Chapter 2
Brody
I weave through the sparsely populated campus of Aurelian University like I belong here. Maybe I would have, in a different life.
To any onlookers, I might pass for the older brother of a graduating student. Or for a college professor in this stuffy fitted blazer. No one would ever suspect that I’m one of the Port Kings’ top lieutenants, here to snatch Trinity Gallagher at my father’s request.
For the past hour and a half, I’ve been tailing my prey.
I admit she threw me for a loop when she left the stadium before the ceremony concluded, but her rush works in my favor. The farther she gets from the graduation crowd, the fewer witnesses to her kidnapping.
I’ve performed similar snatch-and-grab operations in the past, but this mission still feels different. Maybe I’m on edge because I’ve never abducted a young woman before.
I’m more used to sniffing out turncoat former-allies who’ve gone into hiding.
Guys who cower in shitty apartments after letting their beards grow for months to better shield their identities.
Or the men who think they possess enough money and power to get away with betraying Declan Gallagher and decide to kick back on an island somewhere, assuming they’ve won until I show up to divest them of their fingers.
Trinity doesn’t fit the profile of the usual riffraff.
She’s pretty. Fair-skinned, even after living in one of the sunniest places on the planet, and with coppery hair that screams of her Irish heritage. The fiery waves contrast with her soft, subtle facial features. Button nose. Green doe eyes. Pert pink lips.
Clearly a brainiac, since, unlike most of the mafia world, she graduated college. She reminds me of my sister in that way. Maeve finished university, too, though she majored in business. According to the file my father gave me, Trinity majored in psychology.
One night, she wore glasses while she studied, and the way she chewed on the end that tucks behind her ear mesmerized me.
But I won’t let a pretty face or the way her hips move in those baggy jeans distract me. Under that blue tank top, she exudes a quiet, subdued confidence. She knows exactly who—and what—she is.
I’ve never nabbed someone as well-connected as Trinity. She’s the half-sister of Finn Gallagher, who now leads the most powerful mob family in New York City. Before their father’s death, the man was my father’s biggest enemy.
And I’m about to nab her.
I feel like I’m stealing a princess from a rival kingdom.
A little surreal, but one-hundred-percent necessary considering the Gallaghers of New York recently invaded our West Coast territory.
I don’t know whether to be insulted or impressed that their hostile takeover only required one man.
I’d never say as much in front of my father, but the plot was a stroke of genius.
They sent one of their men to LA and installed him in the center of my father’s territory, the Cypress Hotel. My sister’s hotel.
Could we have handled one rogue enforcer on a mission? Of course…except Kellin Brennan and Maeve fell in love, and then he saved her from the Russians. So, as much as I may want to, I can’t hate the man.
Kellin sticking around was a bad enough prospect before Finn Gallagher assisted Maeve in buying out Declan’s stake in the Cypress. In a short period of time, we lost our hub at the hotel and found ourselves under constant surveillance from our East Coast rivals.
To put it mildly, Declan finds this predicament intolerable, and thus, so do I.
I’m an extension of my father’s will. My existence is that simple. If he wants leverage against those fuckholes in New York, I’ll ensure he has some.
What he wants, I get him.
Not that anything I do for him is ever sufficient.
My stomach knots with the ever-present, low-grade ache of being the unacknowledged son who’s never good enough, no matter how many merits or accomplishments I collect.
Resentment rots my insides. Resentment toward myself, toward my mother, my father, the world—
Gritting my teeth, I shake the unpleasant sensation off. I’ve got more important things to focus on.
As I trail Trinity across this sprawling Pacific Coast campus, her brother once again surfaces in my thoughts. He must have expected retaliation when he sent Kellin here and infiltrated our business, but he probably never fathomed we’d target his own half-sister.
Well, fuck you, Finn. No matter how beautiful or fragile she appears, Trinity’s about to become collateral damage in my father’s war.
When Declan briefed me on this mission, he claimed his intel suggested that Finn has a soft spot for her.
But the file’s wrong.
First, if she were really Finn’s soft spot, getting to her would be like clawing through armored walls.
As far as I can tell, her security detail consists of two bodyguards, and they don’t even stay close.
They flank her from the shadows, entirely too easy to avoid.
If she truly were his soft spot, Finn would never leave her so poorly guarded.
During weeks of surveillance, I found a woman who’s deliberately alone. She doesn’t move in cliques or frequent bars. As far as I can tell, she doesn’t have any friends at all.
The girl’s a lone wolf. Watchful, self-contained, solitary.
In the time I observed her, she never once spent money on anything frivolous. No shopping sprees. No spa trips. Only food and the occasional coffee from the corner café. Not even a fancy one.
She worked shifts at the campus library, and after that, she climbed into her beat-up old Toyota Camry and drove herself home. One night, I followed her to a local bar and watched her nurse a glass of red wine for two hours as she tapped her foot to the band.
