by Lena Skye
Victor took another quick breath and rose to his feet, locking his computer up as a matter of course and slipping his phone into his pocket. There was a door that connected his office to Danielle’s, conveniently enough, with a bathroom between the two offices that only the two of them could access. He stepped through the little hallway connecting the two rooms and knocked lightly on Danielle’s door.
“Coming!” Danielle’s voice couldn’t have sounded less defensive, less suspicious; she knew that Victor was supposed to have his meeting with Brad only a little bit before, and she knew that they would be discussing her work—so Victor told himself that either the woman he loved was truly innocent of any of the suspicions his lawyer had against her, or she was a consummate actress.
The door opened a moment later and Victor was face-to-face with Danielle. She’d done something new with her hair, which now hung in long twists that fell to her shoulders, and she was dressed in—he thought—possibly Chanel. She was certainly using the stipend he’d given her to good effect. “That was fast,” she said, smiling at him.
“It was a quick meeting,” Victor agreed. “I wanted to talk to you really quickly about something Brad brought up.” Danielle nodded and let him into her office.
“I’m surprised you didn’t buzz me to come over,” she said. Victor shrugged.
“I wanted to talk over here,” he said. “We can go over to my office in a bit, if you want.” Danielle raised an eyebrow at that before sitting down on the couch in her office, looking up at him.
“This sounds serious, then,” she observed.
“Brad was looking through some of the donations, and he found out that some of them seem to be linked to Bey family members,” Victor said quickly. Danielle’s eyes widened, and Victor knew—knew without any shadow of doubt—that no one could mimic surprise that well.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” Danielle said.
“Who? Brad?” Victor looked at her in surprise of his own.
“No! No—of course not,” Danielle replied. “Sam.”
“So, I was right to assume you knew nothing about this,” Victor said, keeping his voice carefully neutral. He did believe it—but he also wanted to calm Danielle down; she seemed more agitated by the disclosure than he would have expected.
“I should have triple-checked the things I was donating to,” Danielle said. “I had thought that Sam had given up on the idea because I’m an idiot.” She shot him a bitter look. “I actually thought Sam had my best interests at heart.”
“He’s in the business,” Victor pointed out. “I don’t blame you for not giving every single thing you contributed to the harshest look you could.” He sat down next to her and took Danielle’s hands in his.
“That’s just it: I should have,” Danielle countered. “I should have known Sam would pull something like this.”
“Do you know for sure Sam’s even involved?” Victor gently said. “After all, it could just be a coincidence.” Danielle sighed.
“I don’t think it is,” she said. “He knew that I was working with charity stuff for you. He wanted you to invest in things. He knew I wasn’t going to give anything to you unless I was 100% certain that it wasn’t related to ‘family’ operations, and even then, I might not.” Danielle groaned and took her hands from him, bringing them up to her face. “I can’t believe I actually thought he wanted my safety to be a priority.”
“He’s your brother, of course you believed him,” Victor said, reaching out to her slowly. He wanted Danielle to have the chance to pull away if she didn’t want comfort, or physical contact.
“I should have known better though,” Danielle insisted. “I should have known that he would pull some behind-the-scenes shit like this, and not just come to me directly when he thought I might turn him down.”
“We don’t know that he set this up,” Victor countered. Danielle accepted his touch, but he could feel her trembling underneath it, as if there were an electrical current thrumming through her. “We don’t even know it was him who set you up to do this.”
“I don’t think it was some kind of crazy coincidence,” Danielle told him. She sighed, and he saw—for the first time since they’d met, months before—that there were tears in her eyes. The strong woman who hadn’t flinched or hesitated in leaving the club in the midst of a raid was on the verge of actively crying over finding out her brother might have put her in a position to endanger her boss’ legitimacy.
She could—if it were a different situation—lose her job over this. Of course, she’s emotional, Victor thought. But then, he countered himself: no. It isn’t the prospect of losing her job, or even losing me, that she’s upset about. It’s that her brother could do this to her. That he could put her at risk like this.
“We don’t even know that it’s a scheme, first of all,” Victor said gently. “It could be a legit charity situation.” Danielle snorted.
“What are the odds of that?” Victor smiled slightly.
“Nikolai has legit charities,” he pointed out. “Maybe the Bey family has a few too. You know these families like to generate some good will towards them if only so they can keep people from testifying against them.” Danielle sighed.
“I just don’t trust it. And now I can’t trust anything I look into for you to donate to—and on top of it, you might get in trouble. And if you get in trouble…” Danielle shook her head, not finishing the sentence.
“If I get in trouble I have a lawyer whose entire pay is based on his ability to get me out of trouble,” Victor told her firmly. He thought for a moment. “But I don’t think I’m wrong here. You probably want to confront your brother about this, right?” Danielle met his gaze for a moment and he could see her thinking about it.
“I do,” she said finally. “I need to know if he did this on purpose, and if he did...then he doesn’t really care about me, does he?”
“I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t care about you,” Victor said. “I think it’s more likely that he doesn’t see why it’s a problem for you.”
