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Jace nodded. “Yeah.”
“Not your type either. So,” he drawled, “what about the woman broke through my big brother’s stony exterior?”
Jace dropped his gaze to his screen again, avoiding the question. “What makes you think she got to me?”
“C’mon, bro. We all heard you say you knew the color of her underwear.”
Dammit. He didn’t want to get into this right now, and definitely not with his kid brother. Growing up smack in the middle of five brothers made Jaren into something of a tattletale. His mother often joked that if a wildfire broke out, Jaren would beat the flames there to report it.
“Let’s stick to the plan, okay?” he muttered.
Jaren sat back on Bronte’s pink sofa, arm stretched along the back and his legs kicked out in front of him, looking as out of place as a biker at a horse auction. Not that he’d ever make it to one to find out at this pace.
“Right,” Jaren drawled. “The plan. Step two: find out whose blood is on that shirt.”
Jace nodded, finished typing off a message to Corrine, and set aside his laptop. “If it is the partner’s, we’ve got more loose threads in this case.”
“The partner who stole information,” he reminded him.
“Most likely she stole the software that will change the face of the healthcare industry,” Jace said in disgust.
Jaren tapped a hand on the faux leather vinyl. The tattoos on each finger that spelled WILD looked even more out of place against the pink color but matched the four knuckles of his other hand that said FREE. He also wore a couple big knuckle rings they all referred to as “tooth bashers” because of the damage they could do to a man in a fight. His brother had immersed himself more in the darker side of riding motorcycles than the rest of them, but his heart was in the right place.
With a sigh, Jace sat back in his chair. “I’m sure that’s what piqued The Broker’s interest as well. He doesn’t seem to go after small companies or people who don’t have influence.”
“Like the congressman.”
They both fell silent for a moment, deep in thought about their shortcomings and how the congressman’s daughter died on their watch. Though Judd took more responsibility for it than the rest of them, Jace still felt the weight and would until they finally caught the man behind it. All signs pointed to The Broker, but they’d been wrong before.
Jace roused. “Tomorrow we head for the trade show in Napa.”
“At least we’ll get away from the noise of the city.”
“But we have to worry about transporting the ward without incident. I still can’t believe I agreed to let her attend.”
“It’s our chance to draw out The Broker. You know he’ll be there.”
Jace’s gut churned at the thought of again putting Bronte within that man’s reach. But when Jaren and McCoy suggested this route, Jace had to go with his gut feeling. And his gut was telling him the only way to end it was to drag the beast from his lair.
He shook his head. “I still don’t like it, man.”
“None of us want a repeat of what happened with the congressman’s daughter…but are you sure there’s not more to it than that, Jace?”
“Like what?”
“Like you falling for your ward.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jaren’s eyes creased at the corners with amusement. “Surrre, bro,” he drawled. “Keep tellin’ yourself that you aren’t into Bronte. Who wouldn’t be? She’s got a bangin’ body.”
He leveled a glare at his brother. “How ’bout I smash out your front teeth and send them home to Mom so she can play tooth fairy?”
Jaren chuckled. Dropping his arm from the back of the sofa, he stood. “You’re all talk. Every one of us Abels knows it too. You’re the softy of the family.”
Jace gained his feet. Maybe he was more soft-hearted than some of his brothers, but no one was going to fuck with him—or his ward.
Jaren turned to him as if remembering something. “Kimmy told us you’re her fiancé.”
