Chapter 17 Daddy’s home
Daddy’s home
Declan
Ivan Holloway, my dad’s cousin and right-hand man, is likely the one who commands my dad’s army right now.
He won’t have expected Connor or me to arrive at the mansion.
Now that we have, he’s scrambling. He knows as well as we do that any power player who wants to pounce on Selnoa’s throne, vacated by my dad, will have to show force.
We can be allies. Or enemies. It all depends on how he receives us.
We think all will be peaceful since Ivan is now having lunch with his family. He’s trying to convince his reluctant (rightfully so) wife to move into the mansion.
Since he is trying to convince his wife that all is well and that he is the new king of the city, he will have to pretend as if our arriving here is something he approved and even expected.
The guard speaks with our driver, then comes to stand next to my window.
He expects me to roll it down, so I don’t. I wait until he knocks on the window. Twice.
I roll down the window and let him peek inside.
A nod, and he leaves.
Dina expels the breath she held and rolls up the window. “There are cameras everywhere.”
“Thank God for that,” Connor says. “I’ve spied on this place for over a decade and a half.”
“A decade and a half?” Dina asks, stunned.
“That’s what I said.”
“You were eleven.”
“Yeah, I know how old I was fifteen years ago.”
“At eleven, I was going to school and playing with dolls. My daughter went to school, and although she never played with dolls, she didn’t run surveillance of Selnoa’s most notorious criminal either.”
“Connor is gifted,” I explain.
“I am not,” Connor says.
“He is gifted.”
“Gifted with madness. If we’re talking specifics.”
“We’re not,” I cut him off.
“I’m not gifted with patience. And this motherfucker is making me wait.” Connor shifts in his seat. His impatience won’t work in our favor.
The gates open, and the collective relief in the back seat is palpable.
We drive up the long driveway. Tall bushes and trees block the view of the house until the car emerges into a front yard, which is more like a town square.
We park on the left, near the steep cliff overlooking the city, and exit the car.
Dina stops next to me, looking around, apprehensive, alert. I like this. I don’t want her to walk beside me like a lost puppy. I need her to assess the situation alongside me. Our lives depend on it.
I expect a welcome, but my dad’s cousin is nowhere to be found. In fact, nobody greets us, but I can sense the snipers watching our every move. The guards patrol the property. The vests we wear won’t protect us from snipers, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take. We can’t show weakness.
Since Dina’s arrest, I would bet that the factions fighting for power are scrambling to figure out who she is. Now they’ll know that she was found with a professional piece of equipment, and they will pause to reassess their options. My father was feared. Connor and I multiply that legacy.
Even if we intend to dismantle more than half of our father’s businesses and replace them with ways of making money and trading on foreign markets that make people wealthier and the governments happier.
For that to happen, we need Ivan. The man has connections of his own, and several of them are going to be a problem. Like the ones Endo burned. Scarlett’s father is another.
I would rather recruit Ivan and make a deal with him than have to eliminate him and try to renegotiate his contacts. Since he’s admitted us into our home without a fight, and I’m sure he won’t execute us while we’re here, I hold out a hand for Dina.
When she doesn’t take it, I wiggle my fingers.
She puts her hand into mine, and I grow hard instantly. For fuck’s sake, I have to stop this. Preferably today.
I interlock our fingers and walk behind Connor. Next to me, she tries to keep up, but she’s short, so I slow down while keeping an eye on the rooftops.
“How many do you see?” I ask Connor.
“Three.”
“There are five,” I say. “Five and two grounded at nine o’clock.”
“What are we looking for?” Dina asks.
Sniper nests. “Birds.”
“Bird watching seems an odd thing to do right now.”
I wonder how much I should tell her about what we’re doing here. I wonder what’s best for her. To know or not to know. I’ve never had to share details of my business with anyone besides my immediate family.
I’ve never dated a woman, so I have no idea. Couldermouth is a small town. I knew all the girls, and they knew me. We all used to hook up with each other.
Connor and I were popular because of our family, but whenever the relationships got even remotely serious, the girls would get sent away or get a curfew or something. Fathers didn’t want us dating their daughters.
