He . . . she gasps dramatically, her hand slapping her chest. “This is your house?”
“This is my house,” I confirm, passing them. “I hope you’re enjoying your stay at my pleasure.” I turn and walk backward. “How’s your father?”
“I’m just going to check,” Beau says, motioning to the kitchen. “Your mom was making him tea.”
“He stayed the night?”
She shrugs. “I wanted Doc to check him over.”
I laugh under my breath. The only thing wrong with Beau’s father is a serious case of wanker-itis. “But he’s going today, right?” Because I can’t promise I won’t kill the fucker if I bump into him.
“Yes,” she assures me, a knowing glint in her eye. “I would have asked, but Tank said you were busy.”
“Wait,” Zinnea yelps, turning into Beau and grabbing her checks. “Tom’s here?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh my.” He . . . she pirouettes on the spot and flounces off toward the kitchen. “Brother!” she sings as she enters.
“What the hell is he doing here?” a loud, gruff voice barks.
Beau sighs, turning to kiss James. “I’d better go.” She jogs off, and James catches up to me.
“I’ve been thinking,” he says, focused forward.
“Me too.” I open the door to my office. “I think we need to pull our fingers out our arses before we end up dead.” I smile. “For real.”
“Great plan,” Brad agrees from the couch.
“What the fuck are you doing here this early?” I ask, scrutinizing his bedraggled form.
“I stayed the night so I could be here this early,” he says as Goldie, Ringo, and Otto all pile in. It’s not even eight and my house is full. I need to start charging rent. “What the fuck happened?” Brad asks, getting up and pacing.
I drop into my chair and gaze around the office. “Something’s different,” I muse quietly, not quite being able to put my finger on it.
Goldie coughs, and everyone’s attention turns to her. She taps the carpet with the tip of her boot. “New carpet.”
“Oh yeah.” I lean across my desk and crane my neck, taking it all in. “Blue. I like it.”
“It was the only color available off the shelf.”
“You laid it too?”
“Yes, I laid it too,” she grates, daring me to make a big deal of it.
“Ringo moved the furniture for her.” Otto’s face is deadpan as Goldie swings toward him.
“Are you ever gonna shut that fucking trap of yours or do I have to carve your tongue out?”
I press my lips together. I want to keep my tongue. “All right, children,” I sigh. “Good job, Goldie.”
“Thanks, Boss.”
“Thanks, who?” James asks, and she shrugs. I chuckle, and James drops to a chair, exasperated. “Let’s get on with it.”
“I don’t know where to fucking start,” I admit.
“Maybe here,” Otto pipes up, coming over. He throws a picture on my desk. “I believe you know this man.”
I stare at the image, almost afraid to ask. “I do. That’s Rose’s kid’s dad.”
“Biological?” Otto asks, and I shake my head, feeling James’s eyes on me. He knows the story, but I won’t be going into details with anyone else. “He’s a lawyer, yes?” Otto asks, and an uncomfortable shiver slithers down my spine.
“Yes, he’s a lawyer,” I confirm. “Will you get to the fucking point?”
“He’s representing Vince Roake.”
The room falls silent, and James shoots a shocked stare Otto’s way, as I try to get my head around what I’m hearing. “The Alligator?” I ask. The Irish fucker who’s rumored to be taking the place of The Snake? “Hilary and Derek are respectable people.”
“Who bought Rose’s kid on the black market,” James says quietly, telling everyone in the room what I didn’t want them to know. I flash him a threatening look, and he tilts his head, his eyebrows high.
“Be real, Danny,” Brad says. “James is right.”
“There’s not a cat in hell’s chance he’d represent someone like Vince Roake,” I say, agitated. “Known criminal, drugs dealer, and murderer?” I laugh. “No way.”
James shrugs. “Not unless he’s being—”
“Blackmailed,” I whisper. Fuck!
We all jump when Rose bursts in, breathless, panicked, out of her mind. “Daniel,” she blurts, her eyes welling. “He said he’s not allowed to see me anymore.”
“Oh fuck,” Brad breathes, immediately starting to pace. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.”
The rage is instant, it’s hot, and it’s going to erupt. “Get him here,” I demand, standing from my chair. “No, fuck it. I’ll go to him.” I round the desk and stalk toward the door, stopping when I reach Rose, taking her wet cheeks in my palms and kissing away her tears.
“What’s going on?” she asks, taking my wrists. “Do you know why?”
“Am I going to fix this?” I ask, resting my nose on hers. She nods, sniveling. “You bet your sweet arse I am.” I push my lips to her forehead and leave her, walking through the mansion with purpose. “Get me his office address,” I call back to whoever’s following me. “And my machine gun.”
“Danny.” Tank appears, looking a bit bewildered. And worried.
“She’s in my office,” I snap, my pace not faltering, my purpose unwavering. “Why didn’t you know that?”
“I did know that.”
I stop in my tracks, and all the men behind me grind to a halt too. So why the fuck is he looking so worried? “I’m in the middle of something here, Tank.”
“It’s important.”
Important? “As in, it concerns my important wife?”
He nods, his eyes flicking to the men behind me, prompting me to turn too. They’re all silent, uncomfortable, and I realize that whatever has Tank looking worried isn’t because he briefly misplaced my wife.
“I’ll meet you at the cars,” I say and, of course, there’s no contesting. They all file past, Brad giving me a look to suggest I should keep my cool no matter what I’m about to hear. Likely. James comes out of my office with a machine gun in each hand, looking as murderous as I feel. “She still in there?” I ask him.
“Opening a bottle of vodka,” he says, handing me one of the guns.
It’s eight o-fucking-clock.
“I’ve called Beau down,” he adds as he walks on, obviously reading my mind.
“Thanks.” I give Tank my attention again. “Talk.”
“She’s throwing up. All the time.”
I back up, my head tilting, my mind refreshing the memory of her in the shower last night circling her tummy, looking mildly uncomfortable. “Since when?”
“That I know of? Yesterday morning.”
“Why am I only finding this out now?”
“You were a bit sidetracked yesterday.”
When we took a call from The Bear and left the mansion like missiles. “Does she know you know?”