Chapter Five #2
“Don’t you dare play the fucking innocent.
You knew what you were doing—deal with the consequences.
” The door opened again, and this time Michael and Jake came through, one of the other men James was reasonably sure of.
They hauled Ricky out of his chair, and out of the room. To his credit, he didn’t yell or fight.
But the look he sent James made him cold right down to his bones.
He’d known his brother hated him. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he’d known all the same. It was a truth he’d made as much peace as he could with. Now he had to deal with Ricky blatantly wanting him dead.
Well, fuck .
He waited for the door to close and then slumped into his chair.
He’d known this shit wasn’t going to be a picnic from the moment he lost Brendan.
Being heir was never something James wanted, but he’d done his damnedest to step up and do right by the family.
Naive as it apparently was, he’d never expected his remaining brother to turn on him.
Truth be told, he hadn’t expected a lot of things.
He sighed. As much as he wanted to get the hell out of here and wash off the stench of this place, since he was here, he needed to check in with the manager and make sure things were still going smoothly.
He hadn’t heard anything recently, but he was learning the hard way that just because information didn’t come directly to him didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.
And Ricky taking an interest in Tit for Tat was a red flag he couldn’t ignore.
A quick phone call brought Lisa Marie up.
She was an old battle-ax who had worked her way up from waitressing to the pole to running the whole damn place.
She had to have put sixty in the rearview mirror years ago, but she hadn’t missed a beat.
As he watched, she snubbed out a cigarette and lit up another one. “Whatcha need, honey?”
“I haven’t been in here in a few weeks. Bring me up to date.”
“You want to know what that brother of yours is up to.” Her shrewd gray eyes saw too much.
“He’s been in here five days out of seven, sniffing around.
He takes over the office and has people coming and going.
Don’t know what he’s up to, but I’d bet my left tit he’s up to something.
” She exhaled a plume of smoke. “The little shit told me we’re starting up with those girls again. ”
“We’re not.”
“Good. Made my girls nervous.” She tapped the cigarette into the ashtray on the desk. “Ever since that other brother of yours died—God rest his soul—business is up fifteen percent.”
Probably because Brendan scared the living shit out of everyone smart enough to know what trouble looked like.
It kept those men and their money away from Tit for Tat.
James tapped his fingers on the desk. Ricky seemed all too ready to step into Brendan’s shoes, and that was something he couldn’t allow.
Like it or not, they’d taken a hit when he put a stop to the flesh trade.
They needed the bump of legit money. “Are the other clubs seeing the same increase?”
“More or less.” She leaned back and crossed her legs, stick thin and covered in pants made of something like spandex. “Having willing girls makes a difference. Johns can tell. And the ones who liked the fear… well, I don’t want to deal with that shit.”
Neither did James. He waited, seeing from the tension in her shoulders that there was something more.
People didn’t like silences, especially uncomfortable ones like this was quickly evolving into.
Lisa Marie knew the tactic—it was one he’d seen her use before—and she gave him a sardonic smile.
“You’re not a puppy anymore, James Halloran. ”
Maybe not, but he still felt like a small fish in an ocean full of sharks. Every time he turned around, another threat was rising at his back. It was fucking exhausting. Still, he waited.
She sighed, smoke drifting out of her nostrils. “That Ricky…”
The seconds stretched into minutes. Finally, he relented. “Tell me.”
“I know he’s family.”
Her sudden hesitance set his teeth on edge. “If there’s something I need to know, spit it the fuck out.”
That got her moving again. She snubbed out her cigarette. “He’s been taking a family discount with the girls—and them saying yes isn’t necessary.”
Her words left him cold all over. Fuck, fuck, fuck .
He kept all expression off his face through sheer force of will, but it was a battle.
He’d known his little brother was teetering on the edge, but apparently he’d already reached the point of no return.
Fuck . And James had sat idly by while his brother played fox in the henhouse.
It didn’t matter if he hadn’t known. Those women were under his protection, same as every other person in Halloran territory.
And he’d failed them.
“I’ll need a list of names.” His voice was so cold, it was a wonder the bottle of beer in front of him didn’t ice over.
“Sure thing.”
“That’s all.” He waited until she was almost to the door to say, “ And, Lisa Marie.”
“Yeah, honey?”
“My brother is no longer allowed in this club—or any of the ones in Halloran territory.” He couldn’t let this go on unchecked.
Ricky wasn’t trustworthy, and James wasn’t about to let his brother near people they were supposed to be protecting until he could be sure he wouldn’t have to protect them from Ricky .
She fumbled a new cigarette out of her pack, cursing when it fell to the faded carpet. “But—”
“It’s not open for discussion. Inform the bouncers. If he gives you trouble, you call me, you understand?”
“I understand.” She scooped up the cigarette and fled the room, shutting the door softly behind her.
Goddamn it. He hated playing the monster.
The more often he put on the mask, the less like a mask it felt.
Making Lisa Marie scurry from the room left a bad taste in his mouth.
No one seemed to notice or care that he was trying to do the right thing.
That knowledge shouldn’t surprise him, and it sure as hell shouldn’t sting.
It did.
He pushed to his feet with a sigh. Once he had the list of girls, he’d figure out his next step. He couldn’t just throw money at them—it’d be insult to injury—but there had to be something he could do. There was no making something like this right, but fuck if he was going to ignore it.
No one approached him as he walked down the stairs and through the club.
He was used to people being wary of him, but there was actual fear in the air.
It clung to the back of his throat, a taste he wished he didn’t know.
He had to struggle to keep his pace even and walk out of there like nothing was wrong.
The cold night air didn’t do shit to keep him from feeling like the world was closing in on him.
James made it to his car and climbed in, locking the doors and starting the engine.
Only then did he lean back against the seat and close his eyes and concentrate on breathing. Inhale. Hold for one, two, three. Exhale. And again. By the fifth time, the static hovering at the edge of his thoughts retreated and he was able to put the car into gear and get the hell out of there.
He wished…
But no, there was no point in wishing on stars or any of that shit.
His life was the way it was, and so was his current situation.
It was sink or swim. If he sank, he’d take down too many people with him.
Ricky had more than proven that he wouldn’t protect the weak under his domain.
Even if James was willing to leave the Halloran name and responsibilities behind, he couldn’t leave the people who needed him.
It would just be so much easier to handle this shit if he was sure that the kernel of evil that seemed to flourish in his old man and brothers wasn’t doing the same damn thing inside of him.
He wasn’t a good man. He had no illusions about that.
But there was a long haul between “not good” and “fucking monster.”
He hoped.
He grabbed his phone before he could think better of it, and dialed the number he’d had for months but never used. It rang and rang, and right when he was about to hang up, she answered, “Hello?”
Carrigan’s voice was like a soft ocean breeze, washing away all the shit of the last few hours. James took his first full breath since he’d left the strip club. “Hey, lovely.”