Chapter 24
Jameson
MIA SUBDUED THE MONSTER in me all the way down to the first floor, and I actually smiled at a few of the guys on the elevator before I heard it.
That faint popping sound.
Sharp. Precise. Deadly.
Mia heard it too. Her eyes widened and locked on mine. “What was that?”
“Stay behind me.” I tucked her there as the music stuttered out, and I looked at one of my guys. “First priority is alerting everyone to secure my daughter.”
He nodded and spoke into his earpiece, then the elevator doors opened to complete and utter chaos.
The club detonated into frenzied fear and mayhem. Screams echoed as people shoved one another to get out. The shoving turned to a stampede, their fear turned to survival. My men surged forward, organized and calculated. They scanned, looking for the culprits, and I immediately saw them.
O’Connor’s men must have found out we were here, and they’d come for blood, no matter the cost. This wasn’t just bad luck—it was a hit, and they’d pay in the form of me taking out their whole damn family after tonight.
Normally I would have embraced the rush. I enjoyed delivering a wound that a man couldn’t come back from, relished in an enemy’s life slowly bleeding out. But tonight wasn’t normal.
Tonight, I had a woman by my side who was suddenly a weakness of mine, and I felt fear course through my veins and fog my judgment. I held her close with one arm and rushed forward, pulling out my Glock. Gunshots rang out around us as my men took O’Connor’s out fast. Bodies dropped.
Over and over again.
A damn army had been sent to take me out. And rightfully so. We all were good shots, and when I lifted my Glock to aim and fire, I didn’t normally miss. One of O’Connor’s men ran screaming toward me, bloodied from combat with one of my men, and I shot him in the center of his forehead.
We moved as a unit, fast and effective. When another man a whole damn head taller than me rounded the corner of the hallway we were exiting, I shielded Mia behind me for only a second so I could take my shot.
I was faster than most with a weapon, and even though the guy aimed, he never got to pull the trigger.
Instead, my bullet blew through his head and he dropped to his knees, dead.
I heard her whimper, but I yanked her around him and kept moving. Her safety was my only priority right then. Getting her back to Paradise, where she belonged, where she’d be protected, where I could protect her, was the only thing that mattered right then.
“Our SUV is up ahead,” Hades yelled as he met us at the door.
Normally I didn’t operate this way. I didn’t need to go out of the back alley and hide or drive off.
Instead, I’d deliver all these fuckers to death’s door for putting her life in danger.
But her life was in danger, and that meant sacrificing my pride to get her out of here.
The fact that the Irish were bold enough to come for me on our territory meant war. Not just for them. War for the Italians, for the Diamonds, for the cartels. For everyone.
Didn’t they know who they were fucking with? Retaliation after I’d put one of their family members in the ground was warranted, but they were grossly outnumbered here.
“Franny?”
“Safe and sound at your mother’s.”
I nodded once as the ball of tension unraveled only to create a new one. “I want every one of them … every single Irish wiped out in the Midwest,” I told Hades as our driver screeched out onto the road.
Mia looked at me with concern. “Jameson, some of them might be innocent.”
“Every single one of them better be found, Hades,” I told him.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hades said quietly. “Just the Irish?”
I knew what he was asking. They weren’t operating alone, and it was only a matter of time before the East Coast got completely out of line if we didn’t put them in their place now. “We start there and call a meeting for the rest.”
And then Mia started to shake, the adrenaline leaving her body as shock took over.
Damn it. My darling was too sweet for the world I lived in.
I shouldn’t have tainted her by exposing her to it, but there was no way to extract her from it now.
She was embedded in my soul, and I wanted to hold her at least until she was calm enough to yell at me rather than look at me with tears in her eyes.
“Not good enough. I want them all dead.”
I pulled her into my lap and held her close. She twisted her head into my chest and clutched at my jacket. I didn’t give a fuck what I lost with this war—someone was going to pay for making her cry.
The rest of the car ride was quiet, Hades texting off demands I knew would take effect sooner rather than later.
Once the SUV pulled up to my estate, I carried her to her room but didn’t set her down on her bed. Instead, I went to her bathroom and set her down to carefully strip her of her clothes.
“I’m okay, Jameson. I really am. I can take my own shower.” Her tone was quiet as if to soothe the tension she must have felt vibrating off me, and then she reached for my hand to look at the bloodied knuckles. “You got hurt more than I did. I can help you clean this up or—”
“You want to tend to me?” Her fingers brushed over the scratches on my hand, and even that touch had me wanting to pull her closer.
She met my gaze and nodded. “I don’t want you hurt, Jameson.”
She said it like it was normal, like she just wanted to take care of me after a shootout in the club. I growled at the thought, at how my dick liked the idea way too much. I spun her so I could unzip her dress. I let it fall before I slid her undergarments off too.
