Page 66 of Brutal
“And that wasn’t wise.”
A laugh scrapes up my throat. “You think you summoned me here to lecture me?”
“I didn’t summon you. I knew where you’d come. Where you always come.”
I raise my eyebrows. “You told me to keep her close.”
“I didn’t tell you to get involved with her.”
“Be careful, Nate,” I say, gritting my teeth.
“Or what?”
I step closer, enough that the firelight catches the ring on my hand. “Or I stop being polite.”
He laughs dryly. “Were you being polite in her apartment?”
My blood turns hotter. Faster.
I turn away before I put my fist through his teeth.
My father used to say men like us were not made. We were revealed. Strip enough away and the truth stands there naked.
“She found the contractor,” Nate says behind me.
That gets my full attention. I turn back slowly. “How much does she know?”
“Not enough.”
“But she’s close.”
“Yes.”
I pick up my drink again. “Who marked her?”
“We’re still sorting that out.”
I stare at him. “That answer irritates me.”
“It irritates me too.” Nate sets his glass down on the mantel and folds his arms. He looks relaxed.
He isn’t. I know him too well.
“The contractor matters,” he says. “But not in the way she thinks.”
“She thinks he ties back to us.”
“He does.”
“Directly?”
A pause.
Then, “Not exactly.”
That means yes, but only through enough layers to make any proof difficult to hold. Vexley business in a nutshell. Fronts behind fronts. Names moved through shell companies and dead men and handshakes that never happened. My father doesn’t build walls. He builds mazes. Mazes that no one can get through without marking themselves.
Delaney’s apartment being searched means she reached one of the corridors he wants hidden.
