Page 39 of A Love Most Fatal

He waves his hand around, gesturing at the room. “Seems I’m already pretty tangled up.”

I let out the big breath I was holding. “What would you like to know?”

“Are you a drug dealer?” he asks first.

“No,” I answer, which is true for the very most part. True enough that I don’t feel bad.

I, personally, am not dealing drugs. That is for the lower families to facilitate.

“So, the cartel?”

“No involvement there.”If I can help it.I can’t always, though. They want smart weapons as much as anyone else.

“Your dad—was he like The Godfather?”

“Something like that, yes,” I admit. “He was a powerful man.”

“And you, what? Inherited his job? “

“Yes. Family business.”

He mulls on this. “You’re a boss, then?”

“I am,” I agree.

“In the,” Nate lowers his voice like someone might overhear, “mafia?”

I don’t tell him that I’m moreovertheboss, depending on who you ask (baby steps here), but I tilt my head in assent.

Even though he was the one who supplied the guess, he still looks shaken by my answer.

“We sell weapons, mostly,” I explain. “All sorts of technologies. We build a lot of security systems, too. That’s the primary thing.”

“And your construction business?”

“That’s real. Just another thing. We do a lot of totally above-board projects, but we also do. . . specialty builds,” I say.

“For illegal stuff?”

“Yes, for illegal stuff.” There can be no subtlety here, apparently.

“Have you ever been to jail?”

“Never.”

“Are you worried about getting caught?”

“Not presently.”

My dad made sure the police in this town were with us, and the ones that weren’t knew not to mess with us. He laid a lot of that groundwork, and now my sisters and I just maintain the relationship. I give out a lot of presents and bonuses come the holidays. The list includes our few contacts in the larger agencies—the departments whotheoreticallywant nothing more than to stop organized crime entirely, but inpracticemuch prefer the benefits of looking the other way.

I make sure it stays that way.

“Who attacked us the night of the wedding?”

“Two privately hired hitmen from a non-affiliated organization.”

“And who hired them?”