“Thanks,” she whispered, forcing herself to finally meet his gaze.
He winked. “What are friends for?”
Oh, god. He was trying to emphasize their friendship—and only their friendship.
Heaven help her, she needed to assure him that, despite her tears and her brief stint playing the role of his second skin, she wasn’t delusional enough to think anything had changed between them. That his feelings had changed.
Opening her mouth to clear the air, she snapped it shut when Doc asked, “So who would want to kill us?” A quick glance in his direction showed he’d fashioned himself a nice-looking sling with the ACE bandage.
“Take your pick.” Romeo snorted as he continued to row steadily. “That Syrian general whose compound we firebombed? Family and friends of those Somali pirates we took out off the Horn of Africa during Operation Enduring Freedom? The brother of that AQAP terrorist in Yemen who—”
“Point taken.” Doc waved his hand. “We have enemies coming out of our asses.”
“I should’ve done a more thorough inspection,” Romeo lamented, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I think maybe I was distracted at the airport. If I missed something—”
“Stop.” Mia lifted her hand. “Stop right there.” She pointed at his nose. “The only reason we’re alive is because of you.”
It looked like he wanted to argue, but Doc seconded Mia’s take. “She’s right. I mean, I was out for the actual ditching. But I know the only reason I’m walking away from it is because of you. Or…” He looked around. “Floating away from it, as the case may be.”
Once again, Romeo opened his mouth to object, and once again Doc cut him off by turning to Cami and frowning. “What’s with you?” he asked her.
The lawyer shook her head and stretched her lips into what might have looked like a smile to someone who was nearly blind. “What do you mean?”
“You’re wearing a face like one of those cultural orientation studies,” Doc said. When Cami’s eyebrow cocked in confusion, he explained, “You know, when researchers try to understand the base emotion that keeps a particular people compliant and in their place in a society. Is it fear, shame, or guilt? Right now, you’re projecting all three.”
Mia watched the lawyer’s throat work over a hard swallow. “I...uh...I guess I should tell you guys that my sister, the one who died in a plane crash last year?” Cami looked at Mia, her face so full of trepidation that Mia automatically gave her a sympathetic smile and nodded for her to continue. “Her plane was taken out by a bomb.”
Apprehension rippled up Mia’s spine, but it was Doc who spoke. Rather condescendingly, if you asked Mia.
“Wait a second. Let me get this straight. Your sister’s plane was bombed out of the sky last year. Our plane was bombed out of the sky twenty minutes ago. And you’re just now—”
“We don’t know it was a bomb that brought us down,” Cami interrupted. “Romeo just said he’s only speculating.”
“I’d trust Romeo’s speculations over a lawyer’s facts from now until the cows come home.”
Cami scowled. “What is your problem with lawyers? I mean, really?”
“Apart from them protecting the guilty, charging exorbitant fees, and that a lot of them go on to become two-faced politicians?”
“I’m a property lawyer, not a defense attorney,” Cami countered, her cheeks going red. “But just so you know, even defense attorneys don’t protect the guilty, as you say. They argue the law. The law is there to protect all of us from frivolous prosecution. If a prosecutor doesn’t have the evidence to convict, then the defendant should go free, and that’s just a good judicial system at work.” Her words started out sharp and got sharper as she went on. “And I’ll have you know I have zero aspirations to run for office. Like you, I have a natural aversion to politicians.”
“I notice you left out the exorbitant fees,” Doc muttered.
“Those are set by my firm!”
“Okay, kids,” Romeo interjected. “We have wandered into counterproductive territory here. Let’s all be quiet so Cami can explain about her sister.” His face softened as he added, “I’m sorry for your loss, by the way.”
That was all it took to douse the fire of Cami’s indignation. Her shoulders drooped. She massaged her temples. “My father’s name is Anthony D’ Angelo, otherwise known as Big Tony D. He worked for the Gambino family.”
“Ha!” Doc tossed back his head and laughed. But there was no humor in it. “Oh, this is rich.” Lowering his chin, he settled a penetrating look on Romeo. “What the hell did LT get us into?”
Mia glanced from Doc to Romeo to Cami. Their knowing expressions meant she was the only one not in the loop. “I...I’m a little lost,” she confessed. “Should I recognize those names?”
“The Gambino Crime Family is one of the original Five Families of New York,” Cami explained. “Surely you’ve heard of them.”
Mia’s brain buzzed with scenes from every mob movie she’d ever seen. “Are we talking I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse original Five Families? The funny how? Funny like a clown? Do I amuse you? original Five Families?”
Romeo snorted. “You’ve been hanging out with Bran too much.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It was my grandmother who turned me on to The Godfather and Goodfellas. Although, Casino was her favorite.” She wrinkled her nose. “And I always thought it was over-long and tedious. The acting was good, though. You can’t fault the actors.”
A strange look passed over Romeo’s face.
“What?” She tilted her head.
“You’re just one surprise after another,” he told her.
“Did you think all I cared about was history and artifacts?” She frowned.
He didn’t answer, but the look he sent her said he was trying to see inside her head. Just shoot me now if he can, she thought.
Since what she was thinking, what she was always thinking, was that she wished she could be somebody else. Anybody else. Because maybe if she was somebody else, somebody without an awful, shameful past, somebody who’d been born brave and beautiful, she could be the kind of woman he needed.
The truth was, she agreed with the first part of his statement. She wasn’t anything he needed—she wasn’t anything anyone needed. But that second part? The part where he said he wasn’t anything she should want?