Two

Riley walked into the cool confines of the office building that served as their New York headquarters. It had a very lovely-looking nameplate on the outside that proclaimed it to be the home of Lang and Associates.

There was a perfectly manicured and coiffed receptionist who would explain to any and all who wandered in that Lang and Associates was very exclusive and not accepting new clients.

The truth was Lang and Associates was just Riley Lang, and he only had one real client.

And one fake client, who might mean the end of his law career. He’d gone to law school because Drew needed a lawyer he could trust. There hadn’t been any thought in Riley’s mind to do anything else. He didn’t know what he would have done, had he been given the choice. He’d been focused on helping his family. Now he was licensed to practice in two states. Texas, where the firm’s main office was located, and New York, where so many parts of their game needed to play out. If Ellie Stratton pushed at the end of their game, she could likely get him disbarred. But then he’d known going in that revenge was worth any price he had to pay.

So why had seeing her start to cry hit him so squarely in the gut?

“Good afternoon,” Drew said to the receptionist as they entered.

Gayle was good with calls and handling wayward members of the public who happened to wander in. She was also excellent with any number of weapons. She’d served her country in Iraq and came highly recommended as a bodyguard. “Good afternoon. They’re waiting for you in the conference room.”

Riley had noticed she rarely used their names. Likely because it was hard to keep up with all the aliases. “Thanks, and if Ellie Stratton calls trying to get hold of me, tell her I can’t be interrupted and I’m looking forward to seeing her tonight.”

“Of course.” Gayle nodded and went back to her computer screen. He’d always wondered what she did during the long hours she put in. It certainly wasn’t typing up documents for the boss.

He did everything on his own because he trusted no one.

Drew slapped his back as they walked past the secured door that led into the office that wasn’t really an office. “You afraid she’s going to cancel your date?”

He didn’t bother with correcting his brother. It wasn’t really a date. At least it wouldn’t be to Ellie’s mind, but he intended it to end that way. The safest way to ensure he got what he needed from her was to secure her loyalty. The easiest way to secure her loyalty was to become her lover. “I’m not going to allow that to happen. Besides, calling it off at this point is merely a sign of her embarrassment. She got very emotional when I pointed out what was happening with her sister and Castalano. It would have more to do with that than any issue with me. She was definitely attracted to me. That office was not cold.”

Ellie Stratton was turning out to be quite different from what he’d expected her to be. Having made a case study of her father for years, he’d expected Daddy’s Little Girl to be a lot like the man himself—cold, distant, intellectual. He’d expected any beauty she had to be aesthetic only. He definitely hadn’t expected a warm sensuality that clung to her. He hadn’t counted on her smile to be so damn inviting.

Or her nipples to look so ripe and round under that dress she’d been wearing.

He’d steeled himself to do his duty. Now he wondered if his duty might not be fairly pleasurable.

“Maybe she was actually attracted to me.” Drew pushed through the double doors that led into the conference room, where it looked like everyone had gathered.

“No. It was definitely me she wanted.” He didn’t like the flare of jealously that snaked through him at the thought of Ellie flirting with his big brother.

Yeah, he certainly hadn’t expected that.

They opened the door to the elegant conference room with a view of Central Park. It was the kind of conference room that impressed people, which was exactly why they’d bought the space. It was one more set in their well-thought-out play. When they were done here, they would sell it again and he would go home to Austin.

It appeared they were the last to arrive, but then Drew always liked to make an entrance. The whole group was sitting around the conference table. Bran on one side, with Mia and Case on the other, their hands entwined.

“Mia, Case, I’m so glad the two of you could make it.” Drew held out a hand to the massive, stone-faced dude their sister had recently married. “I hear you had some trouble in Dallas. I’m sorry to take you away at such an awkward time.”

Case stood and gave Drew’s hand a manly shake. “Anything for Mia’s family.”

Mia grinned and hugged Drew. Of all the siblings, she seemed to be the only one who had come out of foster care with all her sweetness intact. She’d been adopted by a couple within months of their parents’ deaths, and they’d given her the stability she’d so desperately needed.

