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"I’ away from the money You’re smart You’ll find a way to protect us, like your father always protected your business before you"

I lean forward "Like our fathers protected our businesses," I say, ets the point "And they survived, and continue to do so, by knohen to stay out of soet out, when they were already in"

"Find a way to redirect et out, but not until then"

My lips thin This is not the solution I wanted, but it’s at least an option "I need to knohat you’re doing, and how you’re doing it, in order to do that"

"If you can’t figure it out, then neither can the FBI Figure it out Getfriends And control your bloodline or I will" He rips the knife fro out of the booth, and leaves us with blood everywhere

I grab a napkin and steadyhis hand, before grabbing another napkin He doesn’t stop me He hardly h the napkins I grab my tie, loosen it and pull it free, to create a tourniquet around his ar to the hostess booth, where the woladly supplies me with more napkins and the scissors she has at the stand Derek still isn’t , and I cut cloth and wrap it around his palaze meets mine, his eyes pure bloodshot hate He stands up and takes two steps before he sways I a hi him the hell out of here before Adrian et him out the door, and when he shoves away froain His weakness and pain, no uts oes to his back, and he arches forward,to push to a knee "Get the fuck away froun He doesn’t want out He’s not getting out"

"Derek! Oh God Derek!"

I look up to find Teresa, Adrian’s pretty brunette sister, rushing forward, and she’s on her knees in a heartbeat "Please tell me my brother didn’t do this to you" Her hands are on his face, and it’s clear she cares about et to the hospital," I say

She looks at et hirowls "No help"

I inhale and let it out, pushing to s weak fro out my keys, I click the locks and slide into the driver’s seat, staring forward, the sweet scent of E into that of blood and betrayal I don’t let et past a visit to the BP facility that will be expected to uphold this failure of a façade I start the engine and drive to the facility I barely make it in the front door before Lana has thrown herself into"

Irritated that I’ll now have to explain to Erab her arms and pull her off me "Why are you even here at this hour?"

"I’ve been auditing records later at night, checking up on that probleht the FBI here" Her eyes go wide "Oh ?"

I don’t blink "It’s not me My brother cut his hand and at this point, I have no idea why the FBI is here, but you keep youreyes "You knoould never betray you"

In other words, she would "We’ll talk tomorrow"

"Okay," she says, all innocent when she is not "Touring out Ridel is the hiding spot for Sub-Zero, I walk toward the security booth Ted, a tall, dark-haired e and we head into a private office, where I update him on the failure of this operation As my contact man he’s not any more pleased than I am, but full of assurances they’ll come up with another plan

It’s an hour later when I finally pull into the Four Seasons hotel, having decided I’ve played too nice and too straight up I can’t win that way, but I’ll find an answer that gets Adrian out ofmy brother does not: My father is on uess I have ht be farther froht, but I’est challenge is facing E to explain will be the blood and perfume on my shirt The hardest will be that I’ cartel, whilesure the next knife is in my hand

Lies destroy, but I fear the truth is worse Maybe lies are better Or maybe they aren’t

EMILY

Somehow, I end up in black sweats and a tank top rather than paja in the ainst the couch to the far left of the door, a laptop on the coffee table, and files all around it I’ and cos the idea, and I try to focus on every way this is a good aze keeps going to the tiether spreadsheets on coht, the e and I feel a bit like Cinderella, dreading the loss of her prince, and I don’t like how it feels