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Kissing her goodbye outside her office building, I made her promise to come see me at the club after she had dinner. She seemed more at-ease than she’d been when I showed up, and her smile when she agreed spread warmth through my chest.
I had just slipped into my car to head there myself when my phone rang. Seeing it was my father made me want to growl in irritation, but I swallowed it and answered. The sooner things were settled between us, the better.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I’ve been busy,” I responded.
I tried to keep my tone even since I knew he would already be annoyed, but it may have come out gruffer than I’d intended. He’d called and messaged while I was sitting outside Cadence’s house, but I’d ignored him, knowing anything he said would make things worse until I knew things were okay with Cadence. Talking to him now ruined my good mood from seeing her, and it was hard not to be aggravated by it.
“Come to my office. Now.”
No one refused an order from my father, even me, and there was no reason to antagonize him further. Clenching my teeth on the sigh building in my chest, I turned the wheel and pulled into traffic.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
The line clicked and quiet music filled the car as I made my way through the city. The office building Cadence worked in was on the same side as her home, though not as far from the hustle of downtown as the diner had been. It was in an older neighborhood with established businesses and little crime, still inside our territory, but on the fringes where nothing really happened. If it hadn’t been, I would have had to insist on her quitting that job as well.
I huffed at that thought. Cadence hadn’t fussed much over quitting the diner, but I had a feeling she would raise hell if I tried to get her to quit the insurance office and let me support her. She still insisted she owed me for paying off her house and debt even though she’d stopped keeping track of the hours she spent with me.
My father’s compound wasn’t close to downtown either since Mother swore she hated all the noise after dealing with it for years before I came along. My club and penthouse were closer to where all the action was. Father had bought property with easy access to both downtown and the newer docks and warehouse district where a lot of our product came in, and shortly after, many of our upper-level enforcers bought homes nearby. It meant the entire area was safe for our families, and we didn’t have to worry about anyone noticing unusual traffic to and from my father’s property at odd times.
As I rolled through the gates I wondered if I could convince Cadence to move in with me. I didn’t like how far her home was, and with a baby on the way now, I hated the idea of her being away from me even more. Having her live with me was inevitable once I persuaded her to let me claim her, but I needed to start planning for her objections.
Adding that to my mental to-do list, I climbed from my car and made my way to my father’s office. I’d thought my father was crazy when he had a separate building built to handle business in, but after seeing how someone always seemed to be there at all hours of the day and night, it made more sense. Nothing illegal was kept on the property, that was all stored in warehouses and other locations we owned, but all the legitimate records, vehicles, and the medical facility were here. All of it was to hide the rest of our business behind the shield of a perfectly legal shipping company, of course.
My father had different men who ran the separate parts of his businesses. I had the club, which was where a lot of our meetings happened, and where some of our product was distributed. It also laundered some of the money we made since it was easy to chalk up to drink sales and entry fees.
We had another man who ran our shipping, all legal and clean besides the extra containers that sometimes arrived, and yet another who handled the distribution of our product to the pushers on the streets. There were a few smaller companies my father had his fingers in that helped launder under Galleon Enterprises, then my mother had a completely legitimate boutique that was separate from anything to do with the Galleon company.
My father was the one who coordinated us all, but it was still a surprise to step into his office and see the other top men in the family gathered there. It was rare to find us all in one location, and I had to hide the worry that crept in as I acknowledged the other men.
“Good, now that Leo is here, we can get down to business. We have a problem.”
My stomach sank as I braced myself. It wasn’t often that we had more than minor issues, but if Father had gathered us all to talk, it was bad enough that he wanted to make a move.
I slid into an empty chair as my father detailed what had been going on. Some of it I’d already known about, but some of it was new information, and when presented together, it painted an ugly picture.
“We have an enemy trying to take us out.”
It was Jeremiah who spoke, his eyes blazing as he leaned forward on his elbows. He was the one who ran the shipping business. Besides looking the other way when things showed up or disappeared from the warehouses, he usually wasn’t too involved in the illicit side, but he was one of my father’s most devout men. Mateo had saved Jeremiah and his family from a bad situation when he gave the man a job, and Jeremiah had proved his worth and loyalty countless times.
I glanced at Grigore, his face showing the usual lack of emotion. Of the four men in the room, most would see him as the dangerous one if they didn’t know any better. Ripped jeans, black leather jacket, and tattoos going up his neck onto his shaved head, he looked every inch the hardened criminal he wanted everyone to believe he was.
While he wouldn’t hesitate to use the gun I knew was tucked into his pants, I was one of the few who knew how different his appearance was from the man inside. We’d grown up together, and he was the first I called when a situation demanded strategic violence, because the man behind the junkie gangster facade was brilliant.
My attention turned back to my father as he spoke again, confirming Jeremiah’s accusation.
“It appears so. The problem is, we don’t know if it’s the Walkers, Dimitri, or someone else.”
Chapter Twelve
Cadence
The list of doctors arrived in my inbox before the end of the day. I’d never given Leo my email address, but I’d stopped being surprised by the information he had access to, choosing to accept that he could find anything he wanted.
There were more than I expected, and just looking through the list made my head spin. I had no idea how to choose from so many, so I decided to make things as simple as possible by narrowing the options to those close to the office. Chances were, I’d have to take time off to go to my appointments, so something close meant less time missed from work.
A cheery voice answered my first call, and after stumbling my way through what I needed in hushed tones, I had an appointment set for when I’d be eight weeks along. After sending the information to Leo, I sat back and stared at my computer.