If only they’d been able to do the same for Bran. They’d attempted to take him in, too, but the judge they’d dealt with for Bran hadn’t been so friendly to the two women. They’d lucked out with Mia’s adoption. The judge thought a boy couldn’t be raised by a lesbian couple.

Politics had fucked them all over.

“And awkward doesn’t cover it,” Case Taggart said, his voice deep. “My younger brother came back from the dead. It happens more often than you would think. Especially in my family. Anyway, I didn’t want to let Mia come up here alone. She gets into trouble when I let her roam free-range. We’ve got a few days before we’re needed back in Dallas. My oldest brother sent along a report.”

His oldest brother was Ian Taggart, a legend in military and intelligence circles. Riley had met a lot of scary dudes in his life, but Big Tag, as they called him, was the scariest. He still had trouble reconciling his smart, funny sister being madly in love with the brother of Ian Taggart.

Family, though, did have its uses.

“Let’s hear it. I want to know everything.” He sank into his chair and nabbed a copy of the report. “Ellie Stratton isn’t what I expected. I’ve read all the reports on her, but none of them prepared me for the fact that she’s nothing like her father.”

Drew took the chair next to him. “She looks nothing like her father and she appears much friendlier, but we have no idea what she’s involved in. Don’t judge the book by its very curvy cover.”

“Wait,” Bran said with a frown. “She’s hot? She doesn’t look hot in the pictures. That’s not fair. I get the Wicked Witch of the West and he gets some hot chick? I want a do-over.”

Drew’s eyes narrowed. “There are no do-overs.”

“I don’t think it’s fair. I think we thumb-war. Best two out of three gets the hot chick.” Bran held up his hand, thumb out like when they were kids.

Sometimes Riley’s brother was an idiot. “Dude, I took StratCast because I’m the one who managed to get the law degree. You want to spend seven years studying business law?”

Bran made a vomiting sound. “I just don’t know why I have to sleep with the dragon.”

“No one expects you to sleep with Patricia Cain,” Drew said patiently. “She’s thirty-five years older than you and I haven’t said a thing about you being the one to go in. I haven’t made that decision yet.”

Bran ran a hand over his torso. “All the cougars want a piece of this. She won’t be able to help herself.”

There was a snort from the end of the table, and Riley realized Bill Hatchard was here. Hatch. He’d been their father’s best friend. An alcoholic asshole whom Drew had forced to become someone after he’d aged out of foster care. Drew had found Hatch, used him to get his siblings under his care. In return, he’d rewarded Hatch with millions from 4L Software.

Hatch reached out and slapped the back of Bran’s head. “One of these days you’ll read some of the reports I send you. You’ll be lucky if I don’t forbid you to be anywhere near that assignment. I’d do it myself if she didn’t know what I look like.”

Hatch had to stay out of sight. He knew every single one of their targets because he’d been in business with them. When they’d murdered Benedict and Iris Lawless, Hatch had found the bottom of a bottle and not left it for years. It was still a struggle to keep the man sober, but he was brilliant when it came to business.

“Can we get back to the problem at hand?” Drew asked, turning back to Riley. “Why do you think she’s nothing like her father?”

He slid his brother a long glance. “A number of reasons, but one stands out. She was truly shocked that Castalano would pull that move on her. And she was shocked that someone was bugging her office. I would bet the thought would never occur to her. Did you plant one of ours?”

Drew nodded as he flipped through the file. “Of course. And I gave her a device that will detect anyone else’s. She’ll never find the one I planted. I’ll give you several for you to plant at her house if you make it back there this evening.”

“Oh, I’ll make it into the inner sanctum.” He didn’t intend to be left at her doorstep, and then he would plant the devices they needed.

In her bedroom. He was the snake in the grass who would plant listening devices that would capture her every word. Including his conversations with her, and he intended those to become intimate.

For the first time since they’d decided on this plan, his stomach flipped at the thought.

He had to remember that she was a means to an end. She’d lived a damn near perfect life at the expense of his family. She’d had the best private schools, the finest care, and all because her father had murdered his.

