Chapter 3 #2
“Since when did you and Mace like sharing sweet nothings?” I ask, then shake my head as if disappointed in them. “Now you’re both hitched, it’s like you’ve formed this little bromance. You’re adorable.”
Hunter’s grin widens, but this time it’s not directed at me. His wife is standing at the office door, and he gestures for her to come in.
“Who’s adorable?” asks Maddie.
“Your husband and the moody asshole previously known as Mace,” I reply. Sick of looking at their stupidly happy faces, I pick up my coffee, but my drink is cold.
Lily follows Maddie, and goes to take the seat next to Mace. He immediately wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her onto his lap.
“Have you been teasing your brother?” she asks.
“I simply offered to play back the recording from the other day,” Mace replies.
“Shade, that’s not nice,” she scolds, using her pet name for him.
They’re insufferably sweet, and I never thought I’d see the day when I’d consider anything about Mace sweet. He’s opened up to Lily in a way he never would with anyone else. She’s his person. And it’s obvious he’s shared my recording with her too. I grab my cup and go to stand.
“Sit!” Ash barks at me. “The meeting isn’t finished.”
My thigh muscles strain as I hold myself between sitting and standing. I’d be walking away by now if it was Mace issuing the order, and maybe Hunter too, but not with Ash. Not a chance. But I’m not a child to be ordered about. I wait a beat before I sit back down.
It’s Lily who breaks the awkward silence. She’s the newest addition to the family and is still navigating our complicated dynamic. “Sorry, I thought it was OK for us to come in.”
“You have every right to be here. You’re family,” Ash assures her.
“It’s my brothers I take issue with. We should be discussing how a widow has every right to hate us if she thinks we’re responsible for her husband burning to death, leaving her to raise her children alone.
Instead, these idiots have been behaving like fucking toddlers. ”
“She’s only got one kid,” Mace says because, even if Lily has turned his heart to mush, he’s still the asshole who has to prove he knows more than anyone else.
Lily thumps him in the chest and gets up off his lap. Her back is straight as she sits in the chair next to him. “How old is the child?” she asks.
“Four,” Mace replies, finally looking sheepish.
“That’s heartbreaking,” Maddie says. “Can we help them?”
“Yes,” Ash says firmly. “We can keep the Russians from turning the town into their own private hell.”
“And how exactly do we do that?” Hunter asks.
There’s only one option, and it’s one I’ve been obsessing with for days. “We get Quinn on our side.”
Hunter grimaces. “It sounded to me like she’s already picked sides. Barrett’s. Maybe that family home he’s building is for her after all.”
“She does seem to think he’s a good man,” Mace says, softening his voice in a poor impersonation of Quinn.
“No fucking chance,” I say through gritted teeth. “Give her some credit.”
Both brothers give me a synchronized smirk. “Damn, he’s got it bad,” Hunter says.
Ash drops his head, and although he’s muttering to himself, we all hear it. “The last thing I need is another brother losing his shit over a woman.”
Maddie clears her throat. “Worse things could happen, Asher. And don’t forget how you gained two highly intelligent and resourceful women in the process.” She gives me a wink when she adds, “I think Quinn would fit right in.”
Lily rests her arms on the table, leaning towards me. “And there’s only so long you can get away with picking up girls in nightclubs and having meaningless sex.”
Clearly Mace has told her way too much about what I got up to when we shared an apartment in the city.
It’s fair to say I’d had fun, and so had the women I’d brought home.
I’d never stopped to consider the possibility of searching for the one, not until I saw first-hand the effect Maddie and Lily have had on my brothers.
It’s not the worst idea. It’s just a shame Quinn hates my guts.
“Reid,” Maddie says, raising her voice over Ash’s loud groan. “We all know you’re the Griffin with the biggest heart. It would be a shame if you ended up a grumpy sour puss like Ash.”
Ash raises his head to scowl at her, but there’s always a softness in his expression when he argues with our sister-in-law. “Can we not get ahead of ourselves? We still don’t know who this woman is. Unless Mace has any news? Do we have any results from her DNA?”
Although Quinn had been clever enough to remove the hair sample from my mouth, I’d spotted a stray strand on the sleeve of her gym top. I’d grabbed it while she was distracted by me whispering into her ear.
Mace scrolls through his cell phone. “No matches in US databases, and if she ever had a criminal record, it’s been wiped clean,” he says.
He looks up and shrugs. “I’ve thrown the net wider, but so far nothing.
We can’t discount the possibility that she’s a Russian asset.
