Justice: A Billionaire Romance by Lauren Landish

own family.” He paused, then smiled. "Just think, a baby between us."
    "Based off of the floor plan our parents gave us and the four bedrooms, I think they want at least three."
    "All the better."

Chapter Six
Carter
    " W e've got to find out more about this Mr. Clean," I said, looking over the crime reports that Dad had brought home from City Hall. "Even with the increased patrols that Riley, Andi and I are doing, the number of assaults and gang related violence is exploding. Especially near the Docks and in Filmore Heights."
    "Every time something new happens in town, it comes through those areas," Mark commented. "Nearly three decades of digging, and we still don't have the roots out in those communities. Then again, for quite a few years I helped deepen those roots, but still . . . it's been a long road."
    "There's always going to be areas where the poor people live, and those areas are going to breed crime," I commented. It was one of the areas that Mark and I approached things differently, but we had the same goals. Mark, with his self-obtained education in business and a practical life education as a former criminal hitman, he knew the nuts and bolts of the way poverty and corruption worked hand-in-hand. He'd grown up in the bad side of town, where the difference between doing crime or not was the difference between eating or going hungry.
    I didn't. After all, by the time I was born MJT was already working magic in the city, the Confederation was broken, and some of the biggest wars on crime were done. I grew up surrounded not so much by ostentatious wealth, but by the security that comes with wealth. My family could have lost ninety percent of our money and still been able to afford to put good food on the table and clothes on my back, without even touching the 'escape fund' that Mark had put together to make sure all six of us could escape if our vigilante activities came to public light. I knew all of that intellectually, but without literally giving up my money and going around as a poor person for years, I would never understand the same way Mark did. Even then, I knew it wasn't the same. One mention of who I was, and I'd be able to draw on a line of credit world-wide.
    All of this meant that when Mark and I discussed things, I would often make comments from an intellectual point of view that afterwards I knew left Mark resisting rolling his eyes. Still, he didn't talk down to me or denigrate my ignorance, he knew that I would fight just as much as he did. "Unfortunately you're right. When the carrot doesn't work though, sometimes you have to apply the stick."
    "Intimidation alone isn't working?" I asked.
    Mark shook his head. "The police are still stretched thin, the recession-based layoffs means the department is ten percent understrength. Your Dad is trying to talk to the council about freeing up funds, but until the crime numbers are a lot higher than what they are, the council isn't going to do anything."
    "Which will be too late," I said. "You know, a stitch in time and all that."
    Mark nodded. He had been my mentor and primary teacher for my entire life, the man who'd shown me how a surgical application of pressure can create a ripple effect in almost any area of life. Precise surgical investment by MJT had helped vast swaths of the city, and precise use of political pressure had allowed Dad to climb all the way to Mayor. And of course, precise application of pressure on the streets had allowed us to take the city most of the way back from those who had been taking advantage of it for so long. "The council doesn't think like we do. Which means that you, Andi and Riley are going to have to be the tip of the spear. I've already talked with Sophie, and she's going to be getting herself back into shape if it is necessary. I'm doing the same."
    I shook my head. "When we're talking about you two getting out on the streets, things have certainly gone into the realm of the weird. No offense, but you're too old