Chapter One
SEAMUS
Two hours ago, we were covered in blood, and God knows what else, and now, Liam’s got his face buried in a stripper’s tits. The lad really knows how to compartmentalize, that’s for fucking sure.
The rest of my crew are dotted around the private VIP room, watching the show on the stage. The stripper who is working it like a pro up there has been working here at Oracle in West Boston for three years now.
The one on Liam’s lap has been here for less than three months. I hope she’s enjoying herself because tonight will be her last.
“It looks like Liam’s getting his dick wet tonight.”
I glance over at Paddy as he speaks. Patrick Flynn, my best mate for over twenty years and my right-hand man, is lounging against the bar table, a tumbler of whiskey in his hands, watching the youngest member of our crew coax a stripper into committing the ultimate faux pas.
Out in the main club, this shit might fly, but here, in the VIP room, if there’s a girl on the stage, she commands the attention, and the tips, of the room.
We didn’t make the rule, but we sure as fuck enforce it when one of the girls complains. Our job is to keep our clientele happy, and the best way to do that is to keep our strippers happy.
Paddy was the first lad I met when my father up and moved us here from Dublin twenty-one years ago. Pa was heavily involved with the Dublin Underworld before he transplanted us here.
My cousin Connor, who is also in my crew, and his mammy came with us for the ride. His mammy was married to Pa’s brother, and his Pa was killed in a shoot-out with coppers when we were little, so Pa takes care of her.
Paddy’s Pa had taken mine under his wing when we arrived in Boston, and we’ve been mates ever since. Paddy also grew up in Ireland but moved a few years before we did. I didn’t know him back in Ireland, but we’ve been thick as thieves for almost two decades now.
Connor and Ronan are standing near the bar, watching Liam with inscrutable eyes. He’s not one to cock block, so Ronan will let the lad finish with her, but he’s going to make Liam’s life a fucking miserable affair for the next few weeks. It looks like my dry cleaning is getting done.
A few years ago, Ronan brought Liam into the crew when he caught the lad trying to jack his car. Liam’s lucky. Most people who cross Ronan end up six feet under. Because he’s the one who brought him in, Liam is Ronan’s problem. Since the lad can never seem to keep his dick in his pants, he’s Ronan’s problem a fucking lot.
My phone buzzes against my thigh, and I work it out of my jeans as Carmen’s eyes meet mine as she works the stage. Her face is controlled, but I can see the fury in her eyes. I give her a short, sharp nod. Juliet’s out.
Satisfied Juliet will be disciplined, Carmen’s lips twist into a sultry smile as she crosses to the pole and works it, to the crowd's delight. Dropping my eyes to my phone, I bite back a curse, shooting my whiskey.
“Sort it out,” I tell Paddy, jerking my head in the direction of Liam and Juliet. He nods, swirling the amber liquid around his glass, saluting me with the tumbler as I leave.
The drive from Oracle to West Roxbury only takes half an hour, and I pull up at the gabled, red brick five-bedroom house I grew up in after we landed Stateside when I was nine.
Dermot, the man on guard tonight, nods to me as I stalk up the path and knock on the door. Darragh, Pa’s closest advisor, answers my knock, gesturing for me to follow him through to the den where Pa does all his business.
“Seamus, son.”
When I enter the den, Pa rises out of his leather wing-backed chair, embracing me when I reach him, clasping my shoulders and kissing my cheek.
Once I’m ensconced in my own leather chair, furnished with a glass of whiskey, Pa steeples his fingers, gazing over the top of them at me. His eyes dart around, landing back on my face.
“I take it our Moldovan problem has been taken care of?”
He taps his steepled fingertips against his chin, studying me with his steely blue eyes. It’s not like him to fidget. My eyes fix on his moving fingers. Darragh takes his seat across from my father as I answer the affirmative. There must be another job for my crew to handle.
Pa shifts in his chair, his eyes latching on me again. Why the fuck does he look so twitchy? Do we need to off a cop or something? Niall would always be down for that, but I’d rather not.
“How’s that woman you’ve been seeing?” he asks. What woman? At fifteen, I lost my virginity and haven’t been monogamous once. I blink in surprise at him. Since when does he give a fuck where I stick my dick?
“Which one?” I smirk.
He grins, so it’s obviously the answer he wanted to hear. I’m happy to oblige.
“You know I’m in no mood to settle down and make a mammy of a woman just yet, Pa.”
I grin at him, and Darragh smothers his smile with his hand over in the corner. Pa’s nodding along, his grin disappearing as he sighs.