He followed Liam out into the night. They climbed a second set of stairs to the porch situated at the back of the house. Most of the family ignored it, preferring to either be inside or completely out of the house, but he and Liam had spent quite a few evenings out here, sharing a beer and just sitting in silence.
Silence wasn’t an option tonight. They needed a plan for moving forward. “What’s my father been up to today?” He hadn’t seen much of Seamus, which wasn’t comforting in the least. The man was up to something, and hell if he could figure out what it was.
Everyone in his fucking family seemed to be up to something these days.
“He’s been in meetings with the gunrunners. I don’t know where he’s planning on sending the shipment he’s currently negotiating.”
“Find out.” He needed to cut that shit off at the knees. Aiden hadn’t really expected his father to back off just because they’d exchanged words, but it appeared Seamus was more than happy to use his current distraction to undermine him. He couldn’t allow it to happen, no matter what else was going on.
They were only as strong as their foundation, and infighting would weaken the family at a time when they needed their strength the most.
“We need proof that it was the Eldridges. Once we have that, I’ll make my move.” He just needed to figure out what his move was going to be. He stood before an impossible choice. If he didn’t strike back after an attack like that, it would be a weakness his enemies would want to exploit. If he did, he ran the risk of screwing up his plans.
His original plan to set the Eldridges on Romanov and Romanov on the Eldridges was all well and good, but he couldn’t allow Romanov to fight his battles.
Or James Halloran, for that matter.
Fuck.
He pulled out his phone, cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner, and dialed James. He had the man’s number out of sheer necessity, though he hadn’t had cause to use it up to this point. It rang until he was sure it would click over to voicemail, and then a surly voice answered. “What do you want?”
There was no reason to mince words. James wouldn’t take it well if he tried to manipulate him. His only option was blunt honesty. “That attack was against Charlie and Keira, not Carrigan. I want you to stay out of it.”
“Too fucking bad. She has three sets of stitches and she’s cut all to hell. If your woman hadn’t reacted when she did,Carrigan would be dead. So don’t try to start a pissing contest with me, Aiden. You know who’s responsible? You had better fucking tell me, oryouwill be next on my list.”
He closed his eyes, praying for patience. “I’m glad my sister is okay. But her being there changes nothing.”
“What would you do in my position?”
He wanted to lie, to tell whatever convenient truth he could come up with to get James to stay out of it. He couldn’t. “I’d do exactly what I’m planning on doing and make an example of this piece of shit so that no one comes gunning for my fiancée or my sisters again.”
“Exactly.” James hesitated and then grudgingly said, “I’m willing to hold off and work together since our purposes line up. That’s as far as you can push it. Don’t fucking cut me out of this.”
Fuck.He considered his options. There really weren’t any. James would move forward on his own if he didn’t agree to these terms, and they’d likely be stumbling over each other in their effort to get to the Eldridges—or whoever was responsible—which would weaken them both. “Fine. Don’t move until I contact you.”
“Your sister wants you at that fundraiser tomorrow night. Don’t fuck this up, Aiden. You keep saying that you’re not your old man—now’s the time to prove it.”
He’d totally forgotten Carrigan’s comment about the fundraiser. It couldn’t be worse timing. He opened his mouth to say exactly that, but the image of Charlie’s face imprinted itself on the back of his eyelids.A chance to fix things.“We’ll be there.”
“Good.” James hung up.
“That went well.”
Liam snorted. “It sounds like it. Can you blame him?”
“No, but the situation just gets more twisted the further into it we are. The last thing we need is more complications.” The words were barely out of his mouth when his phone started ringing. He stared at it. “Check the porch for bugs. Now.”
As Liam moved to obey, he answered. “It’s awful late for a chat, Dmitri.”
“And yet you’re awake.”
He stood and stalked around the perimeter of the porch. “Our next meeting isn’t for several days. Why are you calling?”
“You know why.”
Yeah, he did. “If you had a warning about the attack, you should have warned me instead of Keira.”
“That unnecessary step would have wasted time the women didn’t have.”
