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As I’m thinking about my red-headed beauty and all the things I’ll do with her, footsteps echo in the hallway. I get up and walk to the desk, grabbing the gun I put in the drawer when I came in.
With tight security at the property, it’s unlikely anyone would get in without my authorization, so I’m not overly concerned. That said, I expected to be alone here tonight, so it’s best to be cautious.
The door opens and Jacob comes in, looking like shit. Usually immaculately turned out, he’s scruffy, with a three-day growth of beard and dark shadows under his eyes.
His black shirt is several sizes too big, which leads me to believe Manus, the man-mountain who shadows him, lent him it. He’s been tracking a mid-level member of the Bratva for the last few days and he doesn’t seem to have had much sleep.
“What are you doing here?” I stash the gun back in the drawer.
The house belongs to the whole family, but it’s not our primary residence, and we usually only use it on the occasional weekend.
“Aidan sent me.”
“What the fuck for? If he wants something, he’s got a cellphone, hasn’t he?”
Jacob shrugs. “He thought you might need someone out here with you.”
To handle one woman? Aidan obviously doesn’t trust me with Eleanor.
I set aside my annoyance as I watch my younger brother slump onto the sofa I just got up from. He looks green around the gills and I realize Aidan had more than one purpose in sending him out here. It’s not just that he wants Jacob to make sure I can deal with Eleanor, it’s that he wants me to make sure our brother is okay with what happened tonight.
Jacob is more sensitive than the rest of us, and he isn’t used to dealing with the rougher aspects of our business. I guess capturing the Bratva asshole has been harder on him than Aidan thought it would be.
“Want one of these?” I ask, holding up my glass.
“Aye, make it a large one.”
I go to pour him a drink from the bottle on the table by the window, topping up my glass at the same time.
“Here.” I hand him his whisky and drop onto the sofa opposite him. “So, what happened with the Russian?”
“He gave up his entire crew and we know which of the bastards shot Niall.
“Good.” We can single out Niall’s killer for special treatment.
Jacob takes a sip of his drink and then shakes his head. His face is pale, drawn. He looks tortured.
“It was a bloody mess. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I grimace, imagining how it must have been. Aidan has a range of techniques he can employ to get information out of a man and none of them are for the faint-hearted.
“How do you do it?” Jacob asks.
That’s a million dollar question. My first taste of violence came when I was thirteen years old and I stumbled in on my father showing my older brothers exactly how our family deals with traitors.
I wish I could say I was horrified, but I wasn’t. Watching that man bleed, I felt nothing but pride for the way my father took care of us. He was brutal in eliminating threats, hurting only those who deserved it. I’ve tried to be just like him, doing whatever is necessary to protect the people I love.
“You learn to deal with it, I guess.”
“I couldn’t stay to the end.” Jacob twists his glass around in his hand. “I walked out.”
He blows out a breath and his shoulders slump in defeat.
“You’re worried about what the others will think of you?”
“The guys, no. Manus already told me it doesn’t matter, that nobody expects me to join in, but I don’t want to let Aidan down. I don’t want to be the weak link in the family.”
“You’re not the weak link, kid. If you had to step up, you would.”
