Chapter 14
brONX
My wife just schooled a team of security pros who've been doing this shit for fifteen years.
Three surveillance teams hunted her and Connor through Central Park, and my guys needed her to spell it out for them before they caught on. By the time they were moving, Tierney had already marked every threat and planned the exit.
She was babysitting her own fucking protection detail.
“Manino,” I growl into my phone. “Explain to me how my wife ended up running point on her own security.”
“Boss, we picked up the threats—"
“Yeah, after she spotted them and held your goddamn hand through it. She's been in this city three weeks and she's better at your job than you are.”
“We responded once we knew—"
“You responded too fucking late. You're supposed to see shit first, not play catch-up. If she hadn’t picked up on those guys…” I grit my teeth. Fuck, I don’t even wanna think about what might have been.
Manino doesn’t say a word. Smart man. Because he knows he has no defense.
“New protocols start now. I want eyes that actually fucking work.”
I hang up and call Kingston. Professional surveillance teams don't just show up for fun. There’s a reason why the Tribunal is sniffing around, and we need to figure it out fast.
“Emergency meeting,” I tell him. “We’ve got company.”
Half an hour later I walk into Kingston’s office where my brothers and father look at me like I just pissed in their coffee.
“Talk,” Kingston says, his voice tight.
“It was professional surveillance. Multiple teams following Tierney and Connor through Central Park.”
Dad gets up and walks over to the bar to pour himself a bourbon. “How many?”
“Tierney saw three teams. Could've been more.”
“And what about our guys?”
My spine stiffens. “They caught on eventually. But my wife was running the show. She spotted everyone first.” I sink onto the couch next to Reign. “She was their fucking early warning system.”
Reign turns toward me. “Who the hell runs surveillance on protected targets in broad daylight?”
“Obviously someone who doesn't give a shit about being subtle,” Kingston says. “The question is why.”
“Could be Tribunal,” I say. “They must know Connor's here. I know Declan said he’s got other enemies but they don’t have beef with Tierney. If they wanted Connor, they’d have gotten him by now, yeah?”
“Maybe,” Dad says. “Connor’s been around the city and if his security snoozed on things yesterday, he’d have been vulnerable any time he was out on his own.”
Kingston's jaw goes tight. “Unless it's not about Connor.”
We all look at him.
“Think about it,” he says. “He was with Tierney. And Tierney is the one who broke into their most secure facility. She made them look like amateurs.”
“So?” Reign asks.
“So maybe they think she saw more than she did. Took more than just our intel.”
An icy sensation snakes through my insides. “You think they want her too?”
“I think they probably want to know what she knows,” Kingston says with a pointed look. “And they want payback for making them look weak.”
Dad puts down his glass. “It’s possible. But we can’t make assumptions without concrete information.”
“Professional surveillance teams mean they are targeting someone,” I say. “And I’m gonna bet they’re close to acting.”
“Whoever it is could just be testing our defenses,” Reign says. “To see how we’d respond to a threat.”
“Or they could be mapping for a grab,” Kingston grunts, running a hand through his hair. “Either Connor, Tierney, or both of them.”
Dad walks to the window, staring out at the busy street below. “If they want Tierney, this becomes our problem. This is beyond just protecting Connor. And it complicates things.”
“Tierney became our problem the second she and Bronx said, ‘I do’ at City Hall.” Kingston’s face twists into a grimace. “She's family now. And Declan could have foreseen this happening, knowing Tierney would be a liability to him since he’s such a small fish. He needed us, Connor aside.”
“Is she family?” Reign asks, eyes sliding back to me. “Or is she still just the job until we get what we need?”
The question hangs in the air like a toxic cloud I don’t want to breathe in. A few weeks ago, there would have been an easy answer. But now...
“She's my wife,” I say through clenched teeth, my fingers balling into tight fists.
“That's not what he asked,” Dad says without turning around from the window.
Kingston narrows his eyes at me. “The job was to marry her, keep Connor safe, maintain the arrangement. Somewhere in there, you were supposed to stay detached.”
“I am detached.”
“Oh yeah?” Reign smirks. “Because you look ready to burn down half of New York over a surveillance team.”
Fuck. They're not wrong.
“What do we do?” I ask, trying to deflect their attention.
