Before I can even fully open the door to Alec’s office, he’s already up and out of his chair, glowering at me from over his desk.
“We have a fucking problem,” he snaps, radiating fury.
Jesus, he looks terrible. The bags under his eyes are big enough to be considered luggage, and his dark stubble is uneven on one side, like he tried to shave and gave up before he finished. Even his suit is a mess, wrinkled and unkempt, with the top button undone. And with his temper set to 100, he’s a heart attack waiting to happen.
“What happened?” I ask, dropping into the chair in front of him.
“Someone hit our supplies shipment. Blew them to high hell. I’ve been dealing with our feds all morning, trying to keep this from escalating above their heads. Apparently, it’s not easy to keep a massive explosion from the public.” He slams his fist down on his desk with a snarl.
“Calm down,” I say, trying to pacify him. Bad idea, I realize, when his nostrils flare and he turns that fury on me. “Whatever you did obviously worked, right? Since this is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“That’s not the point,” he spits out.“It’s him, Ashton. It’s Dante. I don’t give a shit what Doc thinks. I know it’s him. He’s here, he’s fucking with my business, and he’s fucking with my girl.”
“Ourgirl,” I correct. A muscle in Alec’s jaw tics, and for a second, I honestly think his head might explode.
“If I had known he might still be alive, I never would have started expanding into Empire City.” He swears, running a hand over his dark hair. “Doc’s wrong. Dante isn’t just scouting. He’s ten steps ahead of where we thought he was.”
“Listen, losing one shipment isn’t going to ruin us. We have contingencies for this sort of shit. Which shipment was it?”
“The fucking guns we needed from Tony Delmano.” He pounds his fist into the table again.
“Let me handle it,” I say, taking pity on him. Jesus, I’ve never seen him look this bad before. “It’s one shipment. I’ll get in contact with everyone and let them know there will be a delay. Sure, we lost some money, but it’s negligible. We can’t fall apart over this.”
“I’m not falling apart. I am trying to manage this before it gets bigger. Right now, it’s just one shipment. And it’soneliquor license that’s been revoked, threatening to delay ourbiggest opening yet.And it’sseeminglyonly one guy gathering information on Sydney. But we know what he’s capable of.” He’s pacing now, fists clenched at his sides. “When we decided to take his territory, we didn’t have anything to lose. Now we do. And he knows it.”
That’s the real problem, isn’t it? It’s not the guns, not the money we’ll lose arranging another shipment. It’s her. Our girl.
“I’ll handle it,” I tell him, standing up and moving to the exit. I pause at the door, my hand on the knob. “By the way, not to drive you fully over the edge or anything, but that little talk you had with me about staying away from Syd?” I glance over my shoulder at him, watching a vein in his forehead pulse. “You might need to have that same chat with Viper. Sooner rather than later.”
“FUCK!”
I step out, pulling the door shut behind me, just in time to hear something shatter as he tosses it against the wall. A startled intern passing by in the hallway shoots me a terrified look, eyebrows lifting at the sounds of swearing coming from Alec’s office.
“Mondays, am I right?” I say, shooting him a grin.
He scurries away, face pale, and I wait until he’s disappeared down a bend in the hallway before I head to my own office and shut the door.
I don’t come here a lot. Honestly, the whole department probably runs better without me. But it’s nice to have a place where I can be alone. Where I won’t be overheard.
If Dante’s really back, really here sniffing around our girl, we need to know why. Need to know what his plan is, what he wants with her.
And there is someone who might know. Someone who might even be willing to help us. She tried to warn us, didn’t she? When she showed up on that security footage, when she let us catch a glimpse of her, that was a warning, right? Or a sign, orsomething.
Fuck, my brothers are going to kill me if I’m wrong about this. I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial her number, hoping like hell I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life.
It rings. And rings. And rings. When the call finally goes to voicemail, there’s no cheery message, no robot telling me who I called isn’t available. Just a simpleclick,to let me know it’s recording.
“Uh, hey,” I say awkwardly, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “It’s me. Ash. Long time no see, right?” I give a hollow laugh. “Listen… I just want to talk. I just…”
Just what? I don’t even know.
I take a breath. Let it out. “Just call me, okay?”
She won’t, though.
I hang up and stare at my phone, guilt settling into my stomach.
“I miss you, sis,” I murmur.
