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His brother grimaced before his features smoothed again. “I’ve got a hole in the family now, Aidan, and I need someone to fill it.”
Finn. This would have been exactly the kind of thing Declan would have tapped Finn for. They were barely ten months apart, Finn and Declan, and from Aidan’s earliest memories, they’d been thicker than thieves. Always reading each other’s minds and finishing each other’s sentences. You’d have thought they were twins.
Finn was a natural choice for Declan’s right hand. No one had ever assumed it would be anyone else. If Declan was going to replace Finn, and he needed to because the syndicate required a clear chain of command in case the worst happened, Aidan had always assumed it would be Brogan. Or Evie.
“And you want that someone to be me?" He couldn’t keep the doubt from his voice.
“I can’t spare Brogan from the tech, and I’m not putting Evie in the field like that.”
“So honored to be your first choice.”
Declan sighed. “What in your recent history would have led me to believe you should have been?”
“I’ve never not followed an order.” Aidan’s hand curled into a fist on his knee. “Not once.”
“No,” Declan conceded. “That’s true. Your defiance is death by a thousand paper cuts of attitude and sarcasm.”
“You act like Finn never disagreed with you.”
The click of the turn signal was deafening in the silence that stretched between them. Declan’s voice was tired, strained when he spoke again. “Of course he did. He always pushed back when he thought he needed to. But he always had a reason.”
Aidan scoffed. “So when Finn did it, he had a reason, but when I do it, it’s just annoying? Thanks for clarifying.”
“Finn always put the syndicate first. Do you have a strategic reason to hate my wife as much as you do?”
“She left once. No telling when she’ll do it again. Next time she’ll take a lot of sensitive intelligence about us with her.”
Thanks to you, he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue.
Declan pulled into a rundown strip mall and parked in one of the last spaces, far away from any entrances. The parking lot was littered with garbage that would skid along the broken pavement when the breeze kicked up, and most of the shop signs were either hanging by a single bolt or missing entirely. The only evidence they’d ever been there was a dark spot where the sun hadn’t faded the brick.
“I hope you never find yourself in a position to hurt the one you love. You’ll crush her, and she might never forgive you.”
“I won’t,” Aidan replied. “I don’t ever intend on falling in love.”
With a shake of his head, Declan climbed out of the SUV and waited for Aidan to join him. They walked in silence toward the pawnshop on the far corner of the strip mall. It was the only one on the entire strip that looked like it was still open for business.
“He’s been jerking us around for months trying to negotiate a higher rate,” Declan explained.
Aidan looked over at the change in his brother’s tone. All the emotions he’d seen swirling on his brother’s face in the car had been locked under a hard mask. His jaw was set, his eyes cold. He was ready for business.
“How much higher?”
“Thirty percent.”
Aidan snorted. “He’s insane.”
“And we told him as much,” Declan agreed, the corner of his mouth ticking up. “We replaced him with two other suppliers who give us better quality and faster delivery.”
“So why are we bothering with this guy, then?”
“Because he’s trying to blackmail me. And because we can.”
Aidan followed Declan into the shop at the tinkle of a bell, swallowing a grin when the lanky man behind the counter paled at the sight of them. He had a distinct look of regret about him. At the attempted blackmail or getting caught, Aidan wasn’t sure. Either way, he had to know why they were there.
“Declan, what brings you by? Finally ready to do business again?”
Aidan turned and flipped the lock on the door, finding a cord for a set of blinds and tugging it until they fell in a cloud of dust. He could almost hear the man’s throat click when he swallowed from across the room. Aidan let his hand rest on the butt of his gun while Declan wandered the shop as if he was a browsing customer.
