CHAPTER FORTY-SIX HEAT IT UP
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
HEAT IT UP
RHYS
“Got a problem.”
Judge’s declaration didn’t make a dent in my happiness. Also wasn’t a groundbreaking announcement. We had a lot of problems.
My most pressing one was that I kept getting us killed. A queen wishing us dead. My brain getting consumed. Plus, all the usual plummeting, traps, and explosions.
It was a far cry from avoiding ghosts in a maze while eating dots and fruit. And even that I’d sucked at.
Readjusting my cell so I held it in place with my shoulder, I tried to listen and stay alive.
It lasted all of ten seconds before my character on screen was obliterated. I tossed the controller to the side, leaving Lo to fend for herself. Not that she had trouble with it. She seemed to be doing better at the video game without me dragging her down.
Her gaming ability shouldn’t have been sexy.
It was. It really fuckin’ was.
And that was without factoring in that she was wearing my flannel, some panties, and nothing else.
Well, unless I counted the vibrator tucked into her panties.
After going to Rye for the Monday deliveries, we’d gone out to dinner, then headed home for her to kick my ass at video games.
After repeatedly getting my ass handed to me, I’d busted out the little toy to try to give me an advantage.
Seeing as it likely distracted me more than her, it hadn’t done much to help my cause.
“What’s up?” I asked, reaching into my pocket to discreetly up the intensity of the vibration.
Lo gasped, whimpered, and glared.
All three made me hard.
I was about to hang up on Judge when he said one of the few things that could stop me.
“NashVille went up in flames.”
I killed the vibration, and that was clue enough for Lo to quit the game and give me her attention. I put it on speakerphone as I said, “There’s a fire at NashVille.”
“Not a fire,” Judge corrected. “A blaze. Whole building went up in no time. A few people were killed, including our buddy in the back office.”
“Arson?”
I was weighing my words carefully, but Judge got what I was going with. “Yeah, but not the usual suspect.”
I didn’t think so. Beck was one with his fire. Honest to God, it was like he could control them with his mind. He was that good. If someone died in one of his blazes, it was on purpose.
Lo’s brows lowered, but I gave her a little headshake.
“Everyone is on watch,” Judge said. “Glitch is set up in front of a dozen monitors, keeping an eye on all the systems in our network. So far, all good. But keep your guard up and your phone on.”
“Got it,” I said.
He didn’t have much more info, but it was possible that it was a different enemy doling out some retribution. If my list of enemies was long, it was a safe bet a strip club run by the Irish mob had a much longer one.
We still weren’t fuckin’ around about it.
When neither of us could sleep a few hours later, Lo turned on the bedside lamp and looked at me. “What was with the usual suspect line from Judge earlier?”
“I’ll tell you if you really wanna know, but it’s not anything to do with this.”
“You make a lot of jokes about having someone torch Rye to save you the headache.”
“Yeah, but I never would. You told me you loved me for the first time in that building. Now I gotta keep it till the day I die.”
“That shouldn’t be romantic, but it really is,” she said with a sweet smile.
“If you’re beating around an accusation bush—”
“No. No, definitely not. I’m just checking if you’re sure you don’t know who’s responsible for the fire.”
“Wouldn’t lie to you, hellcat. Why’re you grilling me?”
“Because I need to tell my handler about Sean Butler’s ties to the Irish mob.”
I sat up. “Are you sure?”
Lo pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
“No. Not at all. If you asked me to name my top three enemies, Murdoch would be all three. He’s such an insufferable asshole.
But I don’t think he’s a rat. That takes work, and he’s too lazy for that.
Matthews is out since he’s too green to be of any use.
I trust Murphy most, but he usually only swings by Rye on the weekend with the protests, and I don’t want to wait that long.
If I go against protocol and call Captain Talbot directly, that could set off a chain of questions that would end up in Murdoch’s ear anyway.
” Indecision warred on her face. “If I’m already going to them with breadcrumbs and suspicions but no concrete proof, I need to be cautious. ”
“You can’t hold off?”
She answered my question with one of her own. “Are you sure the fire wasn’t started by someone you know?”
I smiled.
And her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“You’re trying to protect my people.”
“Our people,” she corrected, and that made my smile grow to a grin.
“But I’m also trying to protect other people.
When it was just a theory about Butler, I was okay to hold off to get evidence first. But with this escalation?
I need to cut off retribution. Someone is going to get hurt, and I couldn’t live with myself if I had the chance to stop it. ”
“It’s not one of our people.”
