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“There are no legal requirements for anyone to join a union, Rian. In addition, blocking as well as canceling our order is considered extortion. I don’t think I need to tell you how our organization feels about that.”
“I’ll make a suggestion,” Alexei stated. “That you take Michael Walsh a message, unless of course you’d like for me to do it personally. Let him know that if that shipment doesn’t arrive within forty-eight hours, then we’ll be forced to use countermeasures.”
I cocked my head, noticing a flickering in Rian’s eyes. He was here for a personal reason, not because he was a part of his father’s hold on the unions.
“I’ll relay the message, but rules are rules,” he said, barely acknowledging Alexei.
“Yes, they are,” I said, closing in on his personal space. When I noticed one of the assholes reaching for a concealed weapon, I reacted without hesitation, snapping my hand around his neck then slamming him against the stack of wood. Then I grabbed his weapon and jammed it under his chin. “I don’t think you want to do that.”
The man wheezed, keeping his hateful glare.
Suddenly, everything went deathly quiet in a two-hundred-foot radius. No one dared utter a word. Not one of the assholes who’d come to threaten us. Not one of the construction workers. They knew better than to cross me when I was pissed. They’d heard of my lack of patience and my creative methods for handling anyone who broke the rules.
I squeezed my fingers against the man’s pulse, twisting my hand a few degrees. With just another fifteen added, I would snap the man’s neck with ease. While he was large in stature, I was huge in comparison. “If a single one of you ever consider pulling a weapon again, the pain you experience will last for a very long time. Do we understand each other?”
The asshole continued to wheeze, his face turning red. I snapped my head in the other direction, locking eyes with each man before returning my attention to the idiot.
He huffed and puffed. “Yes,” he finally managed.
Alexei chuckled from behind me. “Perhaps now we understand each other.”
A part of me didn’t want to release the asshole, but I did, hissing before taking a step away, shoving his weapon into my pocket.
“Now, get the fuck out of here,” I snapped. I didn’t need to make a single additional sound before five of them, including the bastard from my hold stumbled away. At least the asshole was still coughing. Only Rian remained. I had to give the man credit for having more balls than I’d remembered. Maybe he was following in his daddy’s footsteps after all.
I turned sharply, moving to within a few inches of him.
“Is there something you need to say to me?”
For a full minute, the silence remained, other than the ongoing construction in another part of the site and the light breeze fluttering through shipment labels on already opened supplies.
Rian was no match for me, and he was well aware of it. However, he stood his ground, refusing to back down.
“I have one piece of advice for you, Russian. Stay away from my cousin. She’s off limits.”
He wasted no time backing away, but the smirk on his face was something I’d remember for a long time.
Cousin.
While not extremely close, she’d been confirmed as an important member of the Walsh family. How I handled her from here on out would need to change. I took a deep breath, holding it for several seconds until I felt Alexei’s presence behind me.
“It’s obvious we have two issues to deal with. I suggest you handle the extraction of information as well as the hunt. I’ll handle the construction.”
I nodded, turning my head to look at the assholes slinking away. “Then I handle it my way. Period.”
“I don’t think Pops would want it any other way. That girl you like is collateral now whether she knows it or not.”
He didn’t need to tell me. Collateral damage. Candy had no idea that she’d placed herself in harm’s way and into the arms of a monster.
As he walked away, I shoved my hands into my pockets. Whether or not the meeting had been coincidental no longer mattered. It had been a perfect storm, an awakening so unexpected that even thinking about her proved to make everything else that much more difficult. I was a man of action and significant violence. I’d long ago forsaken any concept of humanity or even decency.
That’s also when I’d made the promise to myself to never get close. That promise would need to be broken for the sake of the family.
Candy hadn’t realized the nature of the savage she’d confronted, but she would soon learn what nightmares entailed.
I’d felt it before with no conviction. Now it was all I could think about.
And the beautiful fireball with shimmering eyes and a body like a goddess would have no choice in the matter.
