CHAPTER EIGHT
FERGUS
The house is too quiet without Nola here.
I never spent much time in the living room before she moved in, usually choosing to camp out in my office, or stumbling in the front door too tired to do anything but sleep and heading straight for bed, but I seem to have found myself here now that she’s not home. With Nola at work, and the mess from last night’s shipment interception finally cleaned up, I have some time to kill while I wait for her call to pick her up from work.
Growing up in this house, it wasn’t always a happy place. My parents never really liked each other, both products themselves of arranged marriages, they barely tolerating each other just enough to have my brother and I, but not much else. Any time we spent with one parent was separate from the other.
Ma died when I was twelve and Tadhg was ten, just after we moved here to Houston from Galway, Ireland. The doctors said it was a heart attack, but Nana says it was a broken heart because she missed home.
Da died just over three years ago now. He was an innocent bystander, but was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. As the leader of the O’Carroll Mafia himself at the time, the threat of death was never far away, but he really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and took a bullet not even meant for him.
Staring over at the fish tank in the wall, I wonder if Nola wants to redecorate or do any renovations now that this is her home too? Other than a few cosmetic updates as they were needed, nothing major has been done to the main living areas or the kitchen since I was in my late teens, so we might be due for a little sprucing up—as long as she doesn’t try to put pink wallpaper in my office, I don’t care if she wants to rip the walls down to the studs and start from scratch.
Nola has been at her office for six hours now, and I miss her like fucking crazy. Maybe tonight I can try again and convince her to quit. I never hear her do much but complain about the law firm, so maybe I can entice her to leave, then maybe work for one of my businesses.
Or what sounds like an even better idea is I can take a lesson from my little brother’s playbook and knock her up, marry her, and have her stay home to raise our own little family. While we’ve discussed how we both want to get married and have a few children, I didn’t realize how much I wanted it sooner than later until the last couple of weeks.
My heart skips a beat when my phone buzzes and beeps from the coffee table in front of me.
Nola’s smiling face glows at me from the screen as I pick it up. Using my thumbprint to unlock the device, I read the message and jump straight to my feet.
Nola: You took my truck and killed my men, now I have your woman. Ten million or she’s dead. -Hector
Every word pierces through my chest like a knife. I know who sent this text immediately.
Hector Aguado has attempted to strike my organization hard before, but I’d never seen him stoop this low. Taking Nola, my love, my anchor, is a line that can’t be uncrossed. Thoughts race through my mind—anger, fear, and the cold weight of dread settle in my gut. The room grows silent as the realization hits . . . this is more than just a threat—this is personal.
As one of the last three leaders of the Aguado Cartel that is still alive after our massacre of their men yesterday, Hector is out for revenge. It was his seven fellow cartel men that I watched get buried under several tons of cement this morning. It was his shipment of women that we intercepted and handed over to the boys in blue at the Houston Police Department.
It’s not often that I choose to work with law enforcement, but after Corrin told me the semi-truck was carrying women from who knows where, I had to at least in a roundabout way. After we had all the cartel men moved to the construction site, an anonymous call was placed to 911 about an abandoned semi-truck. While I would like to know that every woman who was rescued is happy and safe and returned home to her family, it would be too risky for my business to be personally involved. They are is in the hands of the law now, and that’s all I could do.
But Nola? Her being captured and held against her will? That is something I can and will do something about . . . and I know just how to find her.
As I head for the home intercom panel on the wall to get Corrin’s attention up in his apartment, my fingers move instinctively across my screen, opening the tracking app I had installed on Nola’s cellphone. A surge of adrenaline courses through me, fueling my movements as I watch the tiny dot that appears on the screen pulse, zeroing in on her location. I can almost feel her presence through the phone.
“What’s up, boss?” Corrin asks as he walks in from the garage.
“Hector Aguado has Nola.” The words come out but my eyes never leave my phone. “And he’s holding her in one of our warehouses.”
“What the fuck?”
The turn the phone to show him the blue dot. “They’re in one just on the other side of the highway from the development. I bet he chose there thinking he could taunt me that he could see my property, but not knowing he’s actually in one of my buildings.”
“Fuck,” he growls out as his fingers fly across his own phone, no doubt rallying the troops for battle.
Every second ticks by painfully, and I can’t help but think back to our last moment together this morning. I dropped Nola off to work thinking I’d pick her up again in just a few hours. She gave me a kiss before sliding out of the SUV and waved as she walked to the door. My last glimpse of her was through the glass of the office’s front window as we drove away.
