Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Easton
I t takes Calder the better part of twelve hours to break the encryption on the files. It’s an annoyance that we have no choice but to endure, because he doesn’t have access to his full setup. Once they’re open, he begins to scan the information, and we have a conversation about the contents of what he found.
Following our talk, I make a call to Leo and Shaw in Boston, but I’m about one excuse away from stabbing them both the next time I see them.
Briar listens in on my side of the phone call, though, so I have to be on my best behavior.
Exhaling heavily, I try to center my energy. “Blow something up. That tends to get someone’s attention. Pick off one of his security personnel and make sure the bullet nicks him. Kill his girlfriend. Do I have to do your jobs for you? Set him on edge. Mental warfare, gentlemen. I know you understand the concept. And I shouldn’t have to say this, but don’t disappoint me. I’m just settling into my bond, and out of respect for my omega and our newfound union, I don’t want to have to cause carnage, outside of the Manzo family, for at least a few weeks.”
“She actually bonded your ass?” Shaw asks, laughing. “Was that a consensual deal, or are you in the doghouse?”
“How is Briar, by the way?” Leo asks.
I growl, and Briar sends steady comfort through the bond. “She’s fine. Of course it was consensual. Keep in mind, handling her brother is my next courting gift. Do not fuck this up! ” The last part comes out as a bark, and I hang up to avoid flipping out to a level that would scare my omega.
My phone falls to the arm of the chair as I swipe a hand over my face.
Briar appears in front of me, and my nostrils flare, picking up her sweet coconut and honey scent. She normally smells more electric, but I believe she’s secreting soothing pheromones.
My head tilts. “Are you trying to soothe me?”
She smiles and climbs into my lap. “I didn’t think I knew how, but I’ve been managing it left and right lately. Apparently the suppressants blocked the ability. Now it’s unblocked.” She ends up kneeling over me, and she runs her fingers over my chest. “I can feel your anger spilling through the bond. Is everything okay?”
I give a clipped nod. “Don’t worry. They’re highly capable. Extremely lazy but highly capable. They once successfully kidnapped the president of?—”
Keir cuts me off, saying, “You might want to pick a different story. That one is still classified.”
“Right,” I agree, sucking down hits of her pheromones. They make me feel strangely relaxed. I’m never this calm, but her scent alone is impacting me like a drug. “Needless to say, they’re skilled. I trust them to come through when I need them to. That should say it all.”
“What exactly are they trying to do?” Briar asks, blinking repeatedly.
“I need to have a conversation with your brother, but I’ve been unable to secure a direct line. Once he’s rattled, they’ll leave instructions on how he should contact me if he would like the destruction to end.” I shrug, palming her luscious ass.
“Oh.” She snatches up my phone and shoves it at me. “Here. Unlock it.”
My forehead wrinkles. “It’s your birthday—two digits for the year.”
Her jaw falls, and all I can focus on is her thick lips and how easy it would be to shove my tongue into her mouth.
My cock perks up, but her brow wrinkles as her fingers move across my phone, and that makes this not the right time.
Once she’s done, she turns it to face me.
“What’s this?” I ask, studying the three numbers.
“The first is the house phone at the mansion,” she says as I take the device. “I doubt Titus bothered changing it. It’s been the same number my entire life. The second is the last contact info I had for Titus. The third is for Monroe. He was my father’s top enforcer. No guarantees that he’s still in that position, but knowing Titus, he probably didn’t shake things up too much. He wasn’t at my wedding, so I’m assuming he’s still alive.”
I lick my lips.
We’re going to erase every bad memory she has related to weddings and replace them with joy and happiness.
If she doesn’t get pissed you married her without asking. Although, I did warn her she would be my wife. She never fought me on the topic, so I believe that means I have her consent.
I find it sexy as fuck that she’s not fighting me about contacting her brother. She trusts me enough that she gave me a direct line to him.
Now we get to demolish the fuck out of him.
I return the no-longer-pregnant woman her package from her baby daddy and even go so far as to recommend Lincoln not allow her to open the notes until she’s healed from giving birth. He looks at me like I’ve grown a second or third head, but I’m just trying to be helpful.
After listening to Calder cry for several hours the other day, I made the choice to gift Chelsea a five-thousand-dollar check for her daughter’s college fund.
Hell, they can spend it on diapers for all I care. That is, thankfully, not my problem. Although, I expect a furious phone call from Arden as soon as they realize I told Chelsea’s ex’s brother where to find her. Perhaps I should have left that decision up to them, but I believe it will be cathartic for her, and the man is essentially harmless to anything other than his bank account when in the vicinity of a casino.
The drive back north is more peaceful than the trip to Virginia, but that’s solely because the waves of Briar’s heat seem to have settled.
If they start up again, we’ll deal with it.
Keir pulls into the hotel we’ll be staying at in Hartford, and Briar perks up.
“Aren’t we driving straight through to Boston?” she asks, rubbing at her eyes.
“We are not,” I murmur, kissing her temple. “In addition to staying overnight, we’ll be taking a different vehicle for the second leg of the trip to Boston.”
