“There would be no game, Shane, had you not shown up here and tried to take what is mine. I worked for this. I bled for this. And if you think anything you have done has made me give it up, you’re mistaken. Go fuck your woman. I’ll go fuck mine. And then we’ll see which one of us fucks each other. Goodnight, brother.” The line goes dead.
I grind my teeth, slide my phone back into my pocket, and with the towel still in hand, I press my palms on the counter, my chin pressing to my chest. Damn it. By his woman, he means Teresa Martina, Adrian’s sister. He’s pushing his luck. He’s going to get himself killed. I have to create an exit for Martina and do it now. Shoving off the counter, I exit the bathroom and make my way back to Emily, where she still lies on the couch, but she’s pulled a throw blanket over her.
I go down on one knee beside her and offer her the towel. “Sorry that took so long.”
“It’s okay,” she says, accepting the towel and putting it to use before sitting up and working to shift the blanket around her shoulders. “Everything okay? I mean, as okay as it can be?”
I sit on the coffee table in front of her, my knees beside hers. “That was Derek.”
“Derek called you? That’s very unexpected.”
“Yes, well, he wanted to know what I know about our father.”
“Did you tell him what you found out?”
I shake my head. “No, because I don’t know how he’ll use that information, and right now we need Mike Rogers and Adrian Martina to believe my father is alive and will be staying that way. That buys us time to remove them from the company.”
“We? Meaning you and your father?”
“Yes. Me and my father, and I never thought I’d say those words again.”
Her hand settles on my leg. “I’d tell you he might make it, but somehow I don’t think that’s what you want to hear.”
“Hope is what I need everyone else to have while I plan for the worst. I’m going to meet with Seth and his team to ensure what happened tonight doesn’t happen again.” I reach up and caress her cheek. “I want you to feel safe.”
“I want you safe. Don’t do business with Martina, Shane. Please.”
“This isn’t about me saying no to one man, Emily. This is about a drug cartel. There are many layers beyond Adrian Martina.”
“But he’s the one obsessed with you,” she argues, and I can almost see her mind racing. “He doesn’t want to do business with Derek. He knows he’s a risk. That was clear. If you aren’t involved, maybe he walks away. So you walk away first, now. Give the company to your brother and let’s go to New York and you—”
“No,” I say, sitting back, withdrawing. “Derek will end up dead, and you know I won’t let that happen.”
“Why would Adrian kill him? He’ll lose interest.”
“It’s a risk I won’t take.”
“Derek would take it with you, Shane. Even Martina said that.”
My gaze sharpens, that edge from earlier returning with a fierce jolt. “You don’t want me to use Martina’s words, but you will.”
She pales. “No. I’m sorry. Shane, you’re right. That was wrong of me. I’m just … I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not Derek, Emily.” I stand up and round the table and ottoman to walk to the window, pressing my hand on the divider I’d pressed her against this very night, and stare out at the Denver skyline, a rainbow of colors dotting the night sky. Emily appears by my side, and I voice what is in my head. “This is my city. My home. It belongs to me.” I think of Derek’s claim that I’ve stolen something from him. “It should have belonged to Derek, but it damn sure doesn’t belong to Adrian Martina. He’s going to find that out.”
Emily steps in between me and the window, sliding onto the divider beneath my hand, her hand knotting the blanket at her chest. “Go to the FBI,” she says. “Negotiate a way to save your family.”
“The FBI’s a two-headed beast,” I say, leading her to the place I already am and where I need her to be. “The good agents will turn us into snitches, which equates to death or going into hiding. The bad ones will run straight to Martina.”
“There has to be a solution. There has to be a way out.”
“There is,” I say, pushing off the divider. “And I’m handling it. I have a plan.”
“Which is what?”
“Whatever it takes to end this.”
Those pale blue eyes of hers turn stormy. “Define ‘whatever it takes’?”
“Whatever it takes. And you need to decide if you can really handle that.”
“I can handle what I know and understand.”
“And therein lies the problem. You might not understand it at all. You just have to trust that I have no other option.”
“I just want to know. Promise me you’ll tell me.”
“No,” I say, no give to my reply.
She blanches. “No?”
“No. I won’t make a promise to you that I might not keep, and in some cases what you don’t know can’t hurt you or be used against you.”
“You mean if it’s illegal.”
“Take that how you wish, but right now I need to go meet with Seth and his men. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. Lock up behind me.” I turn and start walking, and I expect her to try to stop me. I don’t realize how much I want her to until a step is gone, and then another, and each one is heavier with her absence. I reach the door and find myself pausing, willing her to appear. She doesn’t, though, and I know that it’s for the best. If she did, and if she said or did just the right thing, I might make one of those promises I swore I wouldn’t break. And then I’d break it.
Hesitating another moment, I wrestle with the idea that I’ve created the fear in Emily that I just pressed her to prove doesn’t exist. Inhaling sharply, I open the door and step into the hallway, sealing the door behind me. And then I wait and count out sixty seconds before I hear the locks on the other side of the door clang into place. She’s locked up and she waited until she didn’t have to see me again. But I can’t think about that right now.
With each step, I shift from that man I am before a battle to the man who I am when I win that battle. The one who doesn’t feel emotions. The one who controls everything. By the time I’m in the elevator, that edge that was animalistic and fierce is now a hard line that I control. I am focused on winning. By the time I step into the parking garage and find Seth leaning on the trunk of his silver Mercedes that he’s parked beside my Bentley, his tie missing, his expression grim, I’ve already decided that Derek is going to learn to put the family first. My mother will get the hell out of Mike’s bed or out of this family. Mike will learn he messed with the wrong Brandon. And Martina. Martina is about to learn that he too chose the wrong brother.
Seth pushes off the car, and I close the distance between me and him, stopping toe-to-toe with him. “What’s Nick have to say for himself?”
“One of his men is missing.”
Dead. That translates to dead. “Which one?”
“A family man named Ted Moore, with two kids. He was covering this parking garage when Adrian managed to get upstairs.”
“Do we have security footage?”
“It was wiped clean.”
“In my building that we’re supposed to control.”
“Isn’t that Martina’s point? To send you the message that you control nothing and have to play his game?”