A few other evenings, she played the piano in one of the soundproof music rooms. She left the door cracked the last time. Down the hall and out of sight, I soaked in the gloomy tunes, more at peace than I’ve been since I was a kid and Maeve sang me to sleep.
In all honesty, she’s the most solemn college student I’ve ever witnessed. Not a soft spot. A variable. An equation I can’t solve.
I squint as Trinity veers left at a fork in the paved campus walking path instead of her usual right. A muscle in my back twitches.
I already don’t like this. Doesn’t matter, though. My job remains simple. Secure this beautiful VIP hostage to turn the tide of war my father’s way and finally earn his approval.
I follow from about eighty paces behind. She steps right off the path and starts marching across the grass in a different direction.
Is she onto me? Trying to throw me off? Isolate me?
A lone woman is an easy target. A confusing woman could spell problems.
Just where the fuck is she going? I know for a fact her car’s parked in the other direction.
Stopping by the campus post office immediately after snagging her diploma was weird enough, though I did clock the small package she held as I waited across the street, eagle-eyed and patient. Now, I have no clue where she’s headed.
Time to let the guys know about a change in plans.
Jed and Marko linger nearby, waiting on my signal.
Like me, they’re enforcers, though I technically outrank them.
Marko’s a decent guy, but Jed’s an idiot whose personality could curdle milk.
Unfortunately, he’s also pretty decent in a fight, so he’s my backup on the hunt while Marko drives the van.
I outlined different possible abduction points around campus, depending on which path she took after her graduation, but she’s gone completely off script.
Change your position, I type hard and fast to Jed. East toward Blodgett Hall.
Premonition crawls across my skin like a centipede. My nerves tingle as I skirt the perimeter of a campus bakery, out of sight but parallel to Trinity’s movements.
A message from Jed. In position.
I start to reply. Take her in two—
Trinity interrupts my typing by darting off in my periphery.
“Shit.” I shove my phone in my pocket and launch into a chase.
How the hell did she spot me? I was so careful. Whatever the reason, I can’t let her escape.
She breaks right toward the music hall. Doubling back, I envision the campus map in my head and cut through some adjacent indoor-outdoor lecture halls. I haul ass down a slim sliver of sidewalk that winds around the lecture halls to the back entrances of the theater and dance buildings.
Seconds after I reach the secluded curve that leads into the shade between the two structures, Trinity crashes into my chest with a shout and all the strength of a wet blanket.
Grabbing her around the waist, I crush my other hand over her mouth and force her head back against my sternum. She bucks against my grip like a wild animal, kicking her legs and attempting to shriek at the top of her lungs through my palm.
I tighten my arm around her waist and drag her deeper into the shadows, bracing her up against the brick wall while she squirms and wriggles against me, which I’ll admit doesn’t feel half bad. No time for fun, though.
I lean close to her ear, inhaling her soft floral scent. Lavender, maybe? “If you don’t calm down, you’re gonna get me all excited, princess.”
She freezes when I shift my arm from her waist to her hip, and she breathes hard against my palm. At least she’s listening.
I continue to push into her, molding my groin to her ass. “Now, any other time, I’d love a good fight. A feisty woman is sexy as hell. But we’re on a deadline, so if you just behave, you won’t get hurt.”
Grabbing my pistol, I press the cold barrel into her warm midriff. Her body tenses but otherwise goes motionless.
“Good. If you struggle or scream, you get a bullet. Understand?”
She nods once while wetting her lips with her tongue. The sensation tickles my skin. If only I weren’t on the job…
Jed jogs up a few moments later, his crazy black eyes flashing. “Oh, man, she’s cute.”
“Shut up and hold her.” I release Trinity’s mouth and push her toward Jed, who grabs her waist with one hand and bands the other one around her throat.
He’s nearly double her size, tall and beefy, and wears a creepy grin on his lips as he keeps her still. “Been a while since I had such a pretty little thing in my arms.” When he sniffs her hair, she cringes away. “Got time for a quickie, boss?”
I shove his shoulder but not enough to dislodge his hands on our prize. “Don’t be disgusting.”
Sure, I had similar fantasies, but I would never actually act on them. Jed’s a fucking pig, though, and I’m not letting him harm our target before delivery.
Once she’s in Declan’s hands, she’s no longer my concern.
Trinity gapes at me, her eyes like bright, glowing emeralds. “You?”
So she did notice me at the graduation ceremony. I raise a brow. “Surprise.”
She glares, her face red and her hair wild from her attempt to flee. Jed’s right, loathe as I am to admit such a thing. She is cute.
Around the corner, Marko’s van screeches through the alley.
I tuck my gun back into my holster. “Let’s get out of here.”
Jed laughs, heaving Trinity up so he can walk without tripping on her unwilling legs. “Come on, babe. We’ll get you nice and comfy. It’s not a limo, but I think you’ll like it.”
I follow while checking for witnesses, but no one’s paying us any attention.
Another job complete.