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“And your family?”
“You’d never ask me to choose, and they won’t either. They’ve asked me questions about Maks and his family. I just give them the same look I give people who ask me questions about clients. They know what it means. She’s like another daughter to them. They just want her happy. They’ll want the same for me.”
“You can’t believe it’ll be that easy. Laura isn’t really their daughter. You are. Once they know my family and I are anything like Maks and his, they won’t be so eager.”
“My mom is a venture capitalist, and my dad is a hedge fund manager. If anyone can turn a blind eye, it’s both of my parents.”
“Maybe. But their clients aren’t their daughter.”
“I know. But they don’t assume people are inherently bad when it comes to the things they do for family.”
I don’t want to argue about it, and I know she’s trying to placate me. She’s not so naïve as to think this will be easy, but she doesn’t want me to walk away out of guilt. I appreciate it, but she’s right. I would never ask her to choose between her family and me. If they can’t accept me, then I will walk away. Regardless of what she might say, I can’t make her give up her family when I can’t give up mine.
“Actually, speaking of my parents. They’d like to meet you.”
That shocks me even more than her suddenly bringing up Lanie. They know about me?
“Oh?”
“Relax, Daddy. Your thighs are already like steel. I didn’t know they could get harder, but they did.”
I try to relax, surprised that she noticed I tensed. I thought it was just my gut sucking in.
“What have you told them about me?”
“I told them I met a new guy I’m really into. I told them things are moving really fast, but I’m not swept away in a current. I’ve really been giving this thought rather than just going with the flow.”
“Did you tell them my name? If they work in finance, they must know my family. Shit. What if we’ve snagged deals away from their clients?”
“I didn’t tell them your name, but I asked them that when I brought the conversation back to Laura and Maks. The Mancinellis have, but they both know that even if it were personal between your family and their client, it wasn’t personal against them.”
“They’re very objective.”
“Yes. They’ve both been in the business for nearly forty years.”
“Are any of the other families clients? Will it put them in the middle?”
“I don’t think so. The Kutsenkos are venture capitalists too, and they handle a lot of their own stuff. That’s Laura’s job now that she’s their in-house council. Do the Diazes have a family member who’s a lawyer other than Enrique?”
“If you haven’t guessed, Enrique is Uncle Salvatore and Papa combined. Javier is basically his fifth year associate. Pablo is equivalent to Luca. Jorge is equivalent to me as their CPA. Joaquin has always been a nosy fucker, so he’s like Sergei and Carmine. Though I’m the one with the computer science degree like Sergei and Anton. Alejandro is — who knows? He seems to do whatever the fuck he wants and travels a lot.”
I know exactly what Alejandro does, and it would give her nightmares for the rest of her life.
“What about the O’Rourkes? Who’s their lawyer?”
“Those fuckers are always in trouble. Dillan, Seamus, and Cormac are all lawyers. Now that Dillan runs things, he’s rarely practicing, but always strategizing. He’s like a fucking Soviet chess wizard. Seamus handles everything corporate, and Cormac handles everything criminal.”
“Aren’t they brothers?”
“Yes. Sean and Shane are the twins, but Seamus and Cormac may as well be. They’re barely ten months apart. Because of how their birthdays fall, they were in the same grade. Seamus did his undergrad at Columbia, and Cormac went to John Jay, but he’s no slouch.”
John Jay College of Criminal Justice is one of the few schools of its kind. It specializes in criminal justice, forensic science, and forensic psychology. It’s not as prestigious as Colombia, but it’s served Cormac well. His record for wins is as good as Sinead’s. It’s pretty much undefeated except where the evidence is so rock solid it would be impossible to get an innocent verdict. He doesn’t have the same success with pleading down as Sinead does because of his clients and his own family name. He uses plea deals judiciously, so no one claims he’s strong arming the DA’s office.
“Did he study forensic psychology?”
“How’d you guess?”
She gives me a wry grin.