If that was the last time I ever got to see her, I will burn down the entire state of Texas until I get my hands on Hector.
Nola knows the risks of my lifestyle, the weight of my choices, and still somehow she accepted them, accepted me as I am. Her vibrant laughter filled the empty spaces in my heart, and she chiseled the edges of my stone-cold heart to expose the fierce protector hidden beneath my hardened exterior. But now, with Hector’s vile grip tightening around my throat, I am filled with a raw panic that fuels my rage.
With a roar that echoes off the walls, I follow Corrin toward the garage and jump in the passenger seat of the SUV. The engine growls to life, matching my turmoil as we speed through the neighborhood toward the warehouse, memories of Nola flooding my mind.
As the streets blur past, each mile brings me closer to the realization that every second lost could be fatal for her.
I hear Corrin talking on speakerphone to Tadhg, and his voice pulls me back into focus.
“I’m right behind you, brother.” I look behind us, and sure enough, I recognize the blacked out SUV behind us, identical to the one we’re riding in. “Corrin filled me in and Cian has the schematics of the warehouse pulled up on his phone.”
“We’re going to pull around back of the warehouse next to the one they’re in. We can park there, look at the layout, then head in on foot.” I make my first decision since this nightmare began. Thank God for my brother and our men, because my head is only screwed on half straight. They’ve gotten me this far, but I need to lead from here on out. This is my woman, this is my family he threatened, he will meet my bullet.
“Two minutes out,” Corrin announces.
“Don’t worry, brother,” Tadhg’s voice comes through once more before he hangs up. “We’ll get her back.”
As we arrive, the rusty exterior seems to groan, like it knows there is evil lurking within. Corrin parks the SUV under an overhang and we jump out. It’s only just in this moment that I realize Tadhg and Cian weren’t the only ones who followed us here. There are three more SUVs and twelve of us total.
“As soon as Corrin text what was going on, I called Shane to see what was going on.” Tadhg makes a beeline right for me. Shane is who I had assigned to stay close to Nola, outside her office. “He didn’t see anything out of place outside, but inside the office was a ghost town. No one was there.”
“Where did everyone go?” I ask no one in particular.
“No, clue. But he said the Nola’s desk looked like a mess. There were filled stacked everywhere.”
I shake my head, imagining the chaos she came in to find. “She hadn’t been in the office in a month. She’d been bugging me to let her go in for a few hours, but I kept pushing it off.”
“Her purse was under the desk, but he couldn’t find her phone.”
“We know Hector has that.”
“All the lights were on, but other than that, I’ve got no clue what went down there.”
“Did you ever look into her bosses at the firm?” Declan speaks up for the first time. He’s scrolling through something on his phone. Looking up, he holds it out and shows me a picture of two men I recognize immediately but haven’t seen in probably five years or so.
“Jordan and Jasper Hillman.” Motherfucker. Dirty, fucking scoundrels the both of them.
After a business deal went belly up, these two yahoos tried to sue me for four million dollars. Tadhg and I put the beat down on both brothers and sent them packing, after squashing them like bugs in court, but it looks like we didn’t do enough to keep them gone forever. That’s going to change today.
“They go by the shortened last name of Hill now,” Dec adds. “I would bet my left ball that those two arseholes are involved in this somehow.”
How I didn’t realize who Nola’s bosses were really fucking grinds my gears. If I would’ve put two and two together earlier, I would never have let her set foot back in that office again, then blew it up with them inside.
“Let’s get a look at this layout and get in there now.” I order my men.
Forming a double half circle as Cian holds out his phone, I point to the entrances on all four sides of the warehouse where Nola is being held, I start barking names, ordering each of the men to where they will be staging their part of our attack. I assigned Corrin and myself to a door that opens up to an area near the bottom of a set of stairs leading up to a mezzanine of offices on the second floor.
When we split up, I slip into the shadows between the buildings, already knowing everything around me like the back of my hand.
The scent of rust and decay mingles with the distant sound of traffic from the highway, a ghostly reminder of what was once a thriving area. I bought this row of warehouses not even six months ago, planning to hold onto them until the development across the highway starts getting bigger. I hadn’t yet decided if I was going to wait for the property values to rise then sell for a profit, or bulldoze everything and build something to make money myself, but being here now and knowing this place was used in an attempt at my personal downfall, I may just sell everything tomorrow. I don’t want any connection to a place that will no doubt hold a bad memory for my woman.
