Page 11 of Endurance
Ignacio beamed. “Stefan! Conor! Please join us.” Ignacio and Conor had a good relationship. The cartel was one of his biggest buyers.
Stefan and Conor sat at the U-shaped table. Jameson and I stood by the wall behind the dealer, but we were still close enough to hear everything that was being said.
A lot of pleasantries and small talk were exchanged. Nika showed up with chips for Stefan and Conor and they began playing Texas hold 'em.
“I hear you have named your daughter as your heir,” Vito said as he looked over his cards. “That’s very…progressive of you.”
Stefan didn’t react. His face was a mask as he looked over his cards.
“If you knew my niece, you’d understand,” Conor chimed in.
“Speaking of my daughter,” Stefan started, capturing everyone’s attention. “She has decided to take a trip without telling me where she went. She likes to think she can outsmart me. I want to show her that is not the case. I’m thinking about paying a large reward to anyone who can find her.”
The corner of Vito’s mouth lifted. “Your heir ran away?”
“She said she’s taking a vacation but didn’t tell us where or when she would be home,” Conor said, his Irish accent coming out thicker than normal. It was a small tell that he was irritated. No one really liked Vito. He was a power-hungry dick, with a grudge against everyone.
“Although my daughter is loyal to me, she likes to bend the rules. She told me that she was taking a vacation and that she would check in, yet didn’t tell me where she was. She walks a very fine line of obedience and defiance,” Stefan explained.
Vito pushed a stack of chips forward, placing his bet. “Sounds to me like you’ve given your daughter too many freedoms, Quinn.”
Stefan locked eyes with Vito. “No, Romano, I raised a boss.”
Yes, he had, I thought, smiling.
Three months later…
“Maura went to see Sasha,” Stefan informed everyone in the chamber. Stefan had called a family meeting after receiving the call. Maura had been missing for three months and within that time we hadn't been able to find a single clue that would help us find her. We had exhausted every resource and Stefan had increased the reward for Maura’s whereabouts to twenty million. Nothing had come of it. We'd even reached out to the De Lucas. The don had agreed to keep an eye out, but Stefan wasn’t confident he would help. If she hadn't texted Stefan every couple of weeks saying, ‘I’m fine. Don’t look for me,’ I was pretty sure we would have gone out of our minds with worry by now.
“Why didn’t they bring her home?” Sean asked.
“She ambushed them in Sasha’s office at his club, Anarchy,” Stefan said.
“Why would she go to the Russians?” Conor asked next.
Stefan hesitated to answer. “Sasha wouldn’t say.”
I glanced at Jameson. He was studying Stefan.
“What?” Rourke blurted, clearly confused. “Sasha and the Bratva have always been our allies, why wouldn’t—”
“Rourke,” Conor snapped, interrupting his son. They exchanged a look and I caught Conor giving a slight shake of his head.
Stefan quickly took back control of the conversation. “I called you here today because I think Maura is back in New Haven.”
Conor nodded. “We’ll spread the word.”
“Unless anyone has anything they’d like to add, I’ll leave you to it,” Stefan said, dismissing the meeting. Rourke, Conor, and Sean left. Jameson and I lingered with Stefan. Once the chamber door shut and we were alone, Stefan spoke before we could bombard him for real answers. “She gave Sasha files on every Aryan locked up in the New England area and then offered him two million to take them all out.”
“I wonder where she got that kind of money,” I said caustically.
“She’s moving against the Aryans,” Jameson said, sounding equally exhausted and angry. Our goal had been to find Maura and help her go after the Aryans. That didn’t look like it was going to happen now. We had run out of time.
It felt like I had just closed my eyes to fall asleep when my bedroom door swung open and Jameson stormed in. After Maura had returned from the hospital, I'd kind of moved into the room across from Jameson’s. I still had my condo. I just didn’t want to be far away in case she needed me, and after she'd disappeared, I wanted to be here if we heard anything.
“Get up. It’s Maura,” he said, flipping on the lights and ripping open my dresser. I shot out of bed and by the time my feet hit the floor, he was throwing a pair of jeans and a shirt at me. I didn’t think I’d ever gotten dressed so fast in my life. I tugged on my shoes on the way out the door and followed him up to the third floor—Stefan’s suite. I’d never been up there before.
Once we reached the top of the stairs, we walked down a hallway leading to double doors. Both of which were wide open. I could hear a TV on and what sounded like the news playing. Jameson walked right in and veered off to the left. Stefan’s room was very large. He had his bed up against the far wall, what looked like an en suite off to the right. There were a few other doors that were closed. I knew from Jameson that one led to a personal gym that had used to be Maura’s nursery. Like a lot of rooms in the Quinn Manor, there was a lounge area facing a TV. I hid my surprise when I noticed Brody was sitting on the couch dressed in a robe with his eyes glued to the screen. Seeing him so at home in Stefan’s space was a first. I had always assumed Brody was gay. However, when Maura had hinted that Stefan and he were together, I'd been a little stunned. Stefan had always kept his love life very private and I'd also figured it was none of my business.