Chapter 7

Mason

The short drivefrom my apartment to Kincaid Enterprises isn’t nearly long enough.

The call I took in the car while Charlotte sat next to me…Roman.

It didn’t take many inquiries to learn that Roman was recognized last night when he picked up Charlotte. The killers, who’ve been doing their homework on their Las Vegas competition, made contact this morning.

There’s a new set of players in town who’ve been buying up real estate. Some fucking British upstarts who claim to be the direct relations of some titled wanker. They call themselves, the Dukes.

I don’t give a shit what they call themselves. I’m the king and they will bow.

Distantly, I know what’s got me in a twist. Fucking Charlotte. That skirt looked beyond gorgeous exposing the exact right amount of her lean legs, hugging the curve of her hips and ass. And her place…

We’d driven up and I’d wanted to hate it. It was a run-down shithole. I knew where she lived already, but I’d never been there. Then we’d stepped inside.

Every inch had been made beautiful from her touch. From the painted bathroom door to the pictures on the wall, to the exacting nature by which she kept the place clean and tidy.

I’d stood there and wondered what it might be like to be a different man. I never wondered that shit.

But what if…

What if my father hadn’t collected up a mountain of debts and then gotten himself killed by the Italians? What if I hadn’t had to bail out his debts to protect my brothers? What if I hadn’t had to use my law degree to become the real estate tycoon of Las Vegas with shady crime ties?

I could have been a regular guy with a woman like Charlotte. We’d get some shitty apartment, nicer than that one because I’m a damned hard worker. But Charlotte would take any place and make it beautiful. Turn it into a home.

Because she loved me. Wanted to take care of me in the way a woman took care of man. That had never occurred to me before. That a woman could make your life…beautiful.

Instead, I’m the guy with an empire that is surrounded in darkness. I have all the money in the world to give a woman like Charlotte and no life with which to provide.

I shake my head as I step out of the limo.

This is a dangerous line of thinking and one I need to shut down. We’ve got a meeting to discuss the next steps and unlike this morning’s little conversation with Roman and Luke, the entire family would be joining today, including Leo.

The Dukes making contact mean that decisions have to be made and Leo is part of that. Always.

And I can not afford to be soft in front of my brother, or anyone in the family for that matter. My strength and attention keeps us all together. Protects us. I can never forget what could happen if I allow myself to be distracted. That was how my father had ended up dead.

I’m their leader. The man who has taken them down this road. It is my job to see them safely to the other side no matter the consequences or my personal preferences. And that includes Charlotte.

I step into the elevator, shaking off the mood that pulled at me. I need my war face.

The doors slide open, my gaze sweeping over the room.

Everyone has assembled. My uncle Jake, who is only a few years older than me, lounges in a chair, his feet up on the table, forever the gangster. He was part of my dad’s crew before he was in mine.

I focus on the legitimate end of the business. It keeps us on the right side of the law and it keeps us earning big money. My dad wasn’t like that though, and Leo takes after him. Rough, ill-tempered.

Though Leo got way worse after my dad died. I sometimes wonder if he’ll ever go back to old Leo. Leo that was happy. More balanced.

Leo, Roman, and Luke stand to one side, Leo’s face near mutinous as his gaze slashes to mine.

I had assembled a team of five for a reason. Being an odd number meant no tie votes under any circumstances. We made decisions decisively and then put them into action.

Leo and I rarely voted on the same side of any vote, and it didn’t take much to see that we wouldn’t today.

I love my brother, but he is a loose cannon that I always have to keep from going off…

Which means I have to persuade the rest of my family today. Because I never override a vote. It would undermine the other men in a way that would only breed dissent. We were in this together.

But if I hoped to argue for Charlotte to receive our protection, I’d have to be pretty damn convincing.

Leo looked ready to take a machete to the room. And I seriously doubted I had Luke’s vote.

Roman was on my side. That left Jake as the swing…

“Tell us what you know,” I say to Roman, taking my seat in the center and leaning back in my chair. Like I’m not crawling out of my skin.

Roman and Luke do the same, coming around the table and taking their seats. But Leo doesn’t sit.

We’re the same height but Leo carries more bulk than me. He’s flexing it now, his gaze slashing into mine. I look away, slowly, like I’m bored. He’s my brother and I’d die for him. I respect him too, but he’s not the king here. I am.

It pisses him off.

Roman leans his elbows on the table. “I got the call this morning from Ethan Cunningham. Lord Ethan Cunningham, to be precise. Slick fuck with his smooth accent and his posh manners. Said things like, I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement chap, and we respect blah, blah, blah. Long and short, they don’t know who Charlotte is, just that we have her. They want us to turn their witness over to them.” He sits back in his chair, his face hard in a way I don’t usually see. Roman is growing into a man. For the second time today, I wonder if all three Kincaid brothers have a hard-on for Charlotte.

I’m not asking.

“That it?”

“Nope. Said their beef was with the Italians and that they’d happily leave us out of everything.”

“As long as we hand over Charlotte,” Leo says, leaning against the table. “Sounds easy enough.”

My gaze swings to him. “Sending a woman to her death sentence is easy?”

Leo’s face hardens.

“And besides, since when do we make a practice of allowing upstarts to make the rules? We don’t allow anyone to tell us what to do. Ever.”

I see my words sway the other men. They know I’m right.

“If I say that I have their witness well in hand, then the Dukes, out of proper respect, ought to take me at my word and leave the issue be.”

Jake scratches his chin, and I can see he agrees with my argument. It’s old school in a way he likes…

Leo’s lip curls. “Maybe we should vote on whether or not to turn?—”

Roman stands too, his eyes sparking fire as he glares at Leo. “We’re not voting on her life.”

