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Tapping his fingers on the top of the conference room table, Cyrus lowered his mental defenses, letting the full force of their emotions flood him. Sympathy, pure and sincere from Spencer, along with a healthy dose of curiosity.
His partner, however, was much harder to read. Almost as if he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Righteous fury, for sure, but Cyrus had worked with both of them long enough to know that every murder pissed Abbott off. It didn’t matter if it was an innocent child failed by the system or a drug dealer getting knifed in an alley, Michael Abbott took death as a personal affront.
Alongside the fury was a healthy dose of skepticism. No doubt from Mina telling them that his brother was most likely involved in Gabby’s death.
And then there was the sadness. The fury masked it, when Cyrus wasn’t prying, but it was there. Buried deep, so deep Cyrus wondered if Abbott even knew it was there anymore.
Straightening in his seat, Cyrus met Abbott’s flat gaze head on. “It was a message. For me.”
The detectives shared a look before focusing on him again. “What kind of message? From who?” Abbott asked, but without any of the curiosity Cyrus sensed pouring off of Spencer. Cyrus had the strong sense it was more of a question meant to see if he would tell the truth, to see if his story matched up with Mina’s.
“My brother, Adrian Banks, is in town. He wants the Libra Guild to sabotage the negotiations with Antini so that he can continue to smuggle vanilla beans into the states to sell on the black-market, as the sale of said goods has been a sizable portion of his business for the last ten years or so.”
Another shared look between the partners, followed by Abbott slowly raising a single eyebrow. “Your brother is smuggling illegal goods into the country and selling them on the black-market.”
“Yes.”
“How, exactly, does the brother of a prominent district attorney get into the smuggling business?”
“Well, I can’t say for sure with regards to vanilla, but the business as a whole he inherited from my parents.”
It didn’t take an empath to notice Abbott’s growing agitation as he leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the table. “You expect me to believe that your family, the upstanding, philanthropic, All-American Banks family of New York City, is secretly running some criminal empire under everyone’s noses?”
After so many years of hiding from his past, it grated more than a little to have it shoved in his face, but Cyrus willed his own emotions back as he answered the question. “Yes.”
“And they just let you walk away to become a prosecuting attorney? Bullshit,” Abbott snarled, his fury pushing to the forefront.
“There is a reason I practice in DC and not New York,” Cyrus explained, struggling to keep his voice calm. “That was the deal. My parents, for all their…foibles, loved me enough to let me forge my own path. As long as it didn’t impact their business. I stay out of their city and they stay out of mine.”
“Until now.”
Cyrus inclined his head, acknowledging Abbott’s point. “Until now. Obviously, my brother does not believe he is beholden to the deal I made with my parents. Or, he believes my new position with the Guild has altered the terms of our previous agreement.”
It was Spencer’s turn to butt in, his expression filled with the sympathy that all but radiated from him. But now there was a cunning underneath it that Cyrus wasn’t sure he would have picked up on without his powers. “You can understand why we’re finding all of this a little difficult to believe, Cyrus.”
“I do.” Letting some of the annoyance prickling at the base of his spine seep into his words, he continued. “But I would like to think that I have shown myself to be a man of character and integrity during my time here in the capital. And I would like to hope that my reputation is enough to buy me at least some suspension of disbelief in this matter.”
“Yeah, of course you have, counselor.” Spencer’s smile was conciliatory, meant to soothe and appease. “I mean, sure we don’t always see eye to eye, but we’re on the same team here.”
“I appreciate that, detective.”
“Say we believe you.” Now that the “good cop” had gotten his say, apparently they were back to the “bad cop” with Abbott taking the lead once more. “Say we just take this whole crazy story at face value. You honestly believe your brother would risk getting caught with blood on his hands, in your city, just to send you some cryptic message about, what? Some business deal?”
“It isn’t cryptic, not if you know Adrian the way I do.” Terror sank icy claws into his chest, but he forced himself to breathe past it. “He wants the trade deal to go south. And as callous as it sounds, Gabby was nothing more than a preview of what is to come if I continue to refuse him. She isn’t the real target.”
He could practically see the wheels turning in their minds as they worked through what he was saying. And he could see the moment it clicked for Abbott, in the way his eyes widened ever so slightly, then narrowed dangerously. Felt it in the sudden wave of protective fury that rolled off of him.
“Goddammit. Mina?”
“Yes,” Cyrus confirmed with a calm he no longer even remotely felt. “We’ve been…involved, romantically. So if I do not do what my brother is asking, he will come for her next. I’ve hired private security to watch over her, but it’s only a matter of time before they miss something, or she decides to take matters into her own hands. I would prefer to have this situation with my brother handled before either of those events come to pass.”
Leaning back in his seat, Abbott blew out a breath. “We can bring him in for questioning, if you’d like. But if he has the kind of money it sounds like he has, his lawyers will have him sprung in a matter of hours.”
“I understand all too well the constraints of the law in this matter. And, as much as I might wish we could lock him up and throw away the key, I still believe in the rule of law. I’ll be happy to assist your investigation in any way I can, to speed things along.”
“We appreciate that, Cyrus. But, you’ll understand if we can’t keep you as looped in with this one as we normally would.”
“Of course.” Pushing to his feet, Cyrus shook hands with both detectives before seeing himself out.
