4. Chapter 4 #3
Scarlett’s thumb brushed over his hand. Lucian looked down at her, and the two of them had an entire conversation without saying a word.
He sighed. “Jack is moving pieces to protect his territory. Hayes is turning his bullet wound into an anti-mafia crusade for the entire country. Boston has unions, ports, developers, old Irish money, and too many men testing Jack because the nephews he just found pledged themselves to The Syndicate instead of Boston.”
“He wants Byrnes blood visible,” Nik said.
“Yes.”
“Only you?” I asked.
Lucian’s gaze came to mine. “Just me.”
I waited for resentment to hit.
It didn’t.
Maybe I was too tired. Or maybe I’d known this was coming from the moment Jack looked at us and saw not lost nephews, but heirs.
“What about his daughters?” Lacey asked.
Lucian’s mouth curved faintly. “That’s where this gets interesting.”
“Women usually are,” Rory said.
“Jack has three,” Lucian explained. “Aisling, Everleigh, and Keira. They’ve been holding pieces of his world together for years, and the old bastard still talks as if daughters are temporary solutions until a man arrives.”
Lacey’s eyes rolled. “Charming.”
“Aisling handles lawyers, development pressure, and union contracts. Everleigh owns the high-society side: charities, galas, old-family women, social favors, and secrets. Keira’s got the streets locked down.
Pubs, drivers, fighters, dock gossip. If something moves in Boston and Keira doesn’t know, it probably isn’t worth knowing. ”
“They sound interesting,” Gabriel said.
“I bet they’re incensed at the lack of respect from their father,” Scarlett said.
“At Jack. And at me by extension. They’ve spent years fighting for their place, and now their father thinks a nephew he barely knows can walk in and stand above them.”
“That’s so unfair. Typical,” Scarlett groused.
Lucian looked down at her and nodded. “Jack is old-world,” he said. “He wants alliances sealed in blood and marriage. His daughters hate the word arranged even more than they hate me.”
“They think you’re there to match them off,” I said.
“They may not be wrong.”
Scarlett arched a brow.
Lucian lifted one shoulder. “I said may.”
“Careful, husband.”
Gabriel grinned. “I love marriage.”
“You love chaos,” Julian muttered.
I looked at my brother. “You know you have to go.”
His gaze snapped to mine. “Not while we’re in the middle of this. Jack will have to wait.”
“We’re always in the middle of something.”
“This is Delgado.”
“And Jack is blood.”
“So are you.”
“Aye, and I’m telling you to go.”
Lucian’s face tightened.
We’d spent most of our lives with only each other at our backs. Sending him to Boston while I remained in the city felt wrong in a way I didn’t want to examine, but Jack needed him, and Xyst could survive without him, at least for a while.
Scarlett needed a break from Manhattan too.
Her father’s face still filled the news. His supporters were everywhere, and the city had twisted her name through headlines that painted her as a victim, a traitor, or the devil’s new bride. She’d survived too much to heal in a place where Andrew Hayes still smiled for the cameras.
“Boston might be good for Scarlett,” I said quietly.
Her eyes locked on mine.
“It isn’t forever,” I said before she could argue. “It’s a chance for you to breathe somewhere your father doesn’t own the air.”
She swallowed.
For once, she didn’t have a wry answer ready.
Lucian’s hand slid around the back of her neck. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. It’ll give you the space you need to heal. And as much as I hate to leave with all this bullshit going on, it’ll be good for The Syndicate to have one of us in each city right now.”
I nodded.
“I’ll go,” Lucian said. “When this settles, Lach and I can take turns with the three Boston brides.”
Nik’s tablet chimed, and my phone buzzed before I could answer.
Every head in the room turned toward me.
I pulled the phone out of my pocket.
The message was from Isabella.
I don’t think I have any more time to wait.
A second appeared before I finished reading the first.
He knows something. I don’t know what or how, but he’s keeping much closer tabs on me. One of his men was outside my apartment when I got home.
I started to speak when a third message filled the screen.
If you meant what you said, Lachlan, it has to be tonight.
Nik was already reading the messages on his tablet through the tracking app he’d installed on the phone we’d given her.
He gestured to Rory. “Move the extraction window up.”
Rory leaned forward. “How soon?”
Nik’s eyes swept the room as that cold, blank expression settled over his face.
“Tonight.”
Lucian stepped closer. “Lach—”
“No worries.” I pocketed the phone. “You go to Boston. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
His jaw flexed.
“Everything will be fine,” I said. “I just need to get a woman out from under Delgado before he decides to make an example of her.”
“You call me if anything changes.”
“I will.”
By the time we left Xyst, Lucian and Scarlett were bound for Boston, Nik was locking down the house near Teterboro, and I was walking into whatever Isabella Delgado had waiting for me.