“The shipment is here. It is waiting at our gates.”
Within five minutes, the laundry truck containing cocaine with a street value of five million dollars drove into the warehouse. We’d only paid out two and a half, and would be earning a million after the profits were split. The other twenty-two and a half million I’d had to sweat to secure in escrow, was just waiting to be transferred over month by month for each shipment.
As the driver jumped out, Vasov wandered over to him. Aidan, having rolled up the contract and shoved it into his jacket pocket, strolled over to the Colombian, bored now the business was dealt with, and wanting to play.
When a horde of Russians appeared from out of nowhere, I tried not to tense. I knew why they were here—to empty the truck—but the Bratva and the Five Points had never been friends. What had just happened was the start of a new era, and trust wouldn’t grow overnight.
It would start from this moment, but it would only be truly cemented when Vasov’s daughter gave birth to her first son, who would become Vasov’s true heir.
I gritted my teeth when a scream ricocheted around the warehouse and avoided looking at the crucifix over in the corner. Accustomed to the noise, no one flinched, and business went on as Aidan’s fun and games began.
***
Aoife
Eight days later
“My God,you’re skin and bones!”
In my dad’s embrace, I’d admit to feeling like a little girl, which really was the ultimate of ironies considering I’d never known him as a child.
It was good to be in his arms though. Good to be near him again, even if the day of reckoning had come, it was worth it.
I hadn’t seen him in over three months. Four lost visits because of my injury and then the lockdown, which, thank God, was finally over. Samuel and Billy were back as my driver and guard though, so some things hadn’t changed.
I resented the lost time, even as I accepted what I couldn’t change—it was my new philosophy. My PT had me doing yoga to try to improve my flexibility and I was actually getting into it in a big way.
“Hardly, Dad,” I chided, staring up at him with a grin.
He frowned. “No, Aoife, you are.”
“My appetite’s been dicey.”
“I can imagine.” His jaw clenched, and rather than take the sofa opposite me, he grabbed my hands and urged me over to the one he usually took. His fingers clung to mine as he stared at me. “Why didn’t you tell me about him?”
Wincing as he got straight down to business, I ducked my head. “What was I supposed to say to you, Dad?”
“How about ‘I’m marrying a thug’ for a start?”
I scowled at him. “Finn is not a thug.”
“He’s a Five Pointer, Aoife,” Alan rasped. “What the hell else are they if not that? Granted, he’s a rich thug, but—”
I jerked my hands free from his. “Finn makes me happy.”
“He got you shot,” was his immediate retort.
“I love him.” If my tone was flat, it was because I knew that not even that would get around his parental lecture. “And I’m married to him. There’s nothing you can do or say that will change that.”
He stared at me, aghast. “How can you love him? You can’t know him, not what he’s capable of, at least.”
I knew he was devoted. I knew he was tender when I needed him to be, and rough when those dark urges unfurled inside me. I knew he was neurotic enough to hover over me to make sure I took my meds and felt no shame in siccing Lena on me in his absence.
I knew my next words would be mean, but I didn’t come here for a lecture. I knew he’d be angry and bewildered, and I’d expected such talk, but what surprised me was how his denigration of Finn pissed me off.
I knew, more than most, what Finn did. What he was capable of.
I’d heard some of his calls. I knew what he was mixed up in. I think, to some point, all the wives I’d met did. We just never spoke about it.