Page 115 of Forbidden Wish

She looked up at Jagg over her head. “That’s bullshit,” he muttered.

“Yeah, we figure that too. A lot of hard drives missing. A lot of empty shelves.”

Amazing how even in the clutches of potential death, men stayed behind to clear the archives. But if others were in these movies, they’d want the evidence gone as much as the Manzanis would.

“Talk to Swerve?”

“Tracking him down,” Lachlan said to Jagg. “But you know how much help he’ll be.”

“You think Bryan’s the key to this?”

“I think he’s potentially the weakest link. They left this behind, dropping him into the cops’ lap. If he knows what’s going on, testifying may be the only way to save his own ass.”

“You can’t let him get away with it. Don’t accept his testimony and let him off the hook.”

“Would you rather everyone was off the hook? Going after the Manzanis—”

“You can’t take down the Manzanis with this. You can’t take down the Manzanis.”

Lachlan frowned. “You’ve been spending too much time with my sister. You think because it’s difficult, we shouldn’t try?”

“I think this is related to Silvio Manzani,” she said, leaning in as she lowered her volume. “And I think he’s stronger than his son.”

“Vex? How’s he connected?” This time it was Jagg under Lachlan’s scrutiny. “Been in touch with your old pal?”

“Vex wasn’t at the Carlyle when it went up.”

“No, Im’s right, it’s Silvio’s operation.”

“And here I thought families worked together.”

“You know better than that, Immie.”

“Wading into this…” she said, drawing in a breath. “It’s all so much more complicated than I thought it would be.”

“What did you think tracking the Manzanis would be?”

“I didn’t know I was chasing the Manzanis when I started this.”

“What took you to them?” Lachlan asked. She hesitated. “You want me to solve this and bring people to justice, you have to tell me what you know.”

“You knew I was mixed up with the Manzanis before I did. Jagg told me about the tattoo.”

“That’s it? That what put you on this path?”

No. Lying wouldn’t get any of them anywhere. “Mila,” she said. “I was over there, at their apartment. Bryan told Stephanie that he could get into a club, a specific club that… I don’t know that they ever went, I didn’t know it was relevant… not exactly. I was investigating. Asking questions, going places… following leads.”

“What club?” he asked. “I want you to say Stag, but you’re not going to… are you?”

“Hustle.” Might as well get it out there. “Bryan could get them into Hustle.”

“Which belongs to Vex Manzani. What the hell were you doing going in somewhere like that alone? You’re lucky you got out alive. Why did they let you in?”

“I wasn’t alone,” she said, her hand swinging back to twine her fingers with Jagg’s. “I was safe.”

As Lachlan’s focus fell to their joined hands, understanding came in a slow breath. “Right.” A beat. “Got it.”

And with that, he turned to walk off.

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