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Salvatore appears at my side, taking the bag from my hand before hefting it over his shoulder. “You know, I thought that being around you was going to be hell, but I didn’t think that I would have to sit around at photoshoots.”
“You do know that nobodyaskedyou to stay, right? No one even invited you to be here. Apparently, you like spending time with me,” I say, heading for the parking lot and the black truck sitting by the entrance.
“I have business that I need to deal with, which means that I need to take your ass home. Are you going to make me toss you into the back of the truck, or are you going to get in and not fight me on it?”
“It’ll be a surprise,” I say, grinning to myself as I walk over to the truck.
Salvatore watches me as I hover near the passenger door. At the last second, I turn and head for my own car, locking him out of it as the engine starts. I roll down the window and grin.
“See you at home.”
6
SALVATORE
Damien looks out the window, watching as Brielle dances to the music blasting from a speaker she’s got on her windowsill. In between dance moves, she prunes the rose bushes. I watch for a moment as she puts the flowers in a vase and smiles to herself.
God, how can someone so annoying be so stunning?
“Your new neighbor looks like she is a bit of a character,” Damien says, grinning as he looks over his shoulder at me. “You must hate that.”
I shrug and grab my cup of coffee from the kitchen counter. “That’s Brennan’s sister. Mostly keeps to herself.”
“I didn’t know he had a sister.” Damien sits down at the dining table and starts hauling files out of his backpack. “You and I need to go over all of these before the others get here. As soon as they get here, there is going to be no hope of getting anything done.”
I grin and sit down at the table beside him. “It’s been a few weeks. I’ve missed them.”
Damien nods and pulls one of the folders from his stack. “How is setting up the stronghold here coming? Have you gotten a set up at the marina yet?”
“This isn’t the city. I can’t get things set up that quickly here. Life is slower. My connections want to get to know each other and establish a level of trust. It isn’t just about money moving hands here.”
Damien rolls his eyes and flips open the folder, pointing to a couple of numbers on the page. “Through what you are doing right now, we are still profiting, but not enough. If you don’t start making big moves soon, the family is going to pay the cost.”
I take a sip of my coffee, trying to hold off the headache I know is coming. “We are still making more than enough money to sustain the next three generations of the family. You need to take a step back and have some faith that I can handle everything out here.”
“I would have more faith if you had your own warehouse instead of using Brennan’s. You don’t usually trust easily, with a few chosenexceptions, but you’re blindly following this guy, so what’s the story there?”
I see red when I look at him but I do my best to keep my temper in check. The last thing I want to do on my birthday is to spend the morning fighting with my oldest brother.
“If you’re talking about Dad, you need to remember whose side I took when it came down to it.”
“You threatened our sister and my wife on more than one occasion.”
As I put down the coffee cup, I try counting to ten. It doesn’t work. Where I want to tell Damien to go is on the tip of my tongue.
“I might have threatened them, but it was both with good reason. And, if you really want to talk about this right now, both of them have forgiven me and had conversations with me about everything that happened between us. You know we’re all fine now.”
Damien sighs and shakes his head. “I know that. The point that I’m trying to make is that you trust Brennan, but I don’t really know if youshould.You’re giving him access to our supplies out here.”
“Our supplies and most of our connections out here have comethroughmy friendship with him. While Sofia has helped as well, we would not be operating as we are without Brennan’s help.”
“And who is he affiliated with?” Damien flips to another sheet in the folder that lists all of Brennan’s possible connections. “Half of these people we know he does business with are threats to us.”
“And that’s not my problem.” I cross my arms and lean back in the chair. “The only thing I care about is whether or not he can deliver what he promises. He has so far.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“Youdon’t have to.” I look out the window, watching as Brielle dances around, spraying her garden with water. Tendrils of red hair hang down around her face and her eyes shine bright. “Itrust him and that is enough for me.”
