“Shit.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t wanna put words in his mouth. I don’t wanna say anything other than what he asked me to come here and say.”
“Then say it.”
“He just wanted me to tell you he’s not the devil. He said that’s how you see him.”
“And he sentyouas his character reference?” I said dubiously.
He flashed me a grin. “Honestly, I get it, okay? I see where you’re coming from. You always saw him as the bad guy, right? But Dane’s never been as… cold… as he seems. He’s not as heartless or stuck-up as people take him for. It’s all a game, you know? An act. It’s been bred into him by too many people who care more about image and power than they do other, more important shit.”
“I don’t think he’s the devil,” I admitted. Then I sighed. “I think that was how I wanted to see him. And when I want something… I hold onto it.”
“I believe it.” Shane sipped his coffee and I waited for him to say more. Was there more? “So, are you gonna hold onto him?”
“He’s the one who left town, Shane.”
“He thinks you’ll never believe him. Like his family doesn’t.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know. Anything? He doesn’t seem to think you have any faith in him.”
“I do.”
“Then maybe you should tell him that.”
“Maybe I would have if he didn’t leave.”
Shane’s eyebrows rose. He sat back. “Look, I really don’t know what’s going on between you two. And I’m really not one to give relationship advice, so I’m not even gonna try. All I know is he thinks he’s lost you. He’s trying to work out how to save his inheritance so he can save whatever he’s got with you. Maybe he thinks you won’t want him without the money.” Dane’s best friend stared me down. “Is that true?”
It was a bold question. And definitely fair for him to ask.
“He’s always had money, Shane. It’s hard to lift that fact out of the equation as if it wasn’t there.”
“Maybe it won’t always be there.”
Maybe.
“You really think his grandmother would disown him?” I asked him. “Take away his inheritance, write him out of her will, everything?”
“She’s done it before. With Lex. And Dane definitely thinks she would.”
I considered that.
“What about Lex?” I asked him. “Do you think she’d ever cut him back in?”
“Doubt it. She hasn’t ever been a grandmother to Lex. Doesn’t even recognize him in the family.”
“Why?”
“Because his mom hooked up with a mobster.”
I almost choked on my coffee. “A mobster?”
Dane told me that Lex’s mother had gotten involved with a man that her family didn’t approve of. He definitely didn’t mention that man was a gangster.
“Lex’s dad is Joey Montanari,” Shane said casually. “He’s part of the Montanari mob. Italian mafia,” he clarified, when I just stared at him.
“I didn’t even know we had mafia in Vancouver.”
