Chapter 24 | Preston
TWENTY-FOUR | PRESTON
Usually, patience and control are a constant surge that flows through my veins. They impact my actions, my deliberate thoughts, and the decisions I make throughout the day.
I can’t function without them.
Today, I’m operational, but I’m spiraling—wanting to get back to the girl who’s the sweetest distraction from the chaos swelling around me.
I’ve been plunging into this deep abyss, where the only thing I see and feel is Kate’s body filling my hands. Her frame flush against mine. The brief warmth that wraps around me tightly right before she puts up a fight and tests everything I've taught her.
And I say abyss, because I’ve buried her in the unfathomable depths of my soul that I didn’t know existed.
I’m sure as hell not letting anything penetrate and tarnish the only space in my chest that doesn’t feel desolate and empty.
I have more barriers than I know what to do with.
Over the last few weeks, Kate has somehow broken through—slipping between the cracks in my armor to settle behind them, as if she belongs there, as if she’s protected by them.
My home somehow feels like hers, too, with the way she goes back and forth to work at the medical center.
I’d say we’re in this circuit orbiting each other, but that’s far from the truth.
She’s the sunshine, and her pull imprisons me.
Drowns me in a heat I never want to escape, so I’m constantly seeking her out with that little tracking device that hangs perfectly between those beautiful collar bones.
Her safety has become my priority.
Teaching her self-defense has been for her own safety. Yet I can’t push aside the fact that it’s to give me peace of mind knowing she can hold her own in a ruthless world that targets pretty things.
Tayla and my mom couldn’t protect themselves. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if they had the strength to raise hell, but fuck if I let Kate walk around defenseless with that defeated look in her eye that I came to recognize the moment I saw her scars.
The physical reminders of her past.
She hasn’t tried to escape the estate once.
Not that she’d be able to, but it's unsettling knowing she feels safer inside walls that could put her in just as much danger as whoever hurt her.
Whoever’s hunting her.
Another reason I’ve been training with Kate in the gym every morning before we head our separate ways is that we don’t know Luciano’s plans.
We may believe we have an impenetrable empire, but there are always hidden faults in the shadows, waiting to be discovered and used as leverage, which is why rebuilding our army to be stronger is a priority.
Nolan, one of our lieutenants in training, peers at the sheet before him. “They started training a few weeks ago and will start their positions next week. All night shifts.”
Taking my time, I peer out the window, studying the new faces of men we’re training for security at the park. A few of them are built, strong enough to hold their own and give us a wireframe to work with, while others need to be put through the wringer, so they don’t look so breakable.
I don’t tolerate breakable.
Unless it's Kate breaking apart on my fingers.
Shattering on my tongue.
Goddamn, Pres. Get a hold of yourself.
We’ll give these newcomers a shot. Hiring for the security staff at Lachlan Park has fewer requirements than the recruits we pull and train for the Megalley Syndicate. Mainly because our men are integrated with the regular employees, so they don’t draw as much attention.
I scan the room again, a few of their demeanors piquing my interest. Not even the glass can hide the darkness in their eyes that thrives deeper than the surface. We often promote Lachlan Park security to soldiers once they’ve proven their skills. They will have eyes watching their every move.
Especially now, as our war with the Calco Cartel escalates.
We need more men than ever.
“Let’s make sure we get them to the range and test their hand-to-hand combat.
By the end of next week, if any of them have potential, I would like a comprehensive report detailing their strengths and weaknesses.
As well as a thorough background check and details about their family lives.
” My head slants, and an odd sensation curls in my gut as I peer out the window at two who look promising.
The trainees are lounging in the chairs in the briefing room at our main security headquarters for the park. The one-sided glass conceals our scrutinizing glares from view as we analyze our recruits.
Several of them are chatting harmlessly, while others, the two I have my eye on, lean back in the chairs with uninterested looks, pulling at their features.
We never hire someone without a headshot with their resume.
Vincent and Nolan went through those thoroughly and know what to look for.
There are too many snakes that try to slip through our fingers.
I nod my head toward them. “Who are those two?”
Nolan watches where I’m pointing. “Lex is on the right. Brett is on the left.”
Lex, with dark, cropped hair and a sleeve of tattoos, braces his elbows on his knees, leaning forward to crack his knuckles while Brett’s knees bounce impatiently—his hair a dirty blond that’s pulled back into a bun on his nape.
Good.
I can feel the eagerness emanating from them. The flow of their anticipation is threaded with something else, like a whip cracking against my skin, leaving a sting that has me questioning their true nature.
