Page 219 of Ricardo

“I assumed everyone understood the landscape,” he says, and the words come quicker now, his mind trying to find the safest route out of here. “The gala was significant. You had hospital executives, city development people, senior donors, legal figures, half the civic infrastructure in one place. When a name is left off a room like that, people notice.”

Fucking bingo.

For the first time, I speak. “You think your name is significant enough to warrant notice?”

His head whips around toward me. He realizes his mistake just then.

“Uh, I just meant—” He gulps and tries to recover. “I meant influence. That's all. A guest list can make or break an event.”

Lorenzo leans back against the seat. “Influence is quite a large word for a substitution.”

Rusk’s mouth tightens. “I wasn’t speaking about myself.”

“No,” Lorenzo says, bored. “That would have been far too ambitious.”

A faint flush rises beneath Rusk’s collar. Humiliation.

Good. Let his pride work against him.

“I’m not some random associate who wandered in because a chair opened, you know,” he says.

I keep my eyes on the window. “It would seem that's exactly what you are.”

“Jerry Bradshaw’s substitute,” Lorenzo says, rubbing salt in the wound.

“I'm not some errand boy,” he snaps.

“Seems like you're Jerry Bradshaw's errand boy,” Matteo says mildly from the front seat.

“I work for people that Jerry Bradshaw couldn't get in a room with on his best day,” he says, puffing himself up.

"Oh?" I say. "Like who?"

He catches himself and clamps his mouth shut. But it’s too late.

I look over at Lorenzo, amused.

“Must not be that powerful if this rat is sitting here with us.”

Rusk’s face pinches.

“Careful,” he says.

Lorenzo’s amusement deepens. “Ah.”

That one syllable does more damage than a threat.

Rusk hears it and straightens. “I am telling you, there are people in this city you do not want as enemies.”

“Like Bradshaw's assistant,” I muse.

Edoardo laughs.

Rusk’s eyes flash toward the front seat. “You think this is funny?”

“I think you’re very upset for a man speaking out of his ass,” Edoardo says.

Rusk turns red.