Viv had given him a come-to-Jesus talk after New Year’s about his medication not working if he didn’t stop drinking so much.
I made my way down to the shipyard and our warehouse there, and I was a little surprised to see Finn having a smoke with Eric outside.
I dug out my Glock from the glovebox and tucked it into the holster around my calf, then smoothed down my pants. May was bringing us warm weather, and fuck wearing a suit jacket just to conceal a gun. Lastly, I adjusted my suspenders and climbed out of the car.
Not for the first time, Finn eyed my car with appreciation.
“She’s so fucking gorgeous, I might even cheat on Emilia with it,” he said.
I laughed. Leave it to my boss and best friend to call cars mistresses. “To be fair, she’d cheat on you with her too.”
Emilia had taken my car for a test drive shortly after Shan gave it to me, and yeah, I was just glad I’d gotten out of there in time. Because the look she’d given Finn was all too familiar. Who the fuck needed porn or Cialis when you had an Audi R8? Custom interior, all black leather, matching the exterior. Black rims, black everything.
“I’m both jealous and turned on,” Finn said, stubbing out his smoke. “She was hella stunning driving it.”
“In other words, you want them both—together,” Eric chuckled.
Finn snapped his fingers. “That—yeah. Fuck.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you have a hundred-and-fifty Gs lying around. Get your own.”
He smirked faintly. “Only if I bought it specifically for the wife. I’m currently in the doghouse.”
“What for?” Eric and I asked at the same time.
Finn sucked his teeth, annoyance seeping in. “I may have suggested it was a good time to try for another baby, and she flipped her shit. Completely irrational.”
That made no sense. Emilia wasn’t that kind of woman. Eric and I exchanged a quick glance, because we knew our friend. He tended to leave out some details in these scenarios, and we already knew from last time Emilia got pregnant how that’d happened.
“By suggesting you try for another baby,” I said, “do you mean you switched out her birth control with placebos again?”
Eric coughed to hide a laugh.
Finn got all bitchy. “Fuck, you sound just like her. Why work late if I get the same treatment here?” With that said, he opened the door to the old personnel entrance and entered the warehouse like an angry toddler.
“If he’s in a mood all night, this is gonna blow,” I said.
Eric snorted. “Fifty bucks he leaves within the hour.”
No dice. Finn was sharp and wanted to be involved in day-to-day operations, but he’d allowed himself better work hours. It was rare he worked past dinnertime. And unlike our previous boss, Finn held his sit-downs in a restaurant, never clubs or strip joints. He was bringing grace and honor back to the syndicate.
“I’d rather take a bet on the return of the Italians,” I replied, changing the topic. “Got any news on that front?”
It’d unnerved me when the last car we’d been tracking had ended up at the airport too. It had happened a couple months ago. As far as we knew, there were no Italians left. Which didn’t add up. They didn’t just surrender silently like that. Something was wrong.
“Not a damn word.” It bugged Eric too. “I got a lead, though. That friend of yours—Ghost?—yeah, she found a connection between—”
“Oi!”
I looked over my shoulder and spotted Colm stepping out of his car. The look of concentration and the furrow between his brows told me something was up.
“Don’t look across the street from the parking lot, but we’ve got company,” he said, walking closer.
I stiffened.
“They were parked outside Finn’s office earlier.” Colm reached us and lit up a smoke, acting calm and oblivious. “Brown Chevy, two wop-lookin’ gobshites our age.”
Jesus fucking Christ, they weren’t even supposed to be stateside.
“This is last time all over again,” I responded irritably. “By the time we noticed they were in our city, they were already causing mayhem.” Get Finn to safety, alert the crew bosses, Eric had to be safe too, move the shipment to a better location. My mind started racing, and I was ready to act without Finn’s approval. I did have the power to do so in some cases; I just wasn’t sure he would classify this situation as one of them. “I hope we agree that there’s no way we can let them leave.”
“Definitely,” Colm replied firmly.
Eric positioned himself so he had a better view of the Chevy somewhere behind me. “Only one reason they’d get a rusty old car like that.”
To blend in. Especially in a place like this. Shipyards and warehouses went hand in hand with rust.
So they were here to gather information and remain discreet.