Chapter 11 Kieran
eleven
Kieran
"I thought I would find you here?" Henry says as he comes down the stairs. I look up at him, giving him a blank stare. I won't let anyone know how I truly feel about Mia, that could be dangerous, though I'm sure Henry sees through me. The perks of working with someone who you grew up with.
"I'm just making sure that she settles in," I say casually as I push off the wall, walking toward the stairs.
"If you wanted to make her feel really comfortable, maybe we shouldn't hold her in the basement," he scolds me as he follows me up the stairs.
His words make me pause for a moment before I look over my shoulder at him. "She's not ready. If I bring her into the main part of the house, she'll run away. Besides, I need to get information out of her."
"I know. I know. You've already said. I still stand by my prior statement,” he replies flippantly.
He's the only man who can get away with talking like that to me. I don't even take this shit from Brendan.
Instead of replying, I continue making my way toward my office leaving Henry behind. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get any work done with the knowledge that she's in the house, but I can at least try.
My office sits on the first floor of the house while the bedrooms are all upstairs.
I have my fancy basement that I use for business.
I chose a brownstone with three levels—that is situated in the middle of the city—making it easy for me to do business as needed.
When I originally bought this house, it was when I was required to marry Suri, instead, it'll be perfect for Mia and me.
When I reach the door to my office, I push it open to find Brendan sitting at my desk with a huge smirk. "Get out of my chair," I tell him.
Brendan stands up and goes to sit down on the couch while I sit down. Focusing on the papers on my desk, I ask him, "What do you want?"
"I came to tell you that Suri and I are getting married."
“What took you so long?” I ask him with an uninterested tone.
“She wanted to wait until she finished her first book,” he says with a small shrug.
"Great. When?" I ask.
"In six months."
"Great, put me down for a plus one."
"Why do you need a plus one?" he snaps.
His tone has me slowly lifting my head and narrowing my eyes at him.
I don’t respond right away, I just reach into my pocket pulling out my favorite gum.
I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with my favorite flavor—cinnamon.
Once I’m able to feel a little more calm, I arch my brow, replying, “Excuse me? "
"You heard me," he says.
"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm seeing someone. She will be at the wedding, and you will treat her with respect."
Brendan stands up, staring me down, before he points his finger at me. "This better be the real thing. I don’t want some whore in my wedding photos.”
I clench my jaw so hard when he spits out the word ‘whore’, it takes everything in me not to punch him in his face.
"Don't worry, it is," I tell him, right as my phone buzzes in my pocket.
I reach inside my jacket, pulling it out. I see it's a number for one of my men, Daniel, so I answer. "What?"
"We have a problem down here at the docks. Someone ransacked the warehouse," he says.
"Is it still standing?"
"Yes. Just mess everywhere. Actually, it doesn't even seem like anyone took anything, either."
"Hmm… I'll be there soon," I tell him before hanging up the phone. Walking out of my office, I yell, "Henry.”
He walks out of the kitchen with Imogen, my housekeeper, not too far behind. "Yes?"
"We need to check something out," I inform him as I head to the garage.
Grabbing the keys off of the hook, I click the button to open the black Audi. “I’ll drive,” I say, giving Henry a pointed look.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he says, pausing at the hood of the car. But I don’t let him keep going, instead, I make my way over to the drivers side, and slide in.
Henry joins me in the front seat and when the back door opens, I scowl at Brendan as he slides in.
"What are you doing?" I ask him suspiciously.
"Coming with you."
I let out a breath. "You know you can't be anywhere near the business."
He shrugs his shoulders. "I won't do anything. I'll just be there in case."
“In case of what?”
“You know… in case someone tries to kill you. You’re in charge, we can’t have anyone killing you, besides, I’m not fit to be in charge.”
"He does have a point," Henry replies from next to me.
"Fine," I say, turning back toward the front of the car. I'm putting the car into reverse before Brendan even has time to close the door.
Flying out of the garage, I throw it into drive the moment I clear it and head as fast as I can through the streets of the city, zig zagging in between cars. We pull up to the warehouse in no time. Daniel is standing outside waiting for me as he smokes a cigarette.
I get out of the car, straightening my jacket as I look around the area, hoping a clue will jump out. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky. Sighing, I head to the warehouse. Hopefully inside will give us more to go off of.
When I walk inside, I'm shocked at the damage that has been done, especially since nothing was taken. Every step I take, my anger rises higher and higher. It looks like every vase is broken, smashed with a bat, making the pieces even smaller.
Someone knew what they were doing. Our family's main business is importing illegal art and goods. They were trying to fuck us.
"Who do you think did this?" Henry asks me, when something catches my eye.
I don't answer him, zeroing in on the shard of glass that doesn't belong. I pick it up, flipping it over and over looking at it.
"Where do you think this came from?" I turn, asking Brendan and Henry.
"I don't know. But it definitely doesn't belong to any of the vases," Brendan says, stating the obvious.
Pocketing the glass, I run through all of our enemies, lingering on any that could have done this, when Henry starts talking out loud. "This was a message. I'm just not sure what the message is."
I nod. "I've been thinking about who could've done this and only one organization comes to mind—the Bratva."
"That would make sense," Brendan says. "I heard from some of the soldiers that we messed with their auction recently?"
Turning toward Daniel, I order, "I want you to scour the city and see what you can find out about what the Bratva are up to."
Daniel nods and leaves the warehouse right away.
Next, I look at Henry and Brendan. "Let's go. We need to tail Mikhail. I want to see if he and his father are up to anything."
All three of us make our way toward the car, it's time for me to figure out what's going on, and fast. Instead of dealing with this shit, I would rather be at home ‘torturing’ Mia.