“I’ve turned a blind eye to things over the years. Things I never thought would matter in the long term. After all, my siblings and I are all innocent. We were children when our father did what he did.”
I cringe inside. “Wait… You’re not telling me that the Steel family is built on dirty money, are you?”
“No. Nothing that can be proved anyway.”
My heart beats rapidly. “Nothing that can be proved? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Fuck,” he says. “We got complacent. Bryce and I got complacent.”
“Complacent about what?”
“Not so much complacent as… We just decided to keep some things to ourselves.”
“Meaning…”
“Meaning that we didn’t let Talon and Ryan in on everything. We didn’t let our wives in on everything.”
I curl my fingers into the palms of my hands.
Cool it, Brock. Don’t go off. Don’t go Red Brock on your father.
“In onwhatexactly?”
“Over the years, things popped up. Nothing that implicates any of us directly but that indicates that my grandfather and father may not have always been aboveboard in their dealings.”
“Will that affect the family now?”
“No, not in any way that will matter. Not legally. Our money is our money, and it’s all clean.”
“All that means istheymay have laundered it.”
“No. Not that we can trace. But my father and my grandfather… Sometimes they used coercion to get what they wanted.”
I feel sick. If my fingernails were slightly longer, they’d be drawing blood in my palms. “What kind of coercion, exactly?”
“Stories have come out of the woodwork over the years about my grandfather, George Steel, and my father. Stories about them holding people at gunpoint, forcing them to do certain things.”
“But nothing illegal.” I shake my head. “What the hell am I saying? Holding people at gunpointisillegal. It’s assault with a deadly weapon.”
“It is. And you’re right. It’s illegal.”
My father’s voice has an edge to it—an edge I recognize, and I wish I didn’t.
Red Joe has held someone at gunpoint in his life. God, I don’t want to know anymore.
“What else?” I ask. “Anything else illegal?”
“No, not that I’ve been able to ascertain. And mind you, I have no proof of this. Like I said, they’re stories that have come out of the woodwork over the years—stories I’ve shared with Uncle Bryce and no one else.”
“Why Uncle Bryce?”
“Uncle Bryce and I have been best friends our whole lives. He and I share a closeness that…”
“What? What kind of closeness? Why would you share something with him but not with your brothers?”
“Well, first of all, Bryceisfamily. Heismy brother. He’s married to Marjorie. My sister. And he’s the chief financial officer of the company, and I’m the chief executive offer. We work together closely.”
“I know all this, Dad.”