Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Ezekiel
“They’re already here,” Malachi speaks as he shuts down the engine of his brand new Mercedes Benz. He then gently opens the door and walks outside, closing it shut with a lot more care than I’d expect from anyone, let alone my brother.
“You know it’s just a car?”
“Don’t say that, it can feel you’re not taking it seriously,” Malachi’s pale green eyes look dead serious as he’s speaking. He runs his hand through his hair, making sure the light brown curls are tamed and under control, like everything else in his life is.
“Imagine if you crash it tomorrow…” I say more to myself than for him to hear it.
“Not gonna happen,” he says calmly as he makes his way to the entrance of the villa and unlocks the front door.
I have never seen my brother show so much care for anything in his life as he does for this car. It’s completely out of character for him, which makes me want to understand it even more. And also tease him.
I follow him inside and we’re welcomed by the automatic lights turning on as soon as we set foot into the foyer.
Malachi has servants at his villa, same as the rest of us, but they have limited access to most areas in the house, and we rarely cross paths with any of them, aside from the security guards.
Malachi and I head toward the study, where our three younger brothers are waiting for us.
The house is elegant, with warm lighting reflecting off the marble floors, illuminating the villa’s interior. Every detail, from the artwork to the furnishing, has been chosen with care, reflecting my brother’s luxurious taste.
“It’s about time,” Levi leans back in the leather chair with a drink in his hand and a smile on his face. “I was starting to miss my older brothers.”
Elijah gives him a deadly look, while Cain remains focused on the tablet in his hands. Seeing Cain do something as mundane as paperwork would strike anyone else as strange. Sure, he might have a few more scars than your boy next door, but that doesn’t make him any less human.
“Is everything alright?” Elijah speaks in a calm tone.
“Not exactly,” I make myself comfortable in one of the free chairs while Malachi takes the spot next to Cain on the sofa. “We got nowhere with the interrogation, and to make things worse, someone saw me interrogate this guy…”
We were supposed to have our meeting at the club originally, but after Riley came into the picture, I rescheduled the meeting and moved it to midnight at Malachi’s house.
“Did you take care of it?” Elijah’s eyes widen slightly at the possibility of danger. “And how much did they see?”
“Yeah, it’s all under control,” I notice Malachi shooting me a look, but he stays quiet. “The girl was auditioning for a stripper and she got lost on her way to find the bathroom. She didn’t see much.”
“Are we sure she’s not a spy?” Levi asks.
“No, that’s why I hired her. To keep an eye on her.”
“Good,” Elijah nods, leaning forward in his chair. “We can’t afford any more problems right now.”
“Do you want me to keep an eye on her?” Cain speaks for the first time.
“No, I’ve got it with this one.”
There is no way I would allow Cain of all people to keep an eye on Riley.
While he’s not an aggressive guy by nature, he’s the person we send where diplomacy is no longer an option.
Not exactly someone I’d send to do surveillance on a regular person who just happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong time.
The memory of Riley dancing at the audition flashes in front of my eyes. I end up pouring myself a glass of water, suddenly thirsty. Before my brothers can notice anything, I change the topic back to the reason why we’re meeting tonight in the first place.
“We still have zero leads about the girl that went missing,” Malachi speaks. “It’s not possible that she just vanished. Someone has to be behind all of this.”
“Agreed,” Elijah nods.
“Can we discuss the possibility that someone might be targeting us again?” Levi sighs, placing his empty glass of whiskey on the coffee table.
The air in the room changes immediately and my body stiffens.
“It’s very likely,” I nod. “And whoever it is, I’m not going to let them get away with it as easily this time.”
“Zeke,” Malachi’s voice is neutral but even like that it cuts the tension like a knife. “What happened a year ago wasn’t your fault.”
“Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have done things differently,” at my words, all four of my brothers go quiet. They know I’m right and neither is mental enough to challenge me on a subject as delicate as this one.
One year ago, right after I became the new head of the Kavanagh family, I sent Malachi on a mission and it got him captured and tortured. He never should have been there in the first place, I was supposed to go. I put him through hell, and I swore never to allow something like that to happen again.
“My bets are on the Devlins,” it’s Levi who breaks the silence by pouring himself another drink.
“We don’t have enough proof to back that theory up,” Malachi says.
“If we’re going to rely solely on proof, we don’t have any proof for anything,” Levi points out and I agree.
“But that doesn’t mean we can go and accuse the Devlins for something like this without being sure it’s them,” it would be reckless and we’d end up putting our family in even greater danger.
“I don’t need proof to go against a Devlin any day,” Cain smirks.
“Same here,” Levi raises his glass at Cain theatrically. “They might not be responsible for the girls disappearing, but they’ve done enough to have it coming.”
“As much as I would love to see Ronan Devlin at the bottom of the ocean, we can’t recklessly start a mob war.” I don’t say it at loud, but that reckless behavior is what got our parents killed.
“I still think we should keep our focus on them,” Elijah suggests. “Maybe we can put them under surveillance?”
“I like that idea,” Malachi agrees. “They’re quite sophisticated, and even without proof, it won’t hurt to remain cautious.”
The memories I have of Ronan Devlin growing up aren’t of rivalry.
Ronan is the head of the Devlin family. Back in the day, our families used to be close allies and he was my father’s partner.
But then they clashed, turning our families into mortal enemies.
My brothers could easily be right about this, the Devlins might be responsible for what was happening.
“We have to be smarter than them,” I get up from my seat and head over to Malachi’s desk. I know my brother’s password, so I log in into his personal laptop with ease. “Where do you keep your Devlin file?”
“Which one?” Malachi jokes, but he quickly comes over and opens a folder with all the files he’s been keeping on the Devlins. There is one for each member of the family and their close allies.
“If we start going through this, we might find something that connects them to the disappearances.” I trust my brothers and I know that they wouldn’t keep anything from me, but I’m a control freak and I double check every file.
“What do you want each of us to do?” Cain asks.
“Malachi and you will stay here and help me with these,” I instruct. “And Levi and Elijah, you should head over to my office and try to find as much as you can on the deals father signed while he and Devlin were still partners.”
Elijah and Levi jump to their feet following my orders. As I watch them walk through the door, all I can think about is if I’m making another mistake.
I didn’t personally know the girls that went missing, but their disappearance made a huge impact on our finances because of the rumors surrounding it. Everyone is blaming us for what happened. I need to make sure that Eden’s image stays intact despite everything that’s been going on.
“It’s ironic how they’re blaming Eden for the disappearances, when the girls at Eden don’t even offer sexual services to our customers,” Cain rereads another one of the news articles that has been openly pointing fingers at us.
“That’s why we have take care of this before things get worse.”