I growled. “I’m thinking the problem is Deanna.”
“I never liked that bitch,” Nico said, startling me. He didn’t often speak in a derogatory way about women—our mother had raised my brothers to be gentlemen. “Vincent never liked her much either. He just put up with her because she was crazy in bed. Liked some kink and bondage.”
“Eww.” I shook my head. “TMI, Nico. Seriously. And it’s kinda uncool that you guys are sharing that level of detail with each other. Whatever happened to privacy?”
“Hey, I didn’t ask to see those photos she was sexting to him. Told him to take it into his room. Anyway, he should’ve warned you about her. She’d told him once that she started her career by sleeping with prominent married men, and then using pillow talk and extortion, if necessary, to get leads out of them.”
I stared at the closed bedroom door, frozen by a flash of an idea.
“So...” my brother went on, “should I head up there this weekend and help you move your stuff out?”
“Not yet.” I stood and walked to the bag where I kept my laptop. “Let me call you back.”
“If I can’t answer, I’ll call you back.”
With half my focus on something else, I still couldn’t miss how wonderful Nico was. I had a lot of blessings in my life, but my brothers definitely topped the list. “Ti amo, fratello.”
“Love you, too.”
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I grabbed my laptop out of its carrying case and sat on the bench at the foot of the bed. I surfed to the cloud and sent up a silent prayer asking for Vincent not to have changed his password since he’d given it to me once months ago.
He hadn’t.
I had a hard moment of indecision, weighing my options. Either way, someone I loved was going to get hurt.
In the end, the public nature of Deanna’s threat won out.
I got into Vincent’s account, clicked on the photo album that synced with his phone, and immediately wanted to scour my eyeballs. There were some things a girl just didn’t want to think about her brothers knowing. Or doing.
I downloaded all the racy photos of Deanna—wondering why Vincent had kept them after their breakup—and then I sent her a text telling her to call me ASAP for info she’d want to hear.
With shaking hands, I started unpacking. Jax didn’t believe I was strong enough to share his life and it was up to me to prove him wrong. I could do that. I would do that. And then he wouldn’t feel like he had to hide things from me because I couldn’t handle it.
I heard Jax’s voice outside the door, growing louder as he approached. “I get it, Dad, but I’m going after Gianna now—”
The door opened and Jax strode in, pausing midstep when he caught sight of me. Parker was fast on his heels, but he stopped when he saw me, his mouth closing before he said whatever he’d been about to say.
With a nod of acknowledgment, Parker caught the doorknob and pulled the door shut. Jax locked the door.
My smartphone started ringing. Deanna’s name appeared on the screen. Holding Jax’s gaze, I answered with a curt “Gianna Rossi.”
“What’s up?” Deanna asked, sounding distracted and impatient.
“Hello to you, too, Deanna.”
Jax’s gaze narrowed.
I took a deep breath, knowing I needed to pull off the bluff of my life. “I’ll make this quick—either you kill the Rutledge story or I post X-rated pictures of you on every revenge porn site known to man.”
Jax’s nostrils flared on a sharply indrawn breath.
“Bullshit,” Deanna hissed.
“Is it?” I asked. “You want to take that chance?”
“Those photos are private property!”
“You’re throwing privacy in my face?”
“Two totally different things, Gianna! The Rutledge family gave up any expectation of privacy when they decided to take a stab at controlling this country.”
“You’re taking it too far.”
“And you’re not? There are laws against revenge porn. You post those pictures, and it’ll come back on you and the Rutledges. You’ll be the enemy then.”
“There are laws against extortion, too,” I said tightly, “but that didn’t stop you. There are ways of finding out who you’re squeezing for information, just as there are ways to hide how those pictures of you make it online.”
My lies were spinning into a clusterfuck, but I couldn’t stop.
She sucked in her breath. “I don’t know what you think you’ve got on me—”
“I’ve got enough.” My hand fisted around my phone. “Kill the story, Deanna, or I kill your reputation—your choice.”
“I can’t pull the story! It’s too late.”
“That’s too bad for you.” I hung up.
Jax stared at me. “What are you doing?”
“Not sure. I’m winging it.” My phone rang again and I answered.
“How can you do this?” Deanna’s voice was laced with panic. “One woman to another, how can you?”
I couldn’t ask myself that same question, because I’d back off if I did. I had sent Jax suggestive pictures before. Nothing as extreme as Deanna’s, but still...I’d be mortified if any of them ever got out. “Give me another choice.”
“This isn’t your business! Jackson Rutledge is a big boy. Let him fight his own battles.”