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“You’re right. I’d do anything to protect the Quinn legacy, which is exactly why I’m here today, in your face with a fucking gun, telling you that I’m working with the Bratnovs.” With a hard kick, he sends the dining table sliding across the room. “We’re losing our grip on this town by the day. Businesses trying to pay us in fake money. Some not even paying us at all. And then youcut off their supplywith no warning? It’s a matter of time before they revolt, before other families see the chinks in our armor and try to take over. You didn’t think about that though, did you, Lorcan? No, because you’re too busy with your bottles of whiskey and your fancy antiques and weirdfucking obsessions.” He spits on the ground next to him, inches from Alessandro’s lifeless body. “Poppy Murphy. You just had to have her, didn’t you? Well, now she’s back where she belongs.”
My throat tightens.Poppy.“Don’t play with me, Antoin. Where is she?”
“Back with her father.”
All the air is snatched from my lungs. It doesn’t even feel like my own voice when I bite, “You better fucking explain yourself.”
“Simmer down,cuz.I’m the one with the gun, remember?” He lowers it slightly, basking in his newfound power. “Luckily for you, I have all the time in the world to explain what’s been going on right under your drunken nose. We’re not in a rush, are we?” He sneers with an evil smile. “We’ve got nowhere to be, no one to save.”
The blood rushes to my fists and they itch to connect with his face. And in any other circumstance, I’d let them. If this had happened three months ago, I wouldn’t think twice about taking a bullet over Antoin’s betrayal. In fact, I’d probably welcome him putting me out of my goddamn misery.
But it’s not about me anymore. It’s about Poppy, and she needs me to save her. “Is Donnacha in on this?” I spit. He laughs. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Sorry, Boss, I’ll keep you guessing on that one a little while longer.”
I swallow the rage in my throat and steady myself.I have to get out of this alive for Poppy. No matter what it takes.
“Well, then. You’ve piqued my curiosity.”
“Good.” With a cold smile, he steps across Rodriguez’s body and flicks the barrel of his gun to two chairs strewn in the middle of the floor. “Sit.” Only when he sinks into one of them do I reluctantly lower into the one opposite. His gun follows me like a laser. “The thing about you, Lorc, is that you’ve always been predictably unpredictable. So, when you had Donnacha shoot that Bratnov kid outside Mickey’s, I knew exactly what was going on in that stupid head of yours. Idiots like you always want full power, and I know you didn’t have the brain cells to think about the price we’d have to pay to get it. So, when you asked me to fly to meet with the Colombians, I drove straight past the airport and went to New York.” A little more relaxed now, he throws his free arm over the back of the chair and laughs. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I must have been crazy going to the Bratnovs after what you fucking did. His men shook me down a few times but eventually, Igor listened to what I had to say. See?” he says, cocking his head and raising his eyebrows at me. “That’s what real bosses do. They talk to each other. I tried to tell you, Lorcan, honestly, but—”
“Get to the point,” I snarl.
He purses his lips, raises his gun. “We had a very long chat. Yeah he’s a deranged bastard and I won’t be smoking cigars with him at the Gentleman’s Club anytime soon, but we ain’t so different, he and I. We agree on a lot. Like how the supply treaty benefits both families. How going to war for a few more square miles of territory isn’t worth the bloodshed. Oh, and that you—” he jabs his gun to point at me, “— need to go.”
“And who would replace me?” I mock him with a hard smile, “you?”
“Me,” he deadpans. “Fuck tradition. Fuck hierarchy. It should have always been me. While you were swanning around Europe collecting your little knick-knacks in the day and paying for blow jobs at night, I was at the office crunching numbers. In the Tunnels cracking jaws.” Eyes suddenly glassy, he shakes his head. “Donal would have wanted it to be me.”
Every time my father’s name comes out of his mouth it stabs me in the chest. “Put your gun down,” I growl, “fight me like a man.”
He snorts. “No chance. You’re a fucking animal. And that’s the key in being a successful boss,” he says simply, “knowing your strengths and weaknesses. You could rip me to shreds with your bare hands in under thirty seconds. But I knew I could out-wit you without barely lifting a finger. I did all of this,” he sweeps his free hand around the room, “right under your nose. Did you notice I always convinced you to let me interrogate the Bratnovs? You didn’t ask twice when I told you Viktor Bratnov was dead — shocker, he’s very much alive. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Where were we? Ah, yes. I was telling you about my meeting with Bratnov. Very successful, if not surprising. Before I left, he told me that he has a new business partner.”
My blood runs cold. “Who?” I spit.
“Marcus Murphy.”
He lets the bastard’s name marinade between us. Fuck, how quick I’d risk taking that bullet just to land one punch on him, if it wasn’t for Poppy. My voice is strangled as I growl, “He betrayed our family.”
“Twice. Turns out, he knew exactly what was in the package that killed your father. Yeah, he hadn’t quite learned his lesson from teaming up with the West Coast Irish. He tried his luck with the Italians, and when that didn’t work out, he floated around for a few years until he went crawling down to New York to beg for Bratnov’s alliance. He’s really determined to build his empire again from scratch.”
I pin him with a lethal stare. “Murphy was working with the Italians?”
“Yup.” I rake my fingers through my beard and stare up at the ceiling for a minute. Grinding my molars, I say. “And you still want to work with him.”
“Yup.”
“Then you’re even more stupid than you thinkIam,” I snarl. “You really think he won’t betray you too?”
He chuckles. “Of course, but I’ll have a bullet in his head long before that happens. Murphy’s ruthless. I don’t have to tell you that. Men like him are useful to have onside when you’re waging war. When Bratnov and I have total control of the East Coast, then we’ll dispose of him”
“And Poppy?”
“I think Bratnov has a few plans for her,” he smiles cruelly.
The rage boils over and I leap to my feet. Antoin does too, cocking his gun to my head. “Easy there, Boss,” he murmurs with a trace of nerves. Even he’s not sure that he’ll be able to put a bullet in me faster than I can wrap my hands around his throat and choke the life out of him. “Your temper has always been what gets you in hot water.”
My breathing is ragged, the red mist clouding my vision. “You’ll never get my men to agree to this. They’ll turn against you—”
He cuts me off. “Taken care of. I have a few onside already, and the rest… disposable.” His smile hardens. “This whole keeping-it-in-the-family thing doesn’t work so well anymore. I’ll train new men thatwantto serve me, and not work for me just because they are born a male Quinn.” He takes a step closer, straightening his back and puffing out his chest. He’s so close that he pushes the barrel of the gun into my chest.
