She had to work to remain still as the unmistakeable sound of a metal chair hitting a wall came through loud and clear in her ear.
Jack had to grasp her pants leg with her hand to keep from making a larger physical reaction to the noise.
She didn’t wear her nails long.
They were clipped short to keep them from catching on things like the items in her utility belt or the edges of her tactical vest, but times like this, she wished she had nails long enough to dig in and draw blood.
The pain would be a welcome way to manage her own frustrations.
“The man you should talk to,” Donal turned to look at her and smiled, “is Tony boy.”
Tony boy.
Boy howdy,Jack wanted to scream,they better come up with something better than that.
“Tony,” Bradley explained, taking some of the edge off of her frustrations, “is our cousin.”
“Our stupid ass cousin.” Donal amended. “He’s a damn bastard.”
“What my brother is trying to explain in language that our sainted mother would find… offensive,” Bradley winked, “is that he’s only our cousin in blood, but most of the family doesn’t recognize him. He certainly didn’t get any shares in the markets we ran.”
Donal scoffed. “He wasn’t all that sharp either. He stacked boxes when he did work. The rest of the time he was out back on the loading dock smoking.”
“Pa would have called him a… a ‘layabout.’”
Donal nodded at his brother before turning to look at Hayden. “That means he didn’t do much of anything, he just…”
Bradley slugged his brother on the shoulder. “Damn it, Don. I know they’re only women, but they can guess the meaning.”
Jack heard Hayden make a kind of strangled sound from her throat.
She covered it like a champ, turning it into a cough.
“Tony,” Jack murmured under her breath. “Is that the only name he goes by?”
Donal turned to look at her, raising a wolfish brow. “You can call my name any time you like, gorgeous.”
Jack knew she’d end the night going one-on-one with the heavy bag at the gym.
“His full name is Anthony,” Bradley added in.
Donal followed it up with a snort. “I doubt he could spell it without checking the label on his underwear. He was always duller than vanilla ice cream.”
The phone on the table in front of Donal rang and he picked it up.
Smiling, he showed the screen to his brother. With a nod, he stood up and walked away from the table.
Bradley leaned in and looked at Jack and Hayden in turn. “That’s our family lawyer. I bet he’s about to read Don the riot act for us agreeing to talk to y’all.”
It took everything Jack had not to smile at the man’s words.
“But while Don and I did some… risky stuff with the women who worked for us,” he chuckled, “we didn’t do anything to that woman.”
He sighed and pushed his chair back, standing up as Donal ended his call.
“The other stuff? We know that the statute of limitations is long past. You couldn’t drag us in on that stuff now, no matter how much you want to.”
Donal came back to stand beside his brother and clapped a hand down on his shoulder. “Besides that, we got to stare at the two of you for a good long time.”