Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“I am sick of lies. This shit needs to be over,” Gwen snapped before rushing out of the kitchen. The three of us stood there in silence as we listened to my woman.
“Let’s cut the shit, shall we?”
I smirked and looked at James, who was looking at the ceiling again.
“You know,” I drawled, “if God wanted to strike you down, He would have done it already.”
“Don’t fucking remind me,” he grumbled as he dragged his hand down his face before pushing the door open. Haley was about to walk through, and then his hand snapped out, gripped her arm and pulled her flush against his chest.
I shot Sullie a look letting him know that we should give them privacy. He brushed past the couple, and I followed, but not before I heard…
“Do you want me to find him, princess?” His voice was gentle. He was referring to Haley’s father. I didn’t know much about the man, but I had my opinion about him.
Gwen had her heel in Kevin’s crotch, a gun pointed at Ian.
My eyes scanned her quickly. Her jeans were still tight as hell, hugging her curves in the most sinful way.
Her torso was twisted, which gave me an excellent view of her breasts.
Her curls were falling out of her bun, making me itch to yank it down.
The look she was giving Ian was enough to scare your average man.
It just made me want to fuck her.
“Gwen, we can be civilized about this,” Ian said calmly, wiping his face. His mother was looking down at her plate, slowly chewing.
My head twisted to find Dom in the same spot, staring at the Matthews.
His resting bitch face was superior. Sullie braced his hands on the bar.
“Mr. Matthews, I let you come into my bar and eat my food. I pride myself on being a gracious host, but if you don’t start talking, you will find my patience doesn’t extend very far to those outside of my family. ”
“That means it’s time for you to talk, pretty boy,” Dom growled.
Ian rolled to the front of the table and placed his hands on his lap. “I just want my brother to come back home.” My eyes flicked to his brother. His jaw was covered in dry blood, and it was tense, like he was agitated.
“You are in no position to be making demands, Ian,” I drawled, leaning back against the bar top and crossing my ankles. As I folded my arms over my chest, his green eyes slid to me.
“How’s your buddy Gabe?”
Gabe was the reason Ian was paralyzed from the waist down.
I lowered my chin, holding his eyes. “He is in a better place than your father, I assure you.”
He smiled. “Pity you killed my father; I would’ve liked to do that myself.”
Haley and James came out of the kitchen. The agent steered Haley to take a seat on the stool beside me, and he shot me a look. I nodded once and shifted closer to her.
“Like Ms. Davenport said, let’s cut the shit,” James called out to him as he went to stand in the middle of the room.
“You don’t have to do that,” Red murmured to me.
Not taking my eyes away from the scene in front of me, I whispered, “Yeah, Red, I do. James loses you again, he won’t make it back.”
She was silent after that.
Ian raised his hands. “Can we all just take a seat and talk like civilized human beings? We all have the same goal.”
“And what goal is that?” Gwen asked, pressing her foot further into Kevin’s crotch until he grunted.
“Ray Romano.”
Sullie grunted and Dom snarled. “Elaborate, boy.”
Ian frowned. “I want that man dead.”
“Feeling’s mutual,” Haley hissed.
I looked between the two brothers, studying them and how they avoided looking at each other. “Whose idea was it for Kevin to become the Doctor?” I asked.
Ian sighed and rolled to one of the tables in the middle of the room, leaving his mother where she was.
“Mine.”
“Don’t,” Kevin groaned.
James took a step closer to the table and pulled out a chair before sitting in it backwards. "Where did you get the drugs?” he questioned.
“Don’t tell the—” Dom put a gag in Kevin’s mouth and urged for Ian to answer.
“You’re smart for a Fed,” Ian noted, remaining calm.
“You waste my time, you get a bullet in your throat,” James threatened. “Answer my question.”
“An old drug warehouse on the border. It belonged to my father.”
“You mean Romano.” Gwen came down from the stage and slammed her gun onto the table, facing the ex-baseball player.
Ian shook his head. “No. It was my father’s. He was planning on turning against Romano.”
“And the plot fucking thickens,” I sighed.
“Your father wanted St. Louis,” Sullie boomed from his place behind the bar. I knew damn well he had a shotgun by his leg, locked and loaded.
“He did, but he knew Romano would never let him have it. So, he set his sights on something much bigger.”
“Canada,” James drawled, folding his arms over the back of the chair. The Mafia prince nodded.
“Your father wasn’t loyal to Romano anymore? Why?” I asked, my eyes meeting Gwen’s. Cal Matthews was following Romano’s orders like a puppy in training the night of the Gala.
