Trouble

3. Liam

Three

Liam

“I hope you two realize how serious the situation is.”

I suppressed a grimace as I took a swig of my beer. “Pretty hard not to, when we have to play whack-a-mole a couple of times a week with whichever patriarch thinks his Family is strong enough to steal the throne while we’re still b****y on it.”

“Or the men you’ve had stationed around our flat for the past few months,” my twin said, a carefree note to his voice I knew he didn’t feel. We both knew why those men were there, and it wasn’t to protect us. “We’re not Blaine. We don’t do the whole entourage thing.”

“I have three sons left, Liam. I’m not risking your security,” our father said as he looked at Louis with that trademark William Steel gleam in his eyes.

Neither of us bothered pointing out that he’d gotten our names mixed up.

“It’s been two months. If anyone was going to try to get at us, it would have happened by now. And you know we can defend ourselves,” Louis said. But despite his words, we all knew what he truly meant—what we couldn’t just come out and say: It’s been two months. We’ve proven we’re loyal. Call your watchdogs off.

Our father sighed, flattening the napkin under his beer bottle with a couple of fingers. “Perhaps I have been over-protective. You’ll forgive a father for wanting to ensure his youngest sons are safe. Maybe one day, when you have children of your own, you will know. But you do have a point—and I could use the extra manpower to strengthen the watch we keep on the Bellucci Family, now they’ve openly sworn fealty to Mort.”

This time I didn’t bother holding back my grimace. Our Family’s supporters were deserting us at a faster pace than we could keep up with. It would have been a lot easier to keep under control if we’d still had all our brothers in town, but I didn’t say that out loud.

Our father rapped his knuckles against the table and got up. Wesley, who’d been standing by the near wall, straightened up the second Dad moved. Like a faithful dog, waiting for his master’s command.

No one’d thought he’d pull through the two bullets he took to the chest just a few months ago, but unfortunately he had. And Dad had kept him even closer since.

Lucky for me, none of his loyal men saw who pulled the trigger.

“I have business to attend. I trust I can see you two at the meeting tomorrow night?” our father said, giving each of us a firm stare.

Louis grinned. “You’re never going to let that go, are you? We said we were sorry. And we paid you back.”

“As you should have. One hundred grand down the drain because my horndog sons were too busy with a pair of floozies to get to a drop off on time.” He shook his head, eyes narrowed. “Perhaps it’s time I arrange a marriage for both of you. Blaine settled down well, after the initial drama.”

“No thanks, Dad.” Louis shuddered for emphasis. “We’ll be on time. Promise. No need to threaten capital punishment.”

“Just see to it.” Despite our father’s stern tone, a glimmer of amusement shone in his eyes as he turned to nod at Wesley before walking out of the pub.

I knew he had a softer spot for me and Louis than he did our brothers. Not that William Steel’s soft spot was actually all that cushy, and I was under no illusion that it’d save our hides if he ever found out what we were planning behind his back.

“Sometimes I still can’t believe he had Jeremy killed,” Louis said softly as we watched our father and his bodyguard cross the street through the pub window. “But then I remember what he tried to do to Marcus.”

“It’s pretty impressive that things could get any more f****d up than they were while we were growing up,” I agreed. Then, through sheer force of will, I pushed away the gloom threatening to settle into my chest and gave my twin a cheerful smile as I stole his last chip and shoved it in my mouth before he could stop me. “But all we have to do to fix that is to stage a coup, somehow not get killed in the process, and then gain control over twenty Families on the brink of rebellion. Who says we don’t have a solid plan?”

Louis grimaced. “Blaine, for starters. Something about covering our arses.”

“Blaine.” I rolled my eyes. “Blaine’s such a scaredy-cat. Mira’s lovely, but getting married really took the edge off our dear brother. She’s tough enough to deal with our family bullshit. He doesn’t need to f*****g coddle her.”

“Indeed.” Louis stretched lazily and pushed away from the table. “But try telling him that. He nearly took my head off when I gave their kid that g*n for his birthday. Get him prepped at an early age, you know?”

“Overprotective fucker,” I agreed with a smirk. “Who wouldn’t want their toddler playing with a handgun?”

“You suggested it, you prick,” Louis growled, but his eyes twinkled with amusement at the memory of our older brother’s reaction to his kid’s birthday present. “And it wasn’t like it was loaded.”

“As a joke!” I held my hands up in mock-defense. “How was I to know you’d be stupid enough to actually follow through?”

