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“Not this guy,” I said. “Apparently, he’s a paranoid bastard.

And cutthroat. I have my brother Stefan on it.

He can find anyone in the city.” And out of all of my brothers, was most unlikely to rat on me since he was Dad’s least-favorite kid (which the asshole made no secret of) and was generally left alone because of it.

“Cutthroat, how?” Josh asked. “You’re not putting yourself in danger, are you?”

The concern in his voice made me want to squirm.

Having friends was going to take a while to get used to.

“I’m fine,” I lied—I was always in danger.

“He’s not any worse than the other people I deal with.

I meant cutthroat with money. If I have any hope of getting a fair deal, I need to catch him off guard.

If he has time to look into the debt or McKinney’s holdings, he’ll try to milk me for every penny I’m worth. ”

Josh frowned. “Let me know if you need extra cash. We have some lying around.”

I waved him off. “Save it for your wedding and honeymoon. I’ll be fine. Crime is lucrative, and besides my bike and my piece of shit apartment, I don’t spend money on anything but investments.”

Josh perked up. “I didn’t know you were into the stock market. How’s that going?”

“Pretty decent,” I said. “It’s a good nest egg.” It was better than a nest egg. I could retire tomorrow and live off the dividends for the rest of my life if I was frugal. Not that my dad would let me.

“No shit?” Josh said, eyebrows rising. “I’ve wanted to start investing more myself. I have a decent portfolio, but it’s managed by some douche on Wall Street. You know, Tyler’s a financial analyst. We could invite him over too and make a whole night of it.”

I had no idea how to answer diplomatically, so I went with being direct. “No offense, but I’d rather rip my own fingernails off than hang out with that guy.”

I gestured with my coffee cup behind Josh’s back, and he turned to see what I’d been watching this whole time: Tyler, about to start a fight over cornhole. He’d lost and wasn’t happy about it.

“Because you kept stepping over the fucking line,” he said, loud enough for his voice to carry.

Josh turned back to me, wincing. “He has a thing about rules.”

I just looked at him.

“And he doesn’t exactly make the best first impression,” he tacked on.

“Or second,” I said, sipping my coffee.

Josh nodded. “I think he’s just not good in new situations or with new people so he ends up acting like more of a douche than normal. But once you get past that hurdle, you’ll never find a more loyal friend.”

Behind him, Tyler flipped a cornhole board and stalked away from the party.

“I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Josh turned just in time to catch Tyler disappearing around the corner of the house. With a sigh, Josh swung back my way, eyes snagging on Aly and Lauren and the other women shaking their heads at Tyler’s outburst.

“Lauren’s nice,” he said.

“Too nice for me?”

“Oh, without a doubt.”

I shot him an unimpressed look.

He elbowed me. “You guys are good together. Complement each other.”

I peered up at him. “Is that what you’ve been doing over here in your Creep Corner all afternoon? Studying the rest of us?”

“Yeah,” he said, and I could hear the unspoken duh in his tone. “The fuck else was I supposed to do for entertainment?”

“I don’t know, this is your engagement party.”

“No, it’s not. It’s hers,” he said, tone softening as he glanced toward Aly.

I followed his gaze and caught her admiring the rock on her finger, a smile on her face that told anyone who saw it just how happy she was, how content.

She glanced up, saw Josh, and smiled even wider, and he let out a low whuff of breath that made it sound like someone had gut-punched him.

I decided in that moment that if my father ever tried to tear them apart, it would be open war between us.

My gaze drifted to Lauren. She was talking animatedly with one of Aly’s colleagues, but I wasn’t worried about what she was saying.

I’d asked her not to bring up certain subjects, and I trusted her to keep quiet.

Hell, I trusted her, period. Spending the afternoon in her company, out in the light of day together, had been.

..interesting. Easy. It was a glimpse of normalcy, what life could be like if I was able to break free.

Lauren laughed at something Aly said, and they clinked their wineglasses together before drinking. My chest warmed at the sight of them getting on so well, and I had to remind myself not to get ahead of myself, that we still hadn’t discussed what the hell we were doing.

And then Lauren’s gaze caught mine and held, heat sparking between us.

I sent her a smile, winked, and turned away, not wanting her to see the rage taking hold of me.

My fucking father. His threats, his slyness, his control, they were the reasons I held myself back with Lauren.

Because I was afraid of what he would do, how far he would go to retain his hold on me.

The mob had rules against hurting women, but I didn’t trust him to honor them, and I knew all too well that you didn’t have to use physical force to harm someone.

Psychological weapons could be just as devastating.

I just needed to find a weakness I could exploit. Planning a move into legitimate business was all well and good, but it wouldn’t free me from my dad’s claws, wouldn’t keep him from threatening or coercing me into doing whatever he wanted.

Think , I told myself. What did Dad value more than anything? What could I threaten to take away from him that would finally get him to back down?

“You all right?” Josh asked.

I shook my head, trying to pull myself back from the brink. I didn’t trust my temper when I got like this.

“Come on,” Josh said, shoving my shoulder to get me moving. “Inside.”

I stalked into their house, glad for the silence. It was too loud outside to think straight.

“What’d you do to get free of my old man?” I said, finally asking Josh outright.

He looked toward the back door and the party just beyond, checking to see if we were really alone. “Threatened to rip his entire life apart, including your family. No offense.”

I blinked. That was it. Family. The one thing Dad cared about more than anything else in the world.

It was why he’d blackmailed Aly and Josh into coming to monthly dinners, why he tried to exert so much control over me and my brothers.

His own parents had disowned him when he joined the mob, and his greatest fear in life was that everyone else he loved would one day abandon him, too.

“Can you actually follow through on your threats?” I asked Josh.

He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded, his other side entering the conversation. “Yes.”

“I’ve got a plan brewing in my head, but I don’t know if it will work or blow up in my face.” I laid it out for him from start to finish, watching his eyes widen and his brows climb up his forehead.

When I was done, he smiled. “That sounds like a complete shit show.”

“You in?”

“Fuck, yeah,” he said.