Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen #3)(68)

And when he’d left in a tantrum and taken Courtney, Holland had been alone.

“What’s this about Holland? I thought that relationship was over.” Her mouth firmed as though even saying Holland’s name had been difficult for her. “Son, I understand that male affection often comes from sexual impulses, but I really think you need to remember what that woman did to us. Almost did to us. If Zachary hadn’t intervened, well, we would have been ruined all over again. I know your sister thinks we should give Holland the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t see much doubt in what Roman said.”

He found it interesting that his sister was still championing Holland. God, she was going to kick his ass when he inevitably had to tell her she’d been right all along. “Roman didn’t know everything. Roman had no idea that Holland had been threatened by a member of the Bratva.”

“The brat what?”

He was going to have to explain this to her. “Bratva. It’s Russian for brotherhood. It’s their mafia. Apparently Dad got in their way somehow. But this isn’t all about Dad. It’s bigger than Dad. That’s the only reason I would bring it back up. This is affecting all of us and it won’t stop because I don’t look into it. I’m going to need you to be very careful for a while. I’m hiring security for the house and a bodyguard for you.”

His mother waved her hand. “Bah, I don’t need that.”

“You do and you will take it. Otherwise I’ll ship you off to D.C. to spend time with Gus.”

She shook her head. “I’m not an old woman. Well, I am, but I don’t appreciate being treated like one, Daxton. If your father got in someone’s way, I want to help find out who.”

She might be helpful. She might remember things he hadn’t been here to witness. He needed to look into his father’s past, and no one knew that the way his mother did. “If I let you help, you have to agree to the bodyguard.”

A single shoulder shrugged up in weary acceptance. “Fine, but Gus gets to pick him. I want one of those D.C. boys. I like their accents and they have the best stories.”

Awesome. His mom wanted a boy toy to watch over her. “I’ll get her on it immediately. I’ll have someone here before I go out tonight, and I expect you to call me if you see anything odd or even if you don’t feel safe.”

She stood and strode to his father’s closet, opening it easily and coming back with a nicely kept shotgun. “Gus has one of those handgun things, but I’m really better with this.”

He stared at her, his eyes wide at the sight of his genteel mother with a full-blown double-barrel in her hands. “I think you should leave that to the bodyguard.”

She shook her head. “Just make sure he knows I can use this. I wasn’t always a debutante, Dax. You know that prissy Clementine Gray-Jones is supposed to call on me tomorrow. I’ll bet I can get her to piss herself if I take careful aim.” She smiled. “This is going to be fun, son. Let me know how else I can help. I do believe I’m going to arm the maid. Rosalie’s good with knives but she’s an excellent shot with a sniper rifle. Have Gus send us pictures of the proposed bodyguards. Rosalie and I will pick a handsome one. Let me know if you’re staying for supper.”

What the hell had he done? Next she would be telling him the gardener was laying landmines in the front lawn.

His cell phone rang and he answered, knowing exactly who was calling. He’d sent all the information to Connor hours before. He couldn’t imagine his best friend hadn’t already plowed through it. “Hey, buddy.”

“You fucked up.”

Didn’t he know it? “You can confirm what she’s got?”

He wasn’t sure which way he wanted this to go. Well, he was, but the tiniest part of him wanted to believe he wouldn’t be such an idiot as to have left her here all alone after she’d sacrificed everything.

“I can verify most of it. I’ve also got an ID on the body she tracked down to New York. I’ll send you his file, but he was a well-known Bratva lawyer. His death was covered up by the FBI because he’d been trying to inform on his bosses at the time. The feds can’t let it out that they know who he is or the agents they have undercover could be at risk. Your girl was on the right track. She simply didn’t have the clearance to know it.”

“So all these years, she thought she was protecting me?”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. “No, Dax. All these years she was protecting you.”

He shook his head. “I can protect myself, Connor. If she’d told me, I could have brought you into it. I could have brought everyone into it. God, have you even thought about it? Have you thought about what we might have been able to prevent?”

That possibility had been like a lodestone dragging him down.

“Maybe if we’d known, Mad would still be alive,” Connor said gravelly. “Yeah, I’ve thought of it, but I’ve thought of other things, too. We had zero idea there was any kind of conspiracy at that point. If I’d looked at the same evidence Holland had, I would have made the same call. I wasn’t in the country at the time, Dax. I was out of touch for six months. I can’t tell you what I was working on, but it was important. Zack was struggling to get his administration going. Mad and Gabe, for all their smarts, aren’t investigators or security specialists. If I’d seen those photos, I would have tried to sway you away from investigating further, too.”