CHAPTER THREE
Griffin
“G ood morning and Happy New Year,” Ares Zervas greets us in a deep British accent. “Sorry for the sudden intrusion. You are men of a certain ilk like me and understand some meetings can’t be scheduled weeks in advance.”
I lower the gun aimed at Kai’s head and say, “Mr. Zervas, my mother is upstairs. There’s a code of honor among our ilk that if you plan to slaughter an entire family—”
“Mr. Quinlan, come now.” His eyes focus on the gun I slip back into my waistband. “If my family wanted you dead, you’d be dead, and never see us coming.”
My throat goes tight, chills running down my spine, wondering if that is some backhanded threat. I need to beef up security around here.
“Mr. Zervas, please have a seat.” I show the man respect, because any head of a crime family, who hasn’t murdered us yet, deserves it.
That absurdly expensive-looking suit is a reason to give me pause to talk down to him.
“Call me Ares.” His grin widens as he takes the seat next to Kai Powers, who’s finally stopped sweating.
“Why so informal?” Connor asks.
“Because we’re going to be family,” Ares answers.
In the time it takes to shake off the shock of that comment, Kai pulls out several sets of stapled papers from the overstuffed briefcase and hands them out.
After flipping over the stiff cover, I see the first page contains a family tree.
The name at the top tightens my throat:
Troi Keller
The Irish Mob Don of Lower Manhattan leads a clan of vicious savages. Even Kieran O’Rourke, the Irish king of Astoria, stays clear of them.
The Kellers are also bitter enemies of...the Greeks.
Their war started after Alexander Zervas killed his father. Lucien Zervas had drained the family of its finances and honor. After his death, his sons, the Zervas brothers, slowly rose to power. And set their focus on destroying the Irish with petty territorial feuds, typical when two crime syndicates operate in the same vicinity. But minor hostilities rarely deescalate. I’d heard rumors that recently something started an all-out war between the two families.
“We have nothing to do with Keller,” I blurt anxiously. “We are sworn loyalists to the O’Rourkes here in Astoria.”
“I am well aware of that.” Ares sounds miffed at the ignorant implication. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your King O’Rourke.”
“Why is Devlin Keller’s name crossed out?” Ewan asks about Troi’s son.
“He’s dead,” Shane answers before Ares. Since being handed this family tree, he’s been on his laptop staying one step ahead of us.
“Who killed Devlin?” I ask as it becomes clear what escalated that war.
“Three months ago, my older brother Alexander killed Devlin. Car bomb,” Ares says casually. “In Alexander’s defense, Devlin wasn’t supposed to be in the car. Regardless, Devlin’s enforcer ambushed my brother a week later in a fierce gun battle he did not win.”
Three months. He lost his brother three months ago. He’s remarkably calm and controlled. We lost our sister Norah years ago and we’re still not over it. Especially Ewan.
“Since that bloodbath, neither side has laid down their arms,” Ares continues. “After dark, the streets have become a war zone. I, as the new head of my family, and Troi, in the tradition of making peace between warring families, came up with a way for us to align and stop the bloodshed.”
“And what was that?” I ask, a shudder snaking down my spine.
“Troi proposed a marriage between the man he’ll name as his new heir and my sister Ava. When she was eighteen our father tried to sell her to pay a debt, but Alexander hid her from all of us. After Alexander died, I found out where she was and brought her home.” Ares keeps his face even. “ I honor my word. She will not disappear again.”
“Troi has no living brothers,” Kai further explains. “His wife, who also had no brothers, passed away a few years back.”
“Again, what does this have to do with us?” I ask, not voicing my objection to the barbaric and dated practice of forcing enemies to marry.
“Oh no,” Shane mutters darkly. He stands and rips through bookshelves filled with our family records. The same ones we rifled through three years ago to find a Quinlan female to marry Kieran O’Rourke.
Our half-brother Rian had an adult daughter, but Ewan married her instead, even though she’s technically our niece through adoption. Yeah, we’re not altar boys. But that one takes the cake as far as depravation when it comes to our family.
“My sister was taken captive last week on Christmas Eve,” Ares says, baring his teeth. “In the middle of the night. Her guards were killed and she was ripped from her bed in my aunt’s house.”
“Who took her?” I ask, twitching for nicotine.
“ Brandon Keller, the bastard son of Troi,” Ares says, darkness raging in his eyes.
“How does he have the Keller name if he’s a bastard?” I challenge because none of this makes sense.
