Chapter 31 Cian
CIAN
The thought of being locked up for as long as Hawk pleases sends my heart racing.
It was bad enough being kept in some sort of entertainment room earlier which, while it was spacious, was still locked and enclosed.
We’re both trapped here at his mercy and I have nothing to fight back with, not with Faina’s life on the line.
I glance at her, looking absolutely stunning in a deep crimson dress that hugs her body at all the curves I adore so deeply, and wish for the umpteenth time that I could do something to save her. Currently, my options are limited to nothing.
“Why not just kill me now and force him?” Faina asks, tightening her grip on her water bottle.
“Because a man who has lost everything will cling tighter to the one gem he has left,” Hawk replies. “Which is you. And I’m not in the business of making bad deals.” Hawk sips from his glass and when he swallows, one of the wings of the tattoo on his neck appears to flap.
“Tell me your proposal then,” I say while fighting to keep my voice steady.
Hawk’s eyes lock with me. “You’re a strange man, Cian. I admit I thought wiping out your entire family would get me a bit of what I wanted, and to some extent, it did. But you Irish…” He shakes his head and tilts his glass toward me. “Always so smart.”
What the hell is he talking about?
I shift in my seat and lean back as Hawk leans toward me, but he does nothing other than unlock the cuff around my wrist and free me from the table.
I immediately draw my hand against my body and massage the ache away while Hawk stands and paces away from the table toward the railing at the end of the deck a few feet away.
“I’ve spent my life becoming the best of the best.”
Here we go.
Glancing at Faina, I subtly roll my eyes and she gives me a quick comforting smile.
“It sounds cliché but what else am I supposed to do in this fucking country surrounded by desert, heat, and more rock than should exist in any one place? And the cops?” Hawk chuckles and turns back to me, sipping his wine.
“They make it almost too easy. Of course, we don’t run our cities the same way you lot locked down New York.
For a trio of organizations, you sure went out of your way to make sure no outsiders could ever break into that market.
You drive your fast cars, deal in your flashy drugs and high-end weapons.
Here? I lead the largest Australian bike Mafia in the entire country and the funny thing is, most people look down on us.
They think we’re a motorcycle club and they laugh but while they’re laughing, I’m robbing them blind in ways they won’t even notice until they’re tucked up in bed at night and their nest egg vanishes.
But a dirty biker gang can’t possibly be responsible for drained savings accounts, stolen loan payments, or missing pensions.
So I don’t complain when they look down their noses at us. ”
“Can’t relate,” I bite out through the anxious tremor in my chest. “We’re respected.”
“Of course.” Hawk snorts. “The Giffords. A family of the people. I saw what you lot were doing. Opening shelters, getting into housing. A smart move when it comes to money but disgusting to hear you lot preach about how you wanted to help people.”
Cormac and Evelyn were doing good, as good as you can for a criminal, at least. They were helping those who needed it while punishing those who deserved it. Morality hardly has a place in this world, but Evelyn was a good influence in that regard.
My jaw tightens while I glare at Hawk, unable to calm myself enough to word anything.
“And yet you saw fit to take them out,” Faina pipes up for me. “Maybe they highlighted where you were going wrong.”
“I don’t need a fucking conscience to make money,” Hawk snaps, his eyes narrowing at her.
“I’m smarter than all you fuckers, which is why I went where the real money is.
Cybercrime is easy. Too easy. Far too many people blindly trust things online, always certain that the scams and the theft will never affect them personally.
It’s always someone else. Well, I make sure it’s everyone, and your eyes would water if you knew how much some war lords in the Middle East will pay for a couple of missiles.
While you were dealing with mortgages and loans, I was doing real work. ”
“If you just want to stroke your ego then seriously, dude, it makes it sound even more pathetic that you saw us as a threat.”
Hawk’s eye twitches and he laughs humorlessly, then drains his glass.
“I’ve been trying for decades to break into the American market.
The delivery routes and quality product that come through the States would be worth a fortune to someone like me, never mind how easy it would be to do exchanges and save me time without having to make around the world trips.
But you lot… you made it impossible, so I turned my attention to the rest of the world.
Your little three-tier criminal network in New York was impenetrable and the only action I got was when you sent stock out of the States.
I mean if you think about it, no one ever questioned who was buying the slaves.
No self-respecting person eager for that kind of purchase does it without security.
And then you went and closed it down.” Hawk’s cold gaze fixes on Faina.
“Because your Godmother murdered the savviest businessman the Russians ever had.”
Faina glares back and then smirks softly. “Sounds like you were just beating against a wall and no one was listening.”
Hawk tilts his head. “To an extent. Until Domenico came into the fold. Now that man knew how to make money.”
A chill steals down my spine, sending a flurry of goosebumps up and down my limbs.
Domenic Del Prete. The Italian monster who fooled all of us for years into thinking he was just a quiet, loyal mobster.
It turned out he was much more devious than that, especially when Rocky ended up marrying a cop.
A unique romance that worked and yet Domenico saw it as the end of the Italians.
