“Patience is a virtue, Finn. Shut the fuck up and keep looking pretty.”
He’s the most handsome one in the family. Kinda like Alejandro, but my cousin actually looks like a man, not a Ken doll.
Dillan’s patience is wearing thin to match mine and Finn’s. “I’d also like to be home with my wife and baby, Pablo. Keeva has an ear infection and is miserable. If I have to be miserable too, I’d rather be holding my little one.”
She’s an adorable baby. Even I can appreciate that, especially since she takes after her mother. At least they didn’t fuck that kid by spelling her name the Irish way—Caoimhe. I’ve seen the original spelling of his wife’s name since she was born in Northern Ireland. Most Americans wouldn’t get it.
“Poor baby.”
Javier chimes in from where he stands behind me. We all know he isn’t referring to the infant. My cousins are here in force just like Dillan’s. We look like rival football teams about to face off.
“I get you’re obligated to defend the O’Sheehans, and that’s why you’re doing this.”
“What the ever-loving feck are you going on about?”
“You’re targeting my girlfriend to get back at my family for Drew.”
Dillan takes a menacing step forward. Of course, that results in his cousins following him. I can’t ignore it, so I take my own step forward, which brings my cousins with me.
“We don’t target women.”
“Anymore.”
“You can wipe that sneer off your motherfecking face.”
“Could you just pick feck or fuck, for fuck’s sake? You’re impossible to take seriously. It won’t distract me. You’ve been expanding into Eastern Europe for the past couple years. You’ve pissed off Maks. Now you’re pushing into Latin America. We let all of you have your little labs as the price of peace. But you went way too far getting Humberto involved.”
“That old fart? He’s dead, and you killed him. We can’t do business with a dead man.”
It doesn’t surprise me news already left Colombia and reached New York. Annoying, but not surprising.
“Before I took care of him. You still want something from us, and you’re using my girlfriend to get it.”
“Look, Pablo, we?—”
All at once, my cousins’ and my phone go off. We keep them on silent except for two things. The emergency group text and the tracker alerts. I glance back at my family as I pull out my phone.
“What the fuck did you do?!”
I’m ready to lunge at Dillan, but I restrain myself at the last second. It’s Flora’s tracker that’s going off.
“What are you talking about? Whose tracker is that?”
All members of the Four Families wear one. The women have them in bracelets and necklaces. The men have them on watches or belt buckles. Just like in my family, the only time the other men’s phones make noise is for the family emergency text or their trackers.
“It’s Flora’s. I swear to God, Dillan. I swear to motherfucking God.”
His eyes widen as he realizes just how close to the brink I am. I’m one of the few who nearly never takes the Lord’s name in vain. My mother would kill me if she just heard me.
“Pablo.”
I look back at Joaquin, our chief intel gatherer. He hands me his phone, and I read a message from one of our men saying an attack happened as a car arrived to pick up Flora. She was leaving her lunch withTíaCatalina andTíaLuciana.
“I’ll callMamá.”
Javier and Alejandro speak, and I know they’re calling mytías. It’ll be to check on their mothers and to see if either of them knows what happened. Maybe they saw something.
“Pablo—”