With my phone in hand, I tap the tracking app one more time just to make sure the dot hasn’t moved, and it hasn’t. I silence the ringer, then tuck it into my back pocket, then from my waistband, I pull my Sig and slide a round into the chamber. My gut twists as I imagine Nola possibly bound and helpless, waiting for a monster to make a fatal decision, and know it’s time to get this show on the road.
Corrin opens the warehouse door and surprisingly it doesn’t make a sound, so we slip into the dark interior undetected.
My eyes take a second to adjust to the darkness inside, but suddenly, I spot movement ahead—three men stand around a small table under the glow from one of the few industrial lights glowing from random spots above.
Sure fucking shit . . . it’s Jasper and Jordan with Hector. What a small fucking world.
I would bet those four million dollars that these jackasses tried to sue me for, that their law firm is involved with the Aguado Cartel and that’s why they are here with Hector. What I can’t figure out is how Nola got mixed up in this mess. How did Hector know that my woman was working with the Hills? No matter the reason, whatever it was, it’s going to end with these three dead and my woman back in my arms.
Hector is talking, waving his hands around, and while I can’t hear what he’s saying yet, I know he’s flaunting his arrogance, taunting as if he believes he has the upper hand.
Silencing my rage, I position myself behind a stacked pile of crates and wait for the rest of my men who are all entering from their designated doors to get to their spots, filling the spaces around the unsuspecting idiots I have my eyes locked on. My breath slows as I listen intently.
Hector’s laughter is growing more and more annoying by the second, and I imagine how he’ll crumble when he realizes this is his final day on Earth. It’s time to take back what’s mine.
With a tight nod from Corrin that everyone is in position, I step forward into the light, and point my gun in the direction of all three of the bollocks. They all turn, surprised, their faces morphing from mockery to disbelief as the reality of my presence settles all around them like a storm cloud.
“You’re losing your touch, Hector,” I call out as I wave my left hand, showing him that I’m not alone. “We just walked right in and you didn’t have a clue.”
“Fergus, you should have just sent me the money and I would have let your chica go free!” Hector hurls with a mixture of shock and attempted bravado. “Now you’ll lose everything.”
“You’re the one who’ll lose, Hector,” I retort, my voice low and menacing. “Let. Her. Go.”
“You think you can talk to me like that? After what you did?” he spits, his hands outstretched, fingers curling into fists. The tension in the air thickens, like an electrical storm. “You owe me for the lives of seven of my men and a shipment that’s now out of my reach.”
“I don’t owe you shit,” I snarl, and before I can think twice, I let my gun do the talking. One shot rings out, a deafening crack echoing in the hollow building as it hits Jasper in the chest, sending his body falling to the ground. “Where is she?”
Panic erupts and Jordan scrambles for cover, but not before Tadhg manages to pick him off with one shot as well. Hector barely makes it behind a stack of pallets, my second bullet lodging into the wall just to the right. I can hear Hector cursing, his boldness wavering, replaced by the fear of losing everything —his life, his power. The balance has shifted in my favor. I’m winning.
“You will pay for this!” Hector screams, probably searching everywhere for a way out, but seeing no clear path that’s not blocked by my men.
I take a step closer, my heart racing. All I can think about is Nola and the urgency to get to her.
“Where is she?” I demand again, making my way around the pallets he’s hiding behind, aiming my gun straight at Hector’s forehead, letting the promise of violence linger like a force between us.
He laughs maniacally, shaking his head as his eyes dart around nervously. “I’ll never tell you!”
Unraveling, I step forward, unable to control the growing rage within me. “You know what happened to your men? This—” I gesture at the two bodies behind us, “was nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you don’t tell me where she is.”
“You think killing me will save her?” He snaps back, but I see the cracks in his bravado. “You made your choice the moment you and your amigos shot your way into my business.”
I quickly realize, this back and forth with him is getting me nowhere. No matter how many times I ask, he won’t tell me what I want to know, so he doesn’t need to keep breathing. With a single breath, I take my shot. A clean hit, right between the eyes, and Hector collapses to the ground. My heart races as I quickly move back toward the center of the warehouse, the urgency driving my every thought.
“Find her!” I shout to my men, my mind only focused on Nola.
My feet lead me where I need to go, because all my mind can formulate is a picture of her face, the softness in her skin, the way her laughter mingles with the chaos of my world. I race up the staircase that was near the door I entered through and start looking in every room as I pass.
I get to the last door in the dark hallway, the only one closed all the way, and it opens before I can even grab hold of the handle.
“Fergus!” Nola gasps, relief flooding her voice as she throws herself into my arms. Folding my arms around her, everything else fades away—the chaos of the day, the dirt and filth all around us, the dead bodies downstairs—it’s all gone. Here, wrapped in her embrace, I’m home.
