Chapter 4 #2
My brother was playing the pacifist. Trying to be an ally to everyone. He was the gentleman I pretended to be. I’d slipped though. Time and time again over the last couple years. That’s what happened when you took over, when you had to step in after your father had made a mess of everything.
“I’ll enjoy my daughter when she isn’t plagued by the memory of dead bodies around her.”
“Your anger will get the best of you.” Cal shook his head like somehow he’d contained all his anger even though I knew that wasn’t the case either.
I saw how his jaw ticked about Franny and knew he’d become just as unhinged as I was when the time was right.
His anger lurked in the shadows while mine had already been unleashed.
To many, the Diamond Syndicate was a secret society that most knew of as peaceful dealmakers.
We were talked of in whispered reverence behind closed doors.
We operated quietly and politely with more money and ties throughout the United States than most had in the world.
Families from generation to generation were born into it, and we expanded through marriage and partnerships that were exceptionally lucrative for us.
Most thought that we prided ourselves on logic, not emotion.
To many, we wanted peace, not destruction.
As for me, I’d learned to kill a man quietly and unapologetically for posing any sort of threat.
“When it comes to Franny?” I stared him down, provoking him. “My daughter? Should I care?”
Hades had no problem stepping in. “Franny is first always.”
“Exactly. She woke up screaming, which isn’t like her.”
Cal’s brows slammed down now, and he combed a hand through his dark hair cut just a little longer than mine. “She had a nightmare?”
Oh, now he gave a shit? “Last night.”
He adjusted his cuff links like he could somehow manage his attitude, and then he threw his stress ball all the way across the room. “Fuck it,” he grumbled. “I tried to be nice. I get at least one of them to kill.”
I took a sip of the amber liquid as Hades finally sighed and looked up from his phone. “We should call the Stonewoods and Armanellis for sure. Hardys too.” He started listing off our partners. “They need to be aware. You’ll want them to agree to what is essentially a mob war, Jameson.”
I slid my phone out and called the most unhinged man I knew. “Bane, your syndicate hear of infiltration at my daughter’s school?”
“You’re late. I texted you hours ago.” His tone was cool, calm. Collected. Bane didn’t get mad. He got even. “Of course I heard. Hades had to tell me she was okay. My wife isn’t happy you kept us waiting.”
“So, you and Hades have already discussed?” I glared at my right-hand man and watched a small smile spread across his lips.
“What’s there to discuss?” He seemed bored. “The Irish and cartel need a reminder that even if some of you are soft, I’m not. The blood running through my veins isn’t going to rest for very long, Knight.”
Nor would my blood. “She cried over it, Bane. I want every man brought to me personally.”
“Good. Finally.” His sigh of relief was the only emotion I got from him. “Everything’s in motion then. You need to meet with a few families. We can take them one by one quietly or cause a disturbance. You know what I prefer.”
“My daughter’s summer has already been ruined. Quietly for now.”
“Let me handle it until then.”
“No way in hell, Bane.” He’d already disrupted enough on his own. It was my turn. “I may live in Paradise, but I’m not going to relax in it until everyone pays. To me discreetly. One by one.”
It was the principle of the matter. They’d fucked with my utopia.
“Paradise with that woman there too?” Bane chuckled. “I hear she’s giving you hell?”
I glared at Hades. “Yeah, the teacher isn’t as sweet as I’d been informed,” I growled, staring out of the doorway.
“Well, that one isn’t my problem unless you want her to disappear.”
“She’s holding Franny together.”
“I’ll assume that you should be nice then, Jameson.”
“I am nice.”
He sighed. “Probably nicer than me, I guess. Want me to send Pink there to keep her company?”
“No. Nobody wants Pink here. She’s more of a menace than both of us.”
Franny called my name from the doorway, and I turned to see her standing with her dog, Malek.
Why she picked the meanest looking Doberman out of the litter a year ago was beyond me, but I loved how he stood next to her—and me when she wasn’t around—most of the day like he knew his job. Protect us at all costs.
“If Pink wants to come visit, I would like that, Daddy.”
Bane’s laugh was almost evil. “Well, Franny has spoken. The women will be filtering through to vet this Mia woman anyway. Make sure she’s an ally rather than an enemy.”
“No, I don’t want—” He hung up.
Then Franny sighed, resting her head on Malek’s forehead. “You’re always on the phone, Daddy.”
“Franny, honey, I have to work.”
“Uncle Bane is work?” Franny had about a billion uncles in her mind. They were like family even if they weren’t blood.
Bane Black ran the West Coast territory of the syndicate out of his Black Diamond Resort and Casino. And although his territory was a lot dirtier than mine and embroiled in money laundering, murder, and much more scandal, he was family. Most of our alliances were.
“Uncle Bane is sometimes work for me, but he’s always just your uncle, okay?”
“Okay.” She sighed and twisted the tulle from a black dress she always wore when she was feeling particularly blue. The syndicate had done this. My job, my position, my duty.
It didn’t negate that I had another duty to her now as the only parent in her life. She needed me to do more than just be a dad.
I got down on her level, kneeling before her, and brushed a curl from her shoulder. “How was the movie?” Rosy had taken her to the theater room with candy and popcorn about an hour ago.
“I think the cat was about to die, so I made Rosy turn it off. I don’t want to die. Ms. Darling doesn’t either. She screamed when we brought her here. Do you think she thinks this place is going to kill her?”
The child asked the most morbid questions some days. “Franny, no. What would make you think that?”
She hummed. “I don’t know, but maybe you could get her a Band-Aid. She told me her ouchie didn’t hurt, but there was lots of blood.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes in frustration. “Hades, can you take Franny to her room? I’ll get Mia a first aid kit.”
Franny shrugged at Hades but reiterated to me again, “Be nice to her, Daddy. Her wrist hurts.”
And that’s how I ended up right back in her room with bandages like I was a dumbass doctor there to fix her.
Fixing her attitude, though, was going to take a lot more than a bandage.