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“But you didn’t help, either. You watched Dad order his men to deal with me, then you stepped to the side and let it happen.”
“I was young too, Arch! Dad owned me just as much as he owns the others. He still does!”
“Yeah?” I take a step back and steer Minka with my hand on her hip. Remove her before this explodes. Get her away before she can end up like Jill. “You’re still one of them, Felix. You’re still a target when Pastore takes power. But I’m not.”
“You say that, but you have no clue they already speak her name.”
My stomach drops like I’ve swallowed a one-ton anvil. “What?”
He nods over my shoulder and meets Minka’s eyes. “They know who she is,” he presses. “They know who her family is. They know where she works, who she works with, who she fucking associates with. And they sure as hell know she’s your wife.”
“Because you announced it on live fucking TV! You put that out there!”
“It was already out!” he booms back. “Maybe you kept it from your lieutenant, and maybe your colleagues didn’t take you out to get drunk and slide dollar bills into a whore’s panties, but it wasn’t a secret, Arch. I knew. Dad knows. And Pastore knows.”
Sliding his gaze to my right shoulder, he grins for Minka, though there’s no humor in his expression now. “You know Emilio Pastore, don’t you? You know that motherfucker on apersonallevel.”
“What?” I turn my back on my brother and look down into her anxious stare. “You know Pastore?”
“No, I—”
“How fucking personal?” I snap. I grab her arm and tug her closer. Not out of anger, but to keep her safe. To keep her here with me. “How personal, Minka?”
“Dinner,” she answers on an exhale. “We went to dinner once, about two years ago.”
“Oh my god.” Strength leaves my body and my words come out on an involuntary whimper. “He knows you.”
“He had his eyes on someone else,” she argues. “He was looking to marry another woman, Archer. I was a seat-filler for a night. We didn’t click, I excused myself early. My instincts were firing off the entire time I was near him, so I went home and did a little research. I was right. He was no good.”
“No fuckin’ shit he was no good,” Felix jeers. “Just a date, Doc? Or a little somethin’-somethin’ in the back of his towncar?”
“Hey!” I turn on him “Don’t.”
“Just a date,” Minka presses. Placing her fingers on my jaw and drawing me back around, she doesn’t stop until our eyes meet and her tongue comes out to wet her bottom lip. “It was dinner and nothing more. He hasn’t contacted me since.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” I groan. “He doesn’t let people go that easily.”
“He wasn’t interested in me,” she murmurs. Calming. Soothing. “Not really. He wanted another, which made me forgettable. Last year, I moved to Copeland and never expected to hear his name again.”
“And this year,” Felix singsongs, “you married a Malone and ruffled a few feathers.”
Wandering closer, like we aren’t in the middle of an argument, Felix stops on Minka’s left, so close that her shoulder touches his chest. “Now, father dearest is ready to kick the bucket, which introduces a weakness among our ranks. It may not be the truth, but on the outside, itcouldlook a hell of a lot like Malone snuck in and pinched a woman from Pastore himself.”
“I didn’t sneak,” I bark. “I didn’t know there was a connect.”
“And I won’t be referred to asa womansomeone haspinched.”
Stepping out of my hands and moving away from our small group, Minka crosses the kitchen and snatches a coffee mug from the cabinet. Slamming beans into the machine and hitting the button to make them grind, she looks across to us, stunningly beautiful despite her unbrushed hair and ratty gym clothes.
“Pastore and I are…” She shakes her head. “Not even significant enough to describe as old news. We weren’t even a blip worthy of mentioning, any more than I’d mention a guy who sits in the same coffee shop as me when I order a cappuccino.”
“Iwas just a guy having coffee at the same time as you.” Felix smirks at her that way he does. “Am I significant enough for you now,sis?”
“Don’t call me that.” She lopes to the fridge and takes out the creamer I never left in there. “And if it were up to me, you’d be less significant than the dirt I walk on. As it turns out, you’re a sperm deposit that Timothy Malone the Second left some thirty-something years ago. You share one parent with the man I married, which leads me to believe that all of Archer’s good attributes come from his mother.”
Dropping a dollop of cream in her coffee, she tosses the carton back in the fridge and slams the door shut so the bottles on top rattle. “But since I neither like the father you two share, nor do I care who your mother is, that leaves us with nothing else to talk about.”
Backing up to the counter and setting her hands on the edge, she lifts her ass up and slides on to make herself comfortable. Grabbing her coffee, she sips too much, too fast.
