3. Maverick
3
MAVERICK
We were silent when I pulled up to the pawnshop, about a half-hour drive from the club.
I wasn’t sure how she had managed to get all the way over here without a car, and I hated the thought that she might have walked or hitchhiked to the place.
I shook away the thought and got out of the car. Silas and Killian followed me out, and we took in our surroundings. Did Mila know she was still in Tiernan territory? Or did she think she had gotten far enough away?
I shook my head. She didn’t know the extent of our powers, didn’t know how much of Illinois we actually owned, and she certainly didn’t know that the men we had under us far surpassed what Daniel Hayes could have only hoped to achieve in his lifetime, but she wasn’t na?ve.
She could have guessed. She also knew that the more time she spent on the road traveling, the sooner we would find her. My guess was that she was still around here somewhere, but where?
I took in my brothers when they got into my line of sight. We hadn’t spoken to each other much since the moment we realized Mila was gone.
Silas had worn the same face since—desperation mixed with despair. I wasn’t surprised, considering how obsessed he had been with her since the beginning. Had that obsession morphed into something else? Something deeper?
My heart pinched from the thought. I had already admitted to myself that I had fallen… was it love?
What the fuck did my brothers and I know about love?
My eyes slipped over Silas and took in Killian. He was a little harder to read than Silas, but it wasn’t difficult to see that he was a little more volatile than usual.
I didn’t know what to do about them. For years, it had been me, barely trying to hold us together. When did it start to tear at the seams? Why the hell couldn’t I have seen just how weak it was? And Mila had so effortlessly put us back together.
And we fucking lost her?—
No, not fucking lost. She ran. But once we get her back, I will do whatever it takes to ensure she can’t run anymore—more than that, never give her another fucking reason to run.
But right now, we had to find her first. Before the fucking MC did.
The bell to the pawnshop dinged as we passed through the door. A rough-looking man, probably in his late forties, looked up at us when we entered, his eyes set in wariness.
“What can I do for ya?” he asked.
Killian stepped forward and set down a picture of Mila in front of him. It was her driver’s license photo, taken probably two years before. She wasn’t smiling, and there was something almost… dead about her eyes that I fucking hated.
Almost as if she had given up on life living with that fucker Hayes.
The man briefly glanced down at the photo before looking back up at us, not saying anything.
“Have you seen her?” Killian asked.
The man crossed his arms over his chest and shot us a nasty smile, his gold tooth glinting in the light. “Depends.”
Silas mimicked the man by crossing his arms, but there was nothing relaxed about the stance of my little brother. Silas was getting ready to pounce. “On?”
“On how badly you want to find the girl.”
Silas pulled out a wad of cash and threw it on the glass counter before the man.
We waited as the fucker grabbed the money and slowly counted it. “She was here. About three, four days ago. Sold her jewelry.”
“How much did you give her for them?” I asked.
“Hey, I’m a fair man. I quoted her seven grand, which was more than enough.”
My fists clenched. The prices of her jewelry ranged in the six figures, and he gave her a measly seven grand.
I leaned forward, and the man backed up a little before he thought better of it and held his ground. I smiled at the fucker. “Did she say where she’s going?”
He swallowed, looking around his shop. The fucker was alone in here with us. Seemed he finally caught on that he was in the room with three predators.
“I’m just here to do business. I don’t make it a habit of getting into anyone else’s business.”
And the fucker decided to extort money from us with little information.
The man shook his head when he got a good look at my face and backed up even more, only stopping when he hit the wall behind him. He threw the money at us, hitting Silas on the chest. My brother looked down at the crumpled bills as they fell to the floor, then back up at the man.
“We’re going to need the security footage from that day, got me?” Silas said. The man nodded. “And all the jewelry she sold you.”
“Are you, uh, are you buying it back?” the stupid fucker asked.
I shook my head as Killian pulled out his card. “Seven grand, yeah?”
The man looked like he wanted to deny the sale. We both knew he would have sold those pieces for a hell of a lot more than seven grand. But he wasn’t in the position to say no. Resignation set in his eyes as he began to pull out all the jewelry he had taken from her. Something about the sight made my heart drop. Fuck.
We were on our way out when my phone beeped with a text. I stopped, and my brothers stopped with me, looking back, waiting. They probably thought it might be one of our men with news about Mila.
Hell, I had hoped…
Gregory Perez’s name showed up on the screen.
I shook my head, and Silas’ shoulders sagged in disappointment. Without a word, he moved to the car and got in. Killian frowned after him but didn’t follow. I checked the message.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Perez. He wants to meet up. And for us to bring his cut.”
“He wants us to personally bring it to him?”
“Seems he has something he wants to discuss.”
Killian shook his head. “Yeah? And that’s why he wants this meet and not some fucking way to exert his power?”
I walked up to my brother and placed my hand on his shoulder. “We’re not the kind of men he could easily exert his power over. He knows that. This is probably to size us up.”
“What? He didn’t get enough of that at the restaurant?”
I shrugged. “Or perhaps there’s something more he wanted to say.”
We both knew communication about the business was never to be made through the phone. Too easily hacked into.
“Whatever. When are we going?”
I looked back at the pawnshop. It didn’t yield the result we wanted. The only thing it told us was Mila’s starting point. And perhaps that would help, but right now, she was still as lost to us as she had been four days ago.
“Right now. Have men stationed around the area. I don’t think she’s gotten far, and it would only be a matter of time before someone sees her.”
Hopefully soon. For all of our sakes.
Without another word, we got into the car. The drive back into the city was made in silence. For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be the one to take on my brothers’ feelings. To ensure everyone was doing okay. Not when I was so goddamn exhausted. For the first time, I just let it be and took in the silence and the tension and everything else that came with it.
