The boardroom atVelvet House is located behind the employee quarters. Its fortified walls mean it doubles as a panic room and it’s regularly swept for bugs and recording equipment. I’m the first to arrive. Bobby and Doc requested time to change their clothes and considering their combined scent of cigarette ash, sweat, and fast food, I agreed.
The room has a coffee machine. I make myself a macchiato and find my hands still shaking with rage. Unlike Doc and Bobby, January Whitehall looked like a fresh-faced angel in the morning light, my rubies still around her neck. But the disrespect she showed me… she should have been weeping and begging for my forgiveness, not arguing with me and giving me the finger.
If there weren’t fifty messes to clean up, I’d have the brat in my bedroom and be spanking her until she bruised.
I down my espresso in one. I haven’t slept, I stayed up all night staring at a screen, ensuring the tracking device in the rubies around January’s neck was still live and that she was still safe. My eyes are grainy, and my temper is held back by a thread. True anger is a luxury I can rarely afford, but the last twenty-four hours have stretched me to my limits. When I learned January had been taken by Parker, I was sure she was dead. That man is spiteful to his bones, and I thought Adriano had fucked her before he betrayed us—rendering that beautiful girl worthless in Parker’s eyes. Yet she survived and her virtue is uncorrupted.
I swore if I saw her again, I would claim her and not just for myself.
As I stared, transfixed into that dark screen, aware of exactly how lucky I had been, I knew Doc, Bobby and Adriano were feeling the same mix of dread and relief. And I understood in ways I didn’t before that all of us want her. And that if we are to have any peace, all of us will have to have her. One love. A new kind of family.
It sounds strange but it feels… correct. Sharing one woman with my brothers isn’t unusual, but our feelings for January Whitehall are. Perhaps it was always meant to be this way. There is no one for me but her now, a very different kind of wife from the one I imagined.
There will be pushback from my mother’s family, but no man who lays eyes on January will question my decision. Unless her insolence continues…
I hit the button for more coffee, black this time. I can appreciate January has gone through trauma and lost a loved one, but a wife should be respectful and obedient. I will teach her that, just as soon as I’ve resolved everything else.
Coffee in hand, I take a seat at the polished table. There’s a knock on the door and Doc appears, barefoot in ripped jeans and a sleeveless pink T-shirt. He takes the seat across from mine, sipping his own enormous mug of coffee. “What’s going on? Have we heard from Parker?”
“I’m not going to discuss it without Bobby.”
“I’m here.” Bobby rushes in, still buttoning his plaid shirt. “Parker sent us a message? With who? Harrow? Milner?”
“No one. An encrypted file arrived around the time you two were at Dreams.”
Bobby takes the seat beside Doc. “You think the Baskerville kid tipped him off?”
“No, but—”
“He’s not a kid,” Doc interrupts. “He’s twenty-six and a rat.”
Bobby rolls his eyes. From his messages, I know Doc almost beat Archie Baskerville to a pulp because he and January hugged. But that’s Doc. All rage and compulsion. The thought of another man touching January makes my blood boil but according to Bobby the embrace was innocent and the Baskerville twins did us an almighty favor. Considering them for a job is on the list of things to address once my main problems are dealt with. Parker. Adriano. January.
“Archie and his brother are in the clear,” I tell Doc. “Bill is in the hospital for his concussion and Archie’s laying low in the Bronx.”
Doc pounds his mug on the table. “They’re scumbag traitors.”
“Traitors toParker. Without them, January would be—”
“Back with us. Because Bobby and I would have tracked the necklace to the airstrip and shot Parker through the head. Then we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this shit.”
I don’t respond. He could be right, but he could be wrong. It’s nice to believe we could have rescued January, but I didn’t become the man I am because of my nice beliefs. The facts are we might have been delayed while tracking the necklace or Parker could have lost his temper and injured January. Or worse. Archie Baskerville and his brother made sure that didn’t happen and we could use new blood on our crew.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell Doc. “Bill and Archie are smart, they’ve been in the game for years, they—”
“Want to fuck January.”
“Yes, because they’re human,” Bobby interrupts. “But they’re not suicidal enough to act on it. Having them on the payroll while they’re still working for Parker—”
“And how do we know they won’t fuck us like they fucked him?”
“Enough,” I say wearily. “Aren’t either of youidiotiinterested in Parker’s message?”
Bobby shuts up at once.
Doc scratches his untidy blond head. “What’s the message?”
“No, go on bitching about the Baskerville twins, I’m sure that’s more important.”
