Page 8 of Endurance

Sean’s security went to reach for their weapons, but I was quicker and had my gun pointed at the both of them. “Stay out of it,” I warned.

Conor's and Rourke’s enforcers also pulled their guns, but to my relief aimed them at Sean’s men.

“Damnit, Jameson!” Stefan roared as he passed me and ripped Jameson off Sean. “Enough!”

Sean rolled onto his side on the floor and spit blood from his already swelling mouth. By the looks of it he was going to be sporting a couple of black eyes pretty soon too. “What the fuck was that for?” he groaned.

“Did you think we wouldn’t find out that you told the Colombians Maura was dead?” Jameson seethed as he took a step toward him again. Stefan put his arm out, blocking Jameson from getting any closer.

“I was told she was dead by one of the housekeepers! I was worried we’d lose our relationship with the Colombians with Maura gone, so I called them to build a rapport before news of her death could reach them. I was being proactive, and I’ve already explained the mix up to Stefan.”

Sean spewed nothing but blatant lies and I couldn’t understand why Stefan was ignoring it. I scoffed. “That’s the story you’re going with?”

Stefan shot a look of warning over his shoulder at me.

“If you’re going to lie, at least try to make it believable,” Jameson snapped, inching closer, putting strain on Stefan’s arm. “I’ve allowed your shit up until now out of respect for Maura because she can handle you herself, but no more. You so much as breathe around her the wrong way and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes. Consequences be damned.” Jameson jerked away and went inside the chamber.

“Are you going to let him get away with this?” Sean asked Stefan as he gestured to his battered face.

Stefan arched a brow and stared down at Sean. The look he was giving Sean was unnerving. Only Maura had been on the receiving end of Stefan’s wrath and smiled back as if tickled to have someone to spar with.

Sean, though, dropped his eyes to the ground. Submitting was a wise choice because Stefan wouldn’t have had to finish giving the order before I would have pulled the trigger and killed Sean.

The mood was somber in the chamber. Part of it was due to the bleeding Sean, who hadn’t spoken a word since the meeting started, and rest of it was because Stefan had just announced that Maura was missing.

“Why would my cousin run away?” Rourke questioned, eyeing Louie and I accusingly. “Maura wouldn’t have just left.”

I held his stare. “She left because of me.”

“Not just because of you, Jameson,” Louie said.

Rourke frowned. “What did you two do?”

I opened my month, prepared to answer honestly, but Stefan spoke over me. “It doesn’t matter. What does is that she’s gone. I’d like to use every resource we have to find her.”

“The best way to get word out that we’re looking for her is The Underground,” Conor said. “The only downside is our enemies will know she’s out there on her own as well.”

With a traitor in the family, our enemies would find out anyway.

Stefan nodded. “I know but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’ll be taking Jameson and Louie with me there tonight.”

“I’ll go as well. Rourke will inform everyone in the family on our end,” Conor said. Rourke nodded in agreement.

Then everyone looked to Sean. He seemed to be barely paying attention as he held an icepack against his cheek. When he finally noticed everyone staring, he sat straighter and cleared his throat. “I—I’ll also inform everyone on my end and make sure word reaches those in Boston by tonight.”

A knock on one of the chamber doors echoed loudly before it opened, and Brody stepped inside. He walked right over to Stefan and bent to whisper in his ear. By the tight expression Brody held, I knew that my uncle had arrived.

Stefan returned his attention to the rest of us as Brody made his way back out of the room. “That’s all for now,” he said, standing. “Jameson, come with me.”

I followed Stefan out of the chamber to his study where my uncle Aiden was waiting with Brody. I could feel the tension the moment I stepped in the room. Aiden sat, looking relaxed and confident, on the leather couch with a finger of whiskey in a crystal tumbler. He was smirking at Brody, who was sitting on the edge of Stefan’s desk, his arms crossed, blatantly annoyed.

Stefan and Aiden had a sexual history and it made Brody jealous. It didn’t help that my uncle liked to ruffle Brody’s feathers either.

Right after my mother had passed away, my uncle had come to stay at the manor for a while to spend time with me and make sure I'd been comfortable living with Stefan. Long story short, I had walked in on him and Stefan kissing. My uncle had laughed it off. However, things had turned awkward between Stefan and I for a while. He'd never brought up what I had seen and neither had I—to him or anyone else. It hadn’t been my business what Stefan did in private.

After a year of me not saying a word of what I had seen, Stefan had taken me to dinner and told me that I had proven to be someone he could trust and that I was to start shadowing him. It was then I'd realized Stefan had taken me seeing something that I wasn’t supposed to as an opportunity to test my loyalty. It was the first test of many he would put me through that would prove me worthy of taking my father’s seat at his table.

It wouldn’t be until after I had received my father’s seat and Aiden had come to visit again that I would learn of the reason behind the animosity between my uncle and Brody. Turned out, Stefan and Aiden had had flings—as in multiple—during the many times Brody and Stefan had broken up over the past twenty-some years.