Chapter 12
Mace
As the hum of the jet engine vibrates through my tired body, I prop my feet up on the seat opposite and open my laptop.
I’m closest to the galley, away from my brothers who are spread out in the mid-section of the jet.
Our six a.m. flight to Las Vegas had removed any temptation I may have had of accepting Lily’s invitation to spend the night with her.
“When I said my apartment was off-limits, I just meant you couldn’t lurk at my door every day and claim you’d won,” she’d explained last night. “You are allowed inside.”
I fixed the zipper on her dress, having made her sit on my lap naked until the driver pulled up outside her apartment. The idea of spending more time with her body pressed to mine made me curse my loyalty to my brothers.
“I can’t. I have a flight to catch at dawn.”
“You’re going away?”
I pulled on my shirt and started buttoning it up. “Yes.”
“When will you be back?”
I stopped what I was doing to turn on the lighting and check her expression. The anxiety I’d heard in her voice was written on her face too, but giving Lily my itinerary wasn’t a good move. “What kind of stalker would I be if I told you that?”
She huffed. “The kind that played nice?”
I hooked my finger onto her dress, slipping between the valley of her breasts as I tugged her closer. “I don’t play nice. You should know that by now.”
My lips were almost on hers when her hand sliced between us. She pressed her fingers to my mouth. “Then I’m not playing nice either,” she said. “You’ve taken your prize, so you’ll have to catch me again, Shade. If you want more?”
It had been posed as a question, as if there were any doubt. “I don’t want more, Lily,” I’d told her. “I want it all.”
She’d asked me what I meant, but I’m not sure I could explain it to myself. I just know I’m in too damned deep, but that thought doesn’t worry me as much as it should.
I’m smiling to myself as I glance up from my laptop to find eyes on me. Ash has his head tilted to the side so he has a clear view of me down the aisle. He shakes his head, and I can hear his sigh echo off the curved walls of the jet. He knows I’m fucked too.
As well as making sure Lily doesn’t discover my identity, I need to work just as hard keeping her existence from my brothers.
Ash had tried to break up Hunter and Maddie, and he might have succeeded if she hadn’t turned out to be such a badass.
Lily has proven more than once that she can stand up for herself too, but unlike Maddie, my girl doesn’t even know there’s a fight to be had, let alone if she’d want to enter the ring.
A flight attendant moves down the plane, and the moment she shields me from my brother’s hard stare, I focus on my laptop.
I spend the next hour prepping for our breakfast meeting with Killian, gathering all the latest information on Poulton Springs.
I don’t want to give Ash more reason to question what’s been distracting me lately.
When my work’s done, I sit back with a coffee and croissant, and finally give into temptation.
I have a pared down version of Lily’s dashboard on my laptop, but it’s enough to see that the only new messages on her phone are with Kaitlyn.
Her friend left the club at two, and Lily had sent her a message to make sure she got home safe.
Kaitlyn: Simon ordered me a cab. If only I could get him to come home with me, my life would be complete.
Lily: I know that problem all too well.
Kaitlyn: Please don’t tell me you didn’t get your hot stalker into bed!
Lily: We had fun in the limo…
Kaitlyn: Fun?? I’d expect someone who looked like that to leave you a quivering mess.
Lily: Believe me, this mess is STILL quivering. He had a flight to catch.
Kaitlyn: Ah, so it was a goodbye fuck?
Lily: Don’t! I refuse to accept that I’m only ever going to be good enough for the Connors of this world.
Kaitlyn: You deserve way better than that cockroach. Screw Connor!
Lily: In case you’ve forgotten, he’s the one who screwed me, in more ways than one. Is it too much to ask for a good guy this time? Correction. A bad guy with a good heart.
Kaitlyn: Sounds like my Simon (swoon). We need a movie night in. Some mushy romance that keeps our dreams alive. Your place at 7 tomorrow? Today? I need my bed.
I rub my jaw to force my teeth to unclench.
I like that she made sure her friend was OK, and that she’ll be staying home tonight.
I also like that she isn’t fooling herself that I’m a good guy.
I’m not too sure she’s right about me having a good heart.
Not when I’m feeling murderous because another man had invaded her thoughts last night.
Who the fuck is Connor? Is it his t-shirt she’s been wearing?
“Where are we at?”
I look up. “What?” I snap.
Ash stands in front of me with a smug look on his face. He’d been biding his time to catch me slacking. “Poulton Springs,” he says dryly. “We need to give Killian our latest intel, and I don’t want any nasty surprises.”
