Page 80 of Mr. Dangerous

Her lips quirked up slightly, half-heartedly, but it wassomething.

"I'll go look for some takeout menus," I said. “We could order in lunch. I have to have a planning meeting with the guys,though.”

“But notwithme.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Oh, let it go,Naomi.”

“Don’t be a jackass!” I told my brother. I thought of Mitch, warning us to always stick together, never to let anyone see the cracks between the Delaneybrothers.

But Naomi looked at Liam coolly and didn’t answer. “I could go forcalzones.”

“Great,” I said. “Thankyou.”

Liam and Naomi walked away from each other as soon as I turned away. Liam strode quickly up the stairs to finish his search of the master bedroom. Naomi headed for thelibrary.

It had to be transparent – me worrying about take-out when really, all I wanted to do was find and kill the men who were a danger to his family -- and Joe took it the way I meant it, following me into thekitchen.

"She drives me crazy," I mused out loud to no one, leaning back against the kitchencounter.

"That's not the problem,"Joesaid.

"The sooner we find out what was going on with Dad, the sooner we can make sure the girls are safe. That we're all safe." I looked at Joe. "Is there anything you know about the trouble my dad got into? Anything you cantellme?"

Joe shook his head. "I overheard a lot, the nature of my business, and there were certainly deals made. Enemies made. I can work onalist."

I took a seat at the breakfast bar. "All right. Why did Dad have a bodyguard? That's not typical,right?"

"Mitch was never typical. He made a lot of enemies. Fast, once he turned to politics." Joe shook his head, his dark brown eyes sympathetic. "I know it was hard on you guys, what happened when you were teens. When everyone turned on him. But your dad did a lot of good, too. He wasfearless."

"Fearless about where he put his dick,"Isaid.

"Rob," Joe said. "I could hate your dad for how it all ended. But I don't know. I saw him do a lot of good. He wanted to stop big banking from hurting the little guys, that was why he left investment banking in the firstplace."

"After he made hismillions."

"He introduced legislation that kept Americans in their homes." Joe nodded towards the door. "You know that he helped Naomi's parents keep their house? When her dad took that fall off a ladder, put him out of commission for six months? It wasn't abstract for your dad, even if he tried to work on the big picture. It was little things, too, like paying their mortgage for that year until they got on top ofthings."

I didn't want to think about Mitch as a complicated person. I'd felt so much pride in my dad as a kid. I'd brought him in for show-and-tell in kindergarten. I had been proud of the tall guy who sat on the floor, criss-cross-applesauce despite his expensive three-piece suit, and charmed my schoolmates. Sometimes it was hard to reconcile that guy with the one who had all the mistresses, who said awful things to his sonssometimes.

"Dad also used to say," I said, "The rich don't get rich because they're known for their generosity. So what am I supposed to makeofthat?"

Joe was looking at me hard, though, and he wasn't so easilysidetracked.

"I'm going to go to his house." I said abruptly, changing the subject. "See what Icanfind."

"The police aren't going to let you in there."Joesaid.

"I know," I said. "Luckily I have my own little lock-picker."

Joe said, "If you don't want to forgive your father, that's fine. But you're going to have to try to make sense of him and what he did if you want to protectthatgirl."

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