“Why?”
“You never commit a crime without an alibi. Even DNA can be explained away under the right circumstances, but the one thing that makes that possible is an airtight alibi.” I smooth my hand down her side as she leans against my chest. “In the morning, a team who can pass for Calder, Keir, and I will get into this SUV and head back to my home. They’ll have a female guest with them who will be close enough that a traffic cam won’t be able to tell the difference. They’ll take our cell phones and electronics with them. All of our devices will ping in Vermont while your brother meets his untimely end in Boston.”
“You are crazy good at this,” she whispers with wide eyes.
My chest puffs as I smirk. “Yes, I am.”
“Mr. Manzo, you are a difficult individual to get in touch with.” I smile into the webcam. “Do you suffer from agoraphobia, or are you the type to think a man’s home is his castle, so everything should be brought to you?”
I wouldn’t mind bringing this conversation straight to his door.
“I don’t know who the fuck you?—”
I cut him off, leaning closer to the camera with a feral grin. “Of course you don’t, but don’t worry. I’m about to tell you who I am and why it would be a mistake to disconnect before you hear the terms of my offer.”
It’s hard not to laugh at the look I’m met with.
Poor Titus has had a rash of exceptionally bad luck that began with his Range Rover burning to the ground on the driveway in front of his mansion to one of his major supply warehouses being shot to hell in broad daylight.
I’m sure he is on edge. He’s likely having trouble understanding what is happening and why his life has gone to shit so fully these last few days.
“Go on,” he growls in an almost comically thick Boston accent.
Briar has no accent.
They’re siblings.
That seems strange to me, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter.
“My name is Easton, I’ve worked with several of your Boston predecessors. Although, not directly with your family.” I pause, taking a drink of the bottle of water I left for myself. Pandering to useless assholes always makes me thirsty and moody. “What I do is simple. Inevitably, jobs you don’t wish to task to someone in-house will pop up. You farm those out to my company. It can be anything from making a pesky witness disappear to an army of mercenaries at your back during a precarious business deal.”
“Why would I need that?” he asks, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Perhaps you don’t.” I shrug. “Only you can decide if you would benefit from my services. It’s a yearly contract. Base rate is fifty thousand per month. We can negotiate a number if you require higher than what our standard package entails.”
“You’re fucking crazy! No way am I paying fifty grand for whatever you’re peddling.”
Briar sits on the edge of the bed, facing me. Her leg bounces, betraying her anxiety, but I give her a reassuring smile as Keir’s hand lands on her knee. She’s gagged with one of my ties, and her hands are loosely bound behind her back.
The daft woman attempted to ask me to give her a black eye to really sell that she’s a prisoner.
She still owes me a trip over my knee for that ludicrous comment. However, I’m trying to be understanding because I can recognize how she was conditioned to fear her father and brother.
“That’s perfectly fine,” I say calmly as I refocus on Titus. “Now, keep in mind, if we don’t come to an understanding, I’ll have no choice but to reach out to other operations in Boston. Those services you could have at your back are then working against you, but I understand financial constraints can be an issue.”
“I’m not strapped for cash, I’m just not interested in your bullshit.” Titus bares his teeth, shaking his head. “You’re done wasting my time.”
“Before you go”—I wave a hand for Calder, who places the thumb drives on my outstretched palm—“I seem to have run across something that belongs to you. In good faith, I’d like to return it…” I go on to describe what’s on the drives. It makes him look like an inept leader to have no idea of their existence, but that works in my favor, since he’ll be able to verify that everything I’m saying is true.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Titus mutters. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re going to hand them right over. What’s the price for deleting the copies you made?”
My amusement must be evident on my face. It seems Titus is not as foolish as I made him out to be in my mind, which is a good thing. It will allow this to go swiftly. “I’m willing to negotiate a two-for-one special. Don’t move. I lied. I actually have two things that belong to you.”
Every fiber of my being rebels at referring to Briar as anything but mine, but this is all for a purpose.
Standing, I walk around the small dinette to where Briar now stands. My hands land on her hips, giving her a reassuring squeeze. She still looks terrified, so I bend, kissing her forehead in silent apology for what I have to do next.
“Sell it, and he’ll be dead in three days,” I whisper against the shell of her ear as I gather her hair in my fist.
She yelps, and I drag her around to where the camera is pointed at the chair I started in. Even with the gag, I’m sure the microphone picks up her grunts and sobs as she pretends to struggle.
Leaning her over the table, I shove my dick against her ass as I face her directly at the webcam. “Titus, you’re not great at keeping track of your things.”
Or his people and their shady business deals, but that only benefits me.
His jaw falls as Briar begins to fight in earnest.
I quickly pull her away, growling, “Take her.”
Using my hand on her hip for support, I lift her and move out of the camera’s view.
Briar’s sobs make my blood boil as she buries her face in Keir’s chest.
I still have a fuckhead to set up, so I exhale heavily, roll my shoulders back, and straighten my tie before returning to the camera.
Taking a seat, I paint on a disinterested facade. “Now, would you like to negotiate, or should I move on to one of the other Boston families?”