They’d plant her just to get Barrett to marry her.
It’s one way of tapping into the Emerson empire”
“She isn’t working for the Russians,” I say. “She was horrified when I suggested it.”
Mace shrugs. “It could be an act. It’s not like you had to explain who Ilya was.”
“No, it wasn’t an act,” I insist. “And if she is working for the Bratva, it’s under duress. She called Ilya a monster.”
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Ash says, looking directly at me. “Ilya might be a man without a soul, but he can be charismatic when he needs to be,” he says. “Not all the women he recruits have to be drugged or coerced, although most succumb to the same fate.”
“What do you mean?” asks Lily.
“To Ilya, women are assets that devalue over time as they’re being used and abused. They’re either worn down into an early grave, or they’re sold on.”
“Lily and I were just brainstorming ideas to help vulnerable women,” Maddie says, her voice hoarse. “But setting up a refuge isn’t enough. We need to stop this.”
“We will,” he promises.
“Can’t you try to speak to John McConkey again?” she asks. “Does he know Ilya’s been sabotaging our businesses?”
“He does, but it’ll take more than that to pull him into this battle.
He doesn’t deal in human trafficking so Ilya’s operation isn’t in direct competition,” Ash says.
“And it’s probably for the best that he stays out of it for now.
Poulton Springs isn’t ready for the all-out war John could unleash. ”
Hunter reaches for his wife’s hand. “I’m not sure we are either, but I think we’re all agreed that we can’t stand by and do nothing.”
“I can see it’s a just cause,” Lily says. “But please be careful.”
“We’ll take things slowly,” Mace promises, which is a contradiction to his posturing earlier when his wife wasn’t in the room.
“A good start would be me going back there.”
All eyes fix on me, and I could have predicted it would be Mace who objects first. “No fucking way.”
“The whole town hates us,” Hunter adds.
“Even so, the security guards didn’t recognize me, and they’re local hires,” I argue. “It could just be Barrett’s staff who’ve been warned to look out for us, and there’s only four of them.”
“In that case, why don’t we all go back?” suggests Hunter.
Maddie sucks in a breath as an idea strikes. “Lily and I could come too.”
“No,” all four of us say in unison.
“But there’s even less chance of them recognizing us, surely,” says Lily.
“No one else is going except Reid,” Ash announces.
Pointing at Mace and Hunter, he adds, “You two idiots need to stay close to your wives. If the Russians spot you in Poulton Springs, they could take advantage of the situation and come here for them. And if I try to step foot in the town, that’s definitely going to escalate the situation. ”
My chest puffs out. Despite my recent disaster, Ash has faith in me. “All I need is some time alone with Quinn. She doesn’t only hate Ilya. From what she said, she has a problem with organized crime in general, so she needs to know exactly what we do and don’t do.”
“Could she be working undercover for the FBI or another agency?” Maddie asks.
“I don’t think we can completely discount it,” says Ash, “but we have contacts who say otherwise. And Mace hasn’t been able to find a connection either.”
Mace simply scowls. He’s still brooding. “So, we’re just going to let Reid loose on the town and hope he wins them over with his natural-born charm?”
“What can I say? I play to my strengths,” I reply. Before he can slap me down, I add, “It might help if we made ourselves a little more visible. And by that, I mean ease back on the restrictions you’ve put in place to stop us showing up in the public domain.”
“Do you know how much time and effort I spend keeping our names and faces out of search engines?” Mace asks with incredulity.
“And I’m sure it’s served us well, but this situation requires a different approach,” I tell him.
“People are quick to believe we’d burn down a factory and kill an innocent man because they don’t know a thing about us beyond being rich motherfuckers.
If I’m going to win them over, they’re going to need more than just my word that we’re the good guys. ”
“They’ll need? Or she?” Mace asks.
“Fine, she’s going to need more than just my word,” I clarify. It’s pointless trying to fool anyone, including myself, that I care about anyone else’s opinion other than Quinn’s. All I want is for her not to hate me. That’s it. I wrinkle my nose. That’s mostly it.
“It’ll take a bit of time,” Mace says, looking to Ash for final approval.
“If we do this, you’re not going back there with just a team,” he says.
“Jake goes with you,” Ash says, appointing our head of security as my personal bodyguard.
“And I expect you to follow his instructions when it comes to your own personal safety. Don’t make me regret this, Reid.
You don’t take chances, and you come back in one piece. ”
“I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“I’ll fucking kill you if you do,” mutters Mace. He loves me really.