Page 101 of Smoke Screen
“I was vetting him. Trying to see if he’s legit.”
“And is he?”
“If he survives, yeah, I think he is.”
“How do you know?”
Phin wouldn’t expand on the guy’s phone in his pocket. He pointed to his neck. “He has a prominent tattoo on his neck. Easily identifiable. He was on security footage from the night of the heist. He told us he knows where the jewels are stashed, but needs help getting in.”
“Who shot him?”
Phin shrugged. “My guess? He runs with a Vera crew. The Veras are known for big heists. They’re ballsy, I’ll give you that. They have no concern—zero—for historical value. They steal the stuff and either break it up or try to sell it on the black market. When this guy contacted Thompson, we figured it’d be safe to meet him in an open, busy area for a conversation. Obviously, if we’d thought it would be dangerous, we wouldn’t have exposed innocent people. I apologize for that. For endangering your wife and children.”
Reid lifted his hands, scrubbing them over his face and then dropping them back to his sides as if they held the world’s weight.
“You Blackwells.”
Phin cocked his head—patience, patience—ready to lay into his cousin.
Clearly sensing Phin’s reaction, Reid shook his head. “That came out wrong. Y’all frustrate me with all your secrets and cloak-and-dagger crap. We live in the same damned town. We’re family. Why didn’t you call me?”
Call him? Had he not been listening? “Um, NDA? And why would I call you?”
“Dude! I would have signed your fucking NDA and let you use the training center for a meeting. It would have been a lot safer than the middle of town. What the hell did I ever do to you that would make you not trust me? I just don’t get that.”
Not trust him?
What now?
Phin considered it a second. Tried to wrap his mind around the idea. Sure, he and his brothers kept to themselves. That was their dad’s doing. Don’t get too close to people. Don’t share your business. That’s what he’d tell them. He probably didn’t mean family, but a message like that? Delivered repeatedly, it tends to evolve. It starts with random strangers, then it spreads, permeating a household.
Had they meant to isolate themselves? No. It happened. Like cancer spreading to healthy cells. In this case, family.
Phin blew out a hard breath, pressed his palms into his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut while it all came into focus. No wonder people thought they were shady. When faced with nothing but, as Reid said, cloak-and-dagger crap, what would they think?
All these years of rampant gossip could have been avoided. By keeping to themselves, by hiding from people and not getting close to outsiders, they’d unwittingly created the thing that Phin hated most.
Shame.
Maybe Phin and his brothers needed to make changes. Forget the secrecy and bring their Steele cousins into the loop. Hell, with the power the Steeles wielded in this town, it could change small-town minds and Phin wouldn’t feel like every time he went to the post office, people snickered.
He dropped his hands, met his cousin’s eye. “God help me for saying this because I’m fairly sure I’ll hear about it for the next fifty years, but you’re right.”
“Whoa.” Reid held his hands up. “Come again?”
Phin laughed. Yeah, fifty years was a long time. “Fuck you.”
“No. Fuckyou.”
The sound of an engine drew their gazes to the street where a tricked-out minivan stormed into the lot and came to a skidding halt.
Somehow, Grif, his hot-shot sports agent cousin and Steele Ridge town manager, made a minivan look cool.
“You’re screwed now,” Reid said. “I haven’t seen him drive like that since I hid his favorite Ferragamos.”
Leaving the engine running, Grif jumped out of the van, leaving the door open. He poked his finger at Phin.Jab, jab, jab.“What the hell?” he hollered.
Now Phin would have to go through this whole episode again. Dammit.
