Drake mulls over my question, aiming an arched brow my way. “I do.”
“On that, we both agree.”
“Grey is in pretty bad shape, man. Looks like death is waiting to take him away from us.”
Darkness steals the light from Drake’s eyes and it pains me to see my blood brother in pain. He and Grey are my partners, my equals in many ways but one. When you run an organization as deeply rooted in the shadows as ours there can only be one head. One authority and that’s me. Behind closed doors, what we do stays with us though rumors have spread we like to share women like we share our profits.
“He took a bullet for her. Doc says if he pulls through tonight, he’ll likely live.” Drake points at my arm. “And you need to tend to that.”
“Yeah.”
I pull my shirt off, tossing it over a chair. Thank God the asshole who shot me didn’t have better aim. I grab a clean gauze out of a drawer and wrap tape around it to hold it in place over a deep gash in my arm. “We all would have done the same to protect her,” I say.
“He did. You should let Doc put some sutures in that. You’re getting blood all over the fucking carpet.”
I wave him off. “It’s only a flesh wound. The idea of stitches pulling at my skin is one irritation I can do without.
Drake eases into a chair after pouring a drink, his eyes glued to the amber liquid, but doesn’t drink. Agitation rolls off him so I wait while he gathers his thoughts. Experience tells me they match my darker ones thirsting for blood. He just needs a moment to ground himself.
“We waited for months to have her and now she’s gone.” He speaks quietly but the weight of his words presses on me all the same.
“He’s out there hunting her, too, you know. Marcus is a callous motherfucker. If he finds her first there’s no telling what he’ll do. Kane can’t control him. I looked into his eyes. Soulless bastard has no scruples.”
“Not many assassins do.”
“Things have become lax around here. They shouldn’t have gotten within five miles of this place without us knowing. Call in the men. Let’s check our lines and make sure we’re all on the same page.”
“Are we cleaning house?” Drake asks but he knows damn well what the answer will be. “It wouldn’t take much to hunt her father down and eliminate the problem.”
“Do you want to be the one to tell her you offed her father?”
Drake growls out his frustration. “There are moments I don’t give a fuck. He’s one of the monsters this world doesn’t need. You know the shit he and his men are into. The trafficking they do. What kind of father is he to her anyway?”
“Right now, we need to focus. We should know at all times who walks within our borders. Let them know our disappointment comes with a price. Those we keep, run background checks on them again. See who’ve they’ve been chatting with. Call in the girl down at the phone company and pull records. She brought her boy toy here a couple of weeks ago for a free night. Time to call in that favor.”
“How steep are we talking about with the men?” Drake pulls his piece checking his rounds.
“Enough to send a message to the new crew we bring in.”
Drake nods. “And Katriona?” Drake draws on his whiskey as he raises his big frame to stand beside me.
I stretch my neck until I hear a pop-pop. Tension releases immediately but the relief is only temporary. “Bring her back and we might as well hand her over to the feds ourselves. They’re watching. They’ll try to put her into witness protection.”
“We won’t let that happen.”
“It won’t be long before they tie her to her father anyway. It wouldn’t be fair to her. Not until the bastard is rotting will she be okay. Until then we stay way.”
Drake drains his drink and slams to glass down on the desk. He props an arm over the back of the chair looking as relaxed as a cobra with his neck flared.
“Not happening. I’ll go it alone before I leave her completely defenseless. We had her in our hands, on our tongues and our cocks were all so fucking hard it would have taken hours of fucking her to drain our need to have her. Tell me, how easy do you think it will be to walk away from the only woman we’ve all wanted for fucking months? Better, what would you do if something happens to her?”
I have no answer.
“Yeah. Thought so. And we all let her leave here. Unprotected.”
Keeping my voice calm, I turn my gaze to his. “Put feelers out. Keep a tail on her when you find her. She won’t go far without cash and she’s smart enough not to touch her bank account and credit cards. Watch. Nothing else and report back.”
“Grey promised we would come looking for her.”
“But not until it’s safe.”
“I get that. But it’s going to be fucking hard.”
“It’s the best we can do to protect her.”