Chapter 5
FIVE
declan
Torin stares at me. Seamus gets up, stomps out of the study, and Callahan reaches for his cigarettes.
“You did what?” Torin asks.
I sigh, flopping down as Clawzilla pours himself off the back of the sofa and into a ball of black fur on my stomach. I pet him. I love how liquid he is, how he can ooze and stretch in any direction.
“I said, I might’ve gone and kidnapped a lass.”
“That’s what I thought you said.” Torin turns and looks at Cal who just puts the cigarette between his lips but doesn’t light it.
This study is the only smoking room in the house, but he barely smokes in here anymore. He mostly quit because of Lucie and his kids. But he likes to keep a cigarette with him. Maybe to calm him. Hopefully it’ll do the trick right now before he unleashes holy hell on me.
“I haven’t gone crazy,” I say, right as Seamus bursts back into the room.
“That’s right. He’s gone fucking mad, the little gobshite,” he says, glaring at me. “There’s a lass up there, and she’s small, dressed like a dancer, and angry. Very, very angry.”
“There is a reason, you git.” I stroke Clawzy’s fur, and he purrs, the little rumble vibrating against my chest. He stretches out one paw, long and fluid.
I bet Molly would be jealous of his flexibility.
Though…I remember just how flexible she is…
Pity I don’t like her.
“You get yourself in trouble, Dec?” Cal asks with more than a little sarcasm.
“Is the lass a wee lass, or just short?” Torin flicks a glance at me.
“Are you asking if she’s under eighteen?”
My asshole brother merely offers me a small smile.
Not that they’d think I’m trying to get with someone under eighteen, but there are lines we don’t cross, like kidnapping kids, hurting kids—and to him, taking one to make a point or get something from their family—is a no-go area. His small smile has razor-sharp teeth.
I let out a labored breath.
“Really?” I roll my eyes. “Not underage. She’s also not that little. And there is a reason why I took her.”
“Too much watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with Mam when you were younger?” Seamus asks.
“No.”
I probably shouldn’t have brought her here, but someone tried to hurt Marlowe in the fucking dance center. Someone who hid their identity. If I hadn’t caught her, she’d have turned her ankle or hit her head or broken something. Point is, it wasn’t an accidental bump, it was a vicious push.
It seems someone wants to harm Molly, and her mam wants to pay to keep her safe. She knows who I am. Our name carries weight. And she knows I can protect her daughter.
It’s a fine deal, one I’ll take.
But there’s a lot more here than just someone threatening harm to Marlowe. There are many more layers.
Her father is missing, but there’s nothing mentioned about his disappearance in the press. All I can find is that Heston Briggs is on sabbatical. But Marlowe doesn’t think that’s the case, for some reason.
Besides all that, her mam knows the Marcello crime family’s Don, a family I know Cal’s interested in working with.
Then there are my missing drugs with potential cartel involvement, and someone with a cartel tattoo just happens to be following Marlowe. Plus, we still have the suspicious, elusive Leon, and a dead cop back at the warehouse.
I don’t like any of this. At all.
Marlowe is hot headed, a brat who can’t see past her nose, and she’d run off into trouble—again—if I left her to her own devices.
She definitely needs a bodyguard.
And I want to get to the fucking bottom of it all.
Now all I have to do is find the right way to sell it to my brothers.
Seamus lets out a snort. “I guess the question we’d like an answer to is why the fuck is some girl tied up in our home?”
I lift an eyebrow at Seamus. “Because I needed somewhere to put her while I looked into things.”
“From the sofa?” Seamus asks sarcastically.
“Things like what?” This time, Cal picks up his lighter and shoves the cigarette behind his ear. He grips the lighter tight. He stands and walks over, staring down at me. “We’re in a good place, Declan. Things are going well. We don’t need to rock boats or stick noses where they don’t belong.”
“Someone’s trying to kill her and has threatened her mam. They might’ve taken her father, too.” I scratch Arnold’s ears and stroke fingers down Clawzilla’s back.
“So?” Cal asks.
“So…I’m going to help keep her safe.” I shrug. “Look, those drugs—”
“Fuck those drugs. Learning curve, Declan. Deal with it and don’t make fast and loose deals.” Callahan flicks the lighter. “Think things through before you act.”
“The girl is Marlowe Briggs. Her father’s—”
“Heston Briggs.” Torin picks up his laptop and turns in his chair, balancing it on his knee as Seamus pours some drinks. “Of Briggs Energy.”
Cal looks at him. “Briggs Energy is big, lots of things under that umbrella of theirs.”
Callahan means not all of it is energy related.