I didn’t blame them. Actually, I envied those girls. Their fathers cared enough about them to take steps to ensure the women weren’t exposed to the kind of violence we saw almost on the daily.
Nobody wants to give up their daughter for a son of a man who brutally murdered his wife and desecrated her body for the city of millions to see.
When people who are familiar with our family history look at Connor and me, they see the body of our mother hanging from the bridge.
One of the first things Dina mentioned about my father was how he treated his wife.
There is something wicked and evil inside a man who could do that to the mother of his children.
I hate this city because my parents loved it.
I’m forced to live here, and every morning I glance out my damn bedroom window (I intend to claim my father’s suite), I have to look at it. All of it, since the mansion sits on an elevation above the city.
We walk past the pool area, which the staff has scrubbed since the last time I saw it. We pass the table where my father hosted my uncle and his rival for a luncheon where he was killed. This space by the pool is usually bustling with life. Music, money, cards, drugs, nude women… You get the idea.
Ivan can’t party now. His wife is here. But I wonder if he parties at all.
Connor said Ivan runs the surveillance and the defense systems, so all the men on the property were already under his direction.
He was their captain, the man who issued orders.
My dad entertained and carried out the business side of deals.
Massio made the money. Ivan protected him.
We step into the house, which is nice and cool compared to the hot outdoors.
A housekeeper in her twenties wearing a French maid uniform greets us. Connor and I exchange looks. In our world, we read power moves like some people read the Bible. Thoroughly and with reverence.
We seek to understand the meanings, and we were trained, from a very young age, to read power signals no matter how demure.
By having a housekeeper greet us, Ivan sends us a message. You are unimportant. A guest in the mansion who doesn’t warrant a greeting. We could say nobody told him it was we who were coming through the gate, but we know Ivan controls the mansion estate now, so he deliberately stayed with his wife.
Maybe he thinks we’ll seek him out at our dad’s office at the center of the mansion, where most of the business gets done.
The woman smiles gently, but her voice shakes when she says, “The lady can come with me.”
“No, thank you,” I say.
The woman blinks, clearly not trained in what to do if I refuse. She ought to have been.
“I’ll make this easy on you and Ivan. You can escort us to the family quarters.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have such rooms.”
“Yes, you do, believe it or not. They’re at the back of the house where my father used to sleep alone.”
“Those were Mr. Crossbow’s private rooms. Nobody is allowed there.”
“Except Mr. Crossbow?” Connor asks, the picture of politeness and easy smiles.
The woman nods. “The late Mr. Crossbow. He passed away.”
“He was killed.” Connor pokes her forehead. “Bullet in the head. That’s different from passing away. You see? Anyhow, you can tell Ivan that the still-living Mr. Connor Crossbow is waiting for him in the family quarters.”
The woman stands there.
Connor grinds his teeth. “Move!”
The woman rushes off.
We continue walking toward the back.
“You seem to know where you’re going,” Dina says.
“Unfortunately, we lived with our father for a while.”
“Oh God.”
“What?” I stop as she halts.
“Oh no.”
“What?”
“I talked about your mother in a way that was terribly insensitive.”
I pull her along. “You didn’t know.”
“Still. I’m sorry about that.”
“Which part?” Connor asks. “That you talked about his dead mother, not knowing he was her son, or that Declan is a Crossbow with particularly evil genes running through his veins?”
“Connor,” I warn.
My brother gets into my face. “I like her, but if she mentions our mom again—”
I grab the back of his head and cover his mouth with my hand. “Don’t finish that sentence.” My brother and I stand in the hallway, our gazes locked and our energies colliding. We’ve always been able to speak without talking, and once we understand each other, I take Dina’s hand again.
“You guys should show a unified front,” Dina says. When we don’t say anything, Dina looks from me to him, then back at Connor. “You should take out your cocks and measure them in private so nobody can learn how to tear you apart.”
Connor smiles. “If I show you my dick, you’ll jump the fence over to me.”
Dina turns bright red.
I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Holy crap,” Connor says, “I’m nasty.” He turns the corner. “This way, you guys.”