Page 14 of Sins of Arrogance

“That does not an­swer my ques­tion.”

She shrugs. “Ask my da. He’s the one that made the ar­range­ments.”

“Did you bring se­cu­rity?”

“Of course.”

“How many?” And why wasn’t I told that sol­diers from an­other syn­di­cate would be re­main­ing on premises?

“Only two. Our fa­thers are cer­tain your men are up to the task of keep­ing me safe.”

“Your safety is not my men’s pri­or­ity.” The safety of my wife and child come be­fore ev­ery­one else.

Which I’m sure the men un­der­stand af­ter the last demon­stra­tion I gave them.

Bro­gan thinks he comes first, but the men un­der­stand now. If Bro­gan dies, so will they. If Kara or Fitz are harmed in any way, they’ll still die.

But slowly and in so much pain, they’ll be beg­ging me to kill them.

Just like that fecker, Troy, who thought tak­ing money from an Aryan mili­tia group to be­tray the fam­ily was a good idea.

He put my wife and son in dan­ger.

Now all the sol­diers know what a feckin’ stupid thing that was to do.

Chap­ter 4: Trust Is­sues, Spy­ware, & Other Love Lan­guages

MICK

“Why didn’t you tell me you were bring­ing an­other se­cu­rity risk into the house­hold?” I don’t bother with pleas­antries.

My fa­ther-in-law and I are the only ones in his of­fice and I’m not feel­ing pleas­ant.

“How many times do I have to tell you, boyo? Hope Dobbs and her chil­dren are not a se­cu­rity risk. Her hus­band died like all of the other AOG bas­tards when we razed the com­pound.”

“And if she de­cides to cozy up to an­other Aryan cult?”

A feral glint flashes in Bro­gan’s blue eyes. “That’s not go­ing to hap­pen. She’s stay­ing right here.”

“You’re pretty feckin’ pos­ses­sive over a house­guest.” I don’t bother to point out that the woman is twelve years younger than him.

I’m not a hyp­ocrite. A psy­chopath? Yes. A hyp­ocrite? No.

“She risked her own safety to pro­tect my niece. Hope de­serves my pro­tec­tion in re­turn.”

I don’t bother to ar­gue. If Bro­gan wants to watch out for Hope, that’s his look­out.

As long as she doesn’t put the only peo­ple that mat­ter to me at risk. Kara and Fitz.

Bro­gan waves his hand at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Sit down. You know I don’t like it when you loom over me.”

My boss doesn’t like feel­ing at a phys­i­cal dis­ad­van­tage. It’s smart. I don’t ei­ther.

I sit down, but don’t re­lax. “When were you go­ing to tell me about two sol­diers from an­other mob stay­ing in the bar­racks?”

“Do I need to re­mind you that that other mob is not only our ally, but your own fam­ily?” Bro­gan drawls sar­cas­ti­cally.

“Kara and Fitz are the only fam­ily that mat­ters to me.” I’ll burn down my old mob to keep them safe with­out a sec­ond’s hes­i­ta­tion.