Page 79 of Burn With Me

“Who doesn’t matter, all you need to know is that he’s already contacted Marcus Summers.”

Aurora’s brother?I frown. “Why? He’s not even at Hazelwood anymore. He transferred to Eastpoint.”

“Yes, we’re aware.” Brown finally lifts the glass as the bartender comes back over and asks him if he’s enjoying himself. Brown nods and takes a sip and the bartender smiles and disappears once more down the line. He waits until the man is out of earshot before he speaks. “The new agent is working from the outside in, and I remember how…” He pauses, his gaze sliding my way before it skitters away and he continues, “disinterestedyou were in bringing Mrs. Icari’s daughter into it, so I thought you should be warned. This new agent won’t be as accommodating as I’ve been. He’ll want to bring her in under any means necessary.”

Well, now I suppose I understand the pause. He was trying to figure out the best way to word himself in such a way so as not to offend me. I’m familiar enough with the process of tiptoeing around a more powerful opponent that I can see it in others as if I’m looking in a mirror. My fingers squeeze around the beer bottle in my hand until I don’t feel the cold anymore.

“Aurora Summers is off limits,” I say, forcing casualness into my tone.

“To me,” Agent Brown agrees.

“To everyone,” I clarify.

“I tried to shut down the notion, but this new guy isn’t exactly on the up and up. He’s doing what he wants and he’s willing to do whatever it takes if it means taking down Damien.”

“Even if it means innocent people are killed in the process?” My words are cold, but my insides are on fire. Rage descends like a haze over my vision. “If she dies, you get nothing. If Damien kills her, we’re done.Do you understand?” I hiss the last words through my teeth.

Brown is quiet and then he sighs. “I have no intention of putting innocent women in the line of fire, Isaac, but I have no control over this new agent. We might be working the same case, but we’renottogether. My bosses are fed up with waiting. Even if Marcus is absent from the city and outside of Damien’s current purview, he’s still connected. He’ll come back for this sister, and he’s got connections there too. Marcus might not be an extreme threat to Damien, but he’s got friends in high places. There are plenty of connections from Eastpoint to Hazelwood and the Icari empire. Plenty of angles to work and the bosses want every single one seen through.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass if Marcus Summers is used in your bid to get to my father—it won’t work, certainly not with the distance—but I’m warning you now, Brown, if anything happens to Aurora because the Feds don’t know their heads from their own asses, I will ensure that neither you nor this new agent of yours has a job left.”

Brown’s head turns slightly towards me. “I’m surprised by you, Isaac,” he says. “I didn’t think you’d pull the rich kid ‘I’ll have your job’ threat.”

I meet the man’s gaze. “I’m not threatening your job, Brown,” I tell him quietly. “If something happens to that girl, you’ll be too fucking dead to worry about your employment.”

“Are you threatening a federal agent, Icari?” Agent Brown’s voice deepens.

My smile is full of teeth and promise. “Yes,” I say. “I am.”

With that, I reach into my back pocket and pull out my wallet. I slam a hundred on the counter and leave my unfinished beer, turning and striding through the hotel and out the lobby doors until I reach the parking lot across the street. I’m practically vibrating with repressed violence and I don’t notice my phone ringing until I’m already in my car.

When I take a glance at the screen, a brief bolt of panic hits me. There’s no time to quiet it, though, or pretend. I take a look around the lot as I answer, wondering if the fucker is having me followed or if his sudden call is nothing more than a coincidence.

“Isaac.” I crank the engine and reverse the vehicle from my parking spot.

“Emilia is hosting our reception this weekend,” are the first words out of my father’s mouth. “I wanted to make sure that you would have Aurora attend.”

I grind my teeth together, briefly wondering why he hasn’t contacted her himself when it hits me. A smirk rises to my lips. “She won’t answer your calls, will she?” I guess.

His brief moment of silence is my answer and I have to repress a laugh. That’s my girl. So feisty. “Regardless of whether she approves of this marriage or not, she will attend,” my father states. “You will make sure of it. Emilia wants to see her daughter.”

And I just bet he’s already becoming quite tired of playing the doting, romantic husband. “What if she refuses?”

“Isaac.” The tone of his voice drops. “I’m sure you understand just how important this relationship is to me—to my business.”

“You’ve never quite explained that,” I remind him. “All I know is that you need Emilia’s connections. Perhaps I’d be more affable to your demands if I understoodwhyit is that you need them?”

Come on, old man,I silently urge.Give me something. A reason. A path to follow to catch your ass.

My father chuckles darkly. “It’s been quite a while since you’ve been so rebellious, Son.” God, how I fucking hate it when he calls me that. “Perhaps you’re done with your childish bullying of your new stepsister and have now moved onto a different form of torture?”

“What?” He can’t know. There’s no fucking way…

“You forget, Isaac,” Damien says quietly. “I have eyes and ears everywhere. Even if they’re not in your penthouse, I know what goes on at Hazelwood University—especially when it concerns my son and his stepsister.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Damien chuckles, and the very sound sends chills up my spine. Yeah, he fucking knows. What else does he know? He can’t know about Agent Brown. There’d be more than a small chat over the phone if he knew I was working with the Feds. There’d be no fucking mercy. Still, my muscles contract as if the man, himself, is standing right before me.

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