Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“And made your life harder,” she whispers.
I tighten my grip in her hair. “Stop saying that about yourself. You made my life better. You helped me find my purpose again. You made me understand that the people in my life are all that really matter. Power and control, domination of my organization, that’s all ancillary to protecting the people that need protecting and helping the ones that need help.”
She buries her face in my chest. “How?” she asks through tears. “Why are you doing this? I’m a liability.”
“You’re smart, strong, and brave. I don’t know where we’d be right now without your help. I need you, love, so much more than you realize. You have to stop trying to run away.”
“I’m not running. I’m not—”
“You are.” I lean down and kiss her cheek. I kiss the corner of her mouth. “You’re so afraid that what happened with your father will happen again here, but how can you possibly know? You’re not the real reason any of this is happening. You’re just one girl. You’re just an excuse. The faults in my family have been there for a long time, and they would’ve shown themselves now whether you showed up or not.”
She lets out a soft whimper when I kiss her. I doubt any of this is fully sinking in, and she’ll still have some insecurities to work out, but it’s incredible how clear my mind feels right now.
Valentina is mine. I’m better when she’s in my life—better as a man, as a boss, as a friend and a cousin and a nephew. That’s exactly what I want from a partner, and maybe she’s not ready to take that big step, and that’s fine, but she’s not going anywhere.
My phone rings. It interrupts the kiss, which annoys me, but things are too fluid right now to ignore it. I give her one more kiss before picking up my cell from the desk and answering it. “Yeah, it’s Ronan.”
“Uh, Mr. Hayes? This is, uh, Louis down at the warehouse? I just thought you should know that something strange happened.”
I glance at Valentina. Louis is the family-connected manager that watches over our less-than-legal product, and if he’s calling me directly, that means something very bad happened. “Tell me.”
“Well, a man named Cormac showed up and said he’s a member of your organization, and that he needed to take some of that, uh, higher-quality sticks out for testing. I didn’t have confirmation from anyone else, but he wasn’t exactly taking no for an answer.”
My body goes cold all over. I lean forward on one fist, staring at the desktop. Fucking Cormac, that traitorous piece of shit. “When did this happen?”
“Five minutes at most. As soon as they were gone, I called.”
“Thank you, Louis, you did well. Keep up business as usual for now. I’ll be in touch.”
I hang up before he says anything else and slam my phone down.
“What’s wrong?” Valentina asks.
“Cormac. He stole the product.” I stare at her, vibrating with rage. “He’s starting a fucking civil war.”
Chapter 37
Valentina
Itry to get Ronan to let me go back to his place, but he refuses to let me out of his sight.
I’m relieved, if I’m honest with myself. I didn’t really want to sit alone in that house worried that something bad was going to happen. The sound of rifle fire and the screams of injured and dying men play through my head, and I’m worried I might have a freaking breakdown if I don’t have something around to distract me from all these bad thoughts.
The warehouse manager, Louis, hurries around talking way too fast. Niall follows with Uncle Eddie, and their expressions are gloomy. Louis is older, in his late forties, with thinning hair and pale skin. He describes how Cormac came and started loading pallets, and when Louis tried to stop him, Cormac claimed that he had approval directly from Ronan.
“But he wouldn’t let me call. He just kept saying it was approved, but it was important that we didn’t make any noise. I’m sorry, Mr. Hayes, I tried my best.”
“You’re not at fault.” Ronan strides into the center of the massive space and finds most of the special hockey sticks are missing. He inspects what’s leftover, and it’s clear what happened. Cormac came with work equipment and a shipping truck and cleared out all the drugs. “Thank you, Louis, but we need some time to ourselves.”
“Yes, right, of course. I’ll be, uh, in my office if you need me.” Louis hurries away.
Ronan stalks around the ring of empty space. Niall stands with his arms crossed, glaring at the ceiling. Uncle Eddie slowly sits down on a pallet with a sigh, hands on his knees.
“This is bad,” Uncle Eddie declares.
“It’s worse than bad.” Ronan stops pacing. “Cormac declared war.”
Uncle Eddie grimaces. “It can’t be that bad.”