Page 44

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

ST. CLARE

Tommy’s whistling a chilling tune, gun still firm on my head, and every time I shift, he plants it there harder, like he’s reminding me what a fucking psycho he is.

“Why do we care if you shoot him?” one of the men around us asks.

“ You don’t. Colin will.”

“How do we even know that’s his brother?”

Tommy shrugs as a bead of sweat slips down my back. “Don’t get him, then. But it won’t take him long to identify what I leave you.”

“I am his brother,” I shout before Tommy calls their bluff and leaves me in a puddle of my own gray matter. “Tell him Reilly is here.”

At first, no one moves, and then, a shadow on the left shifts. The man steps back and, after a hushed conversation with the woman in charge, leaves.

“Ahh …” Tommy says. “So you do know where he is?”

“We didn’t say that.”

“Didn’t need to, pumpkin. And I bet he’s not going to be happy when he walks in and sees this.”

“What do you want with him?”

“I heard there’s a lot of money on his head. ”

My skin cools, goose bumps prickling along the surface. Tommy said he wasn’t a hitman. Is he working with Arlie and Ever? Is that why they said yes to this job? Have I led them to my brother and sealed his fate?

The way my stomach churns almost has me doubling over. “You can’t hurt him.”

“Shut up.”

“We trusted you to help us!”

Tommy ruffles my hair with his gunless hand. “You asked us to find Colin. Well, I think we found him. You’re welcome.”

“Not to kill him!”

“That wasn’t specified.”

Holy shit, what have I done? What have I done ?

All I need is to reach up and turn my comms on, without Tommy realizing it, so the others can hear what’s happening. If he’s in partnership with Arlie and Ever, it could end up putting Perry and Lars at risk, but I have to trust they can help themselves. That we can all get through this.

As slowly as I can, I inch my hand toward my ear. So slowly. So subtly. My arm is straining with how controlled I’m keeping it, but I don’t want to risk giving myself away. I’m hardly fucking breathing.

My thumb brushes the top of my ear, and I creep lower, find the button?—

“ Reilly ?”

My brother’s bespectacled face is flooded by the flashlight, and I’m hit with too many emotions at once. Love, relief, frustration, happiness, and—when the gun leaves my head—terror.

I leap to my feet and turn on Tommy, throwing my arms out to the side. “Don’t shoot.”

Tommy stares me down, then, whistling that same chilling tune, he spins his gun over one finger and tucks it away. “Told you I know how to get what I want.” Tommy winks.

He fucking winks.

“That … was an act ?”

“Sure was. You played your part perfectly, by the way. ”

I want to rage. I want to pick up my gun from the cement floor and point it at him, then demand to know how he likes it. I want to hit him, or set Perry on him, or tell the people around us to cart his ass away.

But then Colin talks again, and threats to my life aside, there’s only one person I currently care about.

“What are you doing here?”

I turn back to Tommy with one last disgusted glare, then take long strides until I’m close enough to haul Colin into my arms. “I was so fucking worried! Where have you been? What have you done?”

He’s stiff with his hug, and when he pulls back, worry lines his face. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Neither should you!”

“No. You really shouldn’t be here.”

It takes everything not to snap at him. “I’ve had a stressful fucking night, after a stressful few weeks, so why don’t you answer my goddamn questions before you start telling me where I should and shouldn’t be.”

Behind his glasses, Colin’s eyes sweep the circle around us. “You weren’t supposed to get involved in this.”

“Yeah, well, I’m now very fucking involved, and all because you didn’t bother with a phone call to let me know you were going into hiding for a bit.”

Colin gets that scrunched-face, I will not cry look about him. “I was embarrassed.”

“Well, that’s a great reason to have me thinking my brother is dead. I’m so glad I saved you the embarrassment. Phew . And here I was thinking the answer would be stupid.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Of course you did!” Oh, look at that. The relief didn’t last long before I spun right into anger. “It’s our business. If you’re going to borrow money for our business, you talk to me about it first.”

“Our …” Colin’s frown takes over his face. “I didn’t borrow money for Saint Clare’s. ”

Well, I’m not expecting that. “Oh. Then … what the fuck else do you need a hundred K for?”

He shoots another quick look around before sighing and pushing his glasses back up his nose. “You better come with me.”

I start to follow him when I hear Tommy shadow me. “What are you doing?”

“Not letting you go off with these strangers, for a start.”

“You threatened to kill me.”

“Technically, I didn’t,” he says, holding his hands up in surrender. “I only held a gun to your head and said a bunch of vague things.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“You’re taking this way harder than you should be.”

“I’m starting to see why you and Perry get along so well.” I turn my back on Tommy, half expecting him to grab me from behind, and the whole time we follow Colin, I’m tuned in to where Tommy is and what he’s doing. If he makes any sudden movements, he’s in for it. I’m not going to let him catch me by surprise again.

We leave the main warehouse, and Colin leads us down twists and turns before we reach the very back, where there’s a metal flight of stairs leading to an upstairs area. He jogs on ahead of us, and I stick close to his heels, curious about where we’re going and what he’s doing here and, well, just about fucking everything.

