CHAPTER SEVEN
Griffin – April
T wo Navy SEALs presumed dead off Somalia...
I look up from the desk in Da’s office, hearing a news headline blabber from the television over the fireplace. A memory sparks life into my chest, a vision I often return to.
Thoughts of her come flooding back to my mind. Instead of the usual hardening of my cock, my heart beats wildly hearing two SEALs might be dead.
I scroll the story and look for the names, pissed their identity always remains a secret.
“Hadleigh,” I whisper, a name I’ve only ever murmured in the dark. “Be safe.”
Then I laugh because that bitch tied me to the bed and left me in my motel room. Still, every thought of that wildcat even after all these years sparks that familiar throb in my groin.
The sex isn’t the only thing I remember, or that she tied me up. My mind always first goes back to the few hours we spent in the bar talking before we got behind closed doors to get naked, sweaty, and fucked like our lives depended on it.
The fire she showed me on that platform after Rand Miller had her pinned to the floor, only slightly tapered off with a few drinks. The looks I was giving her, signaling what I wanted, poured gasoline on her spirit, and she roared back to life.
I never felt that kind of magnetic chemistry with a woman. Before. Or after.
The morning light was tipping over the horizon and she needed to get back to the base, but I needed to fuck her one more time. She used the one cheesy tie I had packed and bound me to the bed frame. We played a game. I let her tie me up, while she rode my dick. Adrenaline rushed through my veins and my swollen cock clouded my brain.
I’d already come a few times, and this one took longer, but she didn’t care. When I finally climaxed, she hopped off. My bleary eyes caught her getting dressed.
Fast.
She popped onto the bed next to me, and I’ll never forget what she said:
“ I like you. That’s why I’m letting you live. ” Her mouth crashed down on mine and then she was gone.
Leaving me fucking tied to the bed.
I dislocated my shoulder yanking hard enough to snap the headboard to get free. I endured a plane ride from California to New York in excruciating pain.
I’d fucked plenty of women since then, but no one’s memory is as vivid as hers. She did things to me and made me feel like I never felt before, and I thank fuck I’ll never see her again.
I don’t need that kind of distraction.
I have a mob house to run, and a Greek princess to marry, but that’s a business transaction. I’ll be keeping my dick dry for a year. Memories of wild Hadleigh and my fist will keep me warm and satisfied.
Her gorgeous face fades away, and I look down at the tie I was wearing, which is now unraveled and torn to shreds. “Aw, fuck.”
“What are you doing?” Connor asks me from the doorway.
Pulling the tie off and tossing it in the trash, I say, “Looking at the house expenses for the past few months, making sure Ma will have everything she needs when...”
“When you move out?” Connor takes a seat and puts his feet up on my desk.
Hissing, I say, “You and I need to move to Manhattan if we want the Irish to believe we’re invested in running the place. Troi Keller had several properties. Have Kai give you a list.”
I have my eye on Aunt Mary Ellen’s townhouse.
Shane, who already lives in a brownstone where he runs our spy network, but has been crashing here on and off, rushes inside and lays a photo down on the meeting table. “I found him!”
“Brandon?” I ask and join him at the table.
We look over his drone footage and my heart pounds. For four months, Shane and a team working for Ares tore apart Lower Manhattan looking for Brandon.
And Ava.
“Where is this?” I bite out.
“Upper Manhattan, Morningside to be exact.” Shane points to a dilapidated apartment building on what looks like an abandoned block.
“Morningside?” I ask. “After all that time we spent interrogating Brandon’s allies in Lower Manhattan. Fuck.”
“What makes you sure, Shane?” Connor asks.
“This guy here smoking a cigarette. I confirmed his identity through facial recognition. He’s one of Brandon Keller’s bodyguards. He and five others have been guarding that spot for a week. Brandon has to be in that building.”
“What about...” I stop and clear the lump from my throat before I look up at Shane. “Ava?”
“I couldn’t get a visual on her, and I have cameras all over that fucking neighborhood.” Shane’s jaw tightens.
Impressive since Brandon’s only been there a week. Where the hell has he been with her this whole time? For a moment, I wonder if not finding Ava is her doing, not Brandon’s.
“Why there? Why now?” Connor asks, turning feral for a fight.
“No, idea,” Shane answers.
“Shane, when do we go in?” I ask.
“Let’s give it at least five more days. Someone just installed a router for internet, so I think they plan to stay there a while.”
“Is that good news or bad news?” I ask. “What type of technology is he capable of?”
“He has no infrastructure. We took over the Keller network and all the bank accounts. He’s got guards and guns, that’s it. I’ll start hacking into that Wi-Fi and see if he’s tapping into any offshore accounts.”
“He could be dragging around suitcases full of cash,” Connor suggests.
“Can you wire something up as an interior camera, Shane?” I ask.
He strokes his chin. “I’ll monitor the communications and see if I can break into the phones to turn on the microphones to listen.”
“Listen for what?” Connor snaps. “He took her. He has her. Let’s go pipe bomb the douchebag right now.”
A thought hits me. And hits me hard.
“Hang on.” I stop Connor from jumping into his car. “If Ava’s not there, all we can do is abduct Keller. Torture him until he tells us where she is, what happened to her. We can’t kill him if he’s the only fucker on the planet who knows where she is.”
“Are you asking Trace to be the enforcer?” Shane says, organizing the drone footage.
“Aye,” I confirm. “His brother Rhys can back him up.”
“They make a good team,” Connor says, sounding impressed with our Waterford cousins.
The room goes quiet, and I voice the thought I see in my brothers’ eyes.
“We need a plan if we find Ava dead,” I say with a heavy heart. “The lasting truce hinges on me marrying her. If she’s been eliminated, we may inherit the resumption of a deadly war.”
Two SEALs presumed dead...
That headline haunts me again.
If we get there and find out Brandon killed Ava, I’ll have to yank Ares from whatever whorehouse he’s plowing his dick through and drag him to that building. Make bastard Brandon tell the head of the Greek Mafia to his face how he killed his sister.
Then sit Ares down and let him watch what I learned from Lachlan O’Rourke on how to destroy a human being, so the Greek king doesn’t fucking kill me.
Hadleigh comes to mind again uninvited, and I remember how she handled a gun at the range. Efficient, quick, and deadly.
I could use some of her tough-as-nails spirit right now.
I wonder what the hell happened to her?
I’d forgive her for tying me up. And fuck her one more time before I take a woman to wife, who I’m pretty sure won’t have the first clue how to satisfy a man like me in bed.