She’d lived the life he should have. More importantly, that Drew and Bran and Mia should have lived. He needed to always remember that. Ellie Stratton had lived a perfect life on the backs of his siblings’ pain, his parents’ death.

It didn’t matter what had happened to him. That was nothing. He shoved the pain down. What mattered were his brothers, his sister. They counted.

They meant more than some passing attraction to a woman he should hate.

Why had her smile been so fucking sweet?

“I’ll get it done. We’ll get what we need. Is there any way she could figure out you’re the one buying up StratCast stock?” It was a worry in the back of his mind. “We told her about her sister’s five percent. She might start investigating.”

Drew’s eyes rolled as though the question was far too silly for him to answer. “I didn’t buy it at all.”

Of course not. Drew would never get his hands dirty when someone else could do it.

“I bought it,” Hatch offered. “And before you freak out, know that I bought it under a couple of shell companies that 4L owns.” Hatch was in his customary half suit. That was what Riley called it. Hatch would wear the slacks and dress shirt. He donned ridiculously expensive Louis Vuitton loafers, but he wouldn’t be caught dead in a tie or jacket. “Everything’s going exactly as we planned. Her sister ran out of money. We were there to supply her with some.”

What he wasn’t saying was they’d been the ones to make sure Shari Stratton got into trouble. Hatch had sent some of his associates to a nightclub Shari frequented. They’d gotten close to her and ensured Shari spent way too much and owed some nasty people money. She’d quickly found herself looking for something to sell, and one of her new friends suggested the stock.

They left nothing to chance.

“We’ll spread it out,” Drew explained. “I want to avoid FTC regulations until the last possible moment. Ellie Stratton needs to have nowhere to go. She can’t see that this deal is not going to go through. That’s why we’re here. We’re going to make sure Castalano doesn’t get the money for his half of the company before we can take over and ensure he never sees a dime. I want her to have no safety net when I walk in.”

Case turned Drew’s way. He was the only one in the room who hadn’t been planning this revenge for years. “And what do you plan on doing with it if you do take over?”

Riley had been afraid Case would be difficult. He was the all-American, upright soldier who seemed to do things simply because he thought they were the right things to do. He needed to put this in terms Case could understand.

“Whatever we need to. Look, we’re not planning to bankrupt Ellie Stratton or throw all her workers out on the street, but you should understand that this is war,” he began. “We didn’t start it. Castalano, Stratton, and Patricia Cain started it twenty years ago when they murdered our parents over money. So money and business are the field of battle. Have you ever taken out a bridge so the enemy can’t follow you?”

“Of course,” Case replied.

“StratCast is a resource they can use. We’re going to take away all their resources, and they’ll find themselves with no way to avoid justice.” Bran sat back in his chair. “We move in, gather the evidence we need, and salt the earth as we retreat.”

“If we merely found the evidence against them, they would use their wealth to circumvent the system,” Drew continued. “They did once before. I don’t intend to allow it to happen again. I need to separate Castalano from StratCast. That doesn’t mean I’m going to punish everyone who works there. If I can help them, I will. Tell me something, Taggart. Do you understand the concept of revenge? Has anyone done something so unforgivable to you or your family that you would stop at nothing to make him pay?”

Taggart’s eyes went stone cold. “Her. Yes, I will make her pay.”

Mia’s fingers tangled with his, bringing him back from wherever dark place he’d gone. “This isn’t about revenge. Not really. It’s about justice. We’re going to bring our parents’ killers to justice. Unfortunately, Drew’s right. If we leave them enough money, they’ll buy their way out. I think we should find a way around hurting Ellie Stratton. She seems so nice. She’s really kind and funny. Y’all would like her.”

Every eye in the room swung to Mia.

Bran leaned forward. “What did you do, Mia?”

His sister sighed and flipped that sandy blond hair of hers over one shoulder. “What I’m trained to do. I got to know my subject.”

Mia was an investigative reporter. She liked to get up close and personal with the people she wrote about. As in all things with Mia, that could get dangerous at times. In this case, it was dangerous for all of them. Mia could be a loose cannon. Riley had been in the same group home as Drew. They’d leaned on each other and gotten Bran out as soon as they could. They’d all grown up, fed by the need for revenge.

