Page 49 of Protecting Charity

He held up his finger to stop me from speaking and filled his decanter, downed it, then filled it again and sat down across from me.

“Do you have the proper amount of alcohol on board now?”

“No, but it will do for now. What happened?”

“I’d like to mention, first and foremost, I brought this up to Pops before all of this happened, and he told me not to worry, but there is reason to worry now, so I’m—”

“Spit it out, Nico. I don’t need explanations. I need you to shoot straight and tell me how it is.”

“This new FBI agent working the Gill case, well apparently, he has a hard-on for Charity. I mean that in a way that’s going to get her locked up.”

He sat forward and braced his elbows on the table, and clasped his fists together. “What did he say?”

“Well, let’s skip back a second. Kandy is talking to him, so this is where he gained all this information.”

“I knew she was talking to him. Vito and I had a little chat with her about it the other night.”

I squeezed my fork hard from the irritation. “I’m the lawyer of the family; you don’t think I need to know when one of your employees is playing informant?” This tidbit of information would have come in handy tonight and wouldn’t have caught me off guard as it did.

He sipped his liquor. It was an exasperating move that he would do, I think, to piss me off because it delayed his explanation. He used it to give him more time to think of the words before they came out but forced me to wait while his mouth caught up with his brain.

It was a good habit to be in, thinking before you speak, but we were family, and he should just come out with it, as he expected me to do.

“I was going to, but you’ve been busy.”

I finished chewing. “There are these things called texts or voicemails, Luca.”

“Yup, next time. What did he say?”

“Called her out in front of her parents for drugging Kandy and breaking her arm. Both of them kicked her out and told her not to come back.”

“Christ.”

“He acts like he knows, but I wonder just how much he does. He seemed to reach further than what Kandy had said, but we don’t know everything she said to him. I think it’d be best to call her back in and get the full story.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“I have Officer Sturm looking into anything he can about Agent Harding, but seeing as he only has basic clearance, he won’t find much, I’m sure.”

“Well, I’m trying to get Adelaide here to help, but she’s being a bit of a bitch and giving me a hard time.”

“Could always call in Jake instead.”

He swayed his head from side to side, contemplating my new idea. Addy was good at what she did, but Jake was far superior. Hell, he owned the multi-billion dollar tech company, Blackstone Tech, because of his skills. Why Luca called in a small-time hacker instead of pulling out the big guns was a mystery to me.

“Yeah, I should do that. He didn’t even cross my mind.”

“How do you feel about tomorrow night?”

The masquerade was less than a day away now, and just the thought of Charity going into a room full of other people with masks and a target on her back was nerve-wracking. I wanted Luca to call it off and find an alternative way to get the girl, but I know she would crucify me if I ever proposed it.

He swirled the liquor in his glass and stared hard into it as if it would give him the answer to the questions he had bounced around in his brain. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.”

“Just keep her in your sights, and you two should be fine. Keep her from going off the deep-end on those freaks because you know she is going to if she sees something that doesn’t sit right with her.”

“That’s why I’m nervous.”

“Cuff her to your wrist and call it a prop.” I chuckled at my joke, then chewed another bite of steak.

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