AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I clenched my fist at my side and took a slow, steading breath through my nose. I’d seen what happened to my father’s women ,and however much I hated the McGowan’s, I couldn’t help but feel for what Maeve was going to be put through. I had enough scars to know how it felt first hand under my father’s ire, and that was without his dick being involved. He had destroyed my mother, and countless others since she fled.
‘There are surely other means to control them.’
‘You’re not feeling bad for the bitch, are you? The whole family is fucking scum and you know it. If her sister hadn’t run off and shown me up in front of my business associates, she wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s their fault. An agreement is an agreement.’ Father knocked on the elaborate mahogany bar and the barman instantly sloshed a large dram of whisky into his empty glass.
‘I don’t give a shit about her. I just don’t think we need a wedding to control them. We don’t want scum in our family. There are plenty of others with eligible daughters and sons.’ Not that I wanted to marry anyone anytime soon. A quick fuck with a willing woman was enough to sate my urges with no ties. The last thing I needed was another person at home trying to control me.
‘My word is final, Cam. As well you know.’ Father took a hearty swig of his whisky before a slick grin crossed his face. ‘Speak of the devil and here she comes.’
Maeve wasn’t just a girl anymore, like she’d been the last time I’d seen her a few years previously. She was a knockout. I’d expected her to slink through the door behind her brothers, terrified to face my father, but she walked into the room with her chin high and her brothers walking a few paces behind her. The scarlet dress she wore cut almost to her navel, revealing an expanse of tanned skin. Her hair shone in dark curls about her shoulders and she wore a look of utter domination on her face.
I stole a glance at my father. He surely hadn’t expected this? She had no right to look like the cat who got the fucking cream. Father was practically salivating at the chops, a dark expression of want dogging his wrinkling features.
‘She’s showing us up.’
‘No, she’s come to play. Who knew the little wallflower had it in her?’ Father stood straighter as the crowd made way for the McGowans, more than one pair of eyes glued to Maeve as she passed.
A wave of anger flushed through me as they neared. My father had hospitalised their dad. The wars between our families had led to two McGowan deaths, and they had shit on their agreement with us. They should quake in their fucking boots. Or stilettos. But Maeve’s legs, her shapely, tanned legs, were not quivering in the slightest.
‘Good Evening Harold, Cameron, thank you for the invite to your little gathering.’ My father’s shoulders tensed as her honeyed words greeted us. She may as well have kicked him. He loved to show off his wealth, and the glittering ball room decked with thousands of pounds worth of flowers, and thousands more worth of delicate morsels and bubbling champagne, was a direct display on his behalf. She tore it down with one seemingly pleasant sentence. She must have had a death wish.
‘Maeve,’ he said, taking her hand and placing his lips against the back of it, ‘What a pleasure to see you. The men in your family seem to keep you out of the limelight. And I’m not surprised. It’s a wonder someone hasn’t snatched you up already.’
On the surface she seemed to maintain her composure, but as Father had kissed her hand, she’d briefly flicked her eyes to her eldest brother, Logan, for reassurance. Maybe she wasn’t as self assured as she wanted us to believe. Was she playing a game? I checked the positions of my men, and spied one of her other brothers, Mac, near the exit. Why wasn’t he up there with the rest of the McGowans?
‘Oh, I’m not so easily snatched,’ Maeve said. ‘A woman likes to be wooed.’
My father dropped her hand, which she quietly wiped against the side of her dress. Not that Father noticed with his eyes glued to her tits.
‘Enjoy the party, and we’ll see if we can usher in a new era for the Thompsons and McGowans. Cam and I have some business to attend to.’
‘We’d be delighted to make some friends.’ Maeve slipped her arms through Ewen and Logan’s and smiled.
‘Come find me later, Logan, and we can discuss you rectifying Esther’s mistakes.’
Logan’s shoulders tensed as he nodded before heading into the crowds.
‘We are going to have to act faster than intended, Cam. Go take the youngest McGowan lad.’
I raised my eyebrows, ‘Take Mac? Why?’
‘Do you see the way people are looking at them? Not just Maeve, but the lads too? They know that there is fresh blood at the helm of their ship. Young, fiery blood. They’ll be sizing up the McGowans and deciding whether they need to make new alliances. And we need to crush any chances of that.’
‘By taking Mac?’
‘By forcing their hand until we can keep them in check.’ Father’s fingers tightened around his glass as the barman shifted nervously behind us.
Mac lingered at the edge of the room, looking like someone pissed on his chips. You’d think we had invited him to a wake, not a party. I needed to get him outside if I was going to steal him away without being seen. Thankfully, he was a smoker, and smokers smoked even more when agitated.
I stole outside into the chilling evening as the warm day turned into a cool night. The back entrance led to a dingy back alley between the historic buildings of Glasgow’s centre, a towering sea of grey and brown. The front of the hotels and shops were littered with modern accoutrements, sparking lights and glossy signs, but the back was as dank as ever. Much like the organised crime world, really. On the front, our businesses were good, tax paying, legitimate and clean, but beneath the surface it was a sea of illegality, violence and bribery.
It wasn’t long before Mac lurched into the alleyway and leaned back heavily against the stone wall, taking a cigarette from his pack and taking a deep drag on it. From the three attempts to light the thing, and the way he dropped his pack when he tried to put it back in his pocket, he’d already had one too many champagnes. Should be an easy enough job.
Costa and Tommy, two of my more trusted guys, already waited where the alley met the road with an idling van ready for me to drag Mac’s sorry arse into. All that left was incapacitating him without drawing too much attention.
I bided my time, waiting for him to finish his smoke, watching as his shoulders relaxed and his eyes drooped slightly. Attacking when someone was on their highest guard was foolish. Waiting until they believed any danger had surely passed was the way to go.
Mac threw the end of his cig down onto the ground and flattened it with his brogue. As he turned to open the door, I made my move.
