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Gregory exhaled. He knew my temper as well as anyone else inside the family. If I didn’t calm down, Napa Valley would be eradicated in its entirety. I wielded that much power.
“There’s the charge of money laundering as well,” Gregory said more softly than before.
“That’s fucking bullshit and you know it.”
“That may be the case, but Mr. Canfield outplayed her.”
Yeah, so had the vineyard worker she’d hired six months before. I’d been the one to discover the man’s treachery while on the plane. It was obvious my sister needed more protection than she’d been willing to accept. Theodore Canfield. I kept the traitor’s name on the tip of my tongue.
Seething, I rubbed my forehead, the pain behind my eyes becoming more intense by the minute. There were two things that could dull the ache.
Alcohol.
And more violence.
Gregory had warned me over the years to keep my rage in check. He was handling me again, which pissed me off even more. The worst aspect of the crime against my family was that Theodore had stolen pertinent information, details that the family used or would use to blackmail various politicians, law enforcement officers, and people in influential spaces. Everyone had a dirty little secret and it had taken years to discover the ugliness hidden beneath the murky waters of people who could either become an issue or allies.
And the file itself had been wiped clean, no backup. Given Theodore’s clearance, he was the only person other than Elena who’d been given access. Goddamn it. If placed in the wrong hands, every scrap of information could be used to destroy us.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“Where is he?” I asked my lieutenant, turning to face him when he didn’t answer right away. “Where the fuck is he, Jonas?”
“He’s dead, boss. His funeral is tomorrow.”
I cocked my head, waiting for an explanation.
Jonas knew better than to hold back on me. “He had a heart attack.”
After a few seconds, I burst into laughter. “So the man who tipped off the police is dead of natural causes. This calls for a celebration. Get Elena out of jail, Gregory.” I took long strides toward the bar, realizing that at least my sister had excellent taste in liquor, the single expensive perk I’d noticed. As I grabbed a bottle of OVAL Swarovski, I could hear Gregory’s continued heavy breathing. “What’s wrong, old friend? Not in the mood for a quick libation before heading to the courthouse?”
“It’s not that simple, Phoenix. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
I added two ice cubes and continued pouring a glass, not bothering to offer one to the two other men in the room. “Meaning what?”
“The prosecutor threw in my face they have an open and shut case against her, black and white evidence as in doctored numbers and God knows what else. The kind that it doesn’t matter if Theodore Canfield is dead or alive.”
I wrapped my hand around the dense crystal before glancing over my shoulder. “Where is this evidence? In the prosecuting attorney’s hands?” I knew the answer myself. If that was the case, bail wouldn’t have been allowed. The police had been fucking with my family in both California and Pennsylvania since our arrival from Greece twenty years before.
Gregory scratched his chin, a twinkle finally forming in his eyes. “I’m not usually a betting man but given their reluctance to tell me anything, I’ll take an educated guess they don’t have it in their possession. But I’m willing to bet they think they know where it is. James Buckley is a tenacious prosecutor.”
I leaned against the bar, too hot under the collar to play a game of semantics. “What are you talking about? Either they have some tainted evidence, or they don’t.”
“They’re not telling me anything, which means they’re doing what they can to buy some time.”
“For what reason?”
When my attorney glanced at my lieutenant, my anger clawed through the surface. I was known by my enemies as a suave savage, a man who’d enjoy a fine meal five minutes after digging out the heart of a man with my bare hands.
“Answer me.” I pounded my fist on the bar, the force sending two glasses crashing to the floor.
“Calm down, Phoenix,” Gregory insisted.
I turned my attention to my lieutenant, someone I also considered a friend. “Did you dig up every scrap of information you could find on Canfield?” From what I’d been told, the man had no wife or family, no real friends that Elena had mentioned. Theodore lived alone in a small house, even though my sister had paid him a small fortune for protecting the winery assets while laundering money for the family’s other businesses. She’d made a fortune in her own right, parlaying her wealth into two other legitimate businesses.
Her frantic call had put me on the first flight out of Philly. But it had been too late.
“I can’t be privy to whatever method of revenge you’re determined to use, Phoenix, but as your attorney, I’m going to tell you to take it easy. Whatever the Feds think they have, they’ll use as a bargaining chip against your family. Your sister is merely a pawn.”
