The Billionaire From Philly

“You wanted me to spy on him for you,” Danielle said tartly. She forced herself to take a quick breath. Sam was getting her off-topic—and she wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or not.

“I’m your brother—you should want to help me,” Sam said. “He’s just your boss and some guy you’re dating.” Danielle rolled her eyes.

“He’s just someone I’m in love with, why should I tell him anything about my family?” Danielle pinned her brother down with her gaze and raised one eyebrow slowly.

“You’re in love with the dude now?” Sam shook his head.

“We’ve been seeing each other for a couple of months now,” Danielle countered. “If I wasn’t at least a little in love with him that wouldn’t be the case.” Get him back around to the topic. “So why did you back off, anyway? I thought you wanted me to show him some legit businesses.”

“I didn’t think it would amount to much of anything to show it to you,” Sam said with a shrug. He’d finished off his cake. “You didn’t seem interested in even hearing me out.”

“That’s interesting,” Danielle said, keeping her voice neutral.

“Why do you say that?” Danielle took a slow breath and a sip of her coffee; her stomach was tying itself in knots and she didn’t really want the plum pie anymore.

“It came up that a couple of the charities that I found, for Victor to donate to, had ties to the Bey family,” she said, meeting her brother’s gaze once again as her heart hammered in her ears.

“Oh, it did, did it?” Sam’s disapproving look deepened into a scowl. “And that’s why you want to talk to me?”

“Yeah,” Danielle said, letting her own voice harden. “I want to know if you’re responsible for those charities, and if they actually are charities.”

“And if I am? I’m not saying that I am, but if I am?” Danielle didn’t flinch at the intensity in her brother’s voice.

“Then I want to know why you didn’t just come to me direct,” she said. “I want to know why you went behind my back.”

“You went behind my back about him in the first place,” Sam pointed out, “because I knew you wouldn’t approve,” Sam spread out his hands, palms-up, as if that explained everything.

I don’t approve because you’re acting against my interests. And if you don’t feel like telling me about your life, why should I tell you about mine?” Danielle glared at him.

“You claim to love me and want to protect me,” she said, keeping her voice carefully low—but not so low that the recorder wouldn’t pick it up. “But you were willing to risk ruining my relationship and getting me fired? What kind of brother does that?”

“If you had been open to helping me out I wouldn’t have had to go behind your back,” Sam countered.

“Are they at least legit charities?” Danielle fought hard to keep her voice from rising.

“They’re legit enough,” Sam said.

“Legit enough?” Danielle forgot about the importance of recording Sam saying anything about specifics as anger rose up in her. “They’re legit enough? You put my entire life at risk without telling me anything about it to get back at me for not telling you about getting a new job and a new boyfriend?”

“Jesus Christ, Dani—chill,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Look. I knew I couldn’t get you to do it by going to you, and it’s not like anyone can prove that you knew anything about it if anything goes wrong, anyway.”

“No,” Danielle said, shaking her head. “No. I have spent years trying to dance around the fact that you’re involved in crime. I’ve spent years dancing at the edge of this shit you do—and telling myself that since you’re my brother, you care about me. You want me to be safe and you’d never put me at risk. But this?” She shook her head again. “If you could do this to me, you never cared about my safety at all.”

“I care about your safety,” Sam protested. “What the fuck bad would come from you being fired from that fake-ass job anyway? You don’t get to lease a better apartment? I can take care of you—I can even get you another job.”

?

?I don’t want another job,” Danielle said. “I want this job. I want this man in my life. And it isn’t just a matter of getting me fired. Don’t you realize that the DA wouldn’t give a fucking plugged nickel if I knew about it or not? I’m your sister—he’d make the connection right away.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Sam countered. “You’d be in the clear, I made sure of that.” Danielle wanted to scream.

“I’m the one in charge of making those donations! I’m the one that chooses them. You’re my brother and you’re in charge of the charities!” She took a slow breath to keep herself from yelling at her brother, to keep herself from getting up and walking out right then. She had to—she suddenly remembered—get a clear admission from Sam of what the charities were actually doing. Suggesting they were partially not legitimate wasn’t enough. “Do you think any jury in this country would think that it was just a coincidence?”

“You wouldn’t ever get caught anyway,” Sam said. “The paperwork is ironclad.”

“What paperwork? How is it ironclad?” Danielle wanted to slap her brother. “You said it was legit enough—how legit is that?”

“There’s only a little bit of side stuff going on, just getting money out of the system,” Sam said dismissively. “Sometimes one of the guys takes some cash to one of the buildings, and it goes in as a donation.” Danielle closed her eyes. “But they actually do legitimate things! They keep kids off the streets and all that shit.” Danielle shook her head slowly and opened her eyes to look at her brother.