“I told him why, though,” Danielle insisted. “So he knows.” Victor gave her hand a squeeze and saw more tears leak free of Danielle’s eyes. She took a deep breath.
“What do you want to do? I am behind you—but I want you to think it through completely before you do whatever it is.” Danielle licked her lips and Victor saw her expression firm up as she thought about it.
“We need to know if it’s a front, right?” Victor shrugged.
“I have Brad checking that out,” he said.
“But if we could get him to admit it, on the record, then that would help, wouldn’t it?” Victor considered that for a moment before nodding.
“You’d want to find out if he did it on purpose too, wouldn’t you?” Danielle nodded as well.
“Yeah, I am pretty sure I know the answer to that, but having it official...that should help, shouldn’t it?” Victor pressed his lips together.
“And what would you want to do with the recording?” Danielle took a slow, deep breath and exhaled in a sigh.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I know I want the recording.”
Chapter17
Danielle tried not to fidget as she waited for Sam to arrive at Metropolitan Bakery, near City Hall. He’d agreed to meet her there after she’d said she wanted to talk to him, and while Danielle was fairly certain it wasn’t the best place to have their conversation—there would be people there who could overhear—she also knew that if she tried to have the talk with him in private, whatever it was that she recorded would never be something she could use in court, if she had to.
The important thing is to get him to admit it in plain English, she thought. What would happen after that would be between her and Sam—though Victor had, in a sense, been involved in her plan.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and thought through what she and Victor had talked about. Brad hadn’t come back with an answer yet about whether the charities that s
he’d been fooled into contributing Victor’s money to had even been money laundering operations in the first place—that was the first thing she had to verify. And she was pretty sure that, one way or another, Sam would let that slip.
We might need to take a walk, for him to actually open up. That was something she and Victor had talked about, too. The recording device she had clipped to the inside of her jacket, hidden from anyone who might see it, would work just as well outside as in the cafe; but Danielle hoped that she could get the ordeal over with in the cafe, instead of going elsewhere.
The chair she was in wasn’t super comfortable, but Danielle looked around more out of a sense of wanting her conversation with her brother to be over and done with, rather than the normal fidgety discomfort. The metal was cold against the backs of her legs, and the table was a little wobbly, but Danielle thought it was one of the better places—still—to have the discussion and hopefully to get what she wanted.
She spotted Sam entering the cafe and lifted a hand to wave him over. She’d already gotten him a coffee and a slice of chocolate pound cake, and—just to keep things as normal looking as possible—had gotten herself a coffee as well, along with a slice of plum pie. She had held off on eating it before her brother arrived.
“Hey, sis,” Sam said, seeing her and crossing through the handful of people waiting in line; it was a slow part of the day—one of few—for the cafe.
“Hey,” Danielle said, smiling as naturally as she could. “Got you the chocolate pound cake.”
“You’re buttering me up for something, aren’t you?” But Sam sat down across from her nonetheless. Danielle had a fleeting moment of worry that the recorder might not be working—but there was no time to check it in that moment. Even if she got up and went into the bathroom, she might tip Sam off without meaning to.
“Just wanted to talk to you about a few things,” Danielle said. Sam broke off a piece of his pound cake and ate it, and Danielle followed suit with her pie.
“What’s up?”
Danielle savored the taste of the cooked plums and crisp, flaky crust and had a sip of her coffee.
“I just remembered that you had wanted—had insisted—on me presenting some financial opportunities to Victor, and then you just kind of dropped it,” she said.
“I figured you didn’t want me involved in your professional life,” Sam told her. Danielle struggled not to raise an eyebrow at that; she didn’t believe him. She couldn’t believe him.
“Well, I mentioned to him that you might have some legit opportunities and he did say that he is always interested in legit stuff,” Danielle explained. “So, if you had wanted to come to me with something I could pass along to him, I’d at least be willing to look at it.” She met his gaze and saw that Sam had—in his mind—already thrown up a kind of wall between them.
It was something she’d seen before in her brother’s gaze, back when they’d both been younger and he’d just been starting to get involved with the Bey family. When she’d asked him about what he was doing with that group, what his “work” was, he’d had that same look in his eyes.
“Why are you interested in showing him, all of a sudden?” Sam frowned slightly, but his suspicion wasn’t enough to keep him from continuing to eat his pound cake in little bites and snatches.
“Are you listening to me? I just told you. I’d mentioned it to Victor, and he said as long as it was legit, he was okay with hearing about it,” Danielle told her brother tartly.
“Yeah, but before it seemed like you didn’t want to hear one word about it,” Sam pointed out. “I’m just wondering why you’d even bring it up to him if you hadn’t changed your mind—and if you changed your mind, why that happened.”
“I’m dating the man,” Danielle countered. “He wondered why I was jumpy and stressed out, and I explained it to him.”
“So, you talked to him about me?” Sam looked disapproving.
“You wanted me to spy on him for you,” Danielle said tartly. She forced herself to take a quick breath. Sam was getting her off-topic—and she wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or not.
“I’m your brother—you should want to help me,” Sam said. “He’s just your boss and some guy you’re dating.” Danielle rolled her eyes.
