Page 96 of The Square

I squint in the direction of daybreak streaming through the windows. The rich, tufted burgundy fabric in which much of the furnishings are covered springs into vivid color, also waking from its muted slumber. The light shines off the Thames, bounces across St. James’ Park, and lands right in my pupils. Danny turns to look in the direction of the sudden sunburst as well.

Standing, facing us, is the inconceivably sexy silhouette of a naked Christine Keene. She is backlit and shows herself as a seductive and deadly shadow. She has one knee bent and her hip thrust out, further emphasizing the effect. I must say, if Danny doesn’t want me to leave for whatever reason, he and Christine are offering nakedly seductive reasons to stay. Quite literally.

“What’s up?” she asks, raising her fist to her mouth to stifle a yawn.

“Alec,” Danny replies. “Alec is up. And he’s trying to sneak the fuck out.”

“What? Why?” she asks. “Where?”

I feel I must state the obvious. “Bru. Nunu. I love you both. That has been made abundantly clear, yes?” Neither one responds, so I continue speaking. “And it is precisely because I love you that I feel a responsibility to pay a visit to my little brother, see if he’s still about, and make at least an attempt at containing the situation.”

“What situation?” Christine asks.

“Precisely,” I say. “That is exactly what I aim to find out. Why did he conspire with you to try to kill me only to save me and keep me hostage when it didn’t play through as he expected?” Again, no one responds. Again, I continue. “Nunu. Love,” I say, passing by Danny and taking Christine close to me, my hands on her ass. I can feel blood pumping to my cock, but I want to be close to her, even if it proves a distraction. “What was the plan? Do you remember? Do you have any recollection of what was supposed to happen after you and he did me in?”

She looks down, shame radiating from her.

“Hey,” I say, lifting her chin, “it’s fine. We’re past that. And who amongst us hasn’t tried to murder someone they love and plan to spend their lives growing old with?” I fake a yawn. “I mean, if I had a nickel…”

She laughs. It makes my heart smile and my dick jump. I glance over my shoulder. To my great relief, Danny is smiling too. Good. Normalcy. Or our version of it.

She shakes her head. “It’s still… honestly, I never had a complete picture of what was what. I was kept in the dark about a lot of things. I do know he was working with someone else.”

Well, that certainly gets my attention. “Someone else? What do you mean? Who?”

She shrugs. “I don’t really know. It’s all so…”

I stroke her cheek. Run my hand down her hair. “It’s all right. Just tell me anything you think you can recall.”

She sighs a bit. “The whole thing was supposed to be made to look like you and Brasil Lynch”—she looks at Danny, sheepishly—“were in some kind of war with each other.”

“Why?” Danny asks.

She shakes her head. “Because… I dunno. I think Lars was trying to find a way to take over Alec’s business…” She pauses. Corrects herself. “Our business, and Brasil’s. I guess—and I don’t have the details, but I guess—Brasil has something going on that Lars wants part of? Or something?”

Now Danny says, slightly louder than is required, “Fucker.”

“What?” Christine asks.

Danny shakes his head. Blows out through his lips as he steps to the valet closet, rips the plastic off the sweatpants and puts them on, saying, “Brasil told me that some of our shipments were being stolen and our trucks were being used to smuggle diamonds. I thought it was you,” he says to me. “But it was Lars.”

Christine shrugs. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“Are you fokken kidding me, man?”

“Why?” Danny asks. “What?”

“Remember when I told you that I had sent Christine to take care of an oke called Jimmy Sotoro?”

“No.” He shakes his head.

“When we was escaping from your warehouse? I told you that she was on a job to take care of an oke called Jimmy Sotoro. You don’t remember that at all?”

“No,” he says more decisively.

“Eish. Fokken looi n plooi, man. Well, I did. And I truly thought that it was Jimmy what had stolen some diamond shipments from me. I did. That’s why Christine was sent to handle him.”

“Why did you think it was this Jimmy fucker?” Danny asks.