AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You sure you don’t want to wait until my granddaughter gets here?” Moira had shown him photos of all of her kids and grandkids during the flight. “I think you’d like Megan.”
“I’m sure she’s lovely.” Moira wasn’t the first grandmother who had tried to set him up on a date. She probably wouldn’t be the last. “But I’m taken.”
That was a lie, of course. Technically. He planned to fix that as soon as he saw Macy.
Moira narrowed her green eyes. “Is it serious?”
“It is.” For him, at least. Whether Macy would feel the same way after he had been gone for nearly four months, he couldn’t say. The one gnawing fear that had plagued him during the flight was that she had found someone else. There were so many opportunities for a beautiful young woman to date, and he had been far away in Ireland and other places he couldn’t talk about doing things he could never discuss with her.
“Well, if that changes, you’re always welcome to come by the bar and visit me,” Moira invited. “And my granddaughter.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, amused by her insistence. After they bid farewell, he powered on the burner phone he had picked up before leaving Dublin and waited for it to connect to the cell network. Once it did, he sent a text message to the number he had been given. A few seconds later, the phone vibrated. He glanced at the message and walked toward the pickup lane outside.
Danny grimaced at the miserable heat. Only a few days into June, and the temperatures were already over 100 degrees with sky-high humidity. If there was one thing he would miss about his time in Ireland, it was the cooler weather.
When he spotted the black Tahoe idling at the curb, Danny angled toward it. The cargo door popped open, and he walked around to toss his carry-on into the SUV.
“Danny!” Boychenko greeted with a goofy smile.
He had never been so happy to see the kid. Usually, Boychenko came with bad news or trouble, but right now, the sight of Boy meant he was finally home.
“Roman.” He nodded at the kid and pressed the button to close the cargo door. As he walked around to the passenger seat, he wondered how long he would think of Boychenko as “the kid.” He was only a few years younger, but he seemed so innocent and untouched by the ugliness of the underworld. In a lot of ways, Danny envied him.
“How was your flight?” Boychenko asked and pulled away from the curb before the scowling lady cop could blow her whistle or shout at him to move.
“Long. Cramped.” He buckled his seatbelt. “That cheapskate Ilya put me in economy. Not even preferred or upgraded economy!”
Boychenko laughed. “He takes his job way too seriously.”
“Which is why Nikolai keeps him in it,” Danny reasoned. Every man in the bratva had their job, and Ilya’s was two-sided. He was a fixer, but he was also an accountant. For real. Went to college and took all the exams. He handled all of the money that was handed out and paid in by the street soldiers and captains.
“Your phone is right there.” Boy gestured at the cup holder. “I charged it up for you.”
Danny hadn’t seen his personal phone since the night before he left. Kostya had strict rules about international travel, especially for delicate jobs like the one he had been on, so Danny had left behind anything that could be used to track his movements. But that also meant he had left behind his connection to Macy.
After he tapped in his passcode, he went straight to his text messages, expecting to find at least one from Macy. When he found nothing from her, he was taken aback. They always texted, at least once a day. He sent her a good morning message, and she would reply back with a selfie or a meme or something else that made him smile. He had expected to find at least a few messages from her, maybe as she reached out to see if he was back from his trip yet.
“What about the other phone?” Danny asked, ignoring all the other messages and voicemails from friends. He had given Macy the number to an emergency-only phone that his fellow street soldiers had promised to answer.
“Well,” Boychenko said and made a face. “The thing is—.”
“What?” Danny demanded.
“We lost it,” Boychenko finally admitted. He kept his gaze fixed on the traffic in front of them, studiously ignoring Danny’s furious glare.
“You lost it? How? When?”
“It wasn’t me! I gave it to Kir when it was his turn and he gave it to Stas and Stas said he gave it back to Kir but Kir says—.”
“Shut up,” Danny growled. “And Macy? Has anyone checked in on her? Did you give her another number for a different phone?” When Boychenko winced, Danny gritted his teeth. “Roman?”
“Okay, so, please don’t freak out,” Boychenko practically begged as they idled at a red light. “There was an incident.”
Danny’s stomach dropped. “An incident?” His mind raced with all the terrible possibilities. “Did Paulie go try to shake down Macy and her stepmom again? Or did that piece of shit father of hers finally get in too deep? Is he dead?”
“He’s missing,” Boychenko said. “Has been for a few weeks. The Albanians aren’t the only ones looking for him. The Triad and the police want him.”
“For what?” Danny silently prayed it wasn’t for something Burt had done to Macy or her siblings or her stepmom. Burt had stopped beating on them after he had thrashed the man on their shared front lawn. Danny had seen Janie throw Burt out just a few days before he left for Dublin. Had he come back? Been violent again?
