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“We talked about being civil, and that’s what I’m doing.”
“No, we talked about being nice so we don’t miss out on our sister’s life because of your pigheadedness.”
Storm sighs, irritation seeping from him. “Fine. How can we help you, Elijah?” He turns his attention from me immediately to look at his sister, as if asking if that was better.
“I had a call from the guy that manages my dealers. I haven’t had a chance to choose or train a second in charge, but this guy was doing it for my uncle and had no allegiance to him after he died, so I kept him on.” I’m giving more detail than I need to, but only because I’m hoping it will show I’m being genuine. “Anyway, he called after Snow and I got home, and we’ve had six of our dealers go missing in the last few hours. He does a check-in with all the dealers three times a day depending on the times they’re working, and when he didn’t hear back from them, he went to check on them and none of them were where they normally work.”
“Did you ever think maybe they just fucked off with the drugs?” Rayne asks.
“Normally I would think that, but these guys that are missing have families. They wouldn’t put them at risk for a few grand of coke and some pills.”
Silence falls over the room as they consider my words and what they could mean. To me, it seems like someone is targeting both families and hitting us where it hurts. In terms of targets, we are the two biggest ones in the city, so it’s ambitious, but it makes the most sense. Our biggest trade has always been drugs. Angelo wanted it to be trafficking, and that side of the business was very lucrative, but it wasn’t as steady as drugs. You have to wait to get girls. You can’t just break down the doors in villages and steal women from their homes, and then stick them on a plane to the USA, no matter how much he would have liked to have done that.
The Saint James family sells weapons, technology, and a bunch of shit I don’t even pretend to understand. That’s always been Everett’s domain, and I don’t want to stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong. If we wanted to hit them, it was always to take a shipment, even when we had no idea what to do with the shit we stole because it wasn’t our domain. It was always an easy dent in their armor.
“Was it you?” Snow asks, her eyes trained on Rayne and her hands folded in her lap. Her tone is firm but casual. “Seems awfully convenient that you decided Elijah took the shipment on the same day six of our dealers went missing.” The people across the desk have underestimated Snow, her entire life, but today is her chance to show them the leader she was always meant to be, and I’m not going to take that opportunity away from her.
“Our?” Storm rumbles. “Are you forgetting who your family is?”
Her eyes move to mine, surprise hidden in the icy blue. She’s shocked by her own words, but I’m not. The moment the word left her pretty pink lips I knew she was in this just as deep as I have been for the last ten years.
I give her a small nod, telling her this business is just as much hers now as it is mine.
“Elijah and I are getting married on Saturday,” she reminds them. “Now, answer my question.”
“No,” Rayne answers. “We’ve had our sights on figuring out who took the shipment. All our men have been on that or on security to make sure we couldn’t be hit again while we were working out who the threat was.”
“What was your tip off?”
“Tip off for what?”
“What pointed you in Elijah’s direction? What made you assume your sister’s fiancé, who you recently agreed to an alliance with, was the one who took the shipment?”
Rayne hesitates, his eyes darting to Everett beside him for an explanation.
“The job was too clean for anyone else. No one else has the experience or the resources you have access to, and there were telltale signs of some of the previous missing shipments that pointed us in your direction,” Everett explains, holding Wynter tightly in his lap. He feels the same intense protectiveness for her as I do Snow, and if I didn’t know our family were cold, heartless killers, I would think perhaps it was hereditary.
“Are you serious?” Snow snaps. “You three beat my fiancé black and blue, and your evidence was that the scene was clean?” The anger in her voice burns through the room, and I don’t miss the way her brother’s eyes widen.
“Will you stop calling him that?” Storm growls. “You are not marrying a Russo.”
51
Snow
“Come again?” I hiss. I’ve never felt anything but love for my siblings, but right now, I could kill my brothers. My fingers itch to reach for the gun I know Elijah hides under his desk, the one my knee brushed when he fucked me with another one.
The memory assaults my senses and takes my breath away, but I keep my eyes narrowed on my brother. The audacity of these men never fails to amaze me. Where do they get off telling me who I can and can’t marry?
“You heard me.” Storm leans back in his seat. “I’ve indulged you and have allowed you to have your fun, but you will not be getting married on Saturday. In fact, why don’t you go pack your shit and you can come home with us.”
A growl beside me has me reaching for Elijah’s hand before he can leap across the desk and tackle him.
“You try to take my woman out of this house, and I will not hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes.” The anger coming off him is like nothing I’ve ever felt from him before. He was angry when he found Dwayne with his hands on me, but not like he is right now. He’s so tightly wound that I’m certain if my hand wasn’t holding his tightly, he would be in a violent rage right now and my family likely wouldn’t be walking out the front door.
Storm stands abruptly, his chair screeching across the hardwood flooring. “She is my sister, and I am the leader of this family. If I say Snow is leaving, then that’s exactly what’s going to be happening.”
“Storm,” Everett warns, carefully moving Wynter to her own seat in preparation to jump in if things get out of hand.
