“Right after Duffy first told you he even had an informant,” Bran pipes in.
“Exactly.” I debate on how much to tell him, but family business isn’t really the point of telling him any of it, so I decide on explaining all the necessary parts. “We don’t really have informants, and I don’t think that’s what Colby did for Duffy anyway. I think he was just a lookout, making sure we knew who to pick up, when, and where. You know your uncle is always fucking over the Italians. Just petty stuff, making their lives harder.”
“Yeah, I know.” That proud smile shouldn’t make me so happy, but it does. I like that Bran is proud of Duffy.
“Anyway, we got there and checked with the parabolic microphone. They were messing with Colby, that much was clear. So we went in and got him.” Of course it was more complicated than that, but he’ll get the gist. “He was badly beaten and passed out, and when he did wake up he could barely keep his eyes open, but the second he realized he was outside, he started fighting hard.”
“Why?” Bran asks quietly.
“He has a daughter, Maggie, and he’d left her in the Murphys’ care for the night.”
“Laura? Laura Murphy?” he asks, surprised. I don’t blame him. She used to babysit Bran, and her father’s still running one of the brothels for me. “How does he know her?”
“They’re neighbors. One of those coincidences, apparently, since he moved in around five months before Duffy even met him.”
“Huh,” is all Bran says to that, so I keep going.
“We went to the apartment, got Maggie, and that’s when he finally passed out.”
“Okay...” He drags the word out, clearly sensing there’s more.
“I just... I was impressed by how hard he kept fighting to get to his daughter.”
I’m sure that was the first thing that made me take notice of him.
“Then this morning he woke up for the first time. Or well, it was the first time he was lucid. And when I got there, he was talking to Duffy, giving him attitude.”
I can’t help but smile at the memory. He was so indignant while Duffy was laying into him for investigating without backup.
“Oh, damn,” Bran whispers, bringing me back to the present. “I guess if you were ever going to fall for anyone, it would be a carelessly brave, smart but impulsive dude.”
I frown at him and shake my head.
“He’s going to have to cut that out.”
“Do you think he will? I mean, it doesn’t sound like he’s one to give up.”
Ain’t that the truth.
“We had a conversation,” I start, then don’t know how to finish the sentence.
“About?” Bran encourages.
“About what a stupid fucking thing he did. How now it’s my job to protect him and he can never do shit like that again.”
“Oh,” he says, like he suddenly understands something.
“What?” I demand.
“You acted like ‘The Boss,’” he says while making quotation marks with his fingers.
“What the hell does that mean? I am ‘The Boss.’” I mimic him.
“The one thing missing from everything you’ve told me is the part where you actually tell Colby you’re interested in him.” I move my gaze away to the wall. I’m not going tomake excuses for that. I don’t know how I’m going to handle this with Colby yet. “So you’re here just to feel things out with me, and I get it, I do, but...” He trails off, but I don’t have the patience for that.
“Just spit it out.”
“It’s just that you’re always going to be the boss. If he’s interested in you too, then in some way you’re always going to behisboss, and that can be tricky in relationships. I bet even trickier with him because he wasn’t born into the mafia. He might not be prepared for what a relationship with you will be like.”
