“And your mom…?” I hedge, jiggling her a little with my knee and making her giggle again.
“And my mother…” her face screws up in anger before she loudly proclaims, “is a raggedy old bitch!”
She gasps at her words, and then she’s giggling again. “I can’t believe I just said that! And they can’t do anything aboutit!” She addresses the laptop screen directly. “Take that, and fuck you!”
“Damn right, they can’t do anything about it.” I grip her tighter. “You don’t have to be afraid of anyone ever again, Baby Girl. Least of all your piece-of-shit dad and raggedy-old-bitch mom.”
“I can’t believe it,” she murmurs, her eyes still on my screen. “All these years…all this time plotting my getaway, and now…I’m finally away from them.”
Before I can answer, she’s shaking her head, all traces of the giggling girl gone. “What are you going to do with the information I gave you yesterday?”
I frown. “Take it to the police. They’ll be arrested for selling you at the very least—”
She cuts me off with a shake of her head. “That’s not good enough. If they go to jail…let’s just say, my parents have enough connections that even if they’re behind bars, they can still be very dangerous to us. Mother and Father won’t like that they’ve been outplayed.”
Could it be that the little bird knows more about her parent’s business dealings than they realize?
“Then what do you suggest?” Brennan’s voice is the one that answers, and my brows shoot up. Is there something about this doorway that makes people want to eavesdrop?
His gaze locks on my hand covering her bare thigh, and my alpha, the insufferable dick he is, puffs up with pride.
“Well,” Wren starts, sounding a little unsure, “in my opinion…” she frowns, looking between the two of us. “Are yousureyou want my opinion?”
“You know them better than we do.” I give a firm nod. “Your input would be very valuable in this situation.”
The way her eyes light up at my words has my damn alpha puffingwith prideagain.
Asshole.
“First,” she starts again, nodding between the two of us, “having Ethan monitor them is a good move. But also, you should really look deep into the past. Especially in their dealings with the Rossi and Bianchi families. Father has told his men he doesn’t want them meeting in the same place, and there has to be a reason why.” Then she takes a deep breath, a fresh wave of determination shining in her eyes. “Though…I think we need to hit them where it hurts.”
Yep. She’s definitely got a vicious streak. At least when it comes to her parents.
“And where would that be?” I inquire.
“Well, I’m sure you know my family owns Alessandro Fashion House,” she looks between the two of us, and we both nod, “but father hasn’t ever been very careful when talking around me. So I know for a fact that a selection of winter coats—which should not be sold in March—has found their way into a shipment of spring fashions being moved from our warehouses to the retailers.”
I frown. “And…?”
“Winter coats are already thick,” she explains, “so nobody would think twice about a box of them being heavy—but the coats are a decoy. Instead of the lining that keeps people warm—they’ve lined them with drugs. The retailer will need to ship it back, and my father will give them a location to send it to.”
“Which is whoever the intended recipient of the drugs is,” Brennan says thoughtfully.
“That’s right,” she nods, “If we tip off the DEA, we can get a leg up on them. The only thing is we won’t know who they’re being sent to, since the address will depend on who Father wants to distribute them.”
“Ethan can figure that out,” I muse, “but why wouldn’t we just have it intercepted when it leaves the warehouse? Before it reaches the retailer?”
“I don’t want them in jail,” she says again. “They can just send one of the other families after us if they’ve lost everything. If the drugs are intercepted after it reaches the retailer, it’ll be enough to investigate, but not enough to flat out arrest them. We make them nervous, and then…we make a deal.”
“A deal?” Brennan’s brows shoot up. “What kind of deal?”
She grins. “We can come to an agreement—if they leave me alone, and call off this…missing persons schtick they’re doing, then we don’t send all of their files to the police. We’ll have already proven that we can mess with their shit if we want.”
I frown. “But you just said you don’t want them in jail—”
“I don’t, but if they call us out, we have no choice. Them in jail and trying to get people to come after us is preferable to them running around unchecked, trying to convince the public that I’ve been kidnapped and held against my will.” She shrugs like it's a no-brainer. “But believe me, jail is the last thing they want, and if we give them an option to avoid that, they’ll take it.”
Chapter 17