“I’m getting you back, you wanker. Whenever Marcus resurfaces, I’m telling him you’ve been smack-talking his girl.”

Some of my amusement faded. Marcus, our other brother, had high-tailed it out of the country only a couple of months ago, after attempting to take down our dad to save his fiancée. He was protective to the extreme of the girl, and also nuts as f**k—and likely wouldn’t wait to hear me out before bashing my skull in.

“That’s not even funny.” I arched an eyebrow at Louis. “He’d murder me on the spot, and then what would you do?”

“Turn your bedroom into a cigar club and drown my sorrows in whiskey and p***y,” he said with an easy smile.

“t**t,” I shot back. I leaned back in my seat and spread my arms out in an all-encompassing gesture. “As if you’d ever pull any p***y without me. I’m the good-looking brother, after a—huh.”

“We’re identical,” my twin’s dry voice sounded, but I wasn’t paying him any attention, because my gaze had been caught by a vaguely familiar length of brown hair tied back in a tight braid. The woman it was attached to was standing at the bar to the pub with a couple of notes in her hand, dressed in a loose shirt and a fitted pencil skirt that emphasized her full a*s and round thighs.

I leaned back a bit further to catch a glimpse of her shoes and smirked in recognition. Well, what were the odds…

“Speaking of p***y, huh?” Louis said. “Who’re you eying up?”

“Brunette chick with the arse,” I said with a happy smile, pushing my chair back so I could stand. “Saved her from a shoe-incident on my jog this morning—and a few hours later here she is, ready to fall all over my d**k in gratitude. It’s gotta be Fate, right?”

“Not sure Fate’s in the business of setting up your one-night stands for you, mate.” He arched an eyebrow as he gave her a once-over. “She looks like the definition of a prude. In the mood for a challenge, I take it?”

“Always.” I gave him a wink. “Does this mean you don’t want a go once I’ve broken her in?”

He snorted. “We’ll see if she’s worth the trouble.”

Ha, he was so full of s**t. I quirked my eyebrow at him before I shifted my focus to the brunette. At this point, doing a swap on our lady friends was practically tradition, and I was pretty damn sure it’d be a cold day in hell before he’d pass up on an arse like the one I currently had my sights set on.

It was funny, really—almost like Fate really did want me to f**k this particular girl. I’d not bothered this morning, since she was obviously late for work and I had plans with Louis and Dad anyway, but running into her twice in a couple of hours? Well, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not when I’d already pulled the knight in shining armor gig on her.

I walked up behind her, smirking at her complete obliviousness as she tapped the bar with an irritated finger, clearly annoyed with the staff not getting to her yet.

“I trust my craftsmanship is still holding up?”

She squeaked at the sound of my voice right next to her ear and spun around, nearly knocking her head into my face as she did. I pulled back a little and gave her a smile. “Hello again.”

“Oh, uh… hi. I didn’t know you worked in this area.” Her pretty face flushed. “I mean, of course I didn’t—we didn’t exactly exchange business cards. I mean… um…”

I took mercy on her awkward stuttering and tilted my head back in direction of my table that was half-hidden from the bar. “I’m here on lunch with my brother. And you? You work around here?”

“Yeah, just up the street. I’m here on a business lunch.” She hesitated for a moment, and then indicated the bar with a nod. “Look, I’m actually glad I ran into you. You really saved my morning meeting. Can I buy you a beer or something? As a thank-you?”

“Hmm.” I pursed my lips to hide my smirk. Bird walked right into that one, bless her. “I’m just about to head back to the office, but what about tonight? After work?”

“Oh.” She looked surprised. “Yeah, okay, I guess we can do that. I won’t be off until some time after five, though.”

”That’s fine.”

She dove a hand into her purse and pulled out a business card, handing it to me. “Give me a call after four, I should know when I’m off then.”

“Will do,” I said, and then eyed the waiter who’d finally gotten around to my brunette companion. She turned her attention to him as well and paid her bill before she looked back at me.

“Sorry, I really need to get back to my client. I’ll speak with you later.”

“Looking forward to it,” I said, and then she was off with a smile and a nod that I could only describe as professional. I glanced down at the business card in my hand, unable to hold back my grin. She’d been plenty into me this morning, I knew from her lingering looks and profuse blushing, but it was pretty obvious from how completely non-flirty she’d been while being asked out on a date that she probably didn’t realize my ulterior motives.

Which didn’t exactly promise an easy conquest—but I always loved a challenge.

Cheerfully whistling, I shoved the card into my pocket and strolled back to my table where Louis was waiting.