But it doesn’t feel good. It feels petty. For all my talk of honor, I seem to have abandoned mine when it comes to Teddy MacCallum.
“Get up,” I say again, leaning down to lift him bodily, my hands on his shoulders. But he is clutching back at me, his hands as insistent as my own.
“No.”
“Teddy,” I sigh, “this will never work.”
“It will,” he insists. “Julian will tell me what you need to know.”
I wasn’t talking about Julian, but since he’s mentioned it,thatwill never work, either. I know my brother. “I won’t put you anywhere near him. He’s dangerous, and he’s already tried to kill you once.”
I don’t know why I’m talking as though there aren’t a million other reasons why this silly plan of Teddy’s is not going to happen. His betrayal, for example. His lies and his…
His…
None of it seems quite so important as it did just moments ago.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me,” Teddy insists. “He was just trying to get your attention.”
His mouth is too close. Too tempting. “Iwill notput you in those cells again. I made a promise—”
“You won’t be putting me in there. I’ll be going willingly. Tohelpyou.”
I want to tell him I don’t need his help, that I have enough to worry about without some hare-brained scheme for him to try to manipulate my significantly more wily brother. But what if Juliandoeshave information that he’s keeping to himself?
And what if Teddycouldget him to talk?
I could lay my father’s ghost to rest, appease the senior administration, and become the man I’m meant to be. And if I have to pull this Family out of the gutter and raise it up, that’s what I will do.
“Please,” Teddy murmurs, in the same voice he used in bed only a few days ago. “Please, Alessandro.”
I give a groan that ends in a growl. Despite everything that has happened, I can’t deny him when he says my name like that. “If we are going to do this—if,” I reiterate, as his face lights up, “then it must be done carefully.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. You won’t be able to watch on the cameras.”
I can almost feel my eyes darken. “You are not going in there without me watching.”
“Listen,” he says, almost impatiently. “Wecan’tuse the cameras. He knows when someone’s logged into them, when he’s being watched. I don’t know how, but he does. And he’s not going to say anything at all if he thinks you’re watching. But I could wear a wire, and that way you could listen in.”
I see one final straw to grasp. “We can’t do it now. I’m expecting visitors tomorrow; Don Morelli and his husband from New York.”
I was betting on Teddy being distracted by that news. If there’s one Family he’s just as obsessed with as mine, based on all hisCute Crimsposts, it’s the Morellis.
So when he doesn’t even blink at the mention, I know I’m in real trouble.
“We can do it right now,” he says. “Get it done before Don Morelli even arrives at Redwood Manor. That way you’ll be able to show him that Los Angeles is stable, and that you would make a powerful ally.”
No intake of breath, not even a widening of the eyes. For once, Teddy MacCallum is not thinking aboutCute Crims.
He’s thinking about the politics of my position. He’s thinking aboutme.
He really means to go through with this.
The only question now is…can I?
CHAPTER45
TEDDY
