6. Sean
SIX
sean
I hated leaving her.
It wasn’t on purpose or to make her suffer. Business called and I had no choice but to answer.
“After a little extra digging, I know Blair hired a lawyer,” Tadhg said from beside me as we rode into the garment district at seven in the fucking morning. “A few actually. Looks like the last one might stick.”
My eyes were closed but Tadhg knew I was listening carefully.
“The last one being…”
“Jaslyn Edwards-Black from—”
“Edwards, Brooks and Goode. Yeah, I know her.”
She was a powerhouse and worth every dime.
“Well, look. I can figure out where Blair is spending her money, but I can’t dig into what the lawyer is doing for her without offending Ashton. And if we offend him, we offend Sheldon and Monroe. That’s a possible Delegation breach.”
I hummed.
Tadhg wasn’t Finnegan; he didn’t move in sync with me like my brother but he was always thinking about everything I didn’t exactly give a fuck about.
He’d be the best candidate for my second-in-command. Wasn’t sure how my uncle Eoghan would feel about it but we’d cross that bridge if we got there.
Tadhg’s was the product of Eoghan’s first marriage.
His mother had been against him being raised in the life, but in the end he chose it.
My uncle met the twins mother not long after his divorce and they’re still together.
The three of them were eight years apart and had a good relationship despite the drama their parents had growing up.
Tadhg even had me by four years.
“What do you advise?” I asked, testing him.
He closed his leather bound book and sat back.
“Talk to Blair and work it out with her. Don’t involve her lawyer and by proxy her husband’s family.”
It was a logical response. The exact thing I should do but I wasn’t a logical man, at least not when it came to Blair.
“Love is hard, Sean,” he went on, twisting the ring on his finger. “This life is hard, too. I get it. But you can have both. It doesn’t have to be a game of cat and mouse. You already love her and she loves you, too. Work that shit out and don’t make my life harder.”
We rolled to a stop at our destination and my cousin turned to me.
“I’m not Finn but he made sure you’d be good by personally asking me to have your back until everything is settled, so trust me, iight?”
Reached out to him personally, huh?
I almost cracked a smile.
“This is your only chance, Tadhg. First fuck up and I send you back to work under your da.”
He nodded and opened his door.
“Now that I’ve passed your test, I convinced Ashton to meet with you later for a little friendly chat. But first, we need to handle this. Yasmine and Delilah are already here.”
We’d gotten a foothold in the garment district over the last few years. Yasmine and Delilah had put all their effort into this assignment lately, bearing a lot of fruit.
They’d done enough to prove to my da letting them into the fold was worth it. He’d been skeptical as they weren’t O’Sullivan’s by blood.
But first cousins, nonetheless.
“Welcome back, cousin!” Yasmine bellowed from where she clipped fabric to a beam hanging from the ceiling. “It’s messy but we just got a shipment, so bear with us.”
Yasmine, Delilah, Niamh and Anessa were the daughters of our mother’s sister, Viviana. Their father Landell had been my da’s driver up until recently, up until we learned of his betrayal.
He had no clue we were on to him, just that I was set to take my father’s place and he wasn’t needed to drive me around.
We had to draw out his accomplices before cutting him loose completely. Before putting him in the dirt.
“Where’s Delilah?” I asked, watching Tadhg disappear into a back room.
“Uh…” Yasmine walked toward me, brows furrowed in concern unlike when she greeted me. “We talked to Niamh last night. She’s in the back sulking. Is Darragh gonna pull the plug on this.”
I knew they weren’t involved in Landell’s bullshit. In fact, my da allowing them into the mob ranks and keeping Landell as only a driver had been the reason their father went off the deep end in the first place.
For years he wanted in and never once had my da allowed it. All Landell had done was prove why he needed to be kept out.
“How do you feel about your pop?”
She frowned but didn’t hesitate when responding.
“I mean he’s my dad and I love him, but he put us all in a fucked up situation by going against the family. Especially me, Delilah and Niamh. He didn’t think of the consequences we’d have to bear and for that I can’t forgive him.”
I nodded.
It was an honest answer, one I could accept.
But I hadn’t expected anything less from Yasmine. She spoke from the heart every time she opened her mouth. Delilah, too.
They didn’t have that savage mentality like Niamh, who’d spent a lot of her childhood attached to Finnegan’s hip. But they were useful to the legitimate business side of things.
And the one point two million annually they were bringing in just from selling high end fabric to designers, department stores, and small boutiques across the country proved it.
“Business is good,” I said, looking over her shoulder as Delilah and Tadhg emerged from the back. “Darragh can’t take anything away from you because that’s my job now.”
Both of their eyes bucked at my confession.
“You finally taking his place?” Delilah asked as she approached.
“I am and I won’t be taking this from you. In fact, Tadhg and I are here to talk expansion but it comes with stipulations.”
They looked at one another, then Yasmine spoke.
“What kind of stipulations?”
“Bring me something tangible about who Landell is working with and I’ll buy you three new warehouses.”
“You know you don’t have to bribe us for help, right?”
Tadhg chuckled and it was almost as if he’d done it on my behalf.
Mm maybe we were in sync.
“He’s your father and you love him but I need to see you understand this family comes first. He betrayed us and now you have to betray him. Think of it as an incentive for doing so.”
“Niamh could probably figure it out faster,” Yasmine pointed out, her brow raised. “We were already talking about plans to deal with this.”
“Continue to work together but now you have a task to complete.”
“Ah…” Delilah laughed a little. “We never had a choice in the matter, huh?”
“That’d be correct. You took an oath to the mob and now you have to do mob shit. I’ll keep blood off your hands but that’s all I have to offer.”
They nodded and I eyed them closely.
“Got anything to say?” I asked. “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
“I’m glad you’re back, Sean,” Delilah said with a smile. “It hasn’t been the same since you guys left.”
“Glad to be back,” I lied. “If you need me, you know where to find me. Remember what I said. And keep up the good work.”
Tadhg and I took our leave and once on the road, he said, “You didn’t tell them to kill him.”
“Neither of them are built to be part of putting a bullet in their father’s head,” I told him. “Niamh, sure. But, I’m handling this my way right now.”
He hummed.
“A thoughtful boss.”
I stared at Blair’s location and checked the time. They were headed into Manhattan as planned.
“Family is family. It’s my job to protect their physical but also their mental. Who can do their job properly if their head ain’t in the right place?”
I flipped my phone over on my thigh and glanced at Tadhg.
“How’s your mental?”
He stopped spinning his wedding band and glanced at me.
“Huh?”
“You heard me…” I glanced at Blair’s location again. “If you want to talk about it, I’ll be around… How long before my meeting with Ashton?”
“Two hours in Harlem.”
I nodded and caught our driver’s eyes in the rear view mirror.
“Lorcan, take us to the Designer Loft. I need to speak to my wife.”
Tadhg chuckled. “Your wife, huh?”
There was no denying it, she was mine and I was hers.
“Yeah, my wife.”
We just… had some shit to unpack.