“You have hitmen, do you not?” I ask.
He nods his head. “I do. But my most trusted are in Ireland right now. I need this done before they come back, before anyone else is harmed.”
“Why the urgency, honestly, why now?”
“No bullshit?” he asks.
Jerking my chin, I keep my gaze on his and wait for him to tell me his no-bullshit answer. “There are too many. They are too big, almost untouchable.”
“Until?”
“Until I realized that their reach was just a little too far. They need to go. Doing some research, looking into them, it was too much to bear. Too much to really take in. No matter how far they reach, no matter how deep it goes. They need to suffer for what they’ve done and I cannot simply supply the manpower to wash them out, not with all the other shit my men are doing. They’re up to their ears in work and I’m up to mine in trying to build this empire.”
I nod my head a couple of times, listening to his excuses, and finding that they’re still bullshit.
“Not good enough.”
His lips press together in a straight line and he levels me with his gaze. “I have a daughter,” he spits. “I have a beautiful wife and I have a daughter. Every time I dig into these sick fucks, I see their faces. They want to hire whores for a good time, they want to enjoy a virgin for the right price, I don’t have an issue with that. My girls work and get paid, they are free to come and go as they please. That is not what this is. This is an archaic part of the underworld that I want gone.”
“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” I murmur. “So, what do you want from me? To take terms to Dragon and then come back on the next run with an agreement? We could go back and forth for a while.”
Gavino shakes his head a couple of times. “No. I want you to agree and stay, your man there can send a crew back. I want this done now.”
“What’s in it for me? For the club?”
“What do you want?” he asks through gritted teeth.
I shift my gaze to Eagle, then back to Gavino. I don’t know what I want. It’s not really my say, but I am the vice president of the club, and Dragon sent me here for a fucking reason. I have to make a decision and I cannot puss out about it.
“I’ll stay,” I agree. “I want to think about terms. I need to discuss what’s fair with Eagle, but I’ll stay.”
“I can agree to that,” Gavino murmurs. “Thank you, Mountain.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” I grunt. “I haven’t done anything. You may not like the way that I do this, but it will get done.”
“Whatever happens, messy, clean, doesn’t matter. I will get it cleaned up and you will be protected.”
Jerking my chin, I nod a couple of times. “I agree then.”
Gavino dips his chin, turning around, he heads back inside. Eagle grumbles behind me, spinning around, my gaze clashes with his. He shakes his head once, his eyes never looking away from my own.
“What?” I ask.
“Leighton?”
Shaking my head a couple of times, I clear my throat. “When Coyote finds her, he’ll put her up at my house. I’ll be back when I can.”
“If he doesn’t find her?”
Shrugging a shoulder, my heart slams against my chest. “He will.”
There is no option for failure. None at all. Leighton Richardson is fucking mine and I will not live a life without her. I’ve already made my decision, there is no going back. Eagle must agree with what he sees in my eyes, he jerks his chin, taking a step back.
“I’ll do what I can,” he murmurs. “Dragon is going to have to send men from all over, we can’t afford to have half of the club gone for an undetermined amount of time.”
“Figured that. Just don’t send Black,” I snort. “He’d probably bring his bitch, and I can’t deal with her crazy while I’m trying to get this shit done.”
Eagle chuckles, and I do at the same time. “Terms?” he asks before we make a move to go inside.
“I don’t know,” I mutter. “Money, but how much?”
Eagle shrugs a shoulder. “It’s going to have to be enough to cover us and the other clubs.”
“Yeah,” he grunts. “These are high profile, hard hitters he’s talking about. This won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick. It’s going to take time to plan, to gather, and execute.”
Thinking about being away for months makes my stomach twist. I haven’t even branded Leighton. Fuck, I don’t even know where the hell she is. Now, I’m going to be here and she’s somewhere unknown. I don’t even fucking know if she’s safe or not. I don’t know a goddamn thing.
“I’m thinking we’re gonna need some continuous cuts for this shit,” I murmur. “This isn’t a one and done deal.”
“Now you’re fuckin’ talking,” Eagle grunts. “Goddamn cashflow.”
“Exactly.”
LEIGHTON
I try not to look at the cages that are placed strategically around the bar area. Instead, I focus on picking up, wiping down, and spraying everything that looks and smells disgusting. There are people passed out everywhere, but they’ve started to stir. Probably because Ana turned on the music and all of the lights.
Laughter fills the otherwise quiet bar. Aside from the music and some grumbling, nobody has been talking, all probably too hungover to say anything at all. I’m kind of glad at the quiet, the calm after what looked to be a raging storm. The deep male laughter causes me to stop mid-scrub.
I’m on my hands and knees and slowly, I lift my gaze to search for the man that is so damn jovial. When I see him, I gasp at the sight. From a distance, his profile looks almost identical to Mountain’s.
His jawline is chiseled but covered in a thick layer of hair. His beard and the hair on his head that is a little-too-long are a rich chocolate brown, just like Mountain’s. It’s when he turns, his lips curved up into a smile and his eyes meet mine that I instantly deflate.
It’s not him. He’s handsome, but it’s not my handsome man. Though, I shouldn’t be thinking of Mountain as mine. He’s not. He’s just this guy who saved me from my father. He’s this guy who gave me a few orgasms. He’s this guy who promised me things, but he couldn’t quite deliver.
He’s a man who isn’t ready for forever.
Because that’s what I think I ultimately wanted. I should have been fine with him being with other women. I didn’t even know him for more than just a few days, but deep down, I wanted everything with him. I just knew that he was different, that we could maybe be more.
My hopes were inflated, and it’s my fault, really. It was just wishful thinking and I’m just naïve when it comes to anything and everything in the world. Parts of my life have not been sheltered in the slightest, but the parts that have are the ones that I need right now.
I don’t know how to be in a relationship, what’s acceptable, what isn’t. I don’t know how to have friends, how to make them or keep them. I don’t know how to trust. I guess that’s the biggest thing.
Trust.
I haven’t had a choice in trusting some people throughout the past five years. But it has been for a very short time period. Then, I had to try to trust Mountain, and I didn’t feel like I could. He completely ignored me, left and made promises to call, to stay in contact.