Mia was different. Mia believed in justice. She could bring everything down around their heads if she wanted to.

Case’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Mia. “I thought you said you were having coffee with a friend.”

She shrugged and gave her husband big doe eyes. Yeah, he could have told Case she’d been pulling those since she was about two years old. “Baby, I did have coffee with her and she did become a friend. She’s really nice. She’s not at all like you would expect some killer’s daughter to be. She’s having trouble with her ho-bag sister.”

“You’re going to kill me one day, Mia,” Case said under his breath. His arm slid around the back of her chair, pulling her closer to him. “I swear, it’s the only time I haven’t had eyes on her the entire time I’ve been in the city. I had a conference call with my brothers. She did that thing where she waits until the last minute, just before I have to take the call, and ducks out on me.”

Bran stared at their sister. “Ho-bag? Is that a technical term?”

Mia nodded. “It is when your sister is the reason your marriage broke up. She’s dating Ellie’s ex-husband. Bet you didn’t know that.”

They hadn’t gone into the sister’s life in much detail. He’d had McKay-Taggart focus on Ellie. They hadn’t put anyone on the sister or the ex. Maybe that had been a mistake. “No, we didn’t. We only knew she’d blown through the money her father had left her. We ran financials on her and found out what clubs she liked, but I hadn’t heard about an affair with her brother-in-law.”

“The dossier on the ex-husband mentioned that we believed he’d been unfaithful, but he was discreet,” Case said. “You didn’t want us to get too close or we could have figured that out.”

“The good news is Mia doesn’t charge by the hour.” Drew sat back. “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing. You could befriend Ellie, maybe give us valuable intelligence. I’m going to assume you know her routine by now.”

“McKay-Taggart sent an agent up here for a couple of weeks,” Case offered. “We did a complete study of Ellie Stratton’s habits and schedule. It’s all in the report. During the two weeks we followed her, she spent most of her time at work. When she wasn’t there, she was usually alone at her apartment. She went to a movie with a friend. Lily Gallo. Also her assistant at work. She had a single date that didn’t seem to go well. And she had lunch with Castalano’s son.”

“What didn’t go well on the date?” He was definitely interested in not making the same mistake.

“She got a phone call and left in a hurry,” Case explained. “I suspect she had a friend call to save her from a bad date. Other than the dangers of Internet dating, she lives a very quiet life. She doesn’t have a gun registered with the state. No record of any kind. Even though her divorce was acrimonious, there were no domestic calls while it was going on. I would say the risk of her being dangerous is minimal.”

Mia nodded. “And he gets shot a lot, so you should listen to him.”

“I do not get shot a lot. It was twice, three . . . fine, I get shot a lot,” Case conceded. “I’ll try harder to dodge the bullets next time, but most of the recent bullets I’ve taken have been aimed at you, princess. Don’t you forget it.”

His sister’s lips curled into a secretive smile. “I know. I owe you. Big-time. You keep on collecting, big guy.”

Drew shook his head. “No sex talk. It makes me sick. Do all the couples shit on your own time. To me, you’re still six and in pigtails.”

“She looks hot in pigtails,” Case said, then turned a nice shade of red. “Sorry. We’ll keep that to ourselves. Back to the point at hand. Her husband cleaned her out in the divorce. No prenup and she was the breadwinner. She’s got absolutely nothing of real value with the exception of her StratCast stock. Even her apartment is mortgaged. She took her inheritance and put it all into the company.”

“Who gets the stock if she dies before the sale of the company?” Drew asked.

Bran chuckled, though it wasn’t a particularly pleasant sound. “Her business partner. Castalano gets everything. He has to pay any heirs she has fair market value for it, and he has the option to choose to waive the clause. It was built into their partnership all those years ago. Kind of wish Dad had that clause. At least we would have gotten some cash.”

That was Bran. He could smile all he wanted, but the bitterness always came out in the end.

“Why did he allow the stock to go to her after Stratton died?” Drew asked.