Every eye is on him now.

“I’ve got to meet this girl,” Jake says, pulling a cigar out of his pocket and lighting it in the conference room. He sets the sprinklers off regularly, but the fucker lights up anyway.

Roman’s hand slashes through the air. “It’s not like that.” His gaze goes back to Leo. “She begged Mason last night to take her life instead of handing her over. She’s got a warrior’s heart and that’s not the kind of person you just toss away, Leo.”

“You respect a woman? That is interesting…” Jake grins around his cigar. “More interesting than you wanting to fuck her, that’s for sure.”

Roman’s lip curls. “We don’t make decisions with our dicks. It’s Leo who is forgetting that. Not me.”

“We don’t need to vote. Not yet.” I pick up a pen standing it on the desk, sliding my fingers down its surface. When I reach the bottom, I flip the pen and start at the top. It’s calming and distracting. “I’ve nearly got the permits for the tunnel that will cut the Italians out of the chain of casinos. If I get the job done, we’ll make a different kind of deal with the Dukes. One where they forget Charlotte exists and we give them some part of the Italians’ bones to pick. It will be a win-win.”

The casinos are connected by above-ground walkways. But I’m about to get digging rights. And when I do, the Italians are going to take a real hit in earnings, their traffic being seriously diminished. That’s when I’ll call in my debts and buy them out.

“And Charlotte?” Leo asks, his teeth clenched and his jaw hard. “What are you going to do with her while you haggle digging rights?”

“She stays put for now. No one speaks a word about her.”

Leo moves so fast, if I were a different man, I wouldn’t be able to react. He vaults over the table landing next to my chair.

But I see it coming and push out of the seat, standing to face off with him on even ground. He leans forward, his face an inch from mine as he spits. “She should be staying with me.”

Now we were at the heart of the problem.

Leo is still pissed I cock-blocked him two years ago. He knows how to hold a grudge, and in this one, I can’t blame him.

I’ve never put my desires before my brothers and he knows I did this time. Knows there has been a shift. It’s dangerous ground because I’ve never done it before. Those kind of moves were for my father. And how he’d ended up dead.

Which is why, I never let that shit happen. But Charlotte’s the kind of beautiful that can make a man froth. Pit them against one another. Even brothers.

Maybe I should give her up to him. He was the one that asked her out and brought her around. “No.” The word rips from my mouth before I can hold it back.

Roman is now standing next to us like a referee in a boxing match. “She’s staying with Mason,” Roman answers quietly backing me.

I’m not certain why Roman is on my side in all this, and it’s not the time to ask.

Leo turns his head, his face now in Roman’s, the veins of his neck popping out. “Who the fuck are you to decide anything?”

Roman’s brows cock as he eases back. “The man who rescued her.”

Silence falls as those words sink in. Roman chose to bring her to me because he agrees that’s where she belongs.

She does. I can feel that now. But I can also feel some loyalty shifting with Leo in a way that is so dangerous.

“Don’t worry,” Luke calls from his seat at the table. “Mason will give her up if it’s in the best interest of the family. We’re all still clear on where our allegiances lie.”

“That so,” Leo answers, his voice smooth velvet. Which is much worse than when he’s spitting and yelling. “I want to hear that from his lips. Mason?”

“I will do whatever is necessary to further this family’s business. But like I said, I don’t think looking weak and giving her to the Dukes is the right move.”

“But you would? If you had to?”

I hate the word, but I know I need to say it. “Yes.”

“Good to know.” He smirks back at me.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Leo.” I’m not playing. Leo is a weapon and turned against us…

But he’s pivoting away, striding for the elevator. “Keep working on your tunnel. Good plan big brother.”

And then he pushes the button, the doors slide open. He steps inside, crossing his arms over his massive chest. He glares at each one of us before the doors close and he disappears.

“You boys pissed him right off,” Jake says around his cigar.

Luke scowls. “This is a chick he dated two years ago, a couple times. What’s the fuss?”

I know the answer. He’s pissed because I got in his way. Because I’m not following the rules we established when we started this business. I’m not acting in the best interest in the family. I’m thinking with my dick.

But it’s Roman who responds. “Charlotte came to family dinner, took one look at Mason, and lost all interest in Leo.”

“Ah,” Luke pushes up from his seat. “Leo does not take ego blows well.”

But I turn to look at Roman. Because this is news to me. “She hardly looked at me at that dinner.”

“That’s right. She looked at everything but you while you stared at her like she was a wagyu steak you’d just imported.”

“And you’ve stayed away for two years? Your self-control has always been astounding.” Luke looks at the elevator. “Still. Leo is going to be tough to manage.”

“Just claim her,” Roman says to me quietly. “And then we’ll deal with the fallout. In between might be worse.”

Roman was getting smart as fuck. I clap him in on the shoulder. “You know I can’t do that. It goes against everything we’ve promised.”

“We never promised to stop fucking,” Jake rumbles the words. “Might do you good to clear out some of the cum.”

He’s not wrong. “Luke, can you to talk to Leo? He’s not going to speak to me now, and I’m afraid his temper will get the best of him.”

“On it, though I don’t know how I’m explaining that we’ve agreed you should fuck her brains out. But…I’ll think of something.”

I start for the elevator, glad this meeting wasn’t worse. No one threw a punch and the other four of us are on the same page. But I can’t linger. I’ve got a ridiculous amount of work to do and even less time to do it.

And the faster all of this gets done, the better.

I mull over Roman’s words as I take the elevator one floor down to my office. Just claim her…

As usual, things with Charlotte are not that simple. Still, the idea has merit.