Chapter 10
Mace
Idon’t think about Lily as I walk into the office the next morning.
I don’t think about how sweet her lips tasted, or the vibration I felt deep in my chest when she hummed into my mouth.
As I sit at my desk and switch on each screen in turn, I don’t think about how soft her tits were beneath my palms, or how hard her nipples were against my chest as I moved on top of her.
I’m definitely not thinking about her tight pussy shattering around my cock.
I’d been so fucking close to coming in my pants on the drive home from her apartment.
I’ve been fighting a constant hard-on ever since, and that’s not something I want to have to explain in front of my brothers.
“I want a meeting in fifteen,” Ash announces as he strides in after me. “And Mace, we need an update on all activity in Poulton Springs. I want to know how close Barrett’s new build is to completion.”
“Can’t you just ask Ray Forsyth? He must know what’s being planned,” I reply. I’m pissed with Ash’s tone, and the last thing I want to do is sit around a conference table for the better part of the morning when I could be doing other things.
“I have asked him,” Ash says. “But I’d still like you to do your job. For some reason, I’m not one hundred percent certain of Ray’s loyalty after the gala.”
I skim my fingers over my knuckles. “Would you rather I’d punched Barrett?”
“Yes.”
“If Ray thinks he can ignore us now, I’m happy to give him another reminder,” says Hunter, coming into the office at the end of our conversation. “Mace’s punch doesn’t negate his obligations. He owes us for not blowing his head off.”
“He owes me for not blowing his head off,” Maddie corrects, as she goes to slip past him.
Hunter ropes his arm around her waist. “Fine, we let Ray know we’ll set my wife on him again,” he tells us.
Ash shakes his head. “Ray isn’t the problem here,” he mutters. “We have a meeting to prepare for.”
“I’ve got the coffees,” Reid says, the last to show up. We’d arrived together, but he’d volunteered to do the coffee run. He places a cardboard cup in front of Ash. “And everything else is prepped.”
“Thanks, Reid.”
Prepped for what? I look at each of my brothers in turn, my gaze settling on Reid as he hands me my coffee.
No one else has asked what the meeting is about.
They don’t need to because they already know.
They just haven’t told me yet. I don’t like being out of the loop, and I know I only have myself to blame.
I’d been working from home yesterday so I could pounce at the right time to snare Lily on her drive home from the office. And fuck, was it worth it.
“What’s going on?” I ask Reid quietly.
He shrugs. “It’s just a planning meeting,” he says, then quickly looks away.
I know Ash thinks he’s given me an impossible task by asking for a report in fifteen minutes, but the programs I’ve written do all the heavy lifting.
“They’re due to finish in six weeks,” I tell Ash, sliding printouts across the table. It’s the latest design Barrett’s architect has lodged with the construction company, along with a project plan.
“Then we don’t have much time to reform allegiances,” he replies grimly as he scans the paperwork. He slides it across to Hunter.
I wait for someone else to ask him to expand on his comment, but Ash is being vague for a reason. He’s forcing me to admit there’s a gap in my knowledge because I’ve been fucking around with a woman.
My oldest brother expects us to behave like damn monks.
He’d watched our father’s heart break twice, once when Alice left him, and then when Lisa died.
That last crack was fatal, and the next generation has been expected to avoid such complications.
The fact that Hunter broke that mold has made Ash all the more resolute that he and I keep focused.
Reid gets a pass of course. His heart was made for love in a way that ours weren’t.
I exhale loudly, letting Ash know I’m aware of the point he’s making. “What allegiances?”
His hazel eyes bore into me. “The McConkeys. If Ray’s to be believed, the distribution hub Barrett is being forced to include in his grand designs isn’t to appease the Irish. The fucker has got himself involved with the Russians.”
“Jesus,” I hiss.
“Alice was right to be worried about the company he’s keeping,” Ash continues. “Not to mention the enemies he’s made. John McConkey was willing to go easy on Barrett because of his blood ties to us, but this changes everything.”
“We never asked for leniency on Barrett’s behalf,” I say. Life would be so much easier if someone put a bullet in Barrett’s head.
“I asked,” Ash clarifies. “And John was willing to stay his hand as long as he got his distribution hub back. Enough innocent blood has been shed in Poulton Springs, Mace. I didn’t want the situation escalating.”
“And yet here we are,” I say. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one here making mistakes.