“He didn’t have the money to pay her fair market value,” Mia replied. “He looks good on paper, but he’s got cash flow problems. Lots of them and lots of debt. I had a forensic accountant pull all his personal financials. They’re working to do the same with Patricia Cain. One thing is interesting.”

“I find it all interesting,” Drew murmured.

“Phoebe Murdoch, the accountant at McKay-Taggart, was able to work wonders. It’s all very complex and they have various companies they work under, but one thing ties them together,” Mia explained.

Years of working as a journalist had honed Mia’s senses, so when she got that look in her eye, Riley listened. He leaned in. “Are you telling me you found proof?”

Mia took a deep breath before speaking. “I’m telling you that three days before our parents were murdered, Stratton, Castalano, and Cain all sent fifty thousand dollars to the same unmarked Swiss bank account.”

Riley felt the hair on his arms stand up. Proof. They’d searched forever for it.

Bran’s eyes widened. “That’s amazing. All we need to do is prove the bank account was owned by the hit man.”

Mia held a hand up. “Wait. There’s more.”

It was a huge leap forward. He couldn’t understand why his sister looked so grim. She’d done an amazing thing, something they’d been trying to do for years. “We figured out a long time ago that an assassin did the deed. Drew even recognized the man. Bran is right. If we can figure out a way to tie that bank account to the assassin, we’ve got them.”

Case pulled out a photo. “Yes, we’ve ID’d him as well. His name is Yuri Volchenko. He was a paid hit man who worked often with several criminal organizations. I’m sorry to report that he was killed five years ago, likely by the same people he worked for.”

Drew brushed that off with a wave of his hand. “It doesn’t matter. The money does. Riley, could you convict off what we have?”

He had to shake his head. “It’s good, but we need to tie the money to the assassin and then prove that all three of them gained financially. But again, some of this is circumstantial. With a decent lawyer . . .”

“Four.” The word dropped from Case’s mouth like a mini bomb, exploding and forcing everyone’s attention right to him.

“What do you mean four?” Drew asked.

“He means we’ve talked to people who knew Volchenko. My husband here has some interesting family connections. Volchenko’s asking price at the time was two hundred grand. And this was not a man who handed out coupons. We’ve also confirmed that two hundred thousand dollars was delivered to his bank account that day,” Mia said. “The trouble is the final fifty thousand was delivered from a bank in the Caymans. From what I can tell, it does not belong to Stratton, Castalano, or Cain. The account was opened the day before the transaction. Closed the day after.”

Riley felt his head nearly spin. “So after all these years, you’re telling me there was a fourth person involved?”

“Yes, and we think the only way you’ll find that person is through Castalano or Patricia Cain,” Case explained. “We’ll keep digging from my end. Our tech people are already looking into Patricia Cain’s business dealings. We’ll have everything ready in a few weeks. We need to get some information in order for Phoebe to report on StratCast’s actual business accounting, but then that’s what Riley’s supposed to get us. Once we have that, she can do her job.”

“Riley should have that to you in a few weeks.” Drew’s jaw was a tight line, a sure sign big brother was unsettled by the latest bit of news. “And as for the other, we have to consider that Castalano might try to kill Ellie in order to take her stock.”

“We don’t have any indication of that.” Mia shook her head, ever the optimist.

“It’s how this guy works,” Drew insisted.

“Why try the contract thing, then?” Bran asked. “If he’s going to kill her, why attempt to take that technology with him? I would think he would keep it quiet that he wants the tech.”

Riley shrugged. “Could be he’s hedging his bets. Or he could use it as a tactic to drag things out, give him more time. He doesn’t have the money to pay the sister if Ellie dies. We know he’s killed before over a company. He would do it again.”

“If you really think she’s in danger, I say we talk to her,” Mia said. “We tell her what’s happening and we ask for her help.”

Sometimes his sister was so naive. “Yes, she’s going to help us take down the company she stands to make millions from.”

“Maybe she’s smart and she can find another way,” Mia shot back.

“Or maybe we stick to the plan because we’re closer now than we’ve ever been,” Hatch said suddenly. “Mia, I know you want the world to be all sunshine and roses and shit, but the truth of the matter is we stand to lose everything we’ve built if Ellie Stratton discovers our plan and has time to counter our moves.”

