35. Sean
THIRTY-FIVE
sean
I couldn’t avoid my grandda anymore and found myself darkening the doorway of what used to be Nathaniel’s study.
“Arna dhéanamh ag seachaint?” done avoiding?
I stepped into the room fully and shut the door behind me, walking over to the bookcase and removing the camera Blair had hidden but forgot to take back once he took over.
“When’d you notice it?” I asked, ignoring his question.
Our eyes met as he leaned back and regarded me.
“Did a sweep on day one, figured it was there for a reason and left it be.”
I nodded.
“Kind of crazy he never thought to sweep this office.”
My grandda tsked.
“Nathaniel’s problem isn’t that he’s incompetent, but that he’s arrogant. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned over the years?”
I took a seat before responding.
“There’s always somebody with something to lose. Always somebody with more power. Never underestimate a man or overestimate yourself.”
It didn’t make you weak to pick and choose your battles; what you got was longevity in an otherwise unpredictable environment.
“No one taught him that,” he said, closing the bible it front of him. “Having a hard time with my first sermon. Glad you finally came to sit down with me.”
Part of me still wasn’t sure why I’d been staying clear. It’d been easy to sit with him over the years but now that he was home, like we’ve always wanted, I was… uncomfortable.
“You know the answer to whatever is bothering you, why keep holding it inside?”
I sat back.
“Not sure what you mean by that. Tell me why you feel stuck on your sermon?”
He regarded me for a long while, but I wouldn’t budge on changing the topic.
“What do you say to a congregation who’s been neglected for so long, some more than others.”
Now who was pretending they didn’t have the answer to their own question.
“You tell them the truth,” I said. “Moving forward won’t be easy but it’s possible. Healing is challenging but it’s doable. Prayer helps. Seeking God gives you peace of mind if you really believe.”
Blair made me a believer, because even after what she endured in this place, she never stopped praying. She was steadfast in her belief that it wasn’t God who was the problem, but his followers who used and abused his word to their advantage.
My grandda hummed, gaze shifting to the door after someone knocked and he called for them to enter.
Blair followed by Blake, entered the space. The latter greeted me with a chin lift I ignored, looking past him at my wife to make sure she was good.
Blair smiled and I held my hand out for her, pulling her face close to mine once she got to me.
“You okay, baby?” I whispered in her ear.
She nodded.
“I’m okay, baby. Are you?”
I nodded and she straightened.
“Do I—”
“Is there something I can do for you Mr. Phillips?” my grandda asked, the question holding an accusation beneath it.
Blake cleared his throat and Blair took a seat beside me.
“We’re supposed to meet at three.”
I glanced at my watch.
“What time is it right now?” he asked.
Ten minutes to three , I mumbled, knowing where this was going.
“Ten minutes to…” he paused and shook his head. “I’ll come back at three.”
My grandda was a weird dude when it came to time. Don’t show face more than five minutes before but never be late.
“If you want your sister to forgive and let you in, it won’t be what you show her that gets it,” he said, stopping Blake’s pursuit to the door. “She can take care of herself now. Her husband can and will protect her. Why were you silent all these years? Think about that.”
There was something about the way he said it that had me sitting up a little, Blair too.
But Blake said nothing and walked away and before I could ask what that was about my grandda shut it down.
“Don’t ask. I won’t reveal anything.”
He leaned forward and peered at Blair.
“Even if he decides to look within himself and comes to a revelation about his feelings on all the things you guys dealt with, you don’t have to forgive him. You can still feel the way you do, because that’s your right.”
She nodded.
“I think if one day we can really hash out our childhood, there’s a chance. But right now…” she glanced at me. “I have all the family I need.”
Damn, I fucking loved her.
“You two have somewhere to be and I have a sermon to write…” he waved us off and flipped the bible back open. “Don’t be late on Sunday. I won’t tolerate it, no matter what you were doing the day before.”
We got out of dodge, more like I did, and thankfully Blair didn’t call me out on it.
“Esi’s ready for us.”
I nodded and steered us toward the agreed upon meet up spot.
Blair’s secure phone rang along the way and she put it on speaker.
“Ms. Phillips, I’m sure you’ve put eyes on Esmeralda by now. Will you hold up your end of the bargain?”
I took the phone from her hand and took it off speaker.
“Nah,” I said. “She won’t be doing shit. You deal with me, not her.”
“How about an alliance,” he proposed, getting straight to what he’d wanted from the start.
Fucking pest.
“You mistook my statement as an offer to negotiate. Here’s what’ll happen, you’ll be grateful I don’t have you snatched and brought to New York. Be grateful I don’t saw your fucking limbs from your body and send them back to Miami piece by piece to make a statement that my wife and anybody associated with her is not to be fucked with. I have a feeling you’ll try me, though. Please do.”
I ended the call and handed it back to her; he wouldn’t get the chance.
“Sean, I could’ve just taken the job,” my second-in-command, not my wife, said. “We’re supposed to be tying up loose ends, not creating more for later.”
Blair wasn’t doing shit for no man but me and mine.
“Yeah, I hear you.”
But I wasn’t fucking listening and it was already too late.
