AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Recruiting me was never going to work, Dad.” If they didn’t walk away, the situation would become grave. “I won’t turn on Conn, on the McDades. I wouldn’t then and I definitely won’t now. The McDades are my future.”
“He’s manipulating you,” her father barked. “How can you be so stupid? So naïve? He’s using you to get to me!”
Her lips curled just before a laugh escaped. “Wow, and I’m stupid?”
“Sersha—”
“He doesn’t need you!” Dropping Conn’s hand, she put herself in front of him. “You are irrelevant. Unimportant. Insignificant.” Her sneer startled her father, not that it stopped her. “What is it you think you can give? What is it you think we need? You don’t take up any space in my man’s head. None. No McDade gives a shit who you are or what you think. We don’t need you. And that’s what you hate. You want us to covet your help. You want Conn to need you, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t need you. I don’t need you. You have nothing we need.”
“Which gives you no bargaining chips,” Conn said, sliding a stable hand onto her shoulder and around to grip her throat, drawing her back against him. “Sersha’s loyalty is not for sale. She won’t deliver on the promises you made, promises you can’t keep.”
Sound from the hallway interrupted the moment. People. What was happening? Person. Just one judging by the footfalls. The door squeaked and those feet came closer.
“Ire.”
Her inhale wasn’t quite a gasp, but the last thing she’d expected was…
“Silvio,” she whispered as he passed them and stopped by the fireplace. “What the hell is going on here?”
FORTY-NINE
“YOU SAID YOU’D deliver your daughter alone,” Silvio, Manzani Don, said. She still couldn’t believe that she was looking at—the don’s eyes traveled down her body and back up slowly. “I see the appeal.”
God, nausea, that examination, the intensity of Silvio’s scrutiny peeled her clothes away from her skin, wheedling much deeper than Evander’s typical leer.
Conn exhaled a sound of amusement, though not quite of laughter. “Your father knew he wouldn’t persuade you,” her guy said, skimming his hand down her arm to link their fingers again. “You played your ace too early, Superintendent.”
This was dangerous. Much graver than any threat her father could present alone. The head of the McDade family stood with the don of the Manzanis. Were Silvio’s men outside with theirs? Shit. So much for discreet.
“It was meant to be a private meeting,” her father said.
“Why is he here?” she asked, looking at her father, nodding to Silvio. Despite her awareness of the truth, her father hadn’t expressed it. “You want me to turn on the McDades, while you’re clearly in league with the Manzanis?”
“Now your world comes tumbling down,” Conn murmured behind her.
“Your father and I have been working together for some time,” Silvio said, putting another smile on her face. The expression prompted confusion in his frown. “Did I say something funny?”
“Actually, yes.” Angering Silvio wouldn’t be smart, but she just couldn’t hold it in. At least she hadn’t laughed out loud. Conn squeezed her hand. “I know, baby, I’m sorry. It’s just—the pristine superintendent is no better than a cheap, dirty street cop.”
“Sersha—”
“Chastise me, Dad, whatever. Your high horse is a crock of shit. A special position in the city? Damn, you believe your own press. What you are is disgusting. A fraud. A phony. Say what you will about these men but at least they own what they are. You want my loyalty? You want my respect? Pick up the damn phone and get Lachlan here. Tell him to come here right now. Admit the truth to him.”
Their true beacon of righteousness. Hers anyway. Though, the truth was, she didn’t want Lachlan there. His responsibility to do the right thing would get him into serious trouble.
“This is nothing to do with your brother.”
“Yet you got me here by threatening his life.” Her gaze cut to Silvio. “Is that you? Did you threaten my brother to get my father onboard?”
“Your father is a reasonable man.”
“Meaning he’ll do anything for green,” Conn said. “You can buy the superintendent. His children don’t fall in line so easy.”
“My son has a fascination for your woman.” While addressing Conn, Silvio’s eyes did that undressing thing again. “How quickly would you flip, if I took her to him right now?”
“Seen your son lately, Director?” Conn asked. Silvio snapped from the perusal. “Get your own house in order before you come for mine.”
Evander and his father weren’t close, they didn’t have trust. That didn’t mean Silvio would accept his son being injured, shot, by an enemy. If Evander was smart, he’d be lying low rather than admit to his father he got shot by Ire McDade while conspiring against his own family.