“She isn’t the one who killed our parents.” A sheen of tears covered Mia’s blue eyes. “She was only seven when it happened.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Riley insisted. Mia didn’t understand. Mia had been raised by a loving couple who unfortunately planted some very weird ideas of equality and justice into her head. “She’s the only one who can get us what we need.”

He and Drew and Bran had gone without. Without each other. Without food at times. Without any fucking hope. The one thing that had gotten them through was the idea that one day they could make it right. Or if not right, at least even.

It wasn’t fair that sweet Ellie Stratton might bear her father’s burden, but then Riley had discovered the world wasn’t fair a very long time ago.

Drew pinned her with that fixed stare Riley had come to dread long before. It meant Drew wouldn’t be moved. “I need to know if you’re in or out, Mia. If you’re out, then feel free to return to Texas. It seems you’ve found a new family.”

Mia went red and Case started to stand up.

“You want to push her like this, you’re going to go through me, Lawless. You understand?” Case said, his eyes narrowing.

Mia immediately reached for his hand. “It’s all right. Case, it’s all right. Sit down, baby.”

“They don’t get to talk to you like that. No one does,” Case insisted.

“Let me explain.” Drew seemed to calm a bit. “If you don’t want to be a part of this, go back to Texas. It doesn’t mean you aren’t my sister. It simply means we’ll do this on our own. I love you, Mia. But this is going to happen.”

Mia leaned in and spoke softly to her husband. He visibly calmed and took a deep breath.

“I’ll wait for Mia outside. Let me know if my firm can handle anything else for you.” The big guy strode out.

Mia’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t upset him again. He’s been through enough. Now you want me to spill some blood or something to prove I’m a Lawless? I think I should stay in and watch every single one of you. I love you, too, brother. I love you enough to stand beside you, but don’t expect me to keep my mouth shut when I see you doing something wrong.”

“I don’t need you to be my conscience,” Drew insisted.

“Oh, trust me, you do. You all do. And don’t act like I haven’t done my part. If you didn’t have me, Bran would still be in college. Riley would still eat like a five-year-old. Drew, you would never have gotten 4L off the ground because you would have named the company after a dinosaur or a superhero, and Hatch would still be sleeping with skanky hookers.”

Hatch nodded. “She’s right about that. I now sleep with strippers. It’s an entirely higher class of women.”

Drew frowned. “I actually still think MegaRaptor Software would have worked. It screams strength to me.”

His sister was right about some things, and he was proud of the way she stood up for herself. “It screams nerd. And I still eat like a five-year-old. Mostly. I work in a salad every now and then. She’s definitely right about Bran. He was shit at algebra.”

His younger brother rolled his eyes and flipped him off. “I only took it twice.”

Mia gave them all a satisfied smile. “That’s because I convinced your professor to let you do extra credit in exchange for a write-up in the paper. That pushed you over the edge and into that sweet, sweet D. So you all need me. And be nice to my husband. He’s had a rough time and he’s still here trying to help us out.”

Drew stood and walked over to Mia, enveloping her in a hug. “Case is a good guy. A scary guy, but a good one. I’m sorry. We’re all on edge because it’s so close now.”

Bran stood up and joined them. “It’ll be over soon and then we can . . . hell, I don’t even know what we’ll do, but we’ll do it.”

“I say strippers for everyone after we put this thing to bed,” Hatch said, joining the group hug.

Riley pushed his chair back and stood. Mia was at the center. He put his arms around Drew and Bran. “We’ll be able to get on with our lives. And I’ll take that stripper and raise you a high-priced call girl. Mia, don’t even. You have no idea what a well-trained pleasure consultant can do for a man’s stress.”

Mia’s head came up, her eyes twinkling. “I know what a six-foot, five-inch former Navy SEAL can do to a woman’s clitoris.”

And the moment was over.

“Mia, please,” Drew said.

