27. Sean
TWENTY-SEVEN
sean
“Stop making Liam’s life harder for me, Amoy.”
I had barely pulled my lips from hers after my grandda cleared his throat to stop us from kissing.
Was it necessary for me to walk in here and put my tongue down her throat? No.
But did I do it anyway to remind everybody in this muthafucka who she belonged to? Yes.
And I’d do it again.
“I’ll think about it.”
Lorcan had stuck his phone between the seats twenty minutes ago, while we sat waiting on my grandda to emerge from Tadhg’s home.
She doesn’t listen.
My location is where you need to be.
I expected Blair to push her luck with Liam after Valentine’s day. And because he couldn’t push back unless they were in imminent danger, I sensed the irritation in his texts and made a detour to handle whatever the fuck she’d gotten herself into.
“He said you’d come running for her, but I’m impressed at how quickly. You might actually be as legit as they say.”
Blair flicked her gaze to Blake and then me.
“This is Demetrius Cannon,” she introduced slowly, trying to tell me something I didn’t want to hear. “A representative of the Ahmeti family.”
I knew who he was the second I walked in, Niamh’s description of him etched into my mind.
“Yeah, I don’t give a fuck about any of that,” I said, pushing Liam’s hand down to show I heard her loud and clear. “You got me here. Let’s start with returning my merchandise and I’ll forgo putting a bullet in your head.”
Blair wasn’t as reckless as Liam thought she was.
Her willingness to stand in front of a man she’d never met before and hear him out said a lot. To Blair, he was harmless for the time being.
His energy didn’t feel off to her and I was inclined to agree, no matter how annoyed I was with the bullshit he’d brought to my doorstep.
“Or,” Demetrius started, leaning against the side of the desk. “You can let me keep the guns and I’ll offer you something invaluable, something that should’ve been yours seventeen years ago.”
I didn’t have to look back at my grandda to know he was listening carefully now that what resulted in my grandmother’s death was on the table.
“What’s invaluable to me is already mine,” I told him, tipping to my head. “But I’ve always appreciated a good business deal. Let me hear it.”
I’d never had the freedom of ignoring the consequences of my actions. My grandda’s choice always stuck out to me, the consequences of his greed especially.
My only goal as head of this family was to keep the money flowing and protect the people I love. Spotting a good business deal was how I achieved the former and being the consequence of someone else’s actions toward my family, the latter.
Either he made me a deal I couldn’t refuse or I killed him in this church and dealt with the rest later.
“You’ve been working with the Constanzo’s for eleven years,” he said, cutting his eyes at Blair. “Their control of the iron pipeline is what got your friend’s dad killed.”
We were all privy to this.
“I put the two in his chest because his father asked me to,” he confessed nonchalantly. “Truthfully, I went into it with ulterior motives.”
Blair sighed. “You wanted the routes. And got them by doing something you knew he’d never want to get out.”
“Easy peasy. Or at least it was supposed to be. I caught wind of you, Blair Phillips…” he flicked his gaze to me. “She’s smart. A good tracker, too. I left her a trail all the way to New York and got in good with the Ahmeti family. That’s where I met Landell and your…” there was a slight chuckle in his voice when he looked at Blair again. “…brother.”
Invaluable.
There was our other connection, the one that linked her family to mine.
“I fucked around with your businesses for the hell of it…” he shrugged and for some reason I wanted to fucking laugh. “But what they want to do was… is very real.”
Blair snorted and even though I tried to stop it, the chuckle I’d been holding back left my lips anyway.
“Don’t mind him,” Blair said, barely keeping her own laughter back. “It’s just you’re a really good storyteller and he always laughs in the middle of good stories.”
I bit back another chuckle and chose a grin instead.
It was clear he needed to get this off his chest for it to make complete sense. But I was probably one more soliloquy away from shooting him.
“The Ahmeti family has been wanting to get revenge for what you did for a while now,” he went on, looking past me at my grandda. “I get why you did it though. Loyalty seems to be an O’Sullivan thing. You thought they killed your wife so you went after anybody associated with the Albanians. The Ahmeti’s took the brunt though.”
I frowned.
“Thought they killed my wife,” my grandda parroted as if he hadn’t heard him right.
“You were wrong and I can prove it.”
Invaluable.
“I’m a guy that likes to mind my business, but I came here looking for something specific. What I found was disorganization and a lot of rodents from different families linking up together. I wanted to partner with her…“ he pointed to Blair. “…until I learned she was connected to you, but now that I’m standing in front of the both of you, you’ll do as a unit.”
I sighed.
“The deal on the table is what?” I asked, hoping for a short and concise response.
He chuckled.
“I’m from Everwood,” he revealed. “Born, raised and rejected. They got something of mine and I’m about to take it back. I want you to be my gun supplier. Your merchandise is worth triple your rate, that’s what I’ll pay you. With that comes complete control over the iron pipeline until someone puts me in the dirt.”
Everwood had always been a do not touch zone.
The Collective had complete control over that territory.
“It was the Constanzo’s,” Blair said out of nowhere. “They made it look like the Albanians and bid in the midst of chaos.”
