Page 36 of Royal Flush

Although we had our share of wealthy senators and congressmen, most of which had come from old money.

In our ruthless positions, it was the men who were careless, acting as if they owned the world. Women, on the other hand, were cunning. Now I knew that firsthand, an attribute I’d obviously ignored up to this point. Sadly, I only recognized one of the names, a retired judge who’d worked with Valerio, ceasing to use the wealth management firm after our father’s death. There’d been no explanation but we’d suspected that as one of our first clients after we’d opened the doors, Pops had either coerced or forced the man to work with us.

From what I’d seen, the judge was just as corrupt and influential, yet he’d never caused another issue. That didn’t mean he wasn’t lying in wait, but worrying about who would attempt to bring us down next was futile and possibly damaging.

“Great. Is this divide and conquer?” I asked. “Hunt down and annihilate the person responsible?”

He wasn’t amused.

Then again, neither was I.

“We need to take this seriously. Whatever is going on is more about finding some deep dark secret.” Valerio seemed so certain.

“Jesus,” I huffed.

While there wasn’t a family who didn’t have one or another ugly secret on lockdown, our padlocked box was complicated. Part of the reason was the blend in our family, our father marrying a younger woman, Gage a product of their union. But all three of us had long suspected there was something darker in our family’s past.

Still, to see him this rattled was unnerving as fuck.

When I returned the favor, tossing the file back in his direction, I knew he’d attempt to catch it. The guy had been a pitcher on his baseball team. He winced, dropping the entire thing after missing by a long shot.

“What the hell is wrong with your arm?” I demanded, closing the distance.

“A little accident,” Valerio answered more curtly than normal.

“An accident or were you shot?”

Valerio sighed. “I caught someone breaking into the offices.”

“He tried to be a hero, tangled with the fucker. He was shot in the process,” Gage stated as he finally looked up from his computer screen.

“Is he in custody?” I demanded.

“He got away but he took something from the computer system I’ve yet to be able to detect.”

“The security cameras?”

Snorting, it was quite obvious to tell my brother was angry and embarrassed.

“The perp disabled them.”

“Fucking fantastic. We have two of the most secure office buildings in the city. We own a highly sophisticated security system that’s supposed to be infallible and we have security guards on staff and this unknown dude made off with proprietary information and shot you in the process. Am I capturing what happened correctly?”

Valerio was even more exasperated. “Look, shit happens, which is why this needs to be stopped now.”

“I agree but how do you plan on doing that?” I was beginning to think one drink wouldn’t be enough.

“The person in question is another old friend of our father’s. Jameson Bishop.”

“Secretary of the state?” I mused. They’d gone to college together for one thing, shifting to separate paths after graduating. Jameson’s father had insisted he follow in his footsteps, forcing the man to head to law school then pushing him into political service.

Our father had been set up in business by our grandfather. At least that’s what we’d been told over the years.

“Yes. Just because he works with a bunch of fucking diplomats doesn’t mean he isn’t as corrupt as any other man.” Valerio seemed so certain Jameson was behind the situation, which prompted me to need questions answered.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

My fucking brothers shared another look. Valerio sighed, the sound exaggerated enough it was as if the entire weight of the world was on his shoulders.

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