Sloan tossed a phone onto the table and the clunk it made drew the attention of everyone else who hadn’t yet realized he was standing in the room. I recognized the phone as the one I’d taken from the guy on the rooftop.
Sloan cleared his throat, and I was surprised when I looked him over. He was wearing jeans, which I didn’t think I’d ever seen, and a brown leather jacket that seemed as if it would feel like buttery magic under my fingertips. He moved and the jacket gaped, giving me a glimpse of a gun, and by the way the other side bulged as well, he must be packing a lot of heat.
“Thiago Reyes knows I sent Jamie and his boyfriend, Hunter—” Sloan pointed at the blond, who blushed and waved. “—to Miami. We also had words a while ago, but he must’ve realized I’d scouted out his bullshite intrusion into our territory.”
Jamie cleared his throat and took Hunter’s hand. I chose not to watch my dad for a reaction to that. I didn’t want to know if he was schooling his features so Sloan wouldn’t know what a prick he was. It all pissed me off too bad.
“Reyes has salons the cartel uses to launder money, and they were moving a moderate amount of product. Not enough to get ourselves in knots over it. I decided to watch and wait for them to fuck up, then use their missteps against them. I was still waiting.” Jamie shrugged and ran a hand through his curly brown hair. “They’re an annoyance, but so far they haven’t disturbed our established connections.”
Sloan planted his hands on his hips and glared. “They definitely made you when you went down there, but that was fine.” Jamie nodded and didn’t seem like any of this was news to him. “I wanted them to see you. Somehow, though, they must have found out I had plans to embarrass them at their own fucking game. I was going to open a string of salons that would legitimately outperform theirs and begin using them to launder money so he could see how a real business operates.”
Chuckles ran around the room, but the boss wasn’t smiling.
“Reyes still has men in our city. New York City is difficult to make airtight, which we all know. There’s a lot of area.”
Conall sucked in a sharp breath and glanced over his shoulder at Sloan. Apparently he hadn’t heard about this yet, and that worried me.
“We’ve burned a few of them out. There are more. All of you listen up, I won’t repeat myself.” A man in a suit at Sloan’s side sent a pile of papers down the table but didn’t give one to me and Conall, and all the phones in the room buzzed—except mine didn’t. Conall didn’t move either as everyone began to dig their phones out of pockets.
“You have names and photos,” Sloan said. He ran his hand over the top of Conall’s head, almost as if he needed to reassure himself that he was fine. “These are the men who are currently in my fucking city without permission. They have associations with the Reyes Cartel. Kill them—kill everyone who is stupid enough to do business with them. Salt the fucking earth. No women who aren’t directly involved in business. No children. Otherwise, have at it.”
Everyone went quiet. This was more than bad, but not any less than I’d expected. Conall’s eyes were wide and he took a deep breath, reaching back to grasp Sloan’s wrist. My heart pounded as I watched Aspen show Cillian something on his phone and smirk—he probably knew where to find one of the men.
“Bonuses for each man you take out, two hundred grand apiece. Spread the word. I want every hit man, assassin, and fucker with a grudge looking for those men.” He stared directly at Hunter, who straightened. “Tell any of your club brothers who want to make a payday to come to the city.”
Hunter nodded fast.
Sloan sighed. “If that piece-of-shit Reyes thinks this will go unanswered, he has another thing coming. Once my city is locked up, I’ll be sending Ardan and Mancini on a special trip.” He smiled in Ardan’s direction, and I held in a shudder. The guy freaked me out. “And Cillian, Aspen, and Jamie will be going to Miami to solve this problem for good. Jamie knows what we’re dealing with there.”
My heart stopped beating for a moment and I wanted to yell. Rowen scowled because he hadn’t been included in that order, and I was sure he wanted to know why—because I fucking did.
Everyone started talking at once, and Conall turned and tugged at Sloan’s coat, obviously trying to get him to come down to talk to him, but Sloan only glared around the room. The boss did not look happy.
“Get to work,” he barked. “Now!” Chairs slid back from the table and people grabbed food on their way out. I stared at the guys. They hadn’t left yet, and I wanted to go over to them, but technically I was on the clock right now. Conall was my job. Inside I felt like my body was sinking through the floor.
Fionn pulled out the chair next to me and sat. Sloan came over and jerked the chair back out. “What are you doing?”
“I’m staying here with you?” he said, lips pursed while his hand still hovered in the air near the food.
Sloan smiled, and the expression was so cold I wished I was farther away from him. “No, we’re going hunting. Get ready. Go change.”
Fionn looked unhappy as he stood and did as Sloan said. I got up and paced toward the guys when Sloan tugged Conall’s chair around and went down on a knee in front of him. I had a feeling Conall was furious by the tense lines of his face, but I didn’t want to eavesdrop.
Aspen was the first to reach me and didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around me.
“Don’t have all the fun out there,” I grumbled.
It shocked me when he cupped my cheeks and leaned down to kiss me, and by a gasp from somewhere nearby I thought maybe someone else hadn’t been prepared, either. I grinned when he straightened.
Rowen came over and gave me a quick hug and pressed his lips to my cheek. “Ye take care of Vail and Conall and Lor, aye? Ye have the most important job.” He smiled at me. “Ye’re not left out.”
Conall sighed as he came up behind us, and we turned a little to include him. “Yes, we are left out.”
“Behave, pet,” Sloan said, but he didn’t smack his ass like he usually did when they were play fighting, only leaned in and ate at his lips, resting a hand lightly on Conall’s new cast. I wasn’t sure when he’d gotten the injury taken care of—last I’d seen Conall, he’d only had the sling—but it wasn’t like anyone would tell the boss no if he said to haul their ass to the mansion.
Cillian glared at his phone as if he thought maybe he could kill the person there with willpower alone, then glanced around the room at the people who were lingering. It was mostly the generals and people higher on the ladder because everyone like Padraig had scrambled away the second Sloan had given the order to get going. Cillian finally stuffed his phone away and came over to clutch Aspen’s shoulder with one hand and mine with the other. He shook me around, and I ended up laughing.
“What’s this?” I asked, shaking my head at him.