They want to get their hands dirty, and I’m going to let them.
Tone dark, I point between the two men. “I specifically want your eye on these two when they are on duty in the park. Ramp up their training and don’t hold back on them. I want to see what they are capable of.”
My focus drifts to the brooding man in the corner who’s barely said a word. Vincent, one of our oldest lieutenants who oversees all our men in the harbor, lifts a finger to his lips.
Those gray eyes narrow in contemplation, swirling with chaos as they usually do. “I’ll push them to their limits. There’s something about them I can’t put my finger on.”
He sees the same darkness flourishing in their eyes as I do. If I trust anyone to get an accurate read of this group, it's him. Not only is he a perfect shot in training and in combat, but he is a terrifying motherfucker that would straighten my spine if I weren’t his boss.
Vincent has been with us since before I was born.
My grandfather, who is now retired with Gran at our estate in Ireland, recruited him from the military.
He has more blood on his hands than I do.
I swear the bodily fluids of his victims are calcified in his callous hands.
I’d say it happened back in his prime, but Vincent is always in his prime.
Those muscles, hidden beneath his long sleeves, showcase it.
There is a reason we have him patrolling the tunnels and the park, as well as training our men to manipulate them into machines.
A piece of our empire rests in his hands.
If we are going to pull any of these men into the mob, I damn well know he’ll find the best. Or fix them until their faults are cowering in the darkness, afraid to emerge.
We don’t tolerate weakness.
That means drawing them out early.
A corner of my mouth lifts maliciously. “After the park closes Friday night, why don’t we let loose Rowan and Cathal and see what Lex and Brett are truly capable of.
No guns. No weapons.” Just their hands and their pure carnal need, because our men who broke our blood oath will do whatever it takes to survive, even if it means killing these newcomers.
That first night, after I found Kate in the tunnels and brought her back to the estate, I called Imogen and asked her to do her best to fix up Rowan.
I hate not finishing things my way, even if there is a beautiful little distraction that kept me from ending his life at that moment, as I should have.
Now, I’m glad he’s been rotting in a cell, battling an on-and-off again infection in the side of his stomach.
Cathal is in the cell across from him, so he can watch the motherfucker suffer in pain while I contemplate what to do with them.
Turns out, Cathal sealed his fate when he decided to get his dick wet with Rowan and join in on the fun with the girl he paid for.
They’ve been rotting in a cell under the park, awaiting their sentence. We were going to kill them anyway.
As for Lex and Brett, I want to see if we can get their dark sides to emerge early, if they’re as animalistic as they look.
A few days from now, we’ll know.
If these two look promising, they may become our new prospects for the mob.
This comes with a long conversation, a significant pay raise, and benefits that are more substantial than any other career they might find elsewhere.
The only difference is that they sign their life over to us and carve their name on that line at the bottom of the contract in their own blood.
Death is the only way out.
Vincent lowers his hand from his gray beard, his eyes hard on me. “Rushing the process. That’s not like you. Usually, we watch these guys for months before we propose a promotion to them.”
It’s not like me.
However, ever since some of our shipments have gone missing— the attack in Virginia, Kate—my control over my priorities has been slipping and shifting.
It started with one hole in the bucket when I saw Kate on that dock.
Then I saw her in the tunnels, and it was another blow to the metal holding me together.
Then I started thinking about Kate.
Kissed Kate.
Touched Kate.
I haven’t fucked her yet, and she’s already filling my thoughts so thoroughly that it’s draining my other priorities, making room for her like she’s becoming one.
And maybe she is.
But the Megalley Syndicate comes first, and if Arden keeps sensing how distracted I am, he won’t hesitate to get rid of her.
So, though my body is strained from this metaphorical tether stretching through the fucking space between Kate and me that’s pulling at my stability, I shove my hands into my suit pockets, glancing out the one-sided glass.
We’re waiting with bated breath for Luciano’s next move while we sit in the shadows waiting for our perfect moment.
The plan has been in place since we received that mysterious envelope from an anonymous person in the mail months ago.
Time isn’t on our side right now, and we need to be prepared for anything, strengthening our army and our men in numbers and skill.
I’d say it's to protect our operations, this world that is all I’ve ever known, but I can’t shake the feeling that I want to increase protection for an entirely different reason.
Because the last time this fuzzy sense of contentment existed behind my ribs, my world shattered, plunging me into a darkness I never thought I’d escape.
Until Kate.