It wasn’t as if their family had been broken or dysfunctional. Elliot had simply always had a wild streak.
“I’m going to drop you off at your apartment, and then I suggest you stay as far away from me as possible,” Nick said as he opened the car door and practically shoved her inside. “If a stranger comes to see you, don’t let him in.”
“Duh. Ya think?” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid enough to believe I can handle this on my own. Like I said, I’m going to call the FBI.”
He didn’t say anything until he’d slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Right now, if I can find what Elliot stole and return it to Bert, we could come out of this okay. Getting the FBI involved isn’t our best move, trust me.”
Our best move, he’d said. That was interesting. “Really? You think Bert and his friends are going to forgive somebody who stole from them? Why should I believe they’ll just walk away?”
Nick glowered at the road before them. “You don’t understand everything that’s involved here.”
“Then why don’t you tell me the rest,” she exploded. “Ignorance isn’t going to keep me any safer. I have a right to know exactly what Elliot did.”
His jaw tightened, and how sick was it that the play of muscles sent a little wave of heat through her?
“Fine. I guess you’re in it now,” he muttered at last. “I met your brother in college through some mutual friends. To be honest, I didn’t like the guy much at first, but…” He paused, and Ames could almost see memories flickering across his expressive eyes. “We ended up bonding over some beers and we were practically roommates for a while, in the same suite. Elliot could be a real asshole, but he could be a good friend too.” He flicked a glance at her.
Elliot had been her best friend and worst enemy at various times in their life. “He’s never boring,” she offered.
Nick smiled. “No, that he’s not. You know what a thrill seeker he is. When he learned I was related to one of the ‘families’, Elliot wanted me to introduce him to people. He loved to gamble, had an on-campus bookie business for a while, and he was eager to kick it up to the next level.”
The more Nick spoke, the more Ames believed he really did know her brother. She shook her head at Elliot’s stupidity. “So you introduced him to the Espositos.”
“No. In fact, I told him he was an idiot. I’d worked to escape those connections. After what happened to my father, I wasn’t about to get a guy I liked sucked into the life. But after college Elliot used my name, introduced himself, and got the Espositos to hire him.”
Ames stared at the trees rushing past the window. That sounded just like something her brother would do. “Ah jeez. Elliot,” she murmured.
“We’d stopped hanging out around that time,” Nick continued. “I didn’t want any part of what he was getting into. I was concentrating on my own career, a nice normal job working at a museum, doing research, paying back school loans. Elliot was just a memory from my college days, until he called me out of the blue last month. And then he sent a text message…” He shook his head.
“What did he do?” Ames didn’t want to hear the answer. She’d already figured it out. “Did he embezzle from them? Siphon off money to an account in the Caymans or something? Isn’t it all electronic transfers now?”
“Something like that. They still like cold hard cash. I think he skimmed money from a couple of betting operations. He took cash and, more importantly, information to use as leverage to keep himself safe if he ever needed to plea bargain. I think he took small amounts and was having trouble laundering it, so he just let it pile up. When he ran, he stopped in at my place first. And someone was watching him.”
“Your place?”
“I had a spot where I hid stuff. My—” He shut up and stared out the window as he passed an SUV with Rhode Island plates. His expression went cold as he intently studied the passengers of the car, and his hand went into his pocket. Wait, was he carrying a gun?
He remained silent even after he obviously relaxed and dropped back into the slower lane.
She tapped his leg. “Go on. You were about to say something about a hiding place.”
“Oh, right.