Page 69 of Knocked Up by my Best Friend's Brothers

“What about the notes you got? Don’t they constitute a threat?”

“Forensics might or might not link them back to a Mancini. But with the kind of lawyers those people roll with, they’d barely get a slap on the wrist. I’m sorry, Tee, I don’t mean to sound hopeless. It’s just that I shot my payload on Perry-Sage. I can’t do much else without direct access to one or more of their computers.”

Teagan takes a long, slow sip of her coffee. “I figured we might get you into an interview room with a detective, tell them the whole story. With the amount of anonymous support you provided for the FBI and the SEC, the least they could do is open a case against the Mancinis regarding Brett. His killer is still free, isn’t he?”

“I couldn’t even tell his mother where to send her PI to look.” I groan with frustration. “I could’ve, but I didn’t want to riskexposure.”

“At the end of the day, you did the best you could under some godawful circumstances. You tried to protect yourself and you still managed to bring that entire corporation down. I’m telling you, the Feds would probably give you a badge if they knew where to find you.”

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do next. I’ve reached out to a few people I trust. People in IT, programming, and cybersecurity that is. There may be options, but I need to go over each in great detail before I take action.”

“Personally, I’m just relieved we can still sit like this and talk.”

“Me too, Tee.”

“I’ve missed you.” She sighs once more. “I don’t want you to leave again.”

“I don’t want that either, but I might still have to. Even if it’s just for a while. Honestly, I don’t know how we’re going to handle this.”

Teagan leans forward and gives me a playful wink. “Four heads are better than one, my sister from another mister. In our case, we’ve got three super-smart ex-Marine noggins, plus your genius brain on top. I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

“You didn’t count yours,” I chuckle softly.

“I’m not the smart one. Consider me moral and emotional support,” she quips. Her phone pings. “Excuse me just one moment. I’m waiting to hear from Tony about dinner tonight.”

“Do your thing.”

“Oh, it’s Alexandra Jones,” she says, somewhat surprised.

Honestly, so am I. “You exchanged numbers?”

“A while back. She invited the entire Hawthorne family to the theater and dinner afterward. Her way of thanking my brothers for the whole green energy collaboration, I guess. She’s actually really nice. I like her.”

“Me, too. She surprised me.”

“She wants to take us both out to lunch one of these days. What do you think?” Teagan asks.

Good question. What do I think about this?

I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. I’m not sure it’s what I need right now. Or maybe it is. Alexandra has been supportive. Teagan seems to like her, too, and I could do with a bit of socializing.

“We should pick the restaurant,” I tell my bestie. “Just so we have some form of control over the location.”

Teagan stares at me for a second, then chuckles and starts typing a reply to Alexandra. “You’ve been spending too much time with my brothers. Next thing I know, you’ll start talking about strategic location advantages for the Trocadero while I’ll be busy perusing their wine list.”

She’s not that far from the truth.

But I have to think this way. I have to watch my back and hers while we’re together. I can’t stay cooped up inside all day either. After last night’s episode, Nathan agreed that the Mancinis are done with direct interactions, at least for a while. Their purpose is to make me toss and turn at night, to make me stew before they do worse.

It gives me a few days to put a plan together.

22

Cassius

The upside of our work experience overseas with the Marines is that we stayed in touch with great people—connections across the military and law enforcement who were more than happy to assist us in our search for information.

“This is it,” Nathan says as he pulls over outside a small office building on the east side of the river. “2447 Wright Avenue.”

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