Page 34 of Queen's Ransom

“Fuck, I hope not.” She raised a brow. “Privilege?”

“Privilege,” he confirmed.

“I don’t think us or them would want to. We’re in a good place, and so are the Bratva as a result of our scale back.”

“Scale back?”

She considered her words carefully. She’d already stretched the bounds of privilege, which wouldn’t prevent Oak from alerting law enforcement to future crimes. “Let’s just say we’re more discriminating in selecting our projects. As a result, our operations are narrower than they used to be.”

He rolled his empty glass between his hands. “I realized things were changing. I just didn’t know the extent.”

“You looking for a career change?”

“Lord no.” He pushed his glass to the center of the table, and his gaze strayed over her shoulder, staring out the window into the twilight. “I already had one heart attack. I don’t need another.”

“Oh, come on. Getting knocked out wasn’t that bad. And I’m sorry.”

His gray gaze swung back to her, amused. “While I appreciate the long overdue apology, I’m not talking about last July. I’m talking about ten years ago when I almost worked myself into an early grave.”

She nearly choked on her whiskey. “For real?”

“I was a senior associate, second chairing firm cases and first chairing pro bono cases, trying to make partner and get all the trial experience I could while also taking care of a sick parent. I stopped taking care of myself in the process.”

“Shit, Oak.”

“Sound familiar?”

While the details weren’t exactly the same, the stress load sounded eerily familiar. Multiple jobs, family obligations, all the juggling, all of it high stress. She’d never considered health reasons as something that would take her life at an early age. Those weren’t the kinds of risk factors she dealt with on a daily basis. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

“The heart attack and my husband turned things around for me.”

“You met him after?” Helena said, relieved not to be the center of attention again.

“He was my nurse.”

Helena stretched a leg out under the table and nudged his shin. “Well played, Counselor.”

Oak grinned, a rare, true thing, and it was like seeing a whole new person. “Do you have anyone, Helena, besides your brothers?” Except he wasn’t. Oakland Ashe was still the too smart defense attorney who wouldn’t let witnesses—or her—off the hook.

“You know how I don’t want to bring an associate into this—” She waved a hand in front of her face, as all-encompassing a gesture for the Madigans as she could manage. “Well, a relationship would bring someone even closer. Too close already.”

“Hawes made it work.”

“Chris was law enforcement. He knew the score. He was inside, just in a different way.”

“Ho—”

“Amelia was inside too, and so is Brax, similar to how Chris used to be, though he’s been family even longer.”

Oak hmmed and made what Helena recognized as his problem-solving face. After a few seconds, he leaned forward, and with his index finger, drew a circle on the surface of the table. He traced a line from the circle’s outer edge to the middle. “You’re at the center now, correct?”

She nodded, confirming his deduction.

“Maybe you need something different.” He lifted his hand and tapped a knuckle outside the imaginary circle. “Someone who’s fully on the outside to balance things out.”

Someone like Celia, who was fully outside, but also knew the score and seemed to have accepted it already where her brother was concerned. Who carried with her a sense of comfort and peace that Helena craved. But still… “It’s too dangerous.”

“I don’t know.” He relaxed back in his chair. “I think you could protect them.”

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