We rode the rest of the ride in silence and she started on ten the second we entered the warehouse, where Afrim Ahmeti was extended in the air. They’d taped his mouth but didn’t drug him as directed.
“Everybody back away,” she ordered, grabbing up a pair of coveralls, slipping them on and walking over to the wall of random tools.
I stood at the entrance, watching her browse the selection until stopping on the electric saw. Her eyes met mine over her shoulder and she smirked before picking it up.
Esmeralda came to stand beside me.
“You must’ve pissed her off,” she said, amused. “Love when she gets like this.”
I bit my lip.
Might love it myself, too; this wasn’t like valentine’s day where I’d basically forced her to kill in front of me. Nah, she was taking her frustration with me out on our enemy.
“Take the tape off, Liam.”
He stepped forward and snatched it off.
“We had a deal!” Afrim yelled, jerking his body forward.
I tipped my head, lips curled in a smug smirk.
“Some deals are meant to be broken, Afrim,” Blair said, drawing his attention to her as she approached. “Don’t address him. You talk to me.”
He jerked forward again and she laughed.
“I know you want to hit me but too bad so sad, I have the power here. Before I detach your limbs from your body, I have a question.”
“Fuck you. I don’t have shit to say.”
She nodded and asked, “Are you married?” disregarding his statement. “If so, how do you deal with a stubborn partner? Mine doesn’t listen and I only just became his second. Any advice for a pair of newlyweds?”
Afrim stared at her, perplexed.
But me? I loved every fucking second.
Nothing would get me to listen on the matter of her safety but I liked she wanted me to so badly.
“Nothing? Okay…” she nodded. “One last question. Why were you working with Caden Phillips?”
He smiled.
“Who?”
Ah.
Blair hummed, picking up on what I had.
“What happened?” Esmeralda whispered. “I clearly just missed something.”
I ignored her.
“Your family is in the skin trade, huh? How sad. I’ll be sure to pull your entire organization up by the root and discard the trash after you’re gone. In twenty years, my future son or daughter won’t have to worry about your kin looking for revenge. It’s the least I can do.”
Liam covered her face, she cranked up the saw, and sliced clean through his right and then left legs, stepping back to admire her handy work.
“Wow,” Esmeralda mused. “I have to try that soon.”
I cut my eyes at her and shook my head.
“I love the way you take care of our enemies, beautiful goddess,” I praised, smiling when she turned my way covered in blood.
One day she’d understand, I meant what the fuck I said.
This wasn’t about control or being stubborn. It was about eliminating anybody who meant her harm, now or in the future. Changing my mind wasn’t an option, no matter how irrational she felt it was.
“Yeah, I hear you,” she parroted after pulling the face covering off, turning away from me with more of an attitude than she’d started with.
My lips curled.
Her irritation gave me goosebumps and I wondered how much madder I could make her before having to fuck it out of her.
I found myself striving for that when Miguel Arce was delivered to me by eleven the next morning.
My threat had come with action.
Though, I truly hadn’t expected him to call Blair before my plan had been executed. He’d been drugged for the journey here, just enough to knock him out for the nineteen hour trek by car. From what they reported, he woke once eight hours into the trip and was immediately put down again.
I dropped a bucket of ice water over his head and body and he startled awake, sucking in what had to be a bruising breath.
“The fuck,” he cursed, jerked on the chains.
Instead of hanging him, I had them hook him to the floor instead.
He was spread out like a starfish, forcing him to look up at me.
“Good morning, Miguel,” I greeted, smiling down at him. “I’m Sean O’Sullivan. Oisin or little deer to my wife.”
I waited patiently for him to quit thrashing around and eventually the reality of his fate made him stiffen.
“This wasn’t how this was supposed to go,” he said, no fear in his voice at all. “I overestimated myself.”
The statement was more self-reflective than anything but I weighed in anyway.
“You did. And it’s a shame because you might’ve gotten what you wanted had you gone about it differently.” He looked up at me and I shrugged. “Now I’ll just take what you so freely gave up for not thinking clearly.”
I had my hand out and Lorcan put the pistol I wanted to use in it.
“The other mistake you made was not realizing if you could infiltrate the Constanzo camp, then so could someone else for the right price. You were right about one thing though, no one liked Augusto.”
He was staring up at me like I’d lost it.
“What?”
“Is this normal? Using your targets as a confessional before killing them?”
I put two in his head and walked away.
He ruined the moment and I already had to make it quick, since I’d snuck out on Blair.
Suspicious dark browns met my gaze when I returned home but turned away almost immediately with the roll of her eyes.
Don’t worry, baby. I’ll give you some act right later.
Brynn came running down the hall with my ma in tow.
“I’m ready! We have to go see my mom, remember?”
She looked up at me with big innocent eyes and I couldn’t help but smile.
I wanted a daughter, then a son , I thought as I nodded.
“Couldn’t forget even if I tried,” I told her. “I heard she’s awake and asking for you, so let’s go.”
I met eyes with Blair as she approached, but she looked away, took Brynn’s hand and walked into the open elevator.
My ma hummed.
“Someone’s in trouble,” she mused softly, following me into the steel box.
And I really fucking enjoyed being in trouble.