31
CIAN
The thought of being locked up for as long as Hawk pleases sends my heart racing. It was bad enough being kept in some sort of entertainment room earlier which, while it was spacious, was still locked and enclosed. We’re both trapped here at his mercy and I have nothing to fight back with, not with Faina’s life on the line.
I glance at her, looking absolutely stunning in a deep crimson dress that hugs her body at all the curves I adore so deeply, and wish for the umpteenth time that I could do something to save her. Currently, my options are limited to nothing.
“Why not just kill me now and force him?” Faina asks, tightening her grip on her water bottle.
“Because a man who has losteverythingwill cling tighter to the one gem he has left,” Hawk replies. “Which is you. And I’m not in the business of making bad deals.” Hawk sips from his glass and when he swallows, one of the wings of the tattoo on his neck appears to flap.
“Tell me your proposal then,” I say while fighting to keep my voice steady.
Hawk’s eyes lock with me. “You’re a strange man, Cian. I admit I thought wiping out your entire family would get me a bit of what I wanted, and to some extent, it did. But you Irish…” He shakes his head and tilts his glass toward me. “Always so smart.”
What the hell is he talking about?
I shift in my seat and lean back as Hawk leans toward me, but he does nothing other than unlock the cuff around my wrist and free me from the table. I immediately draw my hand against my body and massage the ache away while Hawk stands and paces away from the table toward the railing at the end of the deck a few feet away.
“I’ve spent my life becoming the best of the best.”
Here we go.
Glancing at Faina, I subtly roll my eyes and she gives me a quick comforting smile.
“It sounds cliché but what else am I supposed to do in this fucking country surrounded by desert, heat, and more rock than should exist in any one place? And the cops?” Hawk chuckles and turns back to me, sipping his wine. “They make it almost too easy. Of course, we don’t run our cities the same way you lot locked down New York. For a trio of organizations, you sure went out of your way to make sure no outsiders could ever break intothatmarket. You drive your fast cars, deal in your flashy drugs and high-end weapons. Here? I lead the largest Australian bike Mafia in the entire country and the funny thing is, most people look down on us. They think we’re a motorcycle club and theylaughbut while they’re laughing, I’m robbing them blindin ways they won’t even notice until they’re tucked up in bed at night and their nest egg vanishes. But a dirty biker gang can’t possibly be responsible for drained savings accounts, stolen loan payments, or missing pensions. So I don’t complain when they look down their noses at us.”
“Can’t relate,” I bite out through the anxious tremor in my chest. “We’re respected.”
“Of course.” Hawk snorts. “The Giffords. A family of the people. I saw what you lot were doing. Opening shelters, getting into housing. A smart move when it comes to money but disgusting to hear you lot preach about how you wanted to help people.”
Cormac and Evelyn were doing good, as good as you can for a criminal, at least. They were helping those who needed it while punishing those who deserved it. Morality hardly has a place in this world, but Evelyn was a good influence in that regard.
My jaw tightens while I glare at Hawk, unable to calm myself enough to word anything.
“And yet you saw fit to take them out,” Faina pipes up for me. “Maybe they highlighted whereyouwere going wrong.”
“I don’t need a fucking conscience to make money,” Hawk snaps, his eyes narrowing at her. “I’m smarter than all you fuckers, which is why I went where the real money is. Cybercrime is easy. Too easy. Far too many people blindly trust things online, always certain that the scams and the theft will never affect them personally. It’s alwayssomeoneelse. Well, I make sure it’s everyone, and your eyes would water if you knew how much some war lords in the Middle East will pay for a couple of missiles. While you were dealing with mortgages and loans, I was doingrealwork.”
“If you just want to stroke your ego then seriously, dude, it makes it sound even more pathetic that you saw us as a threat.”
Hawk’s eye twitches and he laughs humorlessly, then drains his glass. “I’ve been trying fordecadesto break into the American market. The delivery routes and quality product that come through the States would be worth a fortune to someone like me, never mind how easy it would be to do exchangesandsave me time without having to make around the world trips. But you lot… you made it impossible, so I turned my attention to the rest of the world. Your little three-tier criminal network in New York was impenetrable and theonlyaction I got was when you sent stock out of the States. I mean if you think about it, no one ever questioned who wasbuying the slaves. No self-respecting person eager for that kind of purchase does it without security. And then you went and closed it down.” Hawk’s cold gaze fixes on Faina. “Because your Godmother murdered the savviest businessman the Russians ever had.”
Faina glares back and then smirks softly. “Sounds like you were just beating against a wall and no one was listening.”
Hawk tilts his head. “To an extent. Until Domenico came into the fold. Now that man knew how to make money.”
A chill steals down my spine, sending a flurry of goosebumps up and down my limbs. Domenic Del Prete. The Italian monster who fooled all of us for years into thinking he was just a quiet, loyal mobster. It turned out he was much more devious than that, especially when Rocky ended up marrying a cop. A unique romance that worked and yet Domenico saw it as the end of the Italians.
On his order, I was tortured, and just his name makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“You remember him, right?” Hawk approaches the table and picks up the wine bottle while holding my gaze. “I’d spent years being the middle man in Europe and the Middle East and then Domenico just opened the door to the States for me and let me into this treasure pool the lot of you had on lockdown. Human trafficking has always paid well. The money I make from skin pays for the weapons which in turn sell for an eyewatering profit, and I stay rich. But the untapped drug market all across America? Every single googly-eyed addict desperate for the latest and cheapest drug? I couldfloodthe market and start an epidemic. And then you came along and shut me out once more.”
Saoirse did.
She killed Domenico.
And then almost single-handedly dismantled the underground human trafficking empire Domenic had been running.
