay here very long, but there are some things I need to talk to you about.”
“Apart from apologizing to me, what do you have to say?” Danielle frowned in confusion and concern.
“Part of my deal with this is that the DA is moving me out of Philly,” Sam said quietly. “Getting me out of town to kind of...start over, I guess. Obviously, he can’t get all the people working under Lucius Bey, but the fact that I’m cooperating means that I can’t be in the city anymore. I’m a walking target.”
“So why are you meeting me here right now?” Danielle stared at her brother in shock.
“No one’s going to risk getting caught shooting me somewhere so public,” he said, shrugging. “Too many tourists, too many witnesses they can’t intimidate—and the cops would be here too fast. Not a good risk.” He sighed.
“You’re ...I guess, going into witness protection, or something like it?” Sam shrugged.
“They’re giving me somewhere else to be, and I have the option to tell one or two people where it will be—but I have to limit it, because otherwise…”
“Loose lips sink ships,” Danielle finished for him. Sam nodded.
“ I want you to know. But you’re going to have to act like I’ve just dropped off the face of the planet, get it?” Danielle nodded her agreement.
“And this is when you finally figure out you were wrong,” she said tartly. “I appreciate the apology, but it kind of sucks in terms of timing.”
“Better before I fall off the radar than after,” Sam pointed out, and Danielle had to agree with that point.
“Well, since we’re coming clean and settling everything, I might as well introduce you to Victor,” Danielle said to her brother. She looked around and spotted her boyfriend and gestured for him to approach. “He came with me, but he hung back so we could talk alone.” Victor strode up to the two of them, and Sam looked briefly distrusting—but extended his hand to the billionaire.
“I hope you’re taking good care of my sister,” he said, taking the usual older-brother line. Victor smiled and nodded.
“I hope you’re not threatening her or anything,” Victor said. Sam grimaced.
