Chapter 26 Ava #2
“Don’t forget the hardline Irish.” His mouth twists a little and the ground seems to shift beneath me. Then he settles his gaze back on Ivan. “We do know them.”
“I’d have thought you’d be looking to head back to my uncle’s gambling business,” I say. “It could be a new wing of Volkov, considering you’re, in a way, family.”
“Up to you,” Seamus adds.
And Callahan smiles. “We can be discreet, Ivan. Whatever you think you’re tied to, we can look the other way.”
“Because it’ll be my family running things,” Seamus says. “And Ava is now family.”
I turn and stalk toward the bathroom, mainly because I’m not as good an actor as Seamus. I can’t pretend to be enamored when I’m not, at least not to the point where those touches and looks feel believable.
He still wants my bratva. He just told me he’d take it. I heard it. Me being family is just show for Ivan and anyone else.
Someone taps on the door and my heart clenches. I fix my makeup because fuck Seamus. He can wait.
When I’m ready to bring him to his knees, I open the door.
“Hello, Ava.”
It’s not Seamus.
I lift an eyebrow at Iosif. “Loitering outside the bathrooms now?”
“Tonight, I think I’ll skip the main show.” He hands me something in a small envelope, and it feels like a key. “Be very careful.”
He turns and walks away, not even stopping to speak to Seamus, who appears just as he leaves.
“Ready?”
I nod, hiding the small folded-up envelope in my hand. His gaze flickers back to Romanov.
“What did he want?” Seamus asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “He just told me to be careful.”
Seamus brushes my hair away from my face. “It’s down to the wire, Ava. You need to trust me.”
“I’ll try.”
He drops his head to mine. “You never need to be careful if you’re with me. I’ll always protect you.”
Seamus doesn’t kiss me, he just leads me out to the car, and in my head, those words, if I were a stupid woman, sounded a lot like something someone in love would say.
The little gathering is bigger than I thought.
I recognize faces from a long time ago, and everyone shakes my hand.
It’s mostly a different group from that fancy club where we had dinner.
These are the people who pay to use my bratva’s routes.
Oh, there are some who were at the club, some who are clearly powerful, rich, and play in dark and dirty waters, but they want to pay to use the routes, and it takes Seamus to extract me from some of the conversations.
He takes me by the hand and slips us out of the main room.
His brothers take over the mingling, their wives distracting anyone looking for me.
I hear Lucie laugh and talk to one man who mentions my name.
She’s mafia. I know that, I just forget because in the Murphy residence, they all make up a chaotic family with no strict hierarchy, just a lot of love.
“You’re gonna have to lead the way.”
I give him a glance, but being back in this house, away from the great room, is like stepping back in time.
It’s smaller, different, and exactly the same. I lead him up to the second floor and ease open the door.
Dad’s desk, still ornate but no longer neat as it’s now covered by a pile of papers and a newer computer.
The ghost of cigar smoke lingers in the room. One that probably comes from my memory more than anything else.
I look around.
“There.” Behind the desk and on the wall is a painting, and behind that painting is a safe.
But that’s not what I’m searching for. I ignore the painting and the safe and open the grate below it. It’s for an old radiator that’s no longer in use. I ease the radiator facade open to reveal Dad’s second, private safe.
I stare at it. “I have no idea what the combination is.”
Seamus sighs above me as he lowers himself to the floor. “What about this?”
I wait, but he doesn’t speak.
“What about what?” I turn, and whatever I was going to say next dies.
He’s holding the crest.
“I was going to try and translate it,” he says, “but I never got around to it.”
“It talks about valor and how even a lone wolf needs a den. The words are all about family, just like your tattoo.” I reach out with shaking fingers and take the crest.
Our fingers brush, and a cascade of heat rushes through me, making my flesh tingle and my clit ache. I don’t know how he can have this effect on me but my God, it’s stronger than ever.
Everything inside of me tumbles and twists and makes my heart thud.
Not because of him, I tell myself, but because of the crest.
I focus on it.
There, under the golden wolf, are numbers. I turn the dial to each number.
And miraculously, it clicks open.
Seamus takes the crest back and pockets it. I don’t even try and stop him as I pull out the contents.
“Names, different coordinates,” he says, looking at the first stack of papers. “Holdings for the Estevez Cartel. They do a lot with human trafficking. But…”
“What?” Because I feel sick.
“I don’t think your dad worked with them. I think this list contains all their secret locations and businesses, as well as where they kept their money.”
“You think he was using it to blackmail them?”
He shrugs. “Maybe it was his insurance. He’d keep it from other greedy hands as long as they didn’t bother him. I’d do that.”
“Liar. You’d go in and kill them all.”
And he flashes me a smile. “That, too. Christ, you’re a deadly woman.”
“Seamus, there’s more…”
I pull out a slender folder and flip it open.
My heart beats double time. I skim the words, but it’s clear what this is.
Another part of Dad’s will, and in it are the ironclad rules of my taking over.
It doesn’t say I have to wait until I’m twenty-five.
He wanted me in there before that. Someone else could run it, but I needed to be named Pakhan.
Me or my husband. But the main takeaway is I have to step in to the role in some capacity before I’m twenty-five.
Romanov must have known. It’s why he wanted me to wait. It’s why…
The door starts to open, and Seamus moves fast, closing the safe as whoever’s on the other side pauses when another voice floats into the air. Seamus shoves all the papers away and slides the grate back in place.
The door creaks open, and he kisses me. Hard.