“They diversified years ago, but they do have a branch that keeps the core original business. Energy. Only it’s renewable energy now.
” Torin frowns. “And now Heston’s missing.
Not reported, but the Dark Web mentions his wife, Cloris, has hired people to find him, but so far nothing.
There were threats made—and mysteriously squashed—against her life. ”
“And her daughter’s.” I look up at Cal.
“Again, so?” Cal says.
“Heston likes to gamble,” Torin says.
Seamus looks at us. “So fucking what? Lots of rich people like to gamble.”
“Board members include a few unsavory people, the type to put the mafia to shame. Dirty players who have money and checkered pasts,” Torin says. “But no one we’d be interested in.” He pauses. “Some of them have links to various cartels and mafia families.”
“Why are you interested enough in this family and their business to kidnap the daughter?” Seamus asks, handing drinks out.
He puts one down for me on the coffee table opposite Arnold.
I know why Arnie’s being so needy. He wants to go for a run, but right now, I can’t leave.
Much as I’d like to escape the inquisition.
He whines like he can read my thoughts and guilt sets in.
“Extra-long run tomorrow, Arnie,” I whisper into his fur. Clawzilla swishes his tail. “You, too.”
“Dec?” Cal asks, clicking the lighter and sipping his drink.
There are answers to Seamus’s question, but some shouldn’t be mentioned. The fact I almost fucked her would be a red flag to my brothers. And if they knew she was the one behind that arrest that never was? It would be bad.
So I settle on other possible responses.
“It’s not kidnapping. I’m technically guarding her.”
“Not a fucking answer, Dec.” Cal’s eyebrows knit together.
“I think her father was taken by the cartel. Either Cinco Cartel, who aren’t big, but are nasty. Or Roja. And I’m pretty fucking sure this Cloris has ties to Milo Marcello.”
Callahan pauses in taking another swallow of his drink.
“If she’s in danger, she needs protecting.
If there are cartel links, we should know about them,” I say.
Cal’s eyes narrow. “And if there’s an in through all this to the Marcello mafia without us formally getting involved, it could be worth it.
I’d be on the inside, maybe get access to Marcello through Cloris. ”
“We?” asks Seamus. “Fuck no.”
“By we, I mean me. I go in as her bodyguard, my offshoot business separate from our family business.”
I’m determined, so I keep going. “I could find out more. Get intel about the cartels, her father, and Marcello mafia.”
And the stolen drugs.
But I keep the last one to myself.
“And how are you going to do that?” Cal asks.
I take a breath. “I’ve got a plan.”
I’m not entirely sure how convinced my brothers are, but they agree, on the condition that this is all on me.
Of course, I wish that were true, but I don’t believe one of them for a second.
“For fuck’s sake,” Torin says to me, not looking up from his phone as he stands there in a suit right near my door. “Get her the fuck out of here before Harry gets home, or my head—and balls—will roll.”
“I thought Ava was the bloodthirsty one.” I say.
Seamus walks over, straightening his tie as Cal walks toward us holding the baby, Raff’s hand in his free one.
The little boy looks up at us with big eyes, and I think my heart melts.
“We’ll go after I take these two to the playroom. And just so you know, Dec, Lucie Joy’s on her way back. But you need to U-N-T-I-E the girl and get her the fuck out.” Then he looks down at his son. “I’ll give you an ice cream if you don’t tell your mammy a thing.”
“Ice cream!”
They head off to their respective floors, now that we’ve connected the three buildings.
I push open my door.
Seamus is right.
Marlowe’s very, very angry. Her eyes glitter with hatred.
“Look, you were trying to escape.” I push a hand through my hair because I really want to touch her.
No one told me just how fucking hot she’d be tied up and tossed on my sofa.
“Mmm on goo ill you.” I’m going to kill you.
“No, Molly, you won’t.”
She bucks on the sofa and pitches over the side. I’m there in nanoseconds, catching her. For a moment, I can’t move as I hold her against me, her heart thumping, setting mine off, and my pants get tight. And fuck, I want to crush her in tighter.
Molly’s breath hitches, and I find myself stroking her red hair as I cradle her head.
“Ah, Christ, Marlowe,” I say against her sweet and salty throat. Sweet because of her signature scent that seems to permeate the air when I’m near, and salt from dried sweat. It doesn’t detract, just spikes the florals with sex and filthy urges.
Though the last part might be me.
I ease her back a little. “Sorry I left you up here, I just wasn’t sure where to put you, and it took longer to convince my brothers to take on the case. I’ll take off the gag if you promise not to scream. You might scare the kids.”
She nods and I lower the gag, her body heat warming me, her softness seeming to curve into me. “You have kids?”