When we reach the top, he pulls out a key and unlocks the door.

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” he warns me.

“Yeah, of course.”

That must be enough for him because he pushes through the door and lets me in before he blocks Tommy’s path. “Not you.”

Tommy bops him on the nose. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

“It’s not about that.”

His mouth flattens, and then he shrugs. “Fine. But I’m telling the others where we are. ”

“I don’t care,” Colin says in that bland, matter-of-fact way he speaks. Then he closes the door in Tommy’s face.

We’re in what looks like an apartment. Cream-painted walls and office-grade gray carpet. Colin passes me to walk into the living area that has a kitchenette on one side and a small couch and TV on the other.

And when I register the person sitting fretfully on the couch, I’m more confused than ever.

“Onyx?”

They manage a not-happy smile. “Reilly, in the nicest way possible: how the hell did you find us?”

I glance at Colin. “Security footage. You took money from the account, and Tommy was able to follow you.”

Onyx lets out a heavy sigh. “I told you to let me make those withdrawals for you.”

“For me?” Colin echoes. “I would have had to give you my PIN. That’s illegal.”

“It’s not illegal,” I add. “Just against the bank’s rules.”

It’s like I’ve forgotten how black-and-white Colin is. “Our accounts wouldn’t have been secure. I had to do it myself.”

“Yes, but now if these guys have found you, it won’t be hard for Carson Alexander to do the same,” Onyx points out.

I latch onto their words. “So it was Carson that you borrowed money from?”

Colin’s eyes work madly behind his glasses, like he’s trying to figure out how much to tell me. “Well, it’s not as though I can apply for a bank loan to hire a private investigator, now can I?”

“You hired a private investigator?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“But … why?”

Colin paces to one side of the room and back again. “Yanni. He was a problem, and I needed that problem to go away.”

I’m still so fucking confused. “Start from the top. It’s been a long few weeks, and I’m struggling to work out how the fuck you’re hanging out here okay.”

Onyx pats the spot on the couch to their left. “Might as well sit down. I’m going to bake some cookies in the hope you won’t hate me after you hear this.”

“Hate … you?”

“Just listen. I’ll be back once he’s done.”

Onyx leaves, and Colin takes the place left behind.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“Onyx’s place.” Colin twists his hands in his lap. “They’ve been hiding me here. I didn’t know where else to go.”

“What kind of shit have you gotten yourself into?”

He clears his throat with the dry snap of a twig and leans back. “Yanni and his people from Rev cost us too much money and stress with their threats and holdups. I needed a way to make him back off, and since it’s not like I could borrow money against Saint Clare’s, I asked around. Found Carson. He was shockingly really nice, set out the contract clearly, no gimmicks—it’s clear he’s been doing this for a long time. Anyway, we signed off on the loan, cash payments only, a year timeline, which I knew wouldn’t be an issue once we started selling out.”

I almost choke. “You assumed a hundred grand in a year was no big deal?”

“I’ve already run the numbers.”

“And what if they’re wrong?” My voice is getting steadily higher.

“Numbers don’t lie, Reilly.” If his tone weren’t so flat, I’d have sworn it held an edge of duh to it.

“And you used that money to hire a PI?” I ask, moving on.

“Yes. He was great. Got me exactly what I needed. Yanni is very good at keeping his books updated with every transaction. Showed a lot of drug trade … that linked him with Carson Alexander.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“No wonder he warned me off dealing with Carson.” He nods sadly. “I sent a picture to Yanni, telling him to back off or I’d go to the cops.”

“I thought he was after you because you didn’t pay him back.”

“Nope. He found out I knew too much, and next thing I know, Onyx showed up at my place, all but kidnapped me, and brought me here.”

“What the fuck? Why?”

“You know how Onyx is ex-MMA? Well, they train with a whole group of people—you saw some of them downstairs. Some are pro, some are semi-pro, and some make more money fighting illegally than professionally. One of Onyx’s contacts heard my name come up. They called Onyx because they knew Onyx works for us, and now …” Colin puffs out a quick exhale. “Sorry we haven’t been in contact. We’ve been madly working to try and convince Carson to let this go and I’d never speak about it again.”

“And you couldn’t have let me know? Not even a quick hey, I’m alive ?”

He shakes his head. “It was supposed to be over quickly. I didn’t think it would take this long, and I didn’t want to drag you into this mess. Onyx had everyone on high alert to make sure that your name didn’t come up too.”

I don’t even know what to make of this. I hunch forward over my knees, fingers buried in my hair.

“I just wanted them to leave us alone,” Colin whispers.

Me too, but now, thanks to him, I don’t think that’s something we can count on. “You should have asked for help,” I point out to him, but when his face falls, I can’t hold on to the annoyance for long. Look at me. Between him and Perry, I’m a total pushover. “You have us too now. And we’re going to figure this thing out.”

He takes my hand, and at first, I think it’s in support, but then he speaks. “Are you aware you’re missing an ear?”

Even though he’s being totally serious, I laugh. “Yeah. That’s a really long story. And it starts and ends with a guy named Perry …”