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“Declan,” I start, my voice rough. “She’s not just some hired muscle. She’s a bloody wildfire. Uncontrolled. Unpredictable.” I let out a humorless laugh and take another gulp from my glass, feeling the burn of the whiskey as it slides down my throat. “And we’ve just invited her into our midst. I think you need to just send her back to Nevada.”
Declan doesn’t immediately respond. He leans back, fingers drumming on the chair arms. His gaze is calculating, always seeing different angles I don’t even know exist.
“You know I can’t do that. Not after my father practically gave her the position of Captain. Thank God he’s feeble minded, otherwise he would have told her everything. But imagine the chaos she could wreak among our enemies,” he finally says, his voice low and filled with a dangerous kind ofexcitement. “She could be the perfect weapon.”
“A weapon that could just as easily turn on us,” I remind him. My mind flashes back to the ferocity in her eyes, the effortless way her body moved—like a predator among sheep. It sends an involuntary shiver down my spine. “And what about loyalty?” I press on, needing him to see reason through his Mob-boss lens where everyone and everything is a potential asset or threat.
Declan fixes me with a look that chills my blood more than any cold-hearted killer could. “Loyalty,” he echoes mockingly, “is a luxury in our line of work.”
Frustration flares within me. How can he not see? This isn’t just about loyalty or weapons—it’s about control, and we might just unleash something neither of us can handle.
But as I stare at him, something else nudges at my mind—a dangerous thought that I’m reluctant to entertain. What if she isn’t an asset? What if she already knew all about her family up here in Canada, and she was just waiting for the perfect moment to exact her revenge.
I clear my throat and swallow the phlegm that always seems to collect there when I’m drinking and say, “There’s something I didn’t tell you yet. Earlier today she was mentioning that her 4x4 was a gift from Tomas to her mother and that hermother used it to outrun your dad.”
Declan chuckled. “Can’t say I blame the woman.”
“That’s not all. I asked why her mother left him, and it was because Kat’s grandfather didn’t like Tomas and that they were rivals.”
“Go on.” He knew where this was heading.
“She didn’t want to tell me, but I persisted and finally she said his name. Knox Lachlan.”
He leaned forward, his drink sloshing over the rim of his glass. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“I wish I was.”
He squinted in thought, like he was transformed back to that night fifteen years ago, just like I had been when I had heard the man’s name.
We sat in silence, both remembering the night when Tomas had ordered us to go to Salt Lake City for a job. We had taken the first flight out, landed at 2 am, and were told to go to this dive bar on the east side. Once there, we were to go see the bartender who passed us a sealed manila envelope. Inside, were photos and directions to a home in the swanky part of town.
We were to walk there so we were undetected but being young and having a few too many drinks at the bar, we decided to take a cab that droppedus off right out front of the house. In the dead of night, the two of us waltzed right up to the home and gained entry through a basement window. Our only saving grace was that we had the foresight to cover our heads with our hoodies. Otherwise, the teenaged girl that saw us after the deed was done, would most definitely have been able to identify us.
“You don’t suppose she knows that it was us, do you?” Declan asked, staring at the fire.
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t think so. If she does, she certainly doesn’t let on.”
“We need to watch her closely,” he finally said. “I was going to put her with Davis after she healed a bit, but not now. She’s all on you.”
I nod slowly. “Agreed.”
“Find out about as much as you can, and how close her relationship with Knox was.”
He stands up to leave, then stops at the door of his office. He looks at me, and there’s a glint in his eye and I know that look.
It’s a look that tells me everything and nothing at all—that we both might be deeper than we’d like to admit. Because one thing we both learned from that job was to never leave witnesses behind, as one day, it might just bite you in the ass.
“If it was her back at that house, and she gives you the slightest inclination that she saw us, youknow what to do,” Declan sighs, then leaves me there to my thoughts.
The rational part of me screams that this is insane. That she needs to be ordered to leave and never return or finish the job that we should have so long ago. But another part of me can’t help but feel fascinated by the chaos being near her will bring. Like that thrill of excitement when we had kissed. Which again, is asinine. I can’t stand the woman, so why does my dick go hard every time she looks at me?
Sitting with my drink still in hand, I realized one thing for sure; life was about to get a hell of a lot more interesting—or disastrous. Either way, it wouldn’t be boring.
Chapter 13
Kat
My terrified screams echoed through the isolated darkness as Xavier dragged me out of his car, and I landed on the ground with a thud. The pungent odor of ether lingered on my face where he’d kept a rag soaked with it in place, while he drove down the road out of town. It was a cruel reminder of how stupid I was to drop my guard back at the arena. My head throbbed and my body felt weak, and I was on the verge of throwing up as he pulled me to the back of his car.