On his order, I was tortured, and just his name makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“You remember him, right?” Hawk approaches the table and picks up the wine bottle while holding my gaze.
“I’d spent years being the middle man in Europe and the Middle East and then Domenico just opened the door to the States for me and let me into this treasure pool the lot of you had on lockdown.
Human trafficking has always paid well. The money I make from skin pays for the weapons which in turn sell for an eyewatering profit, and I stay rich.
But the untapped drug market all across America?
Every single googly-eyed addict desperate for the latest and cheapest drug?
I could flood the market and start an epidemic.
And then you came along and shut me out once more. ”
Saoirse did.
She killed Domenico.
And then almost single-handedly dismantled the underground human trafficking empire Domenic had been running.
“But luckily, I was already inside when the door closed and while the skin trade still exists worldwide and I will continue to make money where I can, your sister cut off one of my primary income sources and I want to replace it.” After pouring his wine, he retakes his seat. “And this is where you come in.”
“Me?” I can’t think of anything else to say and right now, all that matters is buying time. Either for Hawk to get drunker or for one of us to come up with a plan that will get us out of this mess.
“Yes,” Hawk replies. “You.”
“You need him alive,” Faina pipes up. “That’s why you didn’t kill him on the bridge.”
Hawk’s lips pull into a slow, cold smirk. “You’re a smart bitch, huh?”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
Hawk scoffs and turns back to me. “Decades ago when I was just a squirt, I had deals with all the old Mafia leaders. It wasn’t enough to gain me the foothold I craved in New York, but it was enough for me to rake in money and get a lay of the land.
And then the new blood moved up, people died, people took over, and my net shrank.
But you, Cian. I’m surprised you haven’t worked it out already. ”
My heart begins to beat faster and faster. “Worked out what?”
“You and I? We’re practically family.”
My stomach drops and my lips part. “What?”
He stares at me for a good few seconds, then bursts out laughing.
“Not by blood or anything like that, don’t you worry.
” He guffaws. “Your face. Holy shit. Fucking gullible or what? But in all seriousness.” He sobers instantly.
“Your father was a great man and we had a few good deals in the past. Deals that made a lot of money that he sank into those ranches of yours.”
“My… father?” I repeat.
Hawk nods. “Yup. Of course, back then…”
His words fade to the background as a roaring fills my ears and my mind races.
There’s no way in hell my father had any dealings with this man.
Not because he would be against it but anyone who knows Irish history, anyone who really had a deal with my family, knew that my mother was the real Captain.
My father was merely a go-between with any misogynistic pricks back in the eighties who couldn’t handle talking shop with a woman.
If Hawk had ever had dealings with the Giffords, he would know that.
So what shit is he trying to pull?
“I’m sure you can imagine how exhausting that was!” Hawk’s laughter draws me back to his rambling and I blink as the roaring dies down in my mind.
“Yes. You… you’ve lost me. You want to make a deal because you had dealings with my father in the past, is that it?”
Annoyance bleeds across Hawk’s face. “To an extent. I need a figurehead in the States, Cian, and given our connected history, I thought I would throw you a bone. After all, you survived that bombing. You’ve got more guts than any other Yankie I know.”
“That and no one in the States will ever do business with you again, will they?” Faina remarks from across the table. “Your anger screwed you over, didn’t it?”
Hawk slams his hand down on the table, making all the plates and glasses jump. “I’m not speaking to you!” he yells.
“Think about it, Cian,” Faina continues on. “He slaughtered your family. He’s slaughtering mine. He’s ranting about morals this entire time because too many people were loyal to either one of us, even the Italians.”
“Shut up!” Hawk yells.
“He’s made himself the devil and no one in New York will want to deal with him.”
“Shut the fuck up!”
“He’s locked himself out of the market he’s been so desperate to get into!”
“I said shut up!” Hawk screams and he snatches up his gun, brandishing it wildly at Faina. “One more sound out of you and I will gut you and trail you behind this yacht until the sharks are hungry!”
It clicks suddenly in my mind.
That’s why he needs a figurehead. He doesn’t need representation. He needs me on his side so that he can continue building his criminal empire. Nothing would gain him favor faster than having a Gifford by his side after that massacre.
Faina’s right. He didn’t kill me on the bridge because my survival suddenly presented him with an opportunity to fix his mistake. He laid out the breadcrumbs, and blinded by my own revenge, I followed.
“I’ll do it.”
Both Hawk and Faina look at me with the same stunned expression.
“What?” Faina gasps.
“What’s the catch?” Hawk asks, thankfully lowering his gun.
My heart beats wildly as I glance at Faina, praying that she trusts me.
“There’s no catch. Look at me.” Lifting both hands, I laugh.
“I get scared being in a square room. Most days, I’m barely holding it together.
I have no family. I have nothing to go back to.
If I want even a semblance of power like I had before, then I need help getting there.
I have nothing more to lose and I’m tired.
” Scoffing, I shake my head back and forth. “I’m done. I’m so fucking done.”