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“I’d like that very much. I’m on my yacht right now. Care to join me for lunch?”
The frozen heart thing changed into a hammering heart thing and I immediately started trying to figure out how to get out of this. I didn’t exactly want Joseph finding out that I was here. The Massimos were technically out of bounds, particularly right now, when it looked like they were making war against the Rossis. Sure, I’d known Anthony since we were kids, and there could be an innocent explanation for me being here.
But Joseph had a very hot temper and almost never waited for the other person to explain themselves. I didn’t need him coming out here and making trouble—or blowing my cover. I needed to figure out what Anthony knew and get all the information I could, then get out of here.
Joseph showing up would throw a massive wrench into the works.
“Ah, I see. Sure, that’s fine.”
Anthony hung up the phone and gave me a quick glance, looking like he hadn’t been pushed up against me minutes ago, hinting at the things he wanted to do with me. Which made me think that whatever we’d been doing had been less about me and more about this meeting that was supposed to happen with Joseph. Or maybe the things he’d wanted from me were being put off because Joseph had called. Which meant...
I didn’t knowwhatit meant. I hadn’t thought these two knew each other, and I didn’t think it would do me any good to be caught with either of them when the other was around. Joseph would flat out kill me if he knew I was getting myself involved, and I didn’t have a single clue what sort of game Anthony himself was playing.
The look in Anthony’s eyes wasn’t one I’d ever seen before, either, and that made me even more certain that he was up to something. Inviting me to his boat. Taking a call from Joseph while I was here. What was he even doing talking to Joseph?
I’d been positive the Massimos were moving against the Rossis. And I knew the Rossis thought so, too.
Why would Joseph be meeting withhim?
Anthony took another step backward and reverted back to his crooked smile, seeming to remember that he had a part to play here. He put a gentle finger to my cheek and caressed it softly, then leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Unfortunately, little one, I have to run. Something else has come up. Can we do a rain check on lunch?”
I murmured something about being happy to do that and then turned and saw Joseph’s car pulling up next to my bike.
I got off the ship as quickly as I could and headed for the nearest building, intent on nothing more than hiding from Joseph. I didn’t know what he was doing out here—with Anthony Massimo—but I didn’t feel like getting caught spying.
If Joseph was up to something, there were easier ways to find out what it was.
Ways that didn’t put my life in danger if this turned into some sort of gunfight on the water.
6
BROOKS
Igot to Sloane and Joseph’s brownstone in half the time it should have taken me and skidded into the parking lot, braking to a stop so quickly that the bike got squirrelly under me. I was already walking toward the door by the time I got the helmet off, and left it in the elevator on the way up to the living section of their house.
I knew the doorman. I’d pick the helmet up later. Right now, I needed to get in there and talk to Sloane before her scheming husband got home.
She had the door open when I got there, courtesy of the text I’d sent her, and was sitting at the table waiting. “What?” she asked shortly. “What’s so important that you said I had to be ready for anything?”
“Are you?”
She glanced to the side at her purse, where I knew she kept the tiniest of her guns, and then shifted to show that she had on a thigh holster with one of her Glocks. “Is this a two-gun sort of deal, or do I need something more than that?”
God, I loved this girl. Tell her I needed her and she came packing with some of her deadliest weapons. I didn’t even have to ask to know she’d go to the ends of the earth for me. She didn’t have to—never would, given the securities I had in place—but it meant everything that she would.
It was just one of the reasons we’d been friends for so long.
“You won’t need guns,” I said, sliding into the chair across from her. “But I need to know what you know.”
She leaned her elbows on the table and narrowed her eyes. “You already know what I know. What the fuck are you talking about?”
I blew out a breath. “Remember that little plan we had for me to get in with Anthony Massimo and find out what he knows about everything?”
Her eyes got even narrower. “Yes.”
“Well, it turns out we’re not the only ones with that plan. Because I was just on Anthony’s yacht and heard him take a call from your husband. I got off the ship just in time to see Joseph arriving. To speak with Anthony.”
Sloane put a hand up. “You were on Anthony’s ship? He has aship, and you thought it was a good idea to go out there on your own? To a ship owned by theMassimos?” I could hear the rage building in her voice, the anger at having been left out of part of the planning, but she shook her head before I could try to calm her down. “Wait, strike all of that. I don’t care. I don’t care what you were doing with Anthony and whether you were on a ship at the time or not. He talked to Joseph? Joseph wasthere?”
