It did look kind of cute, Luke trying to not hold his balls too noticeably. He did manage to straighten up after a bit of time, she had to give him credit for that. Dani stood off to the side, pretending she was paying rapt attention to her father as he fumbled with the microphone, but she was scanning the crowd, marking every member of her father’s security team. They were easy enough to spot, standing out like rejects from a mafia version of “A Chorus Line.” The thought of them bursting into song and choregraphed dances lightened her mood considerably.

Not that it stopped her from watching. Someone sure as hell had to.

Something around here doesn’t feel right. Duh, the lockdown, the Post-It note on my brother’s back. What part of tonight actually feels right?

Except, no one was acting suspiciously. Well, unless you counted the strange guy holding his balls and trying to walk like it didn’t hurt as he came to stand next to her.

“Who the hell are you?” she demanded out of the corner of her mouth as the crowd quieted.

“I already told you,” he snarled under his breath, nowhere near as cute as he’d been earlier.

Okay, maybe he was still cute. But he’d gone more Grizzly than Teddy Bear in the last few minutes.

Not that she could blame him.

“You lied,” she snapped, not about to let momentary shards of guilt settle.

“Can you hear me? Testing? Is this thing working now?” her father spoke into the mic; the resulting feedback silenced and deafened the room in a display even more impressive than his first attempts to speak.

Dani winced, and focused on making a list. She could account for almost all the guests. The service had presumably been supplied by the hotel, so there was a big chance that whoever pinned the note to David’s back was pretending to be a server.

But the one constant unknown in all of this was Luke. He shows up and suddenly there are shooters and threats and dances and kisses. She cleared her throat to get that last thought out of her head. That really was the clincher, though. He had an air-tight alibi—her. He couldn’t have planted the note, since he’d been with her the entire time.

Not that he couldn’t have someone else helping.

Why did that thought leave a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach?

“I just wanted to say…” her father said, still playing the happy host, though by now every person in the place had to be seeing the cracks in the persona. “I’m glad that my son, David, is back again from college, this time… FOR GOOD!” He led a spontaneous round of applause. “And, despite the deplorable friends he has, who called in the fake alarm we all had to go through just now…” He smiled here and paused, the ever-tolerant father who loved his son despite the boy’s nature, allowing people to digest his words.

It was artful. And perfect.

Dani watched as people around her nodded thoughtfully. The entire thing was a prank. Called in by college kids seeing an old buddy off in style. It was something perfectly simple they could accept and understand. They clung to it, because anything else was too uncomfortable to tolerate.

However, this was no joke. Someone had tried to kill David, her baby brother.

And there was Daddy Dearest, smiling and nodding, and to all appearances writing the whole thing off. Why should she be surprised? Her father’s solutions always involved pretending things never happened.

Typical.

In the meantime, her father was back to waxing poetic. “David…” He was positively beaming, and held out a benevolent hand. “Come up here, boy!”

If her father was playing genial host, David was playing at being the quintessential rube. He went and stood beside his bellicose father, the quiet voice of reason. Like nothing had happened.

Dani’s nerves ratcheted up a notch. David standing on a stage in front of everyone. He was completely exposed, completely unaware of the threats around him.

She scanned the crowd again. The security detail hadn’t moved. They weren’t guarding the stage. She moved closer, trying to be the perfectly proud older sister. Nothing to see here, just a helpless little girl wishing her brother well.

Luke was moving, too. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him scanning the crowd, albeit more discreetly than the bully-boys were. He stopped at the edge of the platform and pretended to pay attention to the events unfolding, but Dani watched his eyes. Bright, blue, piercing eyes that flickered from one person to the next.

Analyst, my ass.

David smiled and waved to a rousing round of applause. He beamed like the little boy Dani remembered, and her heart swelled. That look of sheer adoration he gave her when she returned from school or, other times she was away, was still in there somewhere.