“His mother was a long-time mistress of Troi,” Kai answers. “She gave him the name Keller when he was born and wanted him to take his rightful place in the line of succession. She was rumored to have been pushing Brandon to be more aggressive about leading.”
“I don’t know why you think we would get involved in that fight,” I practically snort. “I’ve been around the Irish Mafia my whole life. They are very territorial. We’re outsiders.”
“Troi Keller might not have had an issue fucking around, but he thought legitimizing a bastard alongside Devlin disrespected his wife. Mary Ellen Sullivan. ” Kai emphasizing the legendary and powerful Irish family name has the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
“No, no, no.” All the blood drains from Shane’s face.
He paces, holding a narrow leather-bound ledger. My brother has seen a lot, but something in that book has him looking like he’s ready to throw up.
Connor grabs the book roughly and mutters a curse under his breath. “This is fucked.”
“Ewan!” Shane calls out in a way that has my older brother bolting across the office, too.
“This can’t be right,” Ewan says, taking out another book.
My legs go weak, and I take a seat as it all comes together.
Fuck.
We’re NOT outsiders.
Ares cracks a smile. Odd for a man whose sister is captive and whose older brother was recently gunned down.
“Here.” Shane hands me very old photographs.
Hating to take my eyes off Ares fucking Zervas, I glance down at a few faded three-by-five images of two little girls on roller skates. “Is that Ma?”
“Aye,” Shane answers me, looking at Ares. “With her cousin. The same Mary Ellen Sullivan.”
Ares stands and folds his arms. “That makes Norah Sullivan Quinlan’s sons heirs to the Keller family.”
Kai adds, “As a final tribute to Mary Ellen and at my insistence, I urged Troi to seek an heir along his wife’s family line. After all, it was House Sullivan before it became House Keller, Troi became head of the clan by marriage.”
“Mafia bosses can also technically name anyone they want as successor,” Ewan says, which adds to the credibility that if Troi Keller wishes it and puts it in writing, it should be respected.
I look at Kai Powers. “Troi’s will specifically says all of House Keller goes to...us?”
“Yes, sir,” he says with a smile. “His new will does. He’s suffering from stage-four, inoperable colon cancer. In early December we held a council meeting to hear petitions for candidates to succeed him. But he left there disappointed. When I showed him your mother’s birth certificate and a few other family records proving the bloodline, he agreed.” Kai looks at Ares. “We think that’s why Brandon moved in and took Ava on Christmas Eve.”
Looks like I just inherited a consigliere, too. But can I trust him? Kai strides to my side, and fuck all, there’s our name.
“And you, Mr. Quinlan are the oldest available male and next in line to marry Ava.”
I look up and find Ares staring right at me. Holy fuck, I hadn’t put those elements together.
“You’re serious? Where is Troi?” I ask Kai. “With all due respect, Don Zervas, Keller is an Irishman like me. I’d like to hear all of this from his mouth.”
And there I go, aligning with the man’s enemy.
“Troi is in Madison Hill hospital and on a ventilator,” Ares reports. “His doctors predict he’s got less than a month to live. Kai is his lawyer and has the control to carry out his final wishes.”
“Devlin was groomed for the throne,” Kai says to fill in the gaps. “There was always bad blood between him and Brandon, who Troi kept close, let him work the ranks, but never named him the heir.”
Keep your enemies close.
I’m about to inherit a house and a woman I must marry, but I’ll also inherit a fragile peace with the fucking Greeks.
The key word, fragile.
“Troi built a very powerful stronghold in Lower Manhattan,” Shane informs me.
Not the flashy Midtown Manhattan or Upper East Side. Typical for the Irish to go for a grittier part of town. There’s so much history in Lower Manhattan. Families there go back over one hundred years, as well as their deadly grudges.
There’s no way for me to just waltz in there and take over.
I glance at Ewan, who shouldered much of the family responsibility since our da became ill by taking over his council seat.
Seeing me waver, he steps up and says to Ares, “Zervas, my brothers and I need to talk about this.”
“Quinlans...” Ares shoves brawny hands in his trouser pockets. “You can choose your friends. You can choose who you work for. You can’t choose your family. Powers says you are the Keller heir. That means Brandon is your cousin, illegitimate or not, and your cousin has my fucking sister .”
“You can’t be serious with that outrage,” I argue. “We had nothing to fucking do with this.”
“Why did Brandon take her?” Shane asks, always gathering information.
“For power,” Ares answers like it’s obvious, and maybe I’ve become numb to this kind of psychotic, unhinged behavior working for Lachlan O’Rourke. “He thinks he’s entitled to Ava. She is strong-spirited, but he is a barbarian who will undoubtedly break her.”