“I’m here, Nola. I’ve got you,” I whisper, pulling back to run my hands over every inch of her that I can reach, making sure she’s okay. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
“We need to go,” she insists, her voice cracking with urgency. “They were waiting for you, Fergus. They’ll come for us!”
“You’re safe, mo ghrá,” I whisper as I tug her back into my embrace for a kiss. “They’re all gone. You never have to worry about those monsters ever again.”
Nola tugs on my cheeks until our eyes lock, a mixture of worry and wonder staring back at me. “Are you sure?”
“There were only three—”
“Jasper, Jordan, and who else?” she interrupts, but I can’t blame her. She needs to know she’s safe, that we’re safe. And we are . . . I just need to convince her.
“His name was Hector. But they’re all dead now.” I explain as I take my first look around the room she was left in. Formerly what was an office, all that’s left behind is filing cabinets, a desk, and one chair.
I grab hold of her hand, and notice some redness on her wrists. “Where you tied up?” I ask as I reach for her other hand and see the same mark on that wrist as well.
“Yea,” she replies with a small nod, but it’s her smile that confuses me until she continues. “But I managed to wiggle one hand free, then cut the rest of the ropes with a box cutter I found in the desk.”
Damn!
“I’m so proud of you, álainn.”
“Can we go home now?” she asks after I kiss her breath away.
“Of course.” I slowly lead Nola down the hall to the stairs. “I’m sorry you were taken like this. I don’t know how he found out about you, but Hector took you because of his shipment that my guys intercepted last night. That’s also what Corrin called me about when we were getting ready for bed.”
She starts shaking her head. “I don’t know who Hector is. It was Jasper and Jordan who drugged me and brought me here.”
Halfway down the stairs, I freeze. “They what?” I roar.
For the first, and hopefully last time, I see a small speck of fear in Nola’s eyes . . . fear of me. I can’t let that happen ever again.
Picking her up, one arm under her knees, the other around her back, I hold Nola tight to my chest as I traverse the rest of the stairs down on my own. Once we hit the bottom, Tadhg is right there holding the door open so we can step out into the sunshine.
“My Remi will be so happy to see you,” he says with a big smile.
“Tomorrow,” I grunt before she can say anything in response.
With her arms around my neck, Nola burrows into my warmth and I don’t let her go until I have to get in the SUV.
Corrin has the back door already open for us, so once I set her inside, I climb up behind her and pull her right back into my arms. “Straight home,” I tell him when he gets in the driver’s seat, and we’re off.
“What happened to Jordan and Jasper?” she whispers while toying with one of the buttons on my shirt with her finger.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I tip her chin up with my finger. “Mo fhíorghra, I’m sorry that I didn’t know your bosses were enemies of mine. Had I known, I never would have let you go back to work.”
“They didn’t take me because of anything you did,” she says, shaking her head again. “I came across some files at work that showed the laundering money for some LLC based in Laredo. Apparently the files they tried to keep hidden got mixed in with some other clients files, then when I started digging they must have gotten an alert somehow. Maybe in the computer system, I don’t know.”
I was right. They are, were, involved with the cartel. Well, that ended today.
“So it wasn’t Hector who took you to the warehouse?”
“No. I don’t even know how they got me there.”
“How did they drug you?” I keep my hands still, holding her waist to stop myself from punching anything and scaring her again.
“A needle of something,” she reaches up and touches the side of her neck.
Gently brushing her hair over her shoulder, I see a small red bump just above her collarbone.
“Corrin,” I meet his eyes in the rearview mirror, “have the doctor meet us at the house. I want her blood drawn so we know what they used.”
I look back down Nola and realize now is the time I need to tell her what my heart has been feeling for a long time. I need to give her the words my mind has been saying, but I haven’t been man enough to say out loud. That ends now.
“I love you, mo fhíorghra.”
“What does that mean?” She stays burrowed in my arms but looks up and our eyes lock.
A single tears forms in her right eyes then rolls down her cheek. I catch it with my thumb and wipe it away.
“Mo fhíorghra means ‘my true love’ in Irish.”
“I love you too, mo fhíorghra.” She whispers the words against my lips.
The moment our lips touch, time stands still. My heart drumming in my chest is the only sound I hear. Her breath mingles with mine as our tongues gently swirl around each other’s, not fighting for control, rather dancing gently as we make our way home.
I wrap Nola in my arms again and just feel her. Here, like this, she’s safe again. My heart is whole again.