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Oh, God. I wasn’t certain I had the strength to keep my resolve. Especially now. “He’ll come after you.”
“I doubt it. I provided him with some incentive to keep his distance.”
I snapped my head over my shoulder. “What are you talking about?”
“Galen was in debt to the Azzurris. Gambling. That’s why he entered into a working relationship with the man and his organization. However, my brother was no fool. He used the time to gather details of several criminal acts. I don’t know who he managed to gather the information and at this point it doesn’t matter. What this does is provide a layer of protection. If anything happens to me, the files will immediately be sent to the FBI.”
My God. He was out of his mind. I stared at him, a cold chill trickling down my spine.
“You think you’ve thought of everything. What happens if he’s able to get his hands on Lily. What then? Have you thought it through? Would you really release the evidence knowing that as his last act he may decide to take her from you permanently?” What the fuck did he think he was doing?
“I need to clear his name.”
“Unless something happened, I don’t think your brother is being accused of anything, entirely the opposite.”
He shook his head. “The police gave me a hard time about him, acting as if he’d been under investigation before he was murdered.”
Murdered. I pressed my hand against the desk. “You know that for certain?”
“Both he and his wife were killed.”
I walked toward him, stopping myself and looking away. This was getting out of hand. “I don’t know what to say to you. Would you like to go somewhere and talk about this?”
“What’s there to talk about? Michael Azzurri had Marissa killed to try and control Galen. When that didn’t work, he had the brake line in his car cut. That’s why he had an accident.”
His expression of pain was gut-wrenching. I closed the distance until I was standing only a few inches away. “You need to deal with the anger inside of you. If you don’t, you’re going to ruin the rest of your life, if not die in the process.”
“You need to trust me, Harlow. I wasn’t born yesterday. I know how to handle this shit.”
Something snapped inside of me, the frustration of dealing with such a hardheaded man who was determined to get himself killed too much to bear.
“Do you? Really? Because from where I stand it appears your desire to vindicate what happened to you years ago has turned you into a vigilante. And do you know what happens to men like that? Their entire world is destroyed while they’re festering in their bravado and need for revenge. That’s ridiculous. I don’t want to be afraid every day, worried that I’ll hear about you gunned down in some alley.”
The look on his face didn’t change, but his eyes faded into the same venom I’d witnessed after meeting him. “That won’t happen. You forget I also know how to protect myself.”
“Guns?”
“Several of them.”
“In a house with a child.”
Exhaling, he looked away. “Not where she can get to them, Harlow. I’m no fool.”
“This is crazy. How are you going to explain keeping her in a cage?”
“This will end.”
“No, it won’t.”
I hated the tension between us.
“Harlow. I want you to come and stay with me. That will make both of us feel better.”
The statement was so out of the blue I wasn’t certain how to react. “I don’t understand.”
“I need to make certain you’re protected until this blows over.”
“Blows over? Wait a minute,” I said, trying to process his demand. It wasn’t even a request. “Let me get this straight. You spit in the face of your brother’s enemy making him yours and now you feel the need to protect me?”
