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Typical Sloane. Give her enough time and she’d work herself into a rage and then talk herself out of it and find the logic in the problem. Little wonder she was one of the best lawyers in the city.
“He sure was. I wanted to stick around to find out what he was doing there, but decided I’d rather not be involved if they decided they were going to shoot each other.”
Sloane gave me a look that said she didn’t agree with my decision, but then shook her head. “He hasn’t said a single thing to me about the Massimos or any meetings with them. What the fuck is he playing at?”
“He’s playing at something that’s none of your fucking business,” a voice said from behind me.
Sloane and I both whirled around to see Joseph standing right inside the door, his face full of thunder.
“What the fuck are you two doing in here scheming? And how the fuck do you even know I was—” He looked me up and down, from my wind-blown hair to the leather jacket I’d worn on a hot, summer day to chase away the chill of the harbor.
His eyes grew even stormier at that, and I tipped my chin up.
“What?” I asked. What was he going to do, accuse me of being out there on the water doing my own recon?
I mean, maybe he would. I’d just said I saw him walking onto the ship to meet with Anthony. I hadn’t just been in that neighborhood by accident. But Joseph wasn’t exactly on the higher road here. Not if he’d been lying to Sloane.
“You’re the one he was with,” he said quietly. “He told me he hadn’t been able to talk when we were on the phone because he’d had a visitor.” He scoffed, sounding equal parts frustrated and shocked. “I should have guessed it was you. You can never keep your nose out of anything going on. How the fuck do you even know him?”
“That’s none of your business,” Sloane snapped. “What the fuck were you doing there, and why didn’t you tell me about it?”
Joseph’s eyes shot from me to his wife and then back again. “Brooks,” he said. “Take a walk, huh?”
I was opening my mouth to tell him he knew better than to try to order me around when Sloane’s hand slapped down on mine. “She’s not going anywhere. Answer the question, Joseph. What were you doing on Anthony Massimo’s boat? And were you going to say anything to me about it? Or were you just going to leave it to Michael to deliver the bad news if it all went wrong for you?”
I turned big eyes from Sloane to Joseph, feeling a little bit sorry for him. I went out of my way to stay on Sloane’s good side, and I’d thought Joseph was smart enough to do the same. Evidently I’d been wrong.
“Better tread carefully, son,” I murmured, looking down at my nails.
Joseph heard me, though, and snorted. Then he started talking. “Look, I didn’t know about it until I met with my father earlier. Someone had suggested to him that Anthony didn’t have that much to do with the rest of his family, but that he might know what was going on. Someone else suggested that it wouldn’t be the worst thing to meet with him and find out what he knew. Find out if he might help us with information. That’s all it was. I went out there for information. That’s it.”
And could have walked right into a trap. Anthony could have had an entire army out there waiting for him, for all Joseph knew, and from what I’d seen, Joseph had gone on his own.
Had his father sent him out there that way?
God, had his father actually set him up?
I looked at Sloane to see she was having all the same thoughts, and let her do the answering.
“And you didn’t even think about taking backup?” she asked quietly. “Michael? Duca? Anyone? You didn’t think, Joseph Rossi, that your father might have been sending you into a situation where you weren’t likely to walk out alive? You didn’t bother to use your head?”
He reached out and grabbed her wrist, pinning her to the table. “What I thought, Sloane, was that we have people dying every day to this war of theirs. We’re losing out on deals and making enemies of our allies because they’re undermining us. What Ithoughtwas that Anthony might have information that would help me understand why it’s happening. I want to know what they’re doing and why, and what they want. We need to find a peaceful solution. I was there to see if Anthony could help. And I took Duca. And Michael. They just weren’t where Brooks could see them.”
He shot another furious look my way, and I gave him my most charming smile. “And did you get anything?”
“No, but I also didn’t get killed or hurt, which is more than I can say for what might have happened to you. You’re smaller and more vulnerable than you realize, Brooks, and they can hurt you. You might think you’re untouchable but you don’t have a fucking clue. I want you to keep your nose out of it. And keep my wife out of your scheming. Got it?”
I could have argued with him. Could have told him I dared him to actually try to keep me away from this whole thing.
But it wasn’t worth the time.
So I gave him my sweetest, most innocent smile and nodded, acting like I was just the good little girl who’d had a bit of a scare and wouldn’t try it again.
And when he nodded and stood to leave the room, I looked over at Sloane and saw that she hadn’t fallen for his story any more than I had. Joseph might think he was going to get information out of Anthony, but if he hadn’t gotten anything today, chances were good Anthony didn’t want to give anything up.
At least not to Joseph.
I knew he was interested in seeing me again, though, and I knew he wanted more from me than he was letting on. So if that gave me an excuse to see him and pump him for information, I was going to take advantage of it. Because like Joseph said, the Rossis and Brennans were hurting. We were losing people and many of our deals were going sideways while the Carusos and Massimos undermined us.
