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My voice comes out much harsher and colder than I intended, but I don’t want to make small talk. I don’t want to hear Kian make some joke that will wind me up, or Kellan make a sarcastic comment. And I sure as shit don’t want Liam to start a heart to heart about how we’re fucking feeling. I want to get things moving. I’m antsy, and I’m done sitting about.
All eyes fly to me, but I ignore them all, focusing on Bree, who doesn’t cower under my glare. I take a moment to appreciate her fierceness as she rolls her eyes at my impatience. “I guess we’re diving straight in then,” she replies.
It’s hardly like we’re diving straight in. I’ve been waiting weeks for her to make contact with The Sheriff, and then once they had, there was all this back and forth where they both wanted proof of life. Then each made demands that needed to be deliberated. Fucking politics in parliament move quicker than this has, and Bree knows my patience is wearing thin.
“So, I’ve arranged a meeting with The Sheriff in the morning. He’s agreed to be picked up at a location of his choosing, and he agrees to be blindfolded and brought to a location of my choosing—the warehouse. He will be searched for bugs and trackers, and once he’s clear, he will be brought to me. Ethan has agreed to drive, but The Sheriff has made it clear this meeting is solely between him and me. Now, if you guys want to be in the observation room, that’s fine, but I gave him my word it would just be me,” she explains.
“Why would he agree to that? All the risk is on him, when we’re the ones who want something,” Shane asks, and I can’t help but nod in agreement.
Something doesn’t sound right. There’s no way a guy who calls himself The Sheriff to remain anonymous would agree to being blindfolded with no weapons before being transported alone, with no backup, to a location of our choosing. I wouldn’t agree to it.
“I know. We’ve been thinking the same thing. He’s made it clear he wants to hear my terms, and more than that, he wants to try and stop the war before it starts. I think he’s hoping that some time alone with me is all it will take for me to change my mind about taking on The Aristocracy,” Bree explains, and Kian chuckles.
“He’s an idiot then.”
“Still, it doesn’t make sense for him to give us the advantage. Unless he has no intention of giving us what we want,” I muse aloud.
Bree grimaces. “That’s what I think, too. I suspect he’s agreeing to our terms, so he looks like he’s doing the right thing, but when it comes down to it, he won’t agree to the swap. Maybe he knows how valuable Teigan is to us, and he just wants to play hardball with us. Whatever his motives, I’m not sure he intends on giving her to us, even if we give him Whitlock.”
Anger sizzles along the surface of my skin, and before I know it, I’m slamming my fist down on the table. “That’s not a fucking option.”
Bree and Liam both hold their hands out, telling me to calm down, but Liam’s voice is all I can hear. “Evan, I promise you, we will get her back. Bree will meet him and see what he has to say, but I can assure you, he will walk away knowing we will get her back, no matter what. Even if we have to do it the hard way. I know this is frustrating for you, but trust Bree, she will bring her back to you.”
My brother’s words don’t reassure me as much as I’d like them to, but I agree anyway. I keep quiet for the remainder of the meeting, listening to them go over different scenarios. All their voices disappear into the background, and my mind drifts to where it always goes when I allow myself a moment to daydream.
I think of my angel. I go back to the time we were in love, and happiness was the emotion that out-shadowed all the others. I think about our last night together, and the plans that we made before our world came crashing down.
It’s not until I hear Bree calling my name that I snap out of my memories. “Evan, you have to promise me that if you are at the warehouse tomorrow, you will remain unseen. We can’t let this guy know why Teigan is so valuable to us. If he figures it out, she will be harder to retrieve. If you want to be there to observe, I won’t stop you, but you have to promise to stay hidden and in control. Otherwise, I will ban you. Do I make myself clear?”There’s an authoritative tone in her voice that leaves no room for arguments.
I nod my head and mutter my agreement. Even though I’m the leader of our family in Ireland, it’s well known that I report to Bree. Father called it a partnership between her family and ours, but we both know she’s the true leader. It’s not that I don’t want to be, or that I’m not capable, it’s all Bree.
She’s just a natural leader, and she has a way of bringing people to her side. So whilst in moments like this, she might make it clear she’s in charge, most of the time it feels like a partnership.
Even though I agree with her, as I stomp back to my room and my thoughts fly back to that night ten years ago, I know deep down that any promise I just made will fly out of the window if The Sheriff says the wrong thing tomorrow. My priority is getting Teigan back, and I don’t give a fuck about anything else.
- TEN YEARS AGO -
“Holy shit, are we really doing this?” I ask, eyes wide with excitement.
The beautiful brunette in front of me bounces up and down on the spot, a bright smile on her face that shows off a little dimple on her cheek. “We’re really doing this. I’ll be honest… I never thought we’d get this far,” she admits, and I can’t help but nod as I agree with her.
“I was sure my father would have found out something by now. He usually knows everything, and keeping secrets is next to impossible in my family.”
Well…that’s not exactly true. Father may have an incredible ability of exposing everyone’s secrets—he has spies everywhere—but all his children have gotten better at hiding things from him. We’re just not good at keeping it from each other.
Living with four other siblings, and my youngest brother Liam’s best friend, Kellan—who’s like a brother to me—there’s no privacy. We’re in each other’s business all the time, which can be really fucking annoying. But it also means we have one another’s backs, making sure nobody hurts our family.
I’m sure all family members look out for one another in some way, but our family is different. Our father is the ruler of the second largest crime family in Ireland, and he has his sights set on expanding to England too. We’ve been raised in his shadow, moulded to be part of his world, without ever being asked what we want.
I may have only just turned eighteen, but I’ve been part of this world since I turned twelve. That’s the thing about being the eldest… I’m his heir. The one who will take over from him when the time is right…whether I want to or not.
Nobody ever asked me what I wanted. Whether I wanted to learn to shoot a gun at age twelve. Whether I wanted to watch a man get tortured to death at age thirteen. Whether I wanted to take part in the torture by age fourteen. I killed my first man at just fourteen years old, and I felt nothing.
He’s been training me for so long that when the day finally came, I knew how to switch off. I knew how to box away my emotions and put on the mask I wear around him.
I created this character. Evan, The Mobster. He’s the one who does all the pain, torture, and killing. He’s the one who kills without remorse. Then, when the job is done, I take off the mask and become myself again, leaving all the atrocities I committed with the mask, so they don’t consume me.
If I don’t separate him from myself, the guilt would just deplete me, and I’d drown in a sea of blood. The faces of all the people whose lives I’ve taken or ruined, they’re all I would see,and I’d never get a moment’s peace. Most of the time, I’m not sure I deserve any, but wallowing is a weakness I can’t allow.
