Page 21 of Irrevocably

I look up to see Thea striding into the living room. She’s tall, black-haired and elegant, with the same blue eyes the rest of us have. Tonight, she’s in a black dress that wraps lovingly around her figure, with black stilettos that have red soles. I’ve learned that she has a taste of expensive clothes, and as Lazarus’s underboss, she uses them to enhance her femininity, turning it into a weapon that makes soldiers scramble to do her bidding. It’s unusual for a woman to have the rank she does, but Thea doesn’t let that get in her way. She’s as ruthless as Lazarus and I are.

Thea’s the closest to me in age, and I remember her being wide-eyed, quiet and watchful as a kid. She also used to carry a plastic My Little Pony around with her everywhere she went.

Lazarus sits up and scowls. “What problem?”

Thea sits down gracefully on the couch next to me. “My plant in the club saw Angelo Moretti in that godforsaken bar that they all hang out at.”

Lazarus tenses. “Fuck.”

Angelo Moretti is the son of Carlos Moretti, who was Dad’s partner in crime when they were skimming money from the Vaccaris – the biggest and most powerful of the families. Carlos ratted Dad out to the Vaccaris to save his own skin, and if his son Angelo is here, it means someone told them we were in Blackwater, and Carlos needs confirmation. He’s probably wanting to report us back to the Vacarris to stay in their good graces, not to mention tie up loose ends. Us being the loose ends.

Killian trails in. “I ran his plates, Tee,” he says, coming over to sit in the armchair opposite Lazarus. “It’s definitely Moretti.”

Killian was only four when our parents were killed and I don’t remember much about him, other than he never sat still and never did what he was told. He also used to follow me around like a bad smell. Looks-wise, he takes after our mother, his hair dark brown with streaks of tawny, his eyes a light, icy-blue.

While Lazarus is the head of the family, Killian does the job of his consigliere. I’m not quite trusted enough to take on any official titles yet.

“Shit,” Thea says. “My contact wasn’t sure so she took his plate number so Kill could check it.”

Killian is leaning back in his armchair. He’s found a rubber ball from somewhere and is now trying to bounce it off the ceiling. “Good thing you did.” He throws the ball and it bounces at an angle. Lazarus puts up a hand and catches it like a pro-baseball player.

‘Pay attention,” he snaps. “Angelo Moretti is here for a reason and it’s probably because he knows we’re here, too.”

“He could be scouting out the Hounds’ operation as well as us,” Thea points out. “We’re not the only ones who know about it, Laz.”

Lazarus’s steel blue gaze turns on her. “You weren’t there were you?”

Thea gives a delicate shudder. “God, no. I hate that place.”

“Even if she had been, I scrubbed us from the web, remember?” Killian’s now got a pen and is fiddling with it, clicking it. “We’re ghosts, Laz. He won’t know us from Adam.”

Lazarus is still scowling. He wants to take over the Hounds’ operation so he can get a seat on the Tribunal, the cabal of thirteen families that run the world of organised crime. It’s the closest we get to a government and what the Tribunal says, goes. The Vaccaris lead the Tribunal, and Lazarus wants that seat so he can take them down. It’s all about vengeance for him.

He doesn’t know that Enzo Vaccari is the man who made me what I am, and he’s the head of his family. He was the one who ordered the hit on our family as punishment for stealing from him, and no one escapes his justice. No one.

Well, no one except me. But I was saved in order to deliver that justice.

I’m infiltrating my own family so I can deliver them into his hands.

It’s another test of my loyalty – Enzo does love his tests – but I’ll pass it. I have no qualms about betraying my brothers and my sister. They ceased to be my blood the moment Enzo found me beneath my mother’s dead body, took me home, and made me part of his family. And I’m grateful for that. He’s where my allegiance is, not with people I feel nothing for.

“I could take him out,” I say.

“What? And bring his damn father up here?” Lazarus turns his scowl on me. “That’s not exactly flying under the radar.”

Lazarus wants vengeance on the Morettis, too, for betraying our father and getting them killed, but the Morettis are also Tribunal. They have many allies, and we don’t. We need more firepower and more support, and to get that, we need the MC’s weapons operation. It’s one of the most lucrative operations in the country and taking it over will give us the power to take a Tribunal seat.

“Do I look like an amateur to you?” I hold my brother’s gaze. “It doesn’t have to look like a hit. I can make it look like an accident.”

A muscle flicks in Lazarus’s jaw. “We need to find out why he’s here and what he wants, so no. Leave him.”

“Why don’t I handle him?” Thea offers. “He was at the club hangout and since my plant is there anyway, she could approach him. See what she can get out of him.”

“I thought you were working on Sawyer?” Lazarus asks.

Sawyer is the club president and Thea has a woman infiltrating the club who’s trying to get an in with him in the hope of getting more information. It’s proving difficult, though, because club members don’t talk about club business with anyone who isn’t a member, and especially not women.

“Kathie is,” Thea says, crossing her legs, the very epitome of a high-powered businesswoman. “But if I get her to talk to Moretti, that might make Sawyer jealous, which could speed things along.”