“If the Russians establish a stronghold in the area, the Irish are going to burn Barrett’s new home to the ground, just like he did with the factory.
” I can’t hold in the laugh. “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. ”
“But it wouldn’t just happen to Barrett,” Hunter says, remaining grim-faced. “Poulton Springs would become the main casualty in a turf war.”
“And we can’t let that happen,” Ash finishes.
As much as I agree, doing anything to help Barrett leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I pick up the latest architect’s drawing. The family estate Barrett has planned is lavish and overstated, but my gaze is drawn to the stable block and guesthouse being built on the outer edges next to a ravine.
The buildings are perfectly isolated, and the only way to get to them is through Barrett’s property. He might not be able to see whatever the Russian’s get up to there, but he’ll be dragged into their world, whether he likes it or not.
I trace a finger over the stable’s individual stalls.
What do the Russian’s have planned for the site?
“I couldn’t track down Quinn Jamieson,” I admit.
“But given that she’s hiding her true identity, it’s possible she has links with the Bratva.
There’s nothing I can do for now, but I’ll know the second she makes another appearance in Poulton Springs. ”
“Assuming you keep your eye on the game,” Ash says.
I almost laugh. There’s another game I have in play that I’m not going to mention.
If I had any sense, I’d forget all about Lily.
But I’m as competitive as she is, and I’m looking forward to claiming my prize.
Over, and over again. The game only ends when she discovers my name.
At which point, I doubt she’d want to claim her prize.
I’m not worthy of one date, let alone two.
My thoughts are pulled back to the architects drawing. There are twenty stalls. That’s a lot of horses. Either the goods they need to store there are on an industrial scale, or else…
“He wouldn’t…” I say, my jaw so tight I have to grind out my words.
“What is it?” asks Ash.
I slide the drawing across the table, then wipe my hands on my jacket as if I’ve been contaminated from simply touching the plans. “The dividers between the stalls are floor to ceiling brick walls. And the timber fronts are fully enclosed. They’re fucking cells.”
The drawing is passed around the table, each person quick to pass it on to the next until the plans come to rest in the center.
It’s Maddie who speaks first. “They’re going to use them for human trafficking, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” Hunter says. “Given that Barrett was happy to barter for you with your brother, we shouldn’t be surprised that he’d go along with something like this, but… Fuck. How are we even related to that man?”
Ash stretches his neck. “I need to let the McConkeys’ know. It’s not just a fight over who controls Barrett’s land now. We can’t let this happen. This weekend’s meeting in Vegas is even more crucial than we thought. We all need to be there.”
My stomach lurches. The meeting with the McConkeys is important, I know that, but I had other plans, ones that involved finishing what Lily had brought to a grinding halt when she pulled her lips from mine. I’m going to make her pay for that.
“Could we bring it forward?” I suggest, hoping it looks like I’m being driven by the urgency of the situation, and not my cock.
“Plans have been made,” Ash says, dismissing the suggestion. “We have a breakfast meeting with Killian on Saturday morning, then we’re meeting John in the evening.”
“And on Sunday, we can spend the day together regrouping,” Maddie offers, looking from Ash to me. Our strained relationship is showing and she wants it fixing.
Hunter turns to face his wife. “You’re not going.”
She holds his stare. “I’m part of this family. You can’t cut me out.”
“You’re not going, little bird,” he repeats slowly. “I don’t want you anywhere near those guys.”
“Hunter, we got married in Vegas.”
“And now they know how important you are to me,” he says. “The answer’s no, Maddie. Jake will stay here with you, and you’re not to leave his sight while I’m away.”
“I’d rather not leave your sight,” his wife argues, even though she couldn’t be safer with our head of security watching her night and day.
“Maddie, I’d die to protect you, which makes you the weakness in my armor.”
Fire continues to burn in his wife’s eyes. She never could back down from a fight. “But you’re taking Reid!”
“No, we’re not,” I say quickly.
Reid turns on me, his cheeks flushed. “I’m no one’s fucking weakness.”
“We’d die to protect you too, brother. So, it’s the same thing,” I say sharply.
“I can look after myself.”
My jaw tenses. “You might know how to use a firearm, but you’ve never had to kill someone. Be grateful for that.”
“I’m not a kid. I know what kind of business we’re in.”
“I hate to break it to you,” I hit back, “but you’ll always be our kid brother.”