Nolan’s hand slipped into his, the other hand still holding a sandwich. “So we’re meeting about the drone?”Or are we meeting about the fact that Race and Connal are going to kill each other if they don’t decide that they want each other?
Right, Jesus Christ.“What we need to talk about is this idiot who wants to interrupt your life. Is it just a pride thing?”
Race nodded. “I think so. It’s not like we are, you know, a hugely wealthy family or anything like that. We don’t have much to offer politically. It’s got to be sour grapes.”
“Well, it could be that I’m absolutely irresistible. I mean, it’s a thing.” Nolan grinned, waving his sandwich around in the air.
“You are irresistible,” Ryder told him, “But that’s beside the point. You know this guy as well as anyone, I guess, so if he’s sending a drone to dart Race, does that mean he’s hands-off? Does that mean he’s a fucking coward?”
Nolan chewed his lower lip for a minute then took a bite of his sandwich and chewed that more philosophically. “I think it’s more that he’s cautious. He likes to know what he’s going to be before he goes into any situation so he doesn’t look like a fool.”
Race tilted his head slowly. ”Yeah, yeah, that’s totally true. He’s all about appearances. It’s not even that he’s smart; it’s that he’s worried he’s going to make an ass out of himself, and people will get to see what a dick move he makes.”
War grinned, his expression feral. “We can work with that. We can really work with that. That’s easy.”
Con tilted his head to one side, staring at Race, so Ryder broke in before Con could open his mouth.
“How much power does he have behind him?” he asked.
“He can’t have too much if he’s sending drones,” War answered instead of Nolan.
Nolan sighed, one shoulder rising and falling. “He has a lot of sycophants. He has a ton of hangers on who court his favor because they want his money, but he doesn’t have a lot in the way of enforcers. The guys who have any kind of physical power just don’t want to work for him. He’s not much of an alpha in the way of leading people.”
“That’s good news for us.” Rye glanced at his brothers. “Maybe we should take the fight to him.”
“I don’t want you to have to fight for me. Can’t we just hit him with a shovel a little bit?”
Race rolled his eyes at Nolan. “No, we cannot just do that.”
Ryder had to agree with Race. “Sorry, that’s not an option. There are four of us, however…”
“Five,” Nolan snapped, frowning deep. “I’m not pointless.”
Oh, dammit. “No one said you were pointless, mate, but I don’t feel comfortable with you riding right back into a situation you got out of.”
“No, that would be imprudent.” Race pursed his lips. “You know, guys…we could call a meeting with this guy.” Race met Ryder’s eyes straight on. “We could have a meeting at the bar to turn Nolan back over to him.” Race made air quotes around the words.
Oh.
Oh, he did love how Race’s evil little mind worked.
“Hell, yeah. The wolves would love to be in on this.” He knew Quin, and he knew that damn dire wolf would adore being able to take this asshole bear down.
“Okay, I’ll get a hold of Quin,” War said, “And then we’ll set up a meet with this guy. Tell him that we want to give Nolan back because he’s a pain in the ass.”
Nolan was just grinning madly at his brother, and Race waggled his eyebrows. “I think that sounds fantastic. He’ll come running then.” Race shook his head. “There’s no way he’ll think that anybody would dare to defy him, so he’ll totally buy it.”
“That’s my feeling,” Ryder said. “He seems like the kind of guy who would believe anybody would fold under the pressure of something like the big drone chase and darting. He’d see that as a show of his power, from what you say.”
His brothers and Race nodded. “Okay, all right. Nolan, we’re going to need his number.”
Race held up his phone. “Nolan doesn’t need to do anything about that. We’ve got it. You can make the call.”
Ryder took a deep breath and let it out, because he hated using Nolan as bait, but he needed to get this solved once and forall. They needed Nolan to be out from under this stress. So this is what was going to happen, and they might as well control how it went down.
Chapter
Ten