Lily and Kaitlyn’s messages glow from the screen Ash can’t see unless he decides to move in closer. I’m going to have to shelve any plans to track down Connor and gut him like the slippery eel he is, but I keep hold of the burning anger. I snap my laptop shut. Fuck you, Ash.
“The building work is on schedule to complete just after Thanksgiving,” I say with barely disguised contempt. “Barrett is in New York. He took his mother to an appointment with her oncologist yesterday. Do you need me to check her doctor’s notes?”
“Do you want to?”
“Doesn’t concern me either way.” I haven’t given Alice much thought at all. It’s less complicated that way. Lily is my one and only distraction.
“It might be useful to know her prognosis,” Reid suggests, appearing in our big brother’s shadow.
Ash nods. “Take a look,” he says to me.
“Yes, boss,” I mutter.
Ash had been turning away, but he rounds on me. “Do we have a fucking problem, Mace?”
“Maybe I’m just sick of you waiting for me to fuck up. Apologies if I have a life outside your orbit, Ash, but you’re going to have to learn to suck it up. I’m not on a fucking leash.”
“Hey,” Hunter says, having tuned into our increasingly loud exchange. “Whatever this is between you two, can we leave it on the plane? We need to show the world we have each other’s back, preferably without any daggers sticking out between our shoulder blades.”
“This conversation is done,” Ash says.
Reid lingers until I shoot him a warning glare.
I do not need one of his pep talks right now.
I’m more than happy to let my roiling emotions simmer on a high heat as I open my laptop, closedown Lily’s dashboard, and give Dr. Edward Romano the full benefit of my hacking skills.
I’m in and out within a matter of minutes, but I continue to stare at the empty screen.
My fingers are splayed over the keyboard, and I tap the side of my thumb against the wrist rest. I keep tapping until the flight attendant announces that we’ll be landing in fifteen minutes. My hand shakes as I sip my cold coffee.
I try to convince myself that it’s residual anger running through my veins after my fight with Ash. But is this anger? The truth is, I don’t know what this feeling is. The fact that Alice’s medical notes have elicited any emotional response from me is… unexpected.
Alice’s time on earth is drawing to a close. She has a month left. Maybe two.
I shouldn’t care.
But I think I do.
Ash finally stops pacing when Killian turns up two hours late. Our guest takes a seat at the conference table in our expansive hotel suite without a word of apology.
“How’s married life treating you, Hunter?” he asks, relaxing back in his chair so it tips onto the two back legs. He’s wearing a black t-shirt under his suit jacket that stretches across his pecs. His deep brown eyes sparkle with devilment.
“None of your damn business,” my brother replies. He hasn’t forgiven Killian for telling Ash he had a sister-in-law before Hunter had a chance to explain his hastily arranged wedding.
“Are we still on for tonight?” Ash asks, getting straight to the point.
The chair drops down as Killian straightens up. “I tried my best, Ash.”
“But?” I ask.
Killian sucks air through his teeth. “Your informant’s report was spot on.
Barrett’s getting into bed with the Russians.
They’ll have offered him protection,” he says.
“Which brings me onto what Barrett’s offering in return.
Having looked at your architect’s drawings, we agree that the shipments they want to store in the stable block are going to be the two-legged variety.
And as you know, my dad isn’t in the business of trafficking anything with a beating heart.
Corpses, or soon-to-be corpses, yes. Innocent people, no. ”
“So, what do we do about it?” asks Reid.
Killian offers him a beaming smile. “Reid Griffin. It’s good to meet you at last,” he says. “But in answer to your question, you can do whatever you like.”
His words are like a punch to the gut, and I know the feeling will be shared with my brothers.
“Dad was prepared to go to war if the Bratva were making a move on his territory, but there’s no conflict of interest here,” Killian continues.
Ash’s jaw works and it takes a second before he can speak. “He’s prepared to stand back and let women be bought and sold like cattle?” he asks. “I thought John was looking to improve his moral standing?”
“He is,” Killian answers. “And declaring outright war on the Russian Bratva would be counterproductive to that. It drags us back to the old times.” He opens up his hands in supplication. “You wanted to avoid a turf war in Poulton Springs, and that’s exactly what you’ve got.”
Shit. He’s not wrong.
“And your dad’s willing to let Barrett off the hook for destroying his distribution hub?” asks Hunter.