“Nope, he’s bein’ a pussy.”
“I am not bein’ a fuckin’ pussy.” Yes, yes, I was. “Caity is fragile right now.”
“Don’t let my sister hear you call her fuckin’ fragile,” Sal barked as he pushed past Mac. “And stay the fuck away from her,” he ordered, pointing his finger at me.
“Fuck you, Sal.” I ignored the look on my boss’ face. He knew I wouldn’t stay away from her. He just didn’t want to think about his sister being with anyone. He’d hated Kelley as much as the rest of us. He’d even had his own ideas about how to get rid of him years ago.
Maybe if we had, Maddie would still have her husband, and I would have a grandson.
Fuck!
“I have a grandson,” I whispered to no one.
“No, you fuckin’ don’t!” Sal snarled. “Maddie made her choice, and you agreed to respect it.”
“That was before I knew he was mine!” I argued.
Sal shook his head. “We aren’t going to war with the fuckin’ Bratva and the Italians. Now, have you found that cocksucker yet?”
The subject was closed as far as Sal was concerned. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Henry. My grandson.
“No, he knows how to hide. But I do have a few more names that have red flags. I’ll send Liam and Oscar to question them.”
“Someone outside the family is helping him. It’s the only way he’s eluded us. Tyran isn’t that fuckin’ smart,” Duncan said.
“Could be Stone,” Mac offered.
“Montana?” Sal asked, confusion on his face. Montana Stone wasn’t stupid either; he just had no fucking filter and said whatever the fuck popped into his head.
“No, Dakota. He was there when Moreno’s woman was taken. He got away while Moreno was beating the life out of Steele,” Mac explained.
It was possible Dakota was helping Tyran. Though I didn’t know how they’d have met. It would have had to have been something outside the organization. We didn’t work with bikers. Well, except the Silver Shadows, whose president was Sal’s son. He’d do anything for him.
“Ci, look into Dakota. I want everything you can find on the son of a bitch.”
I nodded, and Sal stormed out. Duncan sighed. “I hope she’s worth it.”
“Is Freyja worth dealing with the Sons of Hell?”
“I don’t have to deal with them. They aren’t in my fuckin’ backyard. Sal’s not going anywhere. He’ll get over it eventually, but it’s gonna take time.”
“I know.”
Duncan and Mac left, letting me get back to work, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what Duncan had asked. Was Caity worth a wedge between me and one of my best friends?
Sal and I didn’t grow up together. My family was part of the organization, but my mother did her best to keep me separate from it. Duncan brought me in when I was twenty years old. He knew I was smart, and Sal had been working to put together his own crew to prove to his father he could take over from him one day.
Tyran had tried to push me out on more than one occasion. But I’d made myself invaluable to Sal, showing him time and time again that brains were what he needed more than brawn.
Muscle was the old way of doing things. Intelligence was the wave of the future. Intimidation didn’t earn you trust; knowledge did.
Caity had only been seventeen then, but I knew she was mine. I’d waited too long trying to prove myself worthy of her. Kelley had swooped in and stolen her away from me.
That wouldn’t happen again. My plan was to steal her first before anyone had a chance to even try.
I sat in my car staring at her front door. Eamon’s front door. It wasn’t the home she had grown up in. No, she’d lived with her mother, just as Sal lived with his. Her father had no use for a wife; he didn’t want one. The fact that he’d only had three children that we knew of was astounding.
We’d all expected children to come out of the woodwork once he’d died, but either there weren’t any others, or they just didn’t know he was their father.
