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“She was following what was trending,” Xeno says with a shrug. It’s easier for him to gloss over, because this book isn’t supposedly written about anyone he’s ever fallen for. “You gonna tell that agent about it now?”
I eye the book. It might shed some light on Porscha, or it could be a bunch of fictional bullshit made up in the fairytale world inside her head. I leaf through the pages, eyeing the page count. She stuffed over two hundred pages of crap into this thing. “Sterling’s supposed to stop by today sometime around his work schedule. Maybe I’ll give it to him then.”
Xeno chuckles. “Be careful reading that thing, brother. You might not like what you find.”
Honestly, I’m less worried about what I think and more curious about what Jo will. Her mother wrote this after all, even if she was pretending to be someone else. I flip it over and check the back. “A torrid love story between a woman he couldn’t have, and a killer fighting to be good.”
“I told you, you might not like it,” Xeno laughs when he sees the disgust on my face.
It sounds creepy, but once I hand this over to Sterling I lose any chance to see it firsthand. The FBI sees it as evidence, a place Porscha might have left clues, but to me it’s a way to see just how unhinged Jo’s mother really was. She never acted inappropriately with me, but I don’t think she particularly liked me either. This would be like looking at a whole new side of her.
Ifthere’s a shred of truth in it.
“One more thing,” Xeno says, tapping on my chest. I lift my brows and take a few steps back, letting him into the house.He closes the door almost instantly, meeting my eyes. “Your guard detail. One of them is giving me issues.”
My interest with the book dies. “Oh?”
“I assigned them again,” he continues, rolling his eyes. “Dante and Jonathan. They have to wear headsets when they are on the job here, because like I said, I’m not letting either of you die on my watch.”
“And what’s the problem with that?”
He hesitates, lifting a brow. “Do you still talk to your tech guy?”
“Russell? Not all the time, but he’s still taking care of all the surveillance systems for Sins and Secrets. Emeric gave him access so he can remotely check on the system here ,too.”
“Good. The headsets I handed them today are on a separate router from anything else I use. Ask Russell if he can tap into them and see if either of them happens to be reporting intel to someone.”
My hands tighten, gripping the spine of the book. “You think they’re recording us?”
“Possibly. I don’t have cameras on you, just eyes.Theyare supposed to be acting as my cameras. If one is reporting back to someone other than me, I imagine it could be Porscha.”
“Do you want Russell to look into the two of them? Jonathan and Dante?”
He hesitates. “I suppose your FBI friend should do it.”
The disdain in his voice is evident. If the FBI looks into some one of the Ajello Family members, even the extended family, it would draw attention to the family as a whole. “Why?”
“Because weeding out a bad seed now will put me in favor with the other members,” Xeno says lightly. “Soon, I plan to unseat Dad.”
I stare at him, hard. Massimo made my life hell through high school until I left, and I know he wasn’t kind to Xeno in myabsence. But he’s still in charge, and he rules with an iron first. “How are you planning to do that?”
He smirks, reaching out to pat my shoulder. “Leave it to me, brother. Can your friend Russell take care of that quickly?”
I shrug. “Probably. He’s good at discretion when he needs to be.”
“Excellent. I wouldn’t say too much to anyone else for the time being until we know more.”
“So that’s your way of hinting that I don’t tell Emeric about any of this.”
“He’ll worry,” Xeno replies, and he’s right. “He knows his foster brother is missing, right?”
“We wouldn’t keep that from him. He seems confident that Alastair is resilient enough to survive pretty much anything.” And Jo just spoke with him not long ago, so it isn’t like Emeric’s that out of the loop. We aren’t trying to mislead him about the issues in Florida.
“So he’s not rushing back from Colorado?”
“They aren’t exactly close anymore,” I grumble. “It’s complicated, Xeno.”
He shrugs in response, pivoting back to the door. “I hope the book serves you well. Text me when Russell has a chance to check things out.”