“Then I need to loop in Murdoch.” She pressed a kiss to my lips before climbing out of bed to make her call in the other room. She was back a helluva lot quicker than I expected, muttering vicious insults and scarily creative threats as she walked.
“That good?” I asked.
“He said I’ve been watching too many crime dramas and to go to sleep. Bastard.”
“Come here.”
She climbed back in bed and plastered her body to mine.
Fires, mysteries, and a retribution that we both knew in our guts was coming for someone.
But with her in my arms, I still felt peace.
“Run that by me again,” I said from my spot behind my desk at Rye.
When Judge had texted he was on his way to talk Tuesday night, I knew it couldn’t be good.
I just didn’t know it would be batshit crazy.
“The head of the Italian mafia is a MayCo client,” Judge repeated before continuing.
“When we were looking at the map on Sunday, I clocked that a few of the buildings were in their territory and confirmed it with Nox since he’s got background knowledge about the old war between the two families.
” He held up his hands. “I didn’t give the boss a heads-up. Neither did Nox. But someone must’ve.”
There was a fuckin’ whirlwind of info from those few sentences, but I was still stuck on the first line. “The Italian mob is still in Boston?”
I’d heard plenty about the Irish mob. Most of it was bullshit blustering from a drunk. That his cousin’s uncle’s former college roommate’s drycleaner was a high-ranking commander, so I shouldn’t boot him from Rye, or he’d sic them on me.
And everyone from the New England area had grown up hearing the wild tales about the old crime families gathered in Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island.
But current?
I had no damn clue.
“They’re quiet.”
Yeah, no shit. So quiet, I’ve never heard a peep about it.
It must’ve taken a shit-ton of control and power to keep things so tightly contained. It didn’t seem possible.
“You know my feelings on lying,” Judge continued.
“So I get it if you have to tell Lo. But my client reached out today. He knows about the Irish encroaching on his territory, but he said NashVille wasn’t him.
He has no clue what that’s about, but since he was fucked over by a rat before, he’s being proactive.
Don’t know how he knew the specifics, but he knows Rye and Wicked are targets of the new bullshit.
He wants to put a couple of his guys around for protection. ”
“Protection from—”
Like it was a movie and my words were a cue, glass shattered and loud shouts came from the kitchen first.
Then the front of the house.
Judge and I raced from the office. He took off into the back while I ran to the front.
To Luna.
Panicked screams filled the air alongside the smell of chemicals and smoke. It was just a small blaze, but the heat of it was smothering.
Fuck.
Oh fuck.
“Slow! Be careful! No!” At the loud orders that could only come from one person, I shoved through the crowd to see Luna rip the drink gun from Chuck’s hold.
“No water. Rhys, deactivate the sprinklers. Now!” Knowing I would do what she said, she continued issuing orders to the rest of the employees as she grabbed the fire extinguisher.
“Go. We got this. Help everyone out the emergency exit before someone gets trampled.”
It fuckin’ killed to let her out of my sight, but I sprinted to the alarm panel in the back and shut it down before returning.
“I’m okay,” she called when I’d barely stepped out of the hallway. The flames were gone, leaving charred marks on the floor and a coating of the extinguisher mess. “Molotov cocktail. Don’t use water. Go check on everyone else.”
I backtracked down the hall and froze just inside the kitchen. Acrid bile rose in my throat at the smell.
Christ.
It was bad.
Judge and Amara held fire extinguishers like guns at the ready—calm, cool, and collected.
Unlike out front, the fire wasn’t limited to a small spot.
There wasn’t one shattered bottle on the floor.
There were at least three, along with bricks and broken glass from the shattered windows.
The extinguishing agent coated most of the surfaces in the roasting hot room.
I pushed through a gathered circle to see Kodie on the floor, nasty burns bubbling up one arm.
“Sorry, boss, I panicked,” he said in a voice devoid of fear or pain. He was obviously in shock because that was all he repeated.
“He tried to put it out with water, and it spread the flames across the room,” Andy explained quietly.
When no more fires burst back to life, Judge lowered the extinguisher and pulled out his phone. “Calling Glitch to check every damn camera.” Before he could, his phone rang, and he hit accept. “Yeah?” His eyes squeezed closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah. Fuck. Call in everyone.”
“What was that?” I asked when he hung up.
“Wicked was hit, too. Fewer windows there for obvious reasons, so there’s less damage. Nox and his crew are going that way.”
Fuck.