“Every agreement up until now comes with an expiration date and Augusto didn’t have the funds to renew or wouldn’t give them. His son had worked out a deal to keep it,” Demetrius said in response. “I took advantage and now we’re here.”
There were pieces missing from the story but felt more connected to why he was doing all this than anything.
“The true owners of the pipeline being The Collective,” my grandda surmised. “How many steps ahead are you?”
“This is it right here,” was all he said. “I’ll succeed and no one will touch you.”
My da might try to kill me for doing it, but I held my hand out for him to shake anyway.
“I need to clean up your mess and a few others before we make this official,” I said, feeling like this really wasn’t over in the slightest for him. “But this is my conditional response.”
He nodded and took my hand, releasing after a firm shake and stepping forward to leave.
“That friend of yours is unstable,” he said after pulling the door open and looking over his shoulder at Blair. “She’ll never get to me but once she finds out you made a deal with her father’s killer, who knows what might happen. Take my advice and put her down now.”
When the door shut behind him, I turned and tucked my gun under Blake’s chin before he could react.
“Do you take me as some kind of joke?” I asked, releasing a much needed breath now that that long winded muthafucka was gone. “I’ve been agitated since stepping foot in New York and I’m close to killing anybody I feel is a threat to my fucking wife. Will you ever ask her to walk into a room without announcing who all in that bitch again?”
Blake shook his head and I shook mine.
“Open your fucking mouth!”
“No,” he shouted. “I won’t but he was harmless. You let him go.”
I laughed.
“I’m a little cocky but never stupid,” I spit, still wanting to paint the fucking walls with the inside of his head. “Do you know what you brought into my backyard?”
Blair laughed and immediately began to apologize after. She’d been holding that in for a minute.
“Sorry, Oisin,” she muttered, looking over her shoulder. “But, I think we’ve been tapped.”
I scoffed.
“By a fucking reject.”
The problem was that reject came with the protection of The Collective, initiated in or not. Going into business with him was not a fucking choice and he proved it by running amok in three different families for the hell of it.
I knew like everyone else in this life, there’s always someone with more power.
You either avoid em or seek em out, but occasionally they find you.
Blair wasn’t wrong.
“Fuck,” I mumbled. “We’ve been tapped.”
She tossed her head back and let out the most beautifully atrocious laughter.
I loved that shit.
It was an immediate mood lifter.
“Blake, this is my grandfather, Darragh O’Sullivan Senior,” I introduced. “He’s the only option for Nathaniel’s replacement until we clean this place up properly. Do me a favor and show him around this week.”
He nodded and I tucked my gun away, but stayed rooted to the floor in front of him.
“You haven’t earned the right to gain her trust after years of silence. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
Maybe Blair wanted to give him a chance to be the brother he’d never been, but wasn’t a soul getting close to her, after all she’d been through, without my permission. Either he proved his newfound loyalty or died trying and I meant that shit.
“For the record,” Blake said, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room. “All the business shit, with Demetrius and the other’s in the network, that’s all you.”
He pointed to his sister and I cut my eyes at her.
“I never wanted this life,” he added. “I survived the best way I knew how and all I care about now is the safety of my wife and daughter.”
Blair sighed.
“If all you care about is your wife and daughter…” she flicked her wrist to the door. “Then, go be with them full-time and I’ll take your position.”
He frowned.
I took a step back and let them have this conversation without my looming presence, nodding for everyone else to follow.
“I don’t trust him,” Liam said once in the hall, the frown he’d been wearing since I arrived deepening. “Or anybody in this building.”
The agitation rolling off him felt misplaced now that I had more details to go on.
“What’s this really about?” I asked, leaning against the wall next to my grandda. “I’ve explained to you more than once to trust her instincts.”
Lorcan went to say something and Liam cut him off with a look.
“Nothing,” he lied and to my face at that, but quickly changed his tune when I dropped my foot from the wall. “I didn’t want to say anything until I heard from her.”
All my patience went out the window after dealing with the man from Everwood of all places. I had nothing else to give Liam today.
“I probably got one sigh left in me and I’ll try my best to hold it in on the strength of your father, but I will kill you, Liam. And then I’ll kill your brother to save him the pain and avoid the revenge. Let’s not force my hand here.”
He nodded but I could see the struggle to comply.
“She mentioned killing the last person on her list before coming back,” he finally confessed. “And now I’m thinking that last person might be her grandfather. Maybe she realized she’ll never catch who pulled the trigger and only one person could make that possible.”
She’ll never get to me but once she finds out you made a deal with her father’s killer, who knows what might happen.
Demetrius’s parting words echoed in my mind.
“He’s going to leak it to her,” I said with a light chuckle. “In the end, we clean up his mess on all sides.”
Every threat to my wife had to die no matter what, and I was certain Mr. Everwood had banked on exactly that when making the statement. All the enemies he collected from Miami to Manhattan were mine now, including the Albanians who he fucked over for his own agenda.
This should’ve been my da’s problem and I couldn’t help laugh at the fucking irony.