Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Patrick
Things move fast and also at a snail’s pace. I don’t make it to bed until late, and I’m up the next morning before the sun.
I take several men to view the warehouse Moretti plans to use for the exchange, and Cormac comes with me to study the vantage points.
No matter what Moretti suggested, Charlotte will not be in attendance this evening.
There’s no need.
I’ll take a damn picture of her ex as I saw his head from his lifeless corpse or take a photo of me holding his heart as proof.
There’s no way I’ll let her anywhere near this fucking mess.
I have no trust in Emory, outside of believing he doesn’t like to be ordered around. That still doesn’t leave me feeling confident that he won’t fuck us over if Blade decides to pay him for his hard work.
Cormac strides over from where he was examining one of the ladders to get up onto the scaffolding.
“It’ll work fine for me. I suggest having at least one other sniper on the other side for full coverage.
” He nods to the far wall of the warehouse.
“Does Moretti have an estimate on how many deep they’ll be rolling? ”
My head shakes. “Not that he mentioned, but they’re doing a better job of hiding this time. I’ve had patrols out just to see if they run across anything. Emory has also, but so far there’s nothing.”
Cormac nods. “I’ll see if my guest can give me any additional insight into how many they might bring with them. I think we’re done here, unless you have anything else you’d like to check?”
“Nah, let’s head out.”
My office has more traffic in one afternoon than it’s had in the last year.
I brief my men, selecting who will be staying with Charlotte and Lucky and who will be coming with us. It’s highly tempting to have Malachy stay home with them. That way, if Moretti turns on us, Charlotte will be able to keep one of her bonded mates.
Just by looking at him, I can tell that’s not going to fly.
Cormac is still down in his workshop, attempting to gain extra information about how many MC members we can expect, their names, weaknesses, and anything else he can squeeze out of his prisoner.
Excuse me, I mean his guest.
He likes to pretend what he does is more civil than it truly is.
Without him to back me up, there’s no way I can successfully convince Malachy to stay home.
The door flies open, and I hit my feet as Charlotte comes into my office, closing the door behind her.
She glances at Malachy but makes her way around my desk, stopping just in front of me. “I understand none of you want me there tonight, but I need to be there.”
“Absolutely not,” Malachy growls. He’s been busy pacing the room, but he rests his hands on the back of the chair he always sits in. “You don’t need to see that kind of ugliness.”
Charlotte sighs, glancing over her shoulder at him.
“Just let me tell you why I need to be there.” She turns back to me, resting her hands on my chest. “The night I thought I killed Blade, I didn’t make it out of the clubhouse unseen.
Magnum caught me. He could have dragged me back inside.
Ratted me out to Blade. It probably would have gotten him a promotion.
At the very least, he would have been in Blade’s good graces.
He didn’t. He let me go. I owe him my life. ”
“If he comes to Boston with the Demons, there’s no way we can spare him,” I tell her, planting my hands on her hips. “That’s just asking for him to go back and regroup for another attack.”
The door pops open again, and I frown as Moretti strides in.
“Why the fuck are you here?” Malachy growls, beating me to it.
“I would rather be anywhere else.” Moretti closes the door, leaning against it. “Unfortunately, we have a problem, and it’s of the significant variety.”
Charlotte spins to face the room.
I pull her back against my chest, planting my hand on her stomach. “Details might be helpful.”
“I wasn’t going to mention the hostages, but they added another, so I’ve decided it might be pertinent to inform you that they have two individuals from Charlotte’s past.”
“What?” Charlotte gasps. “Who?”
“Two men you had some type of intimate relationship with between leaving the MC and ending up in Boston.” Moretti quirks an eyebrow. “Ringing any bells?”
“You’re saying Blade has Miles and Steve, and you just didn’t mention it?” Charlotte hisses, taking a step forward.
Well, now I really want to know who the fuck Miles and Steve are, and when Charlotte found time to have a romantic relationship with them.
Maybe I wouldn’t mind if they got caught in the crossfire. There’s also a good chance that may make me a monster, but here we are.
Moretti points at Charlotte. “That would be why I failed to mention it. Blade was banking on you hearing that and willingly trading yourself for them. That would be an unintelligent choice, but he knew he could play to your guilt.” He shrugs.
“You have a conscience. I, fortunately for all of us, do not.”
I’m actually really fucking grateful he kept the information about the hostages to himself, because I’m sure he’s right.
If Charlotte knew Blade had two men from her past, she would have wanted to trade herself to save their lives. She might even have tried to rush us into moving up the exchange.
“We’ll do our best to get them back in one piece, but that’s not the priority,” Moretti says. “We have a war to prevent within the Boston families.”
A goddamn shiver runs down my spine. “What the fuck does that mean?”
He grimaces. “I’ve been out all day, making arrangements. I had no idea Vanessa attempted to gain entrance at the front gate of my home several hours ago.”
“Why would she be at your house?” Malachy asks.
“Everyone knows the three of you won’t be honoring the marriage contract,” Moretti says calmly.
“I’ve heard rumors that her brothers are making the rounds, attempting to test the waters to see who they can rope into taking her in exchange for paying the penalty your family is owed.
If I had to guess? She’s scrambling to find anyone to save her from the sick old fucks Vance and Victor are busy trying to sell her to. ”
“That sounds awful,” Charlotte whispers, looking over her shoulder at me. “No one deserves that. We have to find a way to help her.”
“I can see you don’t know Vanessa.” Moretti snorts. “Anyway, she was turned away at the gate, and at some point after that, she was kidnapped by the MC. They now have a high-value hostage, meaning we can’t fuck this up.”
“Miles and Steve matter too,” Charlotte snaps. “They have kids! They’re also decent human beings, if it matters to any of you.”
“Hey,” I say, patting her stomach. “He failed to tell us they had hostages. This is the first I’m hearing about it.”
“Me too,” Malachy growls.
“I was going to leave it up to you whether Charlotte joined us,” Moretti says. “I’m afraid, I’ll now have to insist that she comes to the handoff. We can’t risk them executing Vanessa if they get cagey about not spotting Charlotte.”
“That’s not happening,” I say, trying to keep myself calm. “We can tell them Charlotte is in the trunk of one of the vehicles and kill them all as soon as we see Vanessa.”
“No way,” Charlotte says, spinning in my hold. “You’re not putting the lives of three people at risk to save me. Especially not when I’m the reason for all of this.”
“I’ll put on a wig,” I say, shrugging. “Moretti can drag me from the trunk. I bet they won’t even notice the difference.”
“It’s not a good look if you expected her to trust you to keep yourselves safe, but you suddenly show fear about your inability to keep her safe in the same circumstances,” Moretti says, and I daydream about stabbing him in the eye.
“He has a point,” Charlotte says.
“He wants my foot up his ass,” Malachy growls.
Charlotte says goodbye to Lucky, and I pull Miriam and Seamus aside.
“You know what to do,” I tell them, looking between them. “The first hint of danger. I don’t care if you get a weird tickle in your throat. You bring him to the safe room. All three of you lock down until we get back.”
Seamus nods. “We’ll handle it.”
Miriam sighs, pulling me in for a hug. “Just look after Charlotte. We’ll keep Lucky distracted.”
“We will,” I tell her, giving her a hug.
I don’t expect there to be any issues here in the neighborhood, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. I only wish Charlotte was staying with them.