“He’s just someone I’m in love with, why should I tell him anything about my family?” Danielle pinned her brother down with her gaze and raised one eyebrow slowly.
“You’re in love with the dude now?” Sam shook his head.
“We’ve been seeing each other for a couple of months now,” Danielle countered. “If I wasn’t at least a little in love with him that wouldn’t be the case.” Get him back around to the topic. “So why did you back off, anyway? I thought you wanted me to show him some legit businesses.”
“I didn’t think it would amount to much of anything to show it to you,” Sam said with a shrug. He’d finished off his cake. “You didn’t seem interested in even hearing me out.”
“That’s interesting,” Danielle said, keeping her voice neutral.
“Why do you say that?” Danielle took a slow breath and a sip of her coffee; her stomach was tying itself in knots and she didn’t really want the plum pie anymore.
“It came up that a couple of the charities that I found, for Victor to donate to, had ties to the Bey family,” she said, meeting her brother’s gaze once again as her heart hammered in her ears.
“Oh, it did, did it?” Sam’s disapproving look deepened into a scowl. “And that’s why you want to talk to me?”
“Yeah,” Danielle said, letting her own voice harden. “I want to know if you’re responsible for those charities, and if they actually are charities.”
“And if I am? I’m not saying that I am, but if I am?” Danielle didn’t flinch at the intensity in her brother’s voice.
“Then I want to know why you didn’t just come to me direct,” she said. “I want to know why you went behind my back.”
“You went behind my back about him in the first place,” Sam pointed out, “because I knew you wouldn’t approve,” Sam spread out his hands, palms-up, as if that explained everything.
I don’t approve because you’re acting against my interests. And if you don’t feel like telling me about your life, why should I tell you about mine?” Danielle glared at him.
“You claim to love me and want to protect me,” she said, keeping her voice carefully low—but not so low that the recorder wouldn’t pick it up. “But you were willing to risk ruining my relationship and getting me fired? What kind of brother does that?”
“If you had been open to helping me out I wouldn’t have had to go behind your back,” Sam countered.
“Are they at least legit charities?” Danielle fought hard to keep her voice from rising.
“They’re legit enough,” Sam said.
“Legit enough?” Danielle forgot about the importance of recording Sam saying anything about specifics as anger rose up in her. “They’re legit enough? You put my entire life at risk without telling me anything about it to get back at me for not telling you about getting a new job and a new boyfriend?”
“Jesus Christ, Dani—chill,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Look. I knew I couldn’t get you to do it by going to you, and it’s not like anyone can prove that you knew anything about it if anything goes wrong, anyway.”
“No,” Danielle said, shaking her head. “No. I have spent years trying to dance around the fact that you’re involved in crime. I’ve spent years dancing at the edge of this shit you do—and telling myself that since you’re my brother, you care about me. You want me to be safe and you’d never put me at risk. But this?” She shook her head again. “If you could do this to me, you never cared about my safety at all.”
“I care about your safety,” Sam protested. “What the fuck bad would come from you being fired from that fake-ass job anyway? You don’t get to lease a better apartment? I can take care of you—I can even get you another job.”
�
�I don’t want another job,” Danielle said. “I want this job. I want this man in my life. And it isn’t just a matter of getting me fired. Don’t you realize that the DA wouldn’t give a fucking plugged nickel if I knew about it or not? I’m your sister—he’d make the connection right away.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” Sam countered. “You’d be in the clear, I made sure of that.” Danielle wanted to scream.
“I’m the one in charge of making those donations! I’m the one that chooses them. You’re my brother and you’re in charge of the charities!” She took a slow breath to keep herself from yelling at her brother, to keep herself from getting up and walking out right then. She had to—she suddenly remembered—get a clear admission from Sam of what the charities were actually doing. Suggesting they were partially not legitimate wasn’t enough. “Do you think any jury in this country would think that it was just a coincidence?”
“You wouldn’t ever get caught anyway,” Sam said. “The paperwork is ironclad.”
“What paperwork? How is it ironclad?” Danielle wanted to slap her brother. “You said it was legit enough—how legit is that?”
“There’s only a little bit of side stuff going on, just getting money out of the system,” Sam said dismissively. “Sometimes one of the guys takes some cash to one of the buildings, and it goes in as a donation.” Danielle closed her eyes. “But they actually do legitimate things! They keep kids off the streets and all that shit.” Danielle shook her head slowly and opened her eyes to look at her brother.
“I can’t believe you,” she said. “You’re getting me involved with this shit—with money laundering—against my will, and you don’t even feel bad about it.”
“If your boy loves you so much, it isn’t like he can’t keep you out of prison,” Sam pointed out.
“You shouldn’t want me to be at risk for going to prison in the first place!” Danielle couldn’t take it anymore. She had gotten—she hoped—enough. She couldn’t be around the man who had endangered not just her career, but her freedom and basic safety, all under the guise of getting even with her on not being upfront enough about her personal life. All to punish her. How could she have ever believed that he loved her as a sister at all?