“Full lockdown mode,” Dad says. “No movement without clearance. We can’t risk loss of control and let’s face it, at this point, we’re right on the brink. There’s too much at risk and any rash moves will leave us vulnerable.”
I shake my head. “She'll lose her shit. She already thinks she’s a prisoner.”
“I don’t give a shit how she feels.” Kingston's voice is sharp enough to slice through glass. “She’s only your wife because we need to know what information Declan has on us.. That’s how we take control over this shit show.
Once we know what we’re up against, I don’t give a damn who snatches her because we’ll be whole again.
But she’s here for a purpose.” His eyes laser me to the spot. “Don’t forget it.”
“How long do you think we have?” I ask, rubbing the growing stress knot at the base of my skull.
“All I know is this,” Kingston says. “If they get to Tierney, her father might panic and leak the information to whoever would help him. Then we’re shit out of luck.
Declan would have no loyalty to us if his daughter goes missing.
And I don’t like our secrets floating around on a fucking laptop that anyone could access.
So we need to figure out what Declan knows about us and cover our tracks as soon as possible. ”
I scrub a hand down the front of my face.
“Work fast,” Kingston says. “Whatever it takes, get daddy to cooperate. Use her feelings, her fear for Connor, whatever works.”
“And if she figures out what I'm doing? That I’m just playing her?”
“Don't let her.” Kingston stands up and folds his arms over his chest. “You know what’s at stake if you fuck this up.”
I turn Kingston’s words over and over in my mind on the way back to the penthouse. We don’t know who’s watching but someone definitely has her in their sights.
She came here because Connor needed protection through this sham marriage. But now I have to wonder if there was another reason why Declan was so adamant about this alliance. I don’t trust that motherfucker at all.
And Tierney is never going to accept an arrangement where she’s stuck in a cage, no matter how luxurious it may be.
She already hates being so isolated and dependent on me for everything. But today proved how fucking vulnerable she is here and I can’t risk anything happening to her…for the mission and also because, fuck my life, she’s gotten under my skin.
But she's proud, stubborn, and smart as hell. One wrong move and she'll see right through me. And any bullshit excuses I try to feed her.
When I walk into the penthouse, I find her in the kitchen making dinner like we're normal instead of two people caught in a shitstorm of secrets, lies, and betrayal.
“How was your day, husband?” she asks, sarcasm dripping from her voice. She doesn’t bother to look up from the vegetables she’s chopping.
“Interesting. We need to talk.”
“About?”
I move behind her, my hands settling on her hips. She tenses but doesn't try to wiggle out of my grip.
The scent of her shampoo wafts under my nose and I breathe it in, savoring the second of silence before I implode her life.
“About why you're not leaving this building anymore.”
Now she whips around, the knife still in her hand. “Excuse me?”
“The people following you weren't random. They were pros.”
She scoffs. “I figured that one out myself.”
“And did you figure out they might not just be after Connor?”
Color drips from her cheeks but her nostrils flair. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means whoever was watching you guys yesterday might want you, princess. For what you did to them.”
“Wait, you think that was the Tribunal?” She slams the knife on the counter. “And they want me for breaking into their fucking vault?”
“Maybe. We don't know for sure, but we have to be prepared for anything. The reality is they could have snatched Connor already. He’s been around. But not with you. And they didn’t show up until yesterday.”
She stares at me, her eyes sparking fire. “So what the hell do we do now?”
“We have to keep you safe. Here, with me, till we figure this shit out.”
She sticks her hands on her hips. “For how long?”
I shrug. “For as long as it takes.”
She lances me with a glare, her jaw taut. Then she turns back to the vegetables and grabs the knife. “I won’t live like a prisoner.”
“You can't live at all if they get you.”
“So what, I'm supposed to just sit here and wait? Let you handle everything while I become some helpless little wife? No fucking way, Bronx. That’s not what I signed up for.”
The fire in her voice makes my dick twitch. There's my hellcat.
“Look, we all thought Connor was the target. We brought him here to keep him close and under our watch. But now we know that whoever is watching may have other plans. And so our strategy needs to change.”
I don’t mention my suspicions about Declan. It’s too soon and I have no evidence that I’m even onto something.
But I’m gonna keep digging because if he knows something that might hurt his daughter and he’s not telling me about it…I will fuck him up.
She spins back around, chest bumping me and the knife pointed at my throat. “I don't need you to keep me alive. I kept myself alive just fine before you.”