17. Samson #2
Neo straightens, his hand thankfully falling out of Wylder’s lap. “Needed someone? How? Why? What’s wrong?”
Cade growls beside me. “Who we killing? Other than the cunt who stalked and killed Adam, obviously.”
“He’s okay, mostly,” I reply to everyone.
Cade folds his arms across his chest. “Well, I’m happy to take out anyone who falls outside that ‘mostly’ category.”
I can’t help but smile. See, that’s the thing about Rowan. You only need to exchange a few sentences with him to know he’s special. That he’s worth protecting.
He’s not meant to be killed.
Harley stills, his head cocking to the side. “What are you doing?”
My eyes widen. “Me? Nothing right now.”
“You’re…smiling.” He says it like it’s a foreign word. Maybe it is where I’m concerned. Can’t say it’s something I do often. “It’s weird. I don’t like it.”
I stretch my lips wider, just to fuck with him.
Wylder raps the table again. “Focus. What were you trying to tell us, Samson?”
Right. Larry. “I did some digging into his neighbor when I realized the two of them are close.”
“Close how?”
“Like, Rowan takes him food, keeps him company, does his laundry, that kinda shit.”
“Aw.” Harley rests his elbows on the table, chin in his hand. “That’s adorable. Now I feel kinda bad for offering to kill him.”
“As you should,” I growl.
He gives me a lazy smirk. “Is this where I remind you that you were also going to kill him, or…?”
My dagger makes its way to my palm with ease. “That’s not something we ever need to discuss. Ever. You understand?”
Because if Rowan ever discovered why we met, that I’d been stalking him the way Adam had been stalked…
I don’t need to be a genius to see how well that’d go down.
To my surprise, Harley’s face turns serious. “You got it, man. My lips are sealed.”
“All of ours are,” Wylder adds. “We’ve got your back. Obviously we were wrong in the first place. If Rowan is someone special to you, then we’ll treat him like a Buckingham.”
My face heats. “I’m not saying we’re together or anything. It’s not like that.”
Cade nudges me with his shoulder. “But you’d like it to be, right?”
I shrug self-consciously. “I barely know him.”
Cade laughs. “I knew Ansel was mine from the instant he knocked me out with my dagger.”
“Still not over the fact he was able to take you out so easily,” Dalton says.
“I mostly let him.” Cade’s voice takes on a dreamy tone. “I knew it was the start of our happily ever after.”
I trace shapes on the wooden tabletop. Is that how I feel about Rowan?
Yes.
My mind answers that question so quickly that I suck in a breath. Or is it my heart?
I don’t think it matters which it is, so long as I recognize it.
I want Rowan to be mine.
The whole world seems to shift around me at the revelation. When it rights again, there’s a single person at the center.
Rowan Mitchell. The man I was sent to kill.
Who I’ll now protect forever.
Wyatt clears his throat. “We’re off topic again. You were telling us about the neighbor.”
“His name’s Larry,” I say, before pausing. I know they’ll recognize it, just like I recognized him when I met him. “Larry Windsor.”
The name ripples over the table as it registers with each of my brothers. There’s a long silence, followed by an explosion of noise. My brothers are all yelling over one another, while Wyatt looks confused. Neo, however, has a grim face that suggests he knows exactly why this is important news.
“A Windsor?”
“Is he part of the current generation?”
“Do they know he’s here?”
“Pull up everything.”
“What the fuck is he doing in St. Dismas?”
Wyatt puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles sharply. He glares at us all until we fall silent. “Can you please explain who this guy is and why you’re all freaking out?”
Wylder and Cade exchange a loaded look before my eldest brother clears his throat. “The Windsors are basically the East Coast equivalent of the Buckinghams.”
“Wait.” Wyatt frowns. “As in, they’re a rich, powerful family? Or another division of The Firm?”
“The Firm,” Matthias confirms quietly. “They’re another Firm.”
Wyatt blows out a breath. “Fuck. I didn’t realize there were more.”
“There aren’t many,” Dalton says. “Just us, the Windsor family on the East Coast, and the Holyroods in England.”
“Each family operates in a different way,” I say gruffly, “but the principles are generally the same. We stay out of each other’s shit and territory.”
“Which raises the question as to what Larry Windsor is doing living in an apartment next to Rowan,” Wylder says grimly. “Neo, can you—”
“Already on it,” he says, fingers flying over his keyboard. “Larry Windsor, age sixty-five, second son to Jonathan Windsor. Uncle to the brothers who, based on our information, are currently running their Firm in New York.”
“So, we can likely assume he’s retired,” Wylder says slowly, “but obviously we need to—”
He falls silent as the door swings open. Dotty, Wylder’s eccentric housekeeper, strolls in like she owns the place. Which she doesn’t, but she does run it. At least, she terrifies us into behaving.
“Uh, we’re in a meeting.” Wylder sighs as Dotty leans over him with her ever-present spray bottle. “You can’t interrupt like this.”
I smirk as she ignores him completely and scrubs at an invisible mark on the table. She even hums under her breath, making Wylder’s eyebrow twitch.
“Dotty’s fine,” Neo says, winking at her. I swear I see her wink back. “She wouldn’t say anything to anyone. Would you, love?”
She sniffs imperiously, her permed curls bobbing in indignation. “Of course not. I’ve kept my mouth shut so far, haven’t I? Haven’t told a single person where all the bodies are buried.”
Unfortunately, that’s not a euphemism. I can almost see Wylder plotting to make us dig up some graves and relocate a few corpses because of this statement.
Fucking wonderful.
Not how I wanted to spend my weekend.
“Anyway, like I was saying,” Neo continues, “from what I can tell, Larry Windsor has been estranged from his family for the last few years.”
Bang. Dotty’s bottle hits the table. Her hand flies to her throat as she shakes her head repeatedly. “Did you…did you…”
We’re all on our feet in an instant, various weapons being pulled as we search for the danger. Only Neo has the common sense to approach Dotty herself.
“What’s wrong?” he demands. “Do you know him?”
She nods slowly. “Yes.”
I exchange an incredulous look with Cade. How the fuck does our lifelong housekeeper know a Windsor?
I shove past Neo. “Is he dangerous?”
Usually, she’d make a face at me for daring to speak to her. She would definitely ignore me.
But this time, she doesn’t. She meets my eyes, and there’s nothing there but raw honesty. “Yes. But you already know that. He’s a Windsor, just as you’re a Buckingham.”
“Well, that settles it.” Cade claps me on the shoulder. “Best get Rowan on board with staying here for the foreseeable future.”
“About that,” Wylder says abruptly. “Rowan’s not to know who we are or what we do. Not yet.”
I glare hotly at him. “Rowan can be trusted.”
Wylder smiles thinly. “So you say. I agree that he’s the victim in this mess, and we will, of course, use all of our considerable resources to keep him safe. But we’re also protecting ourselves. Until he’s proven he can be trusted by all of us, he’s to be kept in the dark. You hear me, Samson?”
“Whatever,” I mutter, but Wylder takes it for the agreement it is. I don’t like it. Fucking hate it, to be honest, but if this is the price my family wants to demand to keep Rowan safe? Then I’ll suck it up and pay it.