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The two of them led me into the back room where there was a larger sized table meant for private gatherings. Caden and Connor were already sitting there, waiting with glasses of whiskey in their hands. Caden slid one in front of me too as I sat down across from him.
“Whiskey is meant for business,” Caden said, his gaze narrowing for a second.
“Makes me think more clearly,” Connor winked. The twins seemed a bit more easygoing than Cormac or Kieran. Maybe a bit more on the wild side, but that didn’t stop them from giving me a once over. I grinned and gave the twins a nod of respect, which seemed to be enough for them to visibly relax around me.
Kieran sat at the head of the table while Cormac sat next to me.
“Aidan is preoccupied with Irina’s wellbeing at the moment. He doesn’t trust her enough to leave her on her own, or else he’d be here,” Kieran explained, taking a sip from his whiskey. “I’ve got men stationed up and down Shawmut to ensure Leah and Caitlin remain safe while the rest of us figure out what happened to Ada.”
“You said you were meeting with Giovanni Caruso?” Caden asked me, point blank.
“I was.”
There was a knock on the door and a hush came over the group of men.
“Come in,” Kieran announced.
We sighed in relief at seeing it was the Scottish bartender that had served Ada and me many times. I vaguely recalled that she’d introduced him as Angus.
He had an envelope in his hand.
“This arrived by courier a few moments ago. It’s addressed to you,” he said as he passed it to Kieran.
The rest of us watched as Kieran opened it, read it, and swore under his breath. “The fucking Kozlovs have taken her,” he blurted out.
“How? Ada doesn’t take risks that put her in danger. She even called me to make sure that she wouldn’t be on her own today. Connor and I were going to meet her downtown at the Burberry storefront,” I replied, unable to hide my concern.
A sense of unease brewed within my belly.
“What if they knew that she’d be on her own at some point today, that I wouldn’t be with her?” I offered, giving voice to my own worst fears.
“You think Giovanni has something to do with it?”
“No matter how I look at it, I can’t rule him out. In the past, he and my father had a mutually beneficial alliance, and I assumed that included me, but the Carusos could have other alliances that we aren’t presently aware of, including the Kozlovs.”
“The Carusos have been here a long time,” Cormac added thoughtfully.
“We have our own agreement with them going back to when our family first came to Boston, but that is simply based on territory, that we will not step on their turf and they won’t come into ours,” Kieran offered.
“As soon as we’re done here, I’ll demand a word with him,” I replied, only just barely keeping a lid on my rising concern for my future wife.
“What else does the note say?” Connor asked thoughtfully.
“Somehow, Anton found out we have Irina in our possession. He’s proposing a trade. Her for Ada,” Kieran answered. He passed the note to the twin, who shared it with Caden. They read it together before passing it to Cormac, who then handed it to me.
“You know Ada is smart. She’s not going to do anything that will risk her life,” Caden offered.
“I know,” Cormac growled.
“I’m not handing Irina over to them. I won’t risk the alliance between our families and the Morozovs, so we’re going to have to figure out a way to get Ada back. This needs to be handled delicately so that we don’t instigate a full-fledged war,” Kieran replied.
“If we go after Anton, we risk pissing off his father too, and then their focus would be fully on us, which we could handle, but we probably shouldn’t. There would be an awful lot of bloodshed if it came to that,” Cormac added.
“We need to find out where they’re holding her. I want everyone’s ears to the ground. As soon as we have that information, we can start coming up with a plan. Are we all in agreement?” Kieran asked and a chorus of “Ayes” echoed in the room.
His eyes settled on me, and I joined in, echoing my own agreement along with everyone else’s.
“Welcome to the family, Shane. Now let’s get our Ada back.”