By the time we pulled up to the restaurant, it was late afternoon, and Chicago was bursting with life. Everyone was excited for the summer days to come.
I got out of the car, and my brothers followed suit. We took in our surroundings and, not seeing anything out of the ordinary, made our way to a bistro located just near our company. It wasn’t owned by us or anyone in the organization, which probably played a role in why Gregory chose it. He wanted to meet in neutral territory.
I found him right away. The man sat in the corner, his features seemingly blending in with everyone and everything in the place. His expression didn’t change as we made our way over to him. If anything, I would have said he relaxed further into his seat.
Gregory Perez was a hard man to read, and that said something, considering I made a living on reading people. He had worked with Daniel Hayes of all people, and now he was working with us. A skillful man who’d been able to maintain neutrality during the territory war, not just between us and the MC, but during the times when we left, and Hayes had to defend his territory from the other gangs.
We sat down, with me sitting directly in front of Gregory, Killian to my right, and Silas to my left.
“It's nice of you to take time out of your busy schedule for me.”
I didn’t say anything and neither did my brothers.
He smiled. “Aren’t you curious why I asked you out here?”
“I’m guessing it has more to do with making sure we pay you?”
He waved his hand in front of his face as if he couldn’t care less. “I know you’re good for the money, Tiernan.”
“Yeah, then why did I take time out of my day to see you? It’s as you said, we’re busy.”
Gregory cracked a smile. “I thought if this partnership?—”
“Business,” I interrupted. I didn’t need new partners. And I knew my brothers agreed with me.
He didn’t seem put off by the correction. If anything, the fucker’s smile grew. “Business,” he amended. “If this business relationship is going to work, then I should warn you. It didn’t seem smart to do so on the phone.”
Killian and I shared a look. Silas was still staring the man down. With the way Silas had been since Mila’s disappearance, I doubt he had it in him to be civil to anyone.
“And what do you have to warn me about?” I asked.
“You know what’s interesting?” he asked. I didn’t answer. He took a sip of the coffee in front of him, taking his sweet time. “The more years you work with someone, the more you come to understand how they work, whether you want to or not.”
Silas scoffed. “And I suppose you think you’ll have us figured out sooner or later?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think you’re the kind of man that others can easily read. You and your brothers.”
I could say the same about him.
“I heard a rumor that you lost your little bird.”
I could feel Silas tense beside me, and though that wasn’t obvious, I had a feeling Gregory didn’t miss much.
“Yeah? And you’re going to help us find it?”
He shook his head. “My abilities only go so far. No, I just find it interesting how there seemed to be so much interest in such an insignificant little bird.”
Mila was anything but insignificant, but I knew to everyone else, she seemed that way. She was born a daughter, so she couldn’t have helped Daniel run his club. To everyone else, she was essentially powerless. If only they knew how much power she actually held over us.
“Not just to you. What you and your brothers do in your personal time is none of my business or concern.”
“You’re right. It is none of your concern,” I said, putting no bite behind my words.
“Daniel Hayes wasn’t the kind of man to care about anyone or anything, much less a daughter. But he was possessive of her. I had only seen them interact once. But the way he looked at her… not in the way a father looked at his daughter, but in the way a greedy man looked at his greatest fortune.”
We didn’t say anything. There was always a part of me that didn’t understand why the bastard had put so much effort into keeping Mila under his control. He was possessive with her, much more so than he had been with his wife. And he had let his wife go.
The words he uttered to us the night we attacked the clubhouse had been running in my head for a while.
I’ll give you the girl. My daughter. Surely, she’s worth something—she’s worth everything .
He was the kind of man who would have placed his life above everyone else, yet he thought Mila’s worth would have been enough to save him. Why?
“And now you let the little bird escape. Those who knew the exact reason why Daniel was so possessive of the girl would surely try to get her now.”
He wasn’t telling me anything we didn’t already know. We knew Sebastian Cline was hunting her down.
“What do you know?” Killian asked quietly, echoing my thoughts.
Gregory just smiled and stood. “I very much look forward to working with the Tiernan Syndicate. And if the rumors are to be believed, then Declan Tiernan’s children are even more ruthless than the old bastard ever was. Savages of Las Vegas, no? I’m sure you’ll make your name in Chicago soon. But I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you, one little golden bird might just aid in your downfall if you’re not careful. And it has nothing to do with love, although…”
He laughed, and I placed my hand on Killian’s leg to stop him from doing what he always did—kill someone who pissed him off.
“And you just decided to warn us from the goodness of your heart?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I am simply looking after my own interests. I would no doubt make more money with your brothers than I would with anyone else. So make sure you hold on tight to this newly acquired empire. And please send my cut of the percentage to the bank account my assistant emailed to yours. The goods are already in place, ready to be shipped out, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
I didn’t stop him when he walked away.
“I don’t know why you stopped me. We don’t need him. We could find our own way to Stocken Isle without the bastard and with the Cadorna Famiglia,” Killian said quietly.
Stocken Isle was a crucial point for us. It was a private shipping port located in California, which made federal regulation a little harder to touch upon. It was the best point to get the goods out overseas. It was one of the reasons why we needed men like Gregory Perez and why we needed the Cadorna Famiglia, although I was probably one trigger away from destroying the entire organization. Gregory Perez was a different story.
I thought he made a better ally than an enemy.
I shook my head. “No, we don’t do anything to the man.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Heed his warning. We need to get Mila back to us.”
And not just because she was the fucking glue that held us together. Not just because I had fucking fallen in love with her and realized I couldn’t fucking live in this world if she wasn’t breathing, but because Gregory just emphasized what I had already guessed. Sebastian Cline’s obsession with Mila went beyond his betrothal to her. There was something surrounding Mila that made men like Daniel Hayes keep her under lock and key for so long. And it had nothing to do with fatherly love.