“Oh? You know her well?” Vince lifted his brow, unimpressed thus far and becoming annoyed at the general killjoy his twin had become as of late. “My brother, you’ve become far too prudish in your married old age. Lighten up and tell me what you know about my little dove.”
“I probably shouldn’t but seeing as we’re both tied to Malvagio, here goes. Emma Winters is twenty-six and the oldest daughter of Mike and Sarah Winters — both deceased after a car accident when she was eighteen and her younger sister, Lana, was fourteen.”
“Tragic,” Vince commented, wondering how he could use that information to his advantage. Given that information, it was readily apparent why Emma felt responsible for her sister Lana; Emma’s been taking care of her sister since she was a young girl.
“Yeah, but she’s pretty tough. She managed to put herself through college, in spite of having to work two jobs and care for her sister. She graduated with a degree in journalism-”
“Which nowadays is pretty much useless,” Vince cut in dryly and Nolan agreed.
“Yeah, and that’s why she’s had a hard time finding a job. There just aren’t many newspapers looking to hire new journalists when a lot of print newspapers are going digital only or going out of business completely.”
“Don’t we own a newspaper?” Vince asked, trying to jog his own memory.
“We did but we sold it. It kept losing money year after year.”
“Pity. I might’ve enjoyed offering her a job just to watch her gnash her teeth at me. She’s a spitfire,” he mused, mostly to himself. To Nolan, he asked, “Anything else?”
Nolan shrugged. “Not really. She’s a poor, struggling freelance writer. She barely makes her rent most months but she’s honest. Everyone I talked with said she’s always professional and always does a good job.”
“No boyfriend?”
Nolan sighed, knowing Vince too well. “No,” he answered.
“Excellent. I hate entanglements.”
“Let’s stay focused on the issue at hand. We need her help to catch who poses a threat to the club, nothing else. Right?”
“There’s nothing wrong with combining business with pleasure. Isn’t that what we’ve spent our twenties doing? I like to think I’m pretty good at multi-tasking.”
“She’s nothing like the women we’re accustomed to,” Nolan warned.
"Good. I bore easily." Vince lifted a strapless red dress that looked as if it’d need to be painted on and held it up for Nolan's opinion. "She has beautiful tits. What you think of this?"
"Forget the dress. We have bigger problems. What are you doing with this woman? Laird told me that he's holding onto Emma’s sister on your orders. Are you blackmailing her into helping you?"
Vince shot a look at his brother, irritated. "And what if I am? It's nothing you and I haven't done before. Sometimes the ends justify the means. I'm not about to go down in flames just because you were afraid to pull the trigger. There was a time when you were just as ruthless as I am. It's not my fault that your new wife is holding your nuts in Aubrey’s diaper bag."
"Watch it.”
“Hey, don’t get me wrong. I love my niece and Shannon’s pretty nice, too but you’ve made some major changes since they crashed into your life and I don’t even know you anymore. I want my brother back.” He regarded Nolan with sadness. “Remember when we used to prowl the clubs, taking what we wanted without apology? Fucking women together? Sharing everything?”
“Of course I remember,” Nolan answered quietly. “I’m not that guy anymore and I don’t want to be.”
“Why not?” Vince shot back. “There was nothing wrong with being who you are.”
“It’s hard to explain. I guess I had an epiphany and I realized I didn’t want to be that guy anymore.”
Vince stiffened. “And what guy was that?”
“The guy that our own mother wouldn’t want to know,” he answered, pulling no punches. “If she knew half the shit we’d done…hell, it’s embarrassing just to think about it.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done,” Vince said, hating that Nolan had thrown the mother card in. “Besides, she died before we really got to know her at all and I don’t let the ghosts of strangers run my life.”
Nolan realized he wasn’t going to win with anything he had to say, so he let it go. “I didn't come to fight with you. Nor did I come to listen to you insult my wife. Or my nuts. I'm worried about you, Vince. Lately, you haven't been the same. Dillon and I both worry that you're on some self-destructive course, and we want to make sure that that's not the case."
"I'm touched by your concern. I'm fine." Great. An inter-fucking-vention from two of the biggest hypocrites of the year. Vince tossed the red dress in his hand and reached for another. "You know before Dillon came back and got all respectable, you and I were unstoppable in this town. Now both you and Dillon are neutered and I'm forced to prowl the streets alone. I'm not doing anything that you and I didn't do together so stop judging me and stop being such a pansy."
"Yeah, we did a lot of shady things together. But that's the point. There comes a time when you have to stop dicking around and start taking responsibility for your life. Before Shannon, I never realized that money wasn't everything. That saying was just some trite statement that people who don't have money would say. At least that's what I thought. She made me realize that there is more to life than money and if I lost it all right now I'd be okay because of Shannon and Aubrey. What would you do if you lost all the money?" he asked in earnest but Vince wasn't interested in having a philosophical conversation. He was horny as hell and the one person he wanted to satisfy his urge with, was the one person who wanted to claw his eyes out. He tossed the second red dress and grabbed the third. Nolan pressed harder. "There was a time when you would've settled down. There was someone who made you want those things. And I feel responsible, as we all do, for what happened to Isabel. But she's been gone a long time, man. It's time to let her go and move on."
Vince shot his brother a warning look. "Don't talk about shit that you know nothing about. I was using her just as you were. Don't try to make it into something it wasn't."
"You can lie to anyone else but you can't lie to me. I know how you felt about her. There's no sense in putting up a front. I loved her too but not like you did. Hell, I'm pretty sure you loved her more than Dillon even, but she's gone and your soul climbed in the grave with her."
"Don't waste your time rewriting history. You want to remember things how you want to remember them but I remember things as they were. Isabel was a pretty piece of ass that I wanted and so I took it. The relationship, if you can call it that, ended badly. End of story. But why the hell are you bringing up Isabel? She has nothing to do with what's going on with Emma. From a pure business standpoint, we all have a lot to lose if Malvagio goes down in flames because of this. Emma wasn't being cooperative so I had to find a way to force her hand. I don't feel bad about it and I'm not going to back down. Even if you are not interested in protecting the club’s interests, I am. Unlike you, I'm not ashamed to do whatever it takes."
"Did it ever occur to you that you should be? That's the problem, Vince. We both lost sight of what it means to be human. We became our father — the one person that we swore we never would. And if you keep doing what you're doing, you’ll end up just like him or worse."
Vincent threw the dress to the ground, eliciting a gasp from Dana as she hovered on the fringe. "We can agree to disagree and leave it at that,” he growled. “And I really suggest that you leave it because right about now I've had it with your self-righteous act. In case you've forgotten you’re no angel. The difference between you and me is, I never pretended to be."
Nolan shook his head, disgusted with Vince. "You're impossible to deal with right now. When you pull your head out of your ass let me know and we’ll talk. Until then — you're on your own."
Vince watched as Nolan stalked from the dress shop. Dana stood nervously of
f to the side, eyeing the discarded dresses with dismay. Vince barely glanced at her before curtly announcing, "I'll take the strapless in a size four. Add shoes to match."