“No, I was too busy trying to save your ass to notice all the particulars of the gunfire.”
He was certainly ignoring every concept of respect that was required.
“I need to know who the hell the men were.”
“Well, short of one of them knocking on our door and introducing themselves, it’s entirely possible you won’t learn their identity. Maybe you should concentrate on whether the attack was part two of the plan to destroy the Prince family.”
With another drink in hand, I promised myself I wouldn’t shatter the glass.
“How the fuck did they get inside the courtroom?”
“The press had a field day with you being arrested. We couldn’t keep it off the news and you know that.”
“Why not wait until I was leaving the building?”
Jarvis sighed. “That I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to grandstand. Or maybe they were hoping the entire family would be there holding your hand.”
“Or maybe I wasn’t the intended victim. What have you found out about my guest?” As if using the term was going to change the truth that she was my prisoner.
He snorted and launched himself toward the bar. “Good God, Alex. I had a few other things to attend to like ensuring yourneighbors weren’t calling the police. Need I remind you that Ms. Devereaux was all over every news station earlier in the day?”
My teeth hurt from how hard I’d clenched my jaw over the course of a few hours. “You didn’t answer the question.”
He returned with a drink in his hand before saying anything. I sensed he was calculating what if any information to provide. “There’s nothing to tell. I don’t know if you were looking for some smoking gun like she’s Russo’s niece, but that’s not the case. Her father is a retired senator. Her mother owns an art gallery. While you certainly wouldn’t consider her parents team members since Philip Devereaux was no fan of organized crime, from the limited time I’d had, I could find nothing in our records to indicate he was ever more than a thorn in your father’s side.”
“What else?” I barked out like some sergeant.
I watched him with little more than irritation as he bent down, retrieving my laptop. The shake of his head meant it was toast, but I didn’t give a shit. I had all the money in the world to purchase another one. Maybe I’d purchase an entire goddamn firm.
“She graduated from Columbia with honors, returned home and passed the bar on her first try. She obtained the job as a prosecutor over a high number of applicants. She doesn’t have a record. That much I know without looking.”
His attempt at making a joke fell short.
“What else?”
“Goddamn it. All you need to do is google her and you might get some answers.”
“That’s what I pay you for.” I cocked my head, daring him to challenge me.
He did in his own way. “Well, if you had taken five minutes of time to glance at the internet instead of destroying what you’d once told me was your favorite room in this mausoleum of a house, then you would have noted she spends almost no time on social media. In fact, while she had a Facebook account, the last post was four years ago. What I did notice is that she’s a huge animal rescue proponent. She wrote at least two articles for some magazine on the joy of rescuing.”
“You mean she’s Mother-fucking-Theresa.” Maybe her credentials checked out, but I was very good at realizing when I was either being lied to or when secrets were being kept. While my judgment about her was currently clouded as to which one was the case, she was definitely hiding something from me.
A resolute Catholic, he pointed his finger at me. “No blasphemy.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. So she’s a good person.”
“Too good for you if you ask me. Now, if that’s not enough, well, I haven’t found the time to break into her home to secure all her dirty little secrets, but I’ll put that on the top of my list.Sire.”
When I shot him a fury-filled look, he chuckled instead of cringing like most soldiers or enemies would do. “I need to know if any large sums of money have been deposited into her account recently or if she’s been threatened.”
“Did you ever think about asking her or were you too busy fucking her?”
The thin line of keeping control had been snapped too many times over the last week, which was why I came far too close to using him as a punching bag.
Unlike most men, he refused to budge, standing up to me with the same glare of annoyance I’d shown him.
Disgust quickly settled and I turned away, purposely returning to where I’d been standing at the door.
