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Mav slips out of the room without a word, but I can see the pain in his face from talking to our ex-best friend. Our idiocy cost us a lot of things.
“Hmm,”Lennon says “I’ll get the kids next door and set them up with Tori and Tesa. I’ll meet you in New York to help, and I’ll probably bring a little back up with me. Find out if this thing is invite only. I’ll be in touch.”
She hangs up before any of us can ask anything else, and Tyler rolls his eyes as he dials Seán’s number. “May as well go straight to the source. I’m not playing email tag with him,” Tyler mutters. “I’m not worried about Lenny at all. She’ll figure shit out.”
Lennon O’Reilly is a badass. That’s never been something I ever doubted.
“Why are you calling so late?” Seán gruffly asks, answering the phone. I guess no one is sleeping tonight.
Well… except Layla. She’s completely oblivious to the world right now, and I’m grateful for that. Touring is exhausting at times, so she needs all the sleep she can get. I don’t have a problem just carrying her out to the bus, the princess can have her chariot in the comfort of my arms.
Smirking at the thought, I force myself to pay attention to Tyler’s conversation.
“You are the reason I’m calling so late,” Tyler says drolly. “You sent me an email at an obscure time when we had a show tonight. The only reason I saw it was because I always triple check my social media and emails before I go to bed. I need more details for this ‘event’ that we are being encouraged to attend.”
Tyler is being utterly sarcastic, because we haven’t been encouraged to do shit. Seán O’Brien is spitting out demands.
“The little girl owes me a debt, and I have highly important people to impress tonight. Layla will do this free of charge and sing as if her uncle’s life depends on it,” Seán growls. “As important as his skills are to me, he’s being a real pain in the ass, too.”
“You can’t kidnap a man like Jordan and expect it to be peaceful,” Tyler says mildly. “He creates and topples empires for a living. Making an enemy of him by threatening his niece probably isn’t a good life choice.”
“Are you threatening me, boyo?” Seán asks indignantly. I roll my eyes because sometimes this man acts like a child. I don’t know how he’s managed to hold onto his power for this long. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has his own sharks circling for his position as the head of the family.
“Nope, just telling it like it is. We’re about eleven hours away right now from New York City,” Tyler continues. “What time is this elaborate event you expect us to drop everything for?”
“It’s at nine tonight, so you have plenty of time to get here,”Seán scoffs. We do, but it also gives Lennon time to get some things together as well. Damn, we’re going to have to wake Layla to talk to her. Fuck.
“You understand that you can’t demand our presence whenever you feel like it, right?” Tyler asks him. “AsThe Midnight Lightsmanager, what you’re doing is disgraceful and disrespectful.”
“I don’t care!” Seán roars, making Layla gasp as she sits up in shock. So much for sleeping. “The girl owes me, she will do whatever the fook I tell her to do. There are very important people who will be there tonight. It is my daughter’s debut into our society. Everything has to be perfect. Tell the precious girl her uncle will be there.”
Layla doesn’t say a word as she struggles to shrug off the last vestiges of sleep. Instead, she listens intensely. Layla doesn’treally seem to throw herself into things unless it’s life or death, or her temper gets the best of her.
Instead, I’m noticing she watches to see how things will shake out. I wonder if this is a learned practice from watching so many meetings at the record label.
Layla had a really lonely childhood. Realizing this, I find I want to help her find happiness with us. If she wants babies, she can have those too. Anything to make her smile.
“So important criminals,” Tyler confirms. “How are you going to keep Layla safe in a room like that?”
Layla rests her head on her fist as she listens and Draven leans forward to wrap his arms around his legs.
It’s a good question, especially since Seán knows about her love of knives.
“I don’t want Layla to be armed,” Seán growls. “I will bring people who I trust who can control themselves. Bruin has been punished for manhandling Layla, and I won’t be bringing him for this event. Otherwise, I give you my word that Layla will be completely safe while she’s in New York City tonight.”
I don’t like the way he said that, and I frown at Tyler. He merely nods at me as if he understands. “I don’t like this,” he tells Seán, “but we’ll start heading that way since it doesn’t appear we have a choice.”
Tyler is stroking the mafia boss’ ego after ruffling his feathers, which makes me smirk in amusement. The man knows how to work people. Tyler says goodbye to him, hanging up with a sigh.
“It’s a good thing you have all of that hair, Little Flower, so your sister can hide some pretty weapons in it,” Tyler says. “I don’t think you’ll get a knife into the building, though.”
“I think this needs to end tonight,” Layla murmurs. She’s been in her head, and clearly thinking through all of the moving pieces. “Jordan won’t be able to come home until Seán is dead,so that’s what will happen tonight. I know Lenny can help with my hair, I’m just worried about getting back out afterwards.”
“Let’s pack up and then you can plan how to kill a mafia leader,” I tell her, shaking my head.Who the fuck is this girl?Layla isn’t upset about the idea of killing someone in the least, and from what I can see, she doesn’t seem to have any remorse about killing whatshisname either, Jack, was it?
As I start walking toward the door, I realize that I could say something cutting, but I don’t feel like it. Instead, feel pride that she’s just willing to do what’s needed. Fuck, I should tell her that.
“For the record, I think you’re completely capable of it,” I tell her, rapping my knuckles on the door frame before walking out.