A vein in Ares’ forehead looks ready to burst with unspoken horrors of what Brandon might be doing to his sister.
Rage builds inside me for some reason. A wicked flashback to my Navy private security gig, seeing one of the training candidates assaulting... her . One of the strongest-spirited women I’d ever met, tough as nails, that woman. Electricity buzzes in my veins, the memory taking me by force. I shake the startling vision of her away. And the best night of my life.
Even if it did end badly .
“Brandon has also managed to gain powerful allies in House Keller after Devlin’s death,” Kai adds.
While I never met them, I know the type. Brandon’s allies are savage brats who we’ll have to either convince or kill when we take power. I gulp, hearing those thoughts in my head like it’s a done deal.
Is it?
If it is, then in addition to a house racked with mutiny, I’ve inherited the Greeks as a brutal enemy. And a peace that hangs in the balance so long as... I marry Ava Zervas.
Only we don’t know where the fuck she is.
Great.
“I made this deal in good faith with Troi,” Ares says, getting annoyed again. “The capos on both sides have sworn to uphold the truce until Troi announced his heir. But Brandon stole Ava. We’ve heard some of his men know where he is. And my men will start slaughtering them.”
Anger roils under my skin. “I’ll renounce my claim. I’ve had no involvement in any of this. Find other relatives of Mary Ellen, or give Brandon the throne he wants.”
I’m not marrying a woman I’ve never met to end a war I didn’t start. One where I’ve never pulled the trigger.
Ares and Kai trade looks. “Troi names you,” the lawyer voices the answer. “That will be hard to walk away from.”
“And if being a mafia king isn’t enough of a carrot for you, Mr. Proud Quinlan, let me sweeten the deal,” Ares says and takes out his phone. “There’s a land development project on our turf. The UN is moving. They need a new building. The budget is exploding by the day. I have the connections to secure that deal. I just need...cash. Troi has that cash. And that cash will go to you.”
“Thanks to me,” Kai says.
Shane picks up the phone and starts swiping. “I heard about this,” he says, low and cautious. “You made the shortlist, Zervas?”
Ares grins. “It wasn’t much of a list.”
Shane gives me a quick study of all of Keller’s holdings. He scrolls through pages upon pages of businesses, properties, and investments. “Fuck, it’s vast, Griff.”
“It’s a kingdom without a king at the moment,” I mutter.
“No, it’s an empire,” Shane says with a savage grin.
“If we do this, we’ll need Trace and Rhys,” I whisper to Shane. That’s a phone call I’ll make to our Waterford cousins later.
The room stays silent, a pin drop could rattle the windows. I glance from Ewan to Connor, to Shane, each with a small nod of acceptance.
I take one final look around this house I’ve lived in since we moved to Astoria from Waterford, Ireland when we were kids.
With the next words, I change my life...
“You have a deal, Zervas. I will find Brandon and kill him.” I reach for his hand. “And take your sister to wife to keep peace between the families.”
Ares shakes my hand, smugly. “Good man.”
Then I yank him close, pulling his ear to my lips. My brothers don’t need to hear this. “Beware, Zervas. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. You’ve boxed me in, but I won’t stay caged. Once I take control, I won’t be your damn puppet. Far from it. I’ll be the one fucking your sister. She’ll be mine .”
The fact that she’s probably already dead works in my favor. I have no desire to marry a woman I don’t know anything about. I have no desire to marry at all.
With her out of the equation, I’ll own an empire without an albatross hanging around my neck. A tickle of excitement rushes through me.
“I’ll be in touch to schedule a meeting with the Keller bosses, who I won’t lie, aren’t all on board,” Kai says.
“You will need to make them accept the deal and keep the peace, or...” Ares mutters, not exactly shaken, but surprised that his new ally is also a worthy opponent.
“Or we have to kill them,” I say, already feeling the weight of a leader who makes life-and-death decisions. “It will be a complete and utter takeover.”
“My brother Atlas is available and is eager to spill more Keller blood for what they did to Alexander. This cannot drag on much longer.”
A house as big as Keller with brats I’m all too familiar with is a powder keg waiting to explode.
“I understand.” I bow my head to Ares, and just when he turns to leave, I say, “One more thing, Zervas.”
He stills, his shoulders tense as he turns around. “And what is that, Quinlan?”
“As of this moment, it’s no longer the Keller or Sullivan family.” I shoot a glance around the room at my brothers’ stoic expressions, then turn back to Ares Zervas. “It will be known now as Quinlan Empire.”