Chapter 4
SLOAN
Rikers Island. I should’ve expected them to put me here.
This place wasn’t called Torture Island for no reason.
Some of our men had been here before, and while I didn’t have personal experiences with it, I’d heard the stories.
To top off being in this hellhole, they’d given me a cell next to Thiago Reyes.
Someone thought they were funny.
We were standing outside our cells while the guards did their count.
“Ay dios mío.” Reyes chuckled as he leaned back against the brick wall. His grin was wide. “Te ves como una mierda.”
I crossed my arms as I watched the guards below, tapping on their tally counters as they passed each prisoner. I ignored Reyes even though I understood him.
“You hear me, Killough?”
“Unfortunately,” I drawled. “You’re a thorn in my arse and I can’t escape you.”
He laughed louder, which earned him a sharp glare from the guard Bensen, who paused a few prisoners away from us. He pointed at Reyes and didn’t need to say a thing because Reyes held up his palms in understanding and made a gesture of zipping his mouth.
After Bensen passed us in his count, Reyes looked at me. A fresh scar slashed across his forehead from our recent fight. “I said you look like shit.”
“And I understood you.” I shot him a smirk, not allowing him to see how irritated he made me. “Yet, you’re still talking like I care what you have to say. You’re the reason we’re both in here. You know that, right?”
“Like you had nothing to do with it. You wanted a fight, too. Not often you can have a good fist to fist these days.” He rolled his shoulders, and I took a moment to look at him properly.
His vibe was more laid-back now that he wasn’t wearing designer clothes.
The white shirt stretched out across his shoulders and chest, and even though the light brown pants were baggy, they looked good.
He pulled off the jail uniform. “But I’m serious.
You look like shit. Your roots are growing out.
” He grinned, pleased with himself. “I heard there’s a hairdresser in here.
Maybe someone who can help you with that bleaching of yours. ”
I made a sound of disgust as I turned to him. “I’m not letting a prison junkie touch my hair.”
“Why? You afraid he’s one of mine and he’ll slit your throat when you’re not expecting it?” He raised his dark eyebrows at me.
That wasn’t the issue, but now I had to wonder if this hairdresser was a cartel member.
I ignored Reyes instead of answering him.
When the guards shouted the count was over, I headed back into my cell.
I was lucky to get a space of my own, though the area was still rundown with peeling paint and stank like shit.
It was better to be in a place like this than in a dormitory with who knows how many other guys.
But that also meant I had to be Reyes’s neighbor.
I sat on the thin mattress of my bed and pinched the bridge of my nose. Two weeks of this shithole and I was more than ready to go home. Other than not having my luxuries, I missed my pet more than anything.
His body.
His kisses.
His everything.
Even when he frustrated me, my chest ached with the need to be with him. Conall was the spark of warmth on a cold night. He made me smile when things were at their worst. Now he was too far away. I craved his touch and his laughter.
“Killough.” Taffart’s sharp voice filled my cell, and I glanced up toward the door where he stood.
He was one of the shortest guards in here, but he was Irish and one of us.
His dark blond hair was cut short against his head, and he had hazel eyes and was kind of adorable.
He’d been a guard in here for years, and as a secret Company man, he watched over our guys who’d been sent to Rikers, which now included me.
“What have I told you, inmate? No more pissing around. Come with me. Now.”
His harshness was an act, and him asking me to go with him usually meant he had something to tell me.
I stood and followed him out of the cell.
Reyes smirked at me when I passed his door. He probably knew Taffart belonged to us, but he had some of his own men helping, too, so he wasn’t going to rat us out. No, that wasn’t his style. But he might kill me if he got the chance.
Taffart led me down a line of corridors before he opened a door to an abandoned office with a desk and chair. As soon as I stepped through, he closed the door behind us and turned to look at me.
“Boss, your pet’s been trying to call.” He shoved his hand into the front of his pants and yanked out the phone I used to contact Conall. He passed it over. “I couldn’t answer at the time, but there could be trouble because he called about four times in a row.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Taffart. You can wait outside.”
Taffart slipped out the door as I opened the phone and found Conall’s number. I called, but no one answered. Then, I called again. After the second time, I found Fionn’s name instead and he answered.
