“You should know by now your threats—they don’t scare me, but I’m glad we understand each other. Anyway, Brody Windham is not the one you want to mess with.”
“I’m not interested in some snivel-nosed politician.”
The look Braylee tossed my way had me cringing in my stilettos. I hated when she thought she knew something I didn’t. She had this haughty air about her that just drove me crazy. If I didn’t know that she loved Cecily like her own daughter, I would have knocked that smug look right off of her face.
“He’s not a politician. He’s the money behind the politicians. He’s also a playboy extraordinaire.”
“Really?” I raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Hmm . . . maybe he was interesting enough to look into. A no-strings affair might be just what I needed.
Braylee started packing up her paperwork from off of the conference table and putting it into her briefcase. “Focus Gina.”
My eyes turned hard as I looked at her. I was doing all I could not to snap. “Don’t tell me that again.”
Braylee never looked up from gathering her things. “We need to get through this inquiry without killing each other, while doing everything we can to keep your sister from destroying Cecily’s life any further.”
Was she crazy? Did she really think I wanted to be in the same room with her? “Me being here—with you—is proof enough that that’s what I’m trying to do!”
Braylee just stared into my eyes.
I could see that she hated me just as much as I hated her. One of these days, I wouldn’t be able to keep my temper in check, and it would be a knock down drag out fight between us, but today wasn’t that day.
I could see, for just a moment, Braylee let her emotions get the better of her when she snapped. “Where has Nina been all this time anyway? What has she been doing for FIFTEEN years?”
She deserved to know at least that much, and I’m sure she wasn’t waiting around for answers from me. Her people were already researching it. “I don’t know, but I have people digging into it.”
“Good. Keep me posted.”
“No. I won’t. How about you handle this inquiry, and I’ll handle Nina.”
“That’s what you’re paying me for, and I expect a hefty check for doing it.”
“You’re the reason I’m in this mess!”
“No, you’re the reason you’re in the mess. I’m putting you on notice, if Nina starts sniffing too close to my family, Alexandro is not above handling things his own way. And, you should understand . . . neither am I.”
“What you mean is that you’ll call your ex-lover, Xavier, to handle your dirty work?” That touched a nerve. That mask slipped just a little. Good. Braylee needed to leave the gully stuff to those of us who got our hands dirty. She’d probably never even had a speeding ticket.
We glared at each other for another moment before the door to our office opened, and her assistant peeked inside. “They’re ready.”
For now, we had an unspoken alliance; a truce you could say. I was preparing for war, and this was step one. “Let’s get this done.”
*****
The past four hours, in front of idiots, had me wanting to hang myself. I smiled sweetly, never lost my cool, answered every question, and made it through seemingly with flying colors.
As much as I hated to admit it, Braylee Hinsdale was everything her reputation said and more. God, I hated that woman, but I needed to tie up all of these loose ends so that I could focus on both Nina and those members of The Family, who were giving me hell.
After the inquiry was over, Braylee and I debriefed, and she said she’d call when the word came down. My business was finished so Max and I left the Capital offices. We headed for the elevators to the parking garage. He pressed the button, and we went down two levels. When the doors opened, we walked out to where the limousine should have been waiting, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Where’s the car?”
“It should be he—.”
Something flew past my face and caused me to whip my head around. Before Max could finish the word “here,” his hulking body crumpled to the ground. A silent gunshot to the head hit him right between the eyes.
My heart started pounding. I dropped low to the ground. “Shit!” There was no need to feel for a pulse. His glassy eyes staring at me were proof enough that he was dead.
Heat whizzed past my left ear. Someone was out here shooting at me! I was out in the open like a sitting duck. “How the hell could this happen in a US Government garage?” Where’s his gun? I hated to fumble around inside a dead man’s pockets, but I had to do what I had to do. I felt the cold steel against the tips of my fingers and wrapped my hand around it just as another shot was fired.
It missed me but shattered the windshield of a nearby car. Crawling on my hands and knees, I managed to get behind a car for cover. Suddenly, I felt something hard hammer into my body knocking the wind out of me as I fell to the