“I’m taking this time,” her father said, taking the microphone back, “to announce that it’s my intention to retire from Markland Enterprises.”

The gasps and murmurs from the audience were genuine. No one was expecting this. Conversation buzzed.

Dani’s mouth went dry. What the hell’s he up to?

“I’m stepping down…” Her father was enjoying himself. His voice positively boomed over the sounds of surprise. “…in favor of my son, David!” He grabbed her brother’s hand and lifted it like a prize fighter after a victorious match.

Dani’s heart seized. Markland Enterprises was nothing more than a front and everyone knew it. The real business had destroyed her mother, torn their family apart, and haunted Dani her entire life. She hated her father for it, had blamed him. Blamed Markland as well. And now… David was to be the head of the very thing that had torn Dani from her mother? Her beloved brother…part of the one thing she hated more than anything else.

Her cry of “NO!” was lost in the general tumult of applause and cheers.

David heard her. He turned and smiled. Perhaps it was meant to be reassuring. It wasn’t. At all.

“Thank you, Father,” David said into the mic, but his eyes were on the crowd. Not looking for danger. Not looking out for his safety. He was playing his audience, positively soaking up their cheers, their adulation. He grew taller before Dani’s eyes, even as she shrank away from him, trying to lose herself in the masses while she tried to think this whole mess through.

In the meantime, David held up his hands for silence, speaking to them passionately. Friend to friend. “I know I’m still green, but the transition will take place over time. With oversite and tutelage, I know that we can create a new future for Markland…”

It was a prepared speech. He’d known.

As David continued to talk about the great and glorious future ahead of them, Dani forgot to scan the crowd, forgot to search for threats, even forgot to keep an eye on Luke. Markland Enterprises was nothing more than a front, a web of lies and corruption and deceit that locked her family into the family for generations. Against all odds, she’d hoped and prayed that David would somehow escape, that he wouldn’t be touched by the graft that had so infected their father. Now he stood on stage, openly embracing what she’d rejected, the one thing that had so nearly destroyed them all.

That was destroying her here now, in front of him. She was going to lose him, too.

Through misty eyes she saw him fade, shrink away as though a million miles from her, out of reach, beyond her. Forever. He’d known and hadn’t bothered to warn her. That betrayal hurt worst of all. As the tears gathered, welling up and threatening to fall, a hand grabbed her arm, roughly.

She reacted without thought; instinct took over and she spun, breaking the grip. Her other hand shot out to grab the wrist that had captured her, only to look into the scowling face of her father, who drew her stumbling to the back of the room before she had time to realize they were in motion.

Not that she was about to let go. Not in a million years.

“Did you honestly think you would be the one replacing me?” he hissed, barely audible under David’s speech. Servers eyed them curiously as they cleared tables, giving them wide berth as he fought to get free of her iron grip.

“No.” She dropped his wrist as though it burned her fingers. He knew her so little as that? He thought she was upset because she wanted Markland Enterprises for herself? “I never wanted it. Never wanted—”

“No, you never did. You were always too good for us. You turned your back on this family a long time ago!”

“Not on the family. Just you.” She stared at her brother, who was shaking hands with the intensity of a seasoned politician.

“David’s been preparing for this his whole life—”

“You mean he was being prepared for it, don’t you?” She glared at her father. “You didn’t give him a choice any more than you gave me one. Or my mother.” She spat the words at him like they were bullets. His bully boys in the corners of the room were ignoring the altercation with all the earnestness of people being paid very good money to see nothing.

Her brother glanced their way, and frowned before turning to accept another congratulatory remark from someone else.

“We’ll finish this later,” her father snapped, and turned away. He rubbed at the wrist she’d grabbed. Maybe it was a rather perverse pleasure, but she was glad she’d hurt him.

Truth be told, he deserved far worse.

Dani pushed past him and headed for the bar. She didn’t even look at the bottle she grabbed. Not that it mattered; there were still walls to be christened.