“If Riley can talk about random hookers, I should be able to talk about the beautiful lovemaking between a woman and her newlywed husband. I was raised by two women who had zero interest in dick. It was really surprising to find out how good it felt.” Her lips curled up. Yes, she enjoyed teasing her brothers.

“No more talk,” Drew insisted. “I’m getting a beer.”

Hatch sighed. “Thank God. It’s almost three. I was about to go into withdrawal.”

“I’m going to visit the ladies’ room. Let Case know I’ll be right out,” Mia said, heading for the hallway.

Riley followed his brothers and Hatch out the opposite door and found Case looking out over the Upper East Side, his arms crossed over his massive chest.

He really hoped this wasn’t going to cause problems for his sister. She seemed very happy with her former Navy SEAL turned security consultant/private investigator. “Hey, Mia’s visiting the ladies’ room. She’ll be out in a second. I’m sorry you had to see that. Our family, well it’s complex.”

Case didn’t turn his way, still staring outside. “All families are complex. I worry that’s what you’re not taking into account. It’s where you’ll have problems on this op.”

“Op?”

Case finally turned, smiling slightly. “Sorry. My brother runs his company like we’re all still in the military. Operation. Mission. It’s what you’re embarking on. You’ll run into trouble because you’re not counting on complexity.”

“I think I understand the complexity. We’ve been planning this for decades. The business moves started years ago. I know the legal ramifications of every step we’re going to take.” It rankled that the pretty-boy soldier thought he couldn’t handle it.

“I wasn’t talking about the individual moves. Though the fact that you’re treating this like a chess game makes me more certain this is going to go poorly. These are people, not chess pieces. Your whole family believes Castalano and Cain are purely evil. You can’t view them that way. Yes, they did something twenty years ago that was evil, but a lot can happen in two decades. You have to take a fresh look at them. Strip away what you think you know about them. Figure out what they want, what truly motivates them.”

“Money.” He’d always known that. Even as a child he’d understood his parents had been murdered over cash.

“That’s the simple answer, and people are rarely simple. They grow and change over time, and what they were twenty years ago may not be the same today. Trust me, change can happen in much less time given the right circumstances. Hell, sometimes the people we’re closest to change and there’s nothing we can do to bring them back.”

He wasn’t sure what Case was talking about, but it didn’t seem the man wanted to go further. He went silent and Riley sought to fill that empty, uncomfortable space. “Don’t worry about us. You handle Mia. Protect her.”

“I will. She’s precious to me, but you’re precious to her,” Case replied. “Be careful with Ellie Stratton. Is there any way you can get what you need without getting into bed with her?”

He should have known he would get this from the Boy Scout. “Don’t worry about her.”

“I wasn’t. I am worried about you. I know you all think I’m just a guy with a gun, but there’s actually a really good brain behind all this beauty. I’ve been watching you for a long time. I do know what you want.”

That didn’t prove Case was smart. Anyone who got close to him realized what he wanted fairly quickly. “I want revenge.”

“More than that. That’s what you’ve been taught to want, not the need that fills the core of you. You crave constancy. You want someone who’ll take care of you. Not because they have to. Because they want to. Because they can’t quite bring themselves not to. You want someone who’ll put you first, and the woman who does that . . . well, either she’ll get lucky and you’ll accept it, or you’ll tear her apart because you won’t believe her.”

His brother-in-law had apparently read too many pop psychology books. “I’m not getting emotionally involved with Ellie Stratton.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. Usually right before the wedding.” His smile lit up as he looked past Riley. “Here she comes.”

“Did you tell yourself you wouldn’t get involved with her?” Riley felt the need to challenge Case.

“I knew I would have that one the minute I saw her. Two minutes later, I knew it was a mistake and I tried to get away. Five minutes after that, I was in bed with her and that was that. Best mistake I ever made. Hey, princess.”

Mia was practically glowing as she joined Case. She winked Riley’s way. “I’m going to take this guy home. Talk to you tomorrow. And be nice to Ellie. She’s really cool.”

He watched them walk away hand in hand.

He didn’t need Ellie Stratton to be cool. He needed to figure out a way to get her hot.

Case was wrong. When this was over he would walk away and never look back.