“I haven’t restricted Conall’s movements yet,” Sloan replied instead, his smooth voice cutting through the conversations going on around me. I jerked my chin in his direction because I hadn’t been aware that he was paying any attention to me.
“Just occurred to me that maybe ye would’ve is all,” I said.
He nodded and didn’t seem upset by what I’d asked as his mouth turned down. “I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t believe Thiago Reyes will have had time to plan his revenge yet. I have twice as many men out on the streets with their ears to the ground, though. Lor, why don’t you take Vail and Fallon to play a game of pool?”
Lor glanced up from a conversation he’d been embroiled in with Vail that partially included Fionn—or at least, he had a disdainful look on his face for some reason—and nodded. “Sure thing. Come on. Sloan taught me how to cheat.” He stood up and grinned at Vail, who laughed.
“Play the game, not cheat,” the boss said casually, leaning back in his chair.
Fionn scowled. “When did you do that?”
Sloan stared at him, and Lor seemed to miss most of the Brat Prince act Fionn was putting on. I would never say it out loud, but we would be in a sad state when he took over if he didn’t grow the feck up. Sloan would get him trained by then, though. I trusted him to watch out for us all.
Vail waved at me as he left with Lor, and Fallon cut a look in my direction, and I nodded at him, doing my best to let him know I was regretting missing out on him when I got home today. I wasn’t certain I did a good job at saying any of that with no words, mainly because it wasn’t the type of thing I usually thought much about, but he smiled at me as he went. When they were gone from the dining room, Conall chuckled.
“So, there were tigers?” He rested his elbows on the table, then sat back when Sloan tapped the one closest to him.
Aspen groaned. “Jamie told you about it?”
Conall nodded with a grin. “I’m glad you’re all okay because it wouldn’t be funny otherwise, but I laughed my arse off, I won’t lie.”
Rowen snorted. “Glad I missed that one.”
Conall surprised me when he got up and came around the table. He had three polaroid photographs in his hand, and he passed one each to Aspen, me, and Rowen. “I’m glad you’re back in town. I asked Sloan if we had someone who could handle this, and he said you would be home today, so I waited.”
I glanced at Sloan, but he waved a hand at Conall. Fionn huffed and crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. I took a look at the photo. There was a bloke with long dark hair and a weaselly little mustache. He had his arms wrapped around a pretty blond man. The blond was young and innocent looking with a big smile. “This is one of the birthday parties at the Virtue.”
Conall nodded and his chin stuck out while his jaw went hard. “That’s Shell getting a hug. That arsehole with him, Nat Lions, broke Shell’s leg and did it on purpose.”
I glanced at Conall, whose face had gone red, and then to Sloan and back again.
“Normally security would’ve dealt with this at the Virtue, but Lions asked to take Shell out and paid a huge fee to have him as an escort. Shell was kicked out of his car injured, and he sped off before anyone could do anything.”
“We teaching lessons or putting an end to a nuisance?” I cracked my neck and sat higher in my seat.
“Lessons,” Conall said coldly and stalked back around the table to retake his seat beside Sloan, who ran his hand over the top of Conall’s head. “He’s spent a lot of money at the Virtue. He deserves at least as much pain and inconvenience as he created for our whore.”
“Boss?” Aspen stared at Sloan. “You’re sure you don’t want him dead?”
“Yes, I agree with Conall’s assessment. We don’t want to draw too much attention to the whorehouses.”
“You don’t have to scoop him up tonight, but I would like you to do it sometime soon. I don’t want this dragging out for months,” Conall said, relaxing back against his chair. Some of his smile returned. “I know you probably want to settle in.”
“My pet has strong feelings about men who injure whores.” Sloan leaned over and kissed Conall’s temple, and I got the feeling that maybe Sloan wouldn’t have been sending us out to do this job if it didn’t involve Conall, but who was I to turn down work?
Fionn was icily silent and stared at the table.
“This pissant should be easy enough to find,” Aspen said. “He looks familiar. I’ve seen him at the club you like, Cillian.”
“Bellissimo?”
He nodded and glanced back down at the polaroid. My chest ached as I continued to stare at Aspen. The boss was happy and his pet was apparently giving us jobs to do now, which made sense because he was in charge of the whorehouses, but nothing about this was right if Aspen wouldn’t even look me in the eye. I felt fecking old, that’s what this was. My bones were weary.
I shot to my feet, and Aspen raised his eyebrows at me. “There ain’t no time like the present, right, sir?” I smiled at Sloan. “Come on, fellas. Let’s get this done.”
“Fallon missed you,” Conall said, and he had some steel in his tone that made me wary. I turned to look at him. “Don’t do it tonight. Later this week is fine. Or even next week.”
I glanced around at everyone and shrugged. “Whatever ye would like.” I felt strangely formal as I bowed my head in Conall’s direction and tucked the photo in my pocket. “I’m about knackered from all the travel. I’m gonna go collect me boys. Excuse me.”
