Chapter 17 #2
Lacey shook her head. “Unfortunately not. This is the Sullivan’s headquarters. It’s…look, it’s a lot to explain, but if you had got in the damn taxi like I told you, we wouldn’t have any issues. The fact that Fen had his little bitch grab you is…not good.”
I frowned, shaking my head. “But you said your families don’t kill family, right?”
She nodded. “Right. But you’re not family, babe. That’s why I’m so stressed right now, because our families just love to deal out punishment by proxy on people we care about.”
I swallowed hard, my stomach flipping over. “Oh.”
“It’s cool, I have an idea but…just please play along? It could literally save your life, and no joke, mine too, because I do not wanna be the reason Haze loses his grip on sanity and reason.” She gave a low laugh, but it was entirely humorless.
There was a flurry of motion, and Connor strode into the room with a busted lip and blood running freely down his throat. An older version of him and Ethan both emerged from a back room, but Connor’s startled gaze locked with mine and the whole room faded away.
“Lacey, what the fuck?” he snarled, snapping his eyes away from mine so fast it almost hurt.
Lacey shot up from her seat almost as if to put herself physically between me and the rest of the room. “I’m handling it, Connie,” she shot back with a tense voice. “But if you didn’t lose your cool in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess, would we?”
“Children, that’s enough,” the older version of my guys snapped with a commanding tone of voice. This had to be Connor’s father, surely? “I understand there’s been a breach of treaty this evening? Is this why I find Romanos interrupting my party?”
When Lacey flinched, it clicked on that Romano was her last name. I’d only heard it once in passing from one of the guys, but it struck me then that I’d stumbled into a bit of a gang war.
Lucky me.
“Your son pulled a gun in my club,” a man said, appearing from the shadows.
It took me a moment to locate him, then I found a surprisingly young man in a sharp suit.
Handsome, too, maybe Ethan’s age or a touch older?
“And he shot Paulie,” the man said. “If the relationship between Connor and my sister was still intact I could have forgiven this indiscretion, but considering recent events…it’s an insult to our family, Vinnie, and we demand retribution. ”
His sister? Oooh, Fennic was Lacey’s brother. Interesting.
“I see,” Connor’s dad murmured with a scowl.
I tried to catch Connor’s eye for some sort of reassurance, but he was staring back at his father with a bored expression and seemingly no inclination to wipe the blood from his face.
“Connor, can you explain why you would do such a stupid thing?” Vinnie arched a dark brow at his son, who—to my utter disbelief—just fucking shrugged.
“Paulie touched my dick,” he said with casual indifference. “I didn’t consent to that shit, so I needed to defend myself.”
Vinnie’s gaze flattened like he would quite like to throttle his youngest son, and I watched him take what looked like a calming breath.
“I see. So it had nothing to do with that girl I saw Fennic’s man march in here a minute ago?
The one Lacey is currently trying to hide?
Step aside, sweetheart. I already saw her there. ”
Lacey’s hands clenched into fists at her sides, then she very reluctantly shifted to the side and I scrambled to my feet so I’d feel less like prey.
“This had nothing to do with Eve,” Connor snapped, breaking his bored act to show frustration and anger.
“It doesn’t?” Vinnie asked, eyeing me with a curious expression. “Then why is she here?”
“She’s the reason your son pulled a gun in my club,” Lacey’s brother announced. “So I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume she’s also the reason my sister has been so cruelly dumped too.”
“Whoa, no!” Lacey interjected. “Fen, that has nothing to do with—”
“Shut up!” he barked at her. “The adults are talking.”
Holy crap, Lacey’s brother was a douchebag.
Lacey’s hands clenched at her sides again, and I fully expected her to argue, but she didn’t, and that made me dislike Fennic even more.
What an ass. Whatever Vinnie and Fennic were discussing sort of faded into the background as I reached out and took my friend’s hand in mine, uncurling her fingers and giving her a little squeeze.
She turned a confused frown my way, then glanced down at our hands and smiled. “You trust me, right?” she whispered, biting her lip when she looked back up at me. I nodded, no doubt in my mind that she was the kind of friend who had an actual heart of gold.
The men had started raising voices, and I forced myself to refocus, because clearly my own ass was on the line here for Connor’s actions, so I should really—
“Fine, if that’s how it is," Vinnie just said, with a shrug. “We will kill the girl and our score is settled.”
Wait. What?
“No!” Connor exclaimed.
At the same time, Lacey’s fingers tightened on mine. “You can’t!” she said firmly.
“Why not?” Vinnie asked, eyeing her with undeniable curiosity. “I understand that she’s your friend, sweetheart, but she’s caused issues between our families, and the simplest solution here is to kill her.”
“But you can’t,” Lacey persisted. “Because we don’t kill family.”
Everyone looked just as confused as I was at that statement, but Vinnie darted his gaze very quickly from me to Connor and back again, then his brows rose slightly. “What are you saying, Lacey?”
My friend didn’t look at me as she dropped my hand. “Eve is pregnant with Connor’s baby. So if you kill her, you kill family.” Now she turned to look at me, her eyes wide with panic as she silently seemed to remind me to play along. “Right, Eve?”
I licked my lips, glancing from her to Connor—who looked like he’d just been slapped with a wet fish—and then slowly placed a hand over my belly. “Yes…that’s right. Surprise!”