“That’s not possible,” Seamus demanded. “Grady knows that we don’t target women.”
A criminal with a moral code. How refreshing. “Then he seems to have forgotten that particular edict, because his man beat my woman unconscious. We requested this meeting to ask that you stress to your nephew the importance of backing off. Stella Ryan and her family are under the protection of Alpha Omega. They aren’t to be touched. I understand his pride took a hit, but he’s recouped everything he lost. He needs to forget the Ryans exist.”
Cunning flashed in his eyes, the monster behind the man swimming to the surface for a moment. “I see. And why, may I ask, should he do that? My nephew may be a bit of a loose cannon from time to time, but it seems to me these people fought above their weight class. Now they’re suffering the consequences.”
I pulled out the file I’d prepared just for this meeting and tossed it onto the table. Seamus slowly dragged it to him before adjusting his glasses and flipping the cover open. I saw it in the way his body locked up tight the instant he realized what he was looking at.
“Because if he doesn’t, that could be very bad for business,” I stated plainly. “It would be a shame if the police raided your warehouse in Baltimore. Or the one down at the port.” Seamus’s face started to grow red, but it was the only outward sign that he was anything but cool and collected at that moment. Part of the reason his “businesses” had survived this long was because no one knew where he was running his drugs and guns out of. Until now. It had taken master-skill-level hacking, but that was just one of the things Alpha Omega was known for, and in short order, we’d managed to find the location of every single one of his operations. And then some.
“And I’m sure you’d hate it if the list of politicians and law enforcement you have in your pocket were to be leaked. I imagine that would put a serious fucking strain on your distribution schedule, having the feds cracking down on you.”
The man cleared his throat, his eyes having gone cold and beady. “What do you want?”
“It’s simple,” I explained. “I want your nephew to forget the Ryans exist.” I lifted the aluminum case that contained every dollar of interest Stella and her family had managed to collect to pay down their debt. “As a gesture of good faith, this is $475,000. This is in addition to what O’Brien has been paid back. If he sees reason, we forget everything we found, and everyone goes back to business as usual.”
Seamus let out a curse beneath his breath. Pulling a handkerchief from the inside of his blazer, he patted at his forehead. “That boy’s always been more trouble than he was worth,” he grumbled.
“I can imagine. So do we have a deal?”
The man’s shrewd gaze darted between Lincoln and me. “How do I know you’ll honor your side?”
“The last thing we want is to start a war,” Lincoln expressed.
“I just want my woman and her family safe. You keep your word, we keep ours. We have no interest in your business. If we can clear this up today, by tomorrow we all get to go back to forgetting the other side ever existed.”
“We give you our word,” Lincoln confirmed. “And if you’ve researched us the way you claim, you know that means something.”
I found myself holding my breath as I waited. Finally, the old man nodded his head. “I’ll see to it my nephew understands the importance of forgetting he ever crossed paths with this family. You have my word, he’s done causing problems for your woman. But hear this, if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, a war is exactly what you’re going to get.”
He extended his hand, and I reached out to clasp it in mine, surprised at how strong his grip still was. “And if you don’t hold up your end, we’ll blow your fucking world apart,” I warned.
“Then it seems it would be best for both of us that we honor our agreement.”
As I’d expected, Seamus Byrne was a businessman above all else. He understood the benefits of making this deal and how it trumped loyalty to blood. Especially when that blood tended to fuck up everything he touched.
“It’s been a pleasure, gentleman, but if you don’t mind, I think it’s time for this meeting to end. Don’t you agree?”
I couldn’t agree more. Linc and I pushed out of the booth and started for the exit. Hunter fell in line behind us, and Xander was there to kick the door open as soon as we got close enough. As soon as we stepped out into the sunshine, I pulled in my first full breath. It was over. Stella and her family could finally rest easy.
Thank Christ.
“You think he’ll honor our deal?” Xander asked after the four of us had piled into my truck and started out of the lot, headed in the direction of Hope Valley.
“I do,” Lincoln assured him, and his certainty was good enough for me.
We were halfway home when my cell started to ring, Hayes’s name flashing across the screen. I hit the button on my steering wheel to engage the call. “Hey, brother. What’s up?”
“Where are you?” Hayes asked without preamble, his tone a combination of things I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“A little less than an hour outside town. Why? What’s wrong?”
“I’m just gonna start this off by saying everyone is totally fine.” He sounded like he was trying to choke back a laugh.
I felt my chest getting tight, visions of Stella being hurt or worse playing through my head like a goddamn highlight reel. “What the fuck are you talking about? What’s going on?”
“Okay, well, Stella and Sage got into a bit of a car accident. But they’re both fine. Just some bumps and bruises—”
“What the fuck?” Xander barked from my back seat as my right foot grew heavy, pressing harder on the gas pedal.
“We’re on our way,” I barked, my heart in my fucking throat as I disengaged the call and floored it.
The drive from DC to Hope Valley wasn’t a short one, but we made it there in record time.
Twenty-Nine
Stella
I’d been a wreck all morning long. A ball of anxiety had formed in my throat this morning when West woke me up in the usual erotic way that seemed to have become our norm, and it hadn’t loosened since. He’d taken me to Alpha Omega with strict orders that I wasn’t to go anywhere alone, then proceeded to kiss the hell out of me right there in front of Roxanne before he and some of the other guys left for their meeting with the head of a dangerous criminal syndicate.
I had spent the better part of the morning going out of my skin, unable to calm the tangled mess of nerves doing an aerial routine in my stomach. I couldn’t stop considering all the worst-case scenarios as one minute ticked into the next. I figured Sage would be right there with me, stressed to the max, considering her husband had been part of the team that had left with West, but she was cucumber cool. I envied her confidence that her man would return safe and sound.
When my pacing through the offices had finally gotten to be too much, Sage had announced she was taking me to lunch. That was how I’d ended up at a little Mexican restaurant just off the interstate called El Toro that boasted the best guacamole in the state.