“Why does anyone do anything, Dean? Power,” Ian said casually.
“Alright, stop talking like this is a fucking riddle for us to solve. Tell us everything,” Haley hissed from beside me, hopping down from her stool. I nodded at the back of her head as she walked away from me, impressed. Fuck yeah, Red.
I followed her to the table. She stood beside Gwen, and I positioned myself behind them. James was looking at Haley, but her focus was on the eldest Matthews.
“I speak for everyone in this room when I say we are done playing games. Start talking, or leave this bar in handcuffs,” the redhead said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. The man in the chair regarded her quietly, looking for a sign of weakness.
“Listen to her, or leave here in a fucking body bag,” I said lowly.
He sighed. “I came up with the idea of the Doctor. Kevin and I wanted to take down Romano’s empire from the inside, and the only way to do that was to diminish his manpower.”
“You are aware Romano has more men than you can fathom, right?” James asked, unimpressed.
Nodding, Ian continued, “If you take out the key chess pieces, there will be no one left to defend the King.”
“The Queen has the power in chess, Ian,” my woman deadpanned.
Yeah, I was fucking her later.
Hard.
“You get the idea. Kevin killed Gabrial Tipponi and some other key players. He was supposed to kill Romano’s hitman, too.”
Haley started laughing. “You expected Kevin to kill Collin?” She began laughing even harder, doubling over.
“I don’t see what is so funny,” he bit out.
She righted herself, wiping a tear away. “Because Collin Stevens is the most dangerous man in the country, asshole. That was a shit plan.”
He glared at her, his eyes hard. James pointed his gun in the man’s face. “Avert your eyes, Matthews.”
“My father wanted to break away from Romano and start his own flesh trade in Canada. He planned on breaking into the hockey leagues first, starting small and then working his way up. Dean, you got in the way of his plans. My father was complaining about you to Ray, and suddenly, the mafia King was interested in the new hot-shot ball player out of Tennessee,” he explained, his eyes looking up at me.
I remained silent.
“Ray Romano wanted you—from the fucking start. This was never about me or my accident. He didn’t give two shits about losing me, because you were my fucking replacement.
Whether I got into that bar fight or not, Romano would have found you.
He would have tried to recruit you. After my father’s death, Kevin took my mother and I up north.
We stayed in a cabin while she went through her drug withdrawals.
After that, Kevin and I started planning.
We pinpointed the location of the drug factory, and—”
“That’s how you got the materials for the concoction,” Gwen finished for him.
“Where is the warehouse?” James asked calmly.
Ian looked at him, his green eyes flashing. “I can’t tell you that.”
James pointed to Kevin. “Your brother is going to federal prison. Would you like for me to arrange for you to have the cell next to his?”
“You have no proof of what I just said. It will be my word against yours,” Ian replied, his calm facade fading.
My woman scoffed. “Please, Ian.” She pulled out a recorder from underneath the table. I twisted my neck to look at Sullie, who remained behind the bar with a smug smile on his face. Once he met my eyes, his smile grew. “This ain’t my first rodeo, Connors,” he chuckled.
“I just want my brother,” Ian stammered, looking at Kevin, who had tears in his eyes. “Please. I just want my family whole again.”
“What about Collin, huh? Isn’t he a part of your family?” Haley asked, stepping closer to the table.
Ian’s throat bobbed. “He was just the boy who lived in my basement.” There it was. Privilege. Rich boys like him reeked of it. Stevens was a product of rape and was forced to live on the stree—
I shook my head. Why the fuck was I defending him?
“Your little brother said otherwise,” Gwen mused, looking at her nails. I fought the smirk that played on my lips. I taught her that, to be nonchalant when interrogating.
“My brother survives on false hope and unicorns shitting rainbows,” he sneered.
James sighed. “Be that as it may, you made a mistake coming here.”
Sirens sounded outside the bar. Red and blue lights flashed through the windows. James had the building surrounded. “You three will be escorted to Quantico for the time being. You and your mother will be provided a comfortable place to stay during the duration of this investigation.”
“My mother is innocent.”
“She is also a witness, and the Bureau has questions for her, as well as you and your brother.”
“You held my brother captive!! You beat him!” he cried, slamming his fist on the table.
“Actually, that was the boy who lived in your basement,” Haley snapped, folding her arms over her chest.
I mean, Gwen did rough him up a bit…but they didn’t need to know that.