“What you’re suggesting… You think Brackton’s death was a trigger?”
“More power vacuums… It’s funny how chaos has come to the city since his death, wouldn’t you say?”
“Correlation isn’t causation.”
“Agreed. Still, something to think about, no?”
“This mess has clearly been building for a lot longer than either of us are comfortable admitting,”he observed.“If the men who availed of the Albanian stable, and I’m including the president and Korhonen in that group, don’t know who sanctioned the hit…”
“They’re not going to know Brackton’s wife was behind it. They’ll think someone’s making a move to out them.”
“So they made their move first.”
“They probably only knew about Dead To Me’s involvement because of those damn calling cards she leaves behind.”
O’Donnelly pinned Luciu with a look. “We’ll reconvene at the Summit. You didn’t have to tell me this, Luciu, so I appreciate it.”
“We’re family, Aidan.”
That earned him a grunt. “Tell Custanzu I expect to see him sooner rather than later with an apology.”
Luciu smirked. “Will do.”
When O’Donnelly jumped into his SUV, and while Luciu crossed the parking lot, I hissed in annoyance. Only, when I saw Rory’s matching smirk—fucking twins—I snapped, “What was with the squirming whenever they mentioned the ledger?”
“Stop being so tetchy.”
Immediately sus at the misdirection, I countered, “You were fidgeting, Rory. That’s my job. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” She huffed.
“Bullshit.”
“That went well.” Luciu climbed into the car, sparing her the need for a response. When neither of us replied, he tapped on the ceiling and Chad set off. “What’s going on?”
“Rory’s keeping something from us.”
“I keep plenty from both of you. If you want full access to my brain, you can have it when I die. I’ll make sure the funeral home puts it in a nice jar for you and everything.”
“That isn’t funny,soru,” Luc bit off, but he’d turned to her as well. “You’re right, Stan. She only gets crotchety when she’s hiding something.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“We talked about this, Aurora,” my brother growled. “Trust can be a one-way street, but not if we ever want to achieve anything.
“While I know your knowledge base spans the seven goddamn seas, and that I couldn’t possibly process the information that you do with my puny cerebral cortex, what aren’t you telling us?”
Her jaw worked as she reached into the small refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of water. Failing to crack the lid, she muttered, “I have a handle on it.”
I snatched the bottle from her and broke the seal. “On what?”
She held out a hand for the water, and once I passed it over, she deliberated, “I Told You So?—”
“Now isn’t the time for childish?—”
“Listen, would you?” she spat at Luc. “I’m talking about the blog! The one you were discussing with Aidan! Though, if you can’t handle this conversation, I’ll be the first to goddamn say I told you so! It takes a woman.” Her chin jutted out as she corrected, “Women.”
“And what, dear sister, arewomendoing?”