“Uncle?” His worried tone filled the line.
“Where’s my pet and what’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Fionn asked. “He’s upstairs, I think.” He sighed. “Tiernan, Senan, and Kyran showed up. It rocked him a bit. He didn’t know they existed.”
I pressed my fingers into my forehead as an ache began to brew there.
I should’ve expected those idiots to visit as soon as they heard.
It wasn’t Senan and Kyran I was worried about—rather Tiernan.
He had the kind of ambition that I both appreciated and was apprehensive about.
The attitude could easily turn into betrayal if not channeled in the right direction.
I hadn’t told Conall about my cousins because their playing cards were limited in our world. They were pawns, like everyone else under my orders, and Eddie was in charge over in Ireland. They weren’t family like Fionn. Their bonds went as far as blood. We barely knew each other growing up.
“Conall won’t answer his phone. Take me to him.” I paused. While Fionn was in the hospital, we’d discussed how I treated him, and I’d promised myself I’d try to be a bit softer with him. “Please. I’m worried about him.”
“Of course I will. You don’t need . . . .” He exhaled and didn’t finish his sentence. “How’s jail?”
I hummed and took a seat in the chair behind the desk.
“It’s Rikers and they housed me beside Reyes.
It’s fun.” I tapped my finger on the dusty desk and stared around the bare room, taking in the flaking paint and cracking walls.
Everything in this place was falling apart. “How’s Conall? How are you?”
There was silence for a short moment.
“It’s tense. Some of the men aren’t exactly respectful of my promotion. They haven’t done anything, but we’re watching them.”
“If anyone shows disloyalty, kill them. I don’t care who they are. You and Conall are in charge. It was my choice to put you there, and I won’t have any traitors in the Company. Make it be known that those are my standing orders.”
“Yes, Uncle.” A knock echoed through the phone, and then I heard the sound of a door opening.
“What?” Conall’s voice was music to my ears.
“Uncle Sloan wants to talk to you,” Fionn said.
“Well, he can go to hell. I’m busy.”
I frowned and straightened in my seat. “Put him on the phone, Fionn, and tell him if he doesn’t talk to me, I’ll spank his arse red when I get out of here and not in a way he’d enjoy.”
“Is this some kind of weird foreplay before phone sex?” Fionn grumbled. “Take the damn phone, Conall. I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
“I said I don’t—”
“Take it.”
There was a grunt, then breathing filled the line. “What?”
“What? Did you just what me? Is that how you’re really going to speak to me, Pet?” I growled low in my throat.
“I’m sorry, how should I talk to you? Because right now I look like a fucking idiot. And you want me to kiss your arse?” He sniffed. “No thanks.”
“You knew that we had operations in Ireland and I told you how we ran business there. I gave you the information you needed. Who controlled that part of our Company didn’t matter at the time.
” I pressed my fingers harder into my forehead, the ache growing worse.
“Pet, I didn’t expect this to happen, and my cousins didn’t get permission to travel here.
Call Edward—Eddie—and let him know they’re in the Hamptons. ”
“I thought you only had Fionn left. I knew you had distant cousins, like Orin, and the ones over in Ireland like Ryan, but these new guys . . . . They’re close relatives. Your actual cousins. Not third or fourth.”
I brushed my palm over my face and sighed.
“Pet, listen to me, I told you what you needed to know. Ceallach and Orin are my distant cousins, but that has no importance to our business. They don’t get special favors.
They work hard like everyone else. It’s the same with Tiernan and his brothers.
They’re cousins, but they mean nothing to me.
They’re blood. That’s as far as our bond goes. ”
Conall huffed quietly, and I waited. “I’ve been your pet for eight years. You should have told me.”
Ah. So that was the issue. “You’re angry.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“Enough, Conall,” I snapped.
He inhaled sharply.
I groaned. “I’m sorry, Pet. Listen very carefully.
I’m not close with anyone except Fionn. My sister calls sometimes, as you know, but we barely talk.
She wants to stay away from the Company to keep her children and husband safe.
And all the cousins I have over in Ireland are employees.
Yes, they’re Killoughs, but that doesn’t mean a thing to me. You and Fionn are my family.”
He sighed. “I looked like an idiot.”