When I glanced up, I saw her reflection in the mirror, me standing behind her, her tiny body perfect in the way it was so small in front of mine.
She bit her pink bottom lip, and I couldn’t stop myself from letting my hand slide across her smooth, soft skin at her stomach.
As I did, her nipples puckered and I saw how she gulped.
I pulled her back to me and let a rumble leave my chest.
Then I moved my hand up so that I could brush my knuckles over her cheek as I told her, “You’re so fucking precious, you know that?”
Her honey eyes met mine in the mirror. “Am I?”
“You’re worried about a damn scratch instead of being pissed I let this happen to you.”
“Jameson, I wanted to go out. If anything, this is my fault.” She turned to look up at me directly. “I don’t want anyone hurt because of me.”
“Mia …” Jesus Christ, I was killing those men, and she wasn’t going to stop me.
“If it’s just about what happened tonight, I don’t care.”
“Then care that they put Rosy, Pink, and Olive in jeopardy too.” I pushed her like I needed her to understand. I don’t know why. I’d never had to justify my actions before.
“Fine.” She breathed in deep before she sighed and walked over to the shower to test the water and get in.
I should have left her then, but her small voice stopped me when she asked, “Is it terrible that I agree with you? That I want someone to pay not for endangering my life but especially for endangering my friends’?”
I didn’t answer her as I undressed, but when I stepped in there with her and pulled her naked body against mine gently, I told her, “Nothing about you is terrible, darling Mia. Not a damn thing.”
We both watched the water droplets against the clear glass of her shower.
We got out, and she let me dress her in pink pajamas that had roses on them. I could see how spent she was, like the night had drained her of everything, and I picked her up to set her on bed before she murmured, “Ms. Prim and Mr. Bos have to be watered.”
“Who?”
“My cape primrose there, and the azalea bonsai over there.” She pointed at them.
“You named them, Mia?” It was ridiculous but a smile slipped from my lips.
“They started growing better when I did,” she defended herself.
Her and these damn plants. I remembered how adamant she’d been about bringing them. I’d been perturbed before, but now I was intrigued. “Which is Ms. Prim, and which is Mr. Bos? I’ll do it for you.”
She leaned back on one of the plush pillows with heavy-lidded eyes and tried to cover a yawn as she nodded and pointed to a white pitcher of water she had beside the dresser.
“Only use the water in there. It’s filtered and at room temperature.
I don’t want to shock them right now because they’re fragile after the move. ”
I listened carefully and frowned at her particular instructions, picking up the water and standing there with a towel wrapped around my waist.
“Water at the base into the soil for Ms. Prim. She’s the pink flowered one. Just so the soil gets a bit damp, please.” I did as I was told.
“Great. Now, Mr. Bos is the little tree, and you need to pick him up and just put water in the tray. After ten minutes, we’ll dump the rest so we don’t overwhelm his roots.”
I did exactly as I was told, making note of how to handle it in the future. “How often do you do this?”
“Once a day for Ms. Prim and twice a week for Mr. Bos.” She chuckled softly. “I don’t know whether I should be scared or turned on with you listening and doing this right now.”
“Both, probably,” I told her.
“Yeah, I guess I should be scared of a lot that goes on around here.” She glanced out the window and started rambling.
“I know the risks. I always just feel like someone’s watching.
Which they probably are. You are who you are.
So, I get it. But tonight, I felt … We could have died.
And then Franny would have …” She hiccupped, and tears filled her eyes again. “She’s okay, right?”
Her concern wasn’t for her life, but for my daughter’s. My heart broke open with that knowledge, and I knew then I wasn’t going to leave her alone in this room, no matter how emotionally tied to her I became. I set the pitcher down and commanded, “Move over, Darling.”
“What for?”
“I’m lying beside you tonight. Just to hold you. Just to sleep.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good—”
“You’re right.” I left the room and went to get some sweatpants. When I returned, she sat up in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“Sleeping next to you.”
“We just agreed that wasn’t a good idea!”
“No, I agreed it wouldn’t be good for me to sleep next to you … without clothes on.”
“Speak for yourself.” She crossed her arms. “I’m not going to do anything.”
“Yeah, but I will, baby. No chance in hell I get in bed with you while I’m naked and fall asleep tonight. Now move over. It’s either that, or I sit and watch you all night to make sure you’re okay. Pick your poison.”
“After I just said I feel watched?” she huffed. “Sleepover, it is. But don’t think for a second you’re getting lucky tonight.”
I hummed and yanked her across the mattress so that her ass was right up against me. She gasped at the feeling of my body up against hers, but I didn’t do much else other than whisper in her ear, “I’m already lucky, darling Mia, to have you by my side all night.”