Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

Chicago, Illinois

K evin Doyle forced himself to ignore the buzz of the restaurant two floors below and concentrate on the massive amount of work he needed to do. Usually, he could drown out the noise, but a wedding party had rented out the large private room, and the majority of the attendees were apparently already three sheets to the wind.

He didn’t have to be here. He, in fact, had an entire floor of offices twelve blocks away where he could have all the quiet and privacy he needed. But this restaurant had belonged to his family for decades. It had seen them through many hardships, and for sentimental reasons, he did the bulk of his work here. Plus, it was an excellent cover for his other not-so-legal activities.

Pulling out a lower desk drawer, he lifted the false bottom and withdrew the ledger. His family laughed at him for not putting his accounts online like a twenty-first-century businessman, but he didn’t trust technology. Prisons were filled with people who’d been careless and trusted their life’s work to cyberspace, where hackers were just waiting to dig into your business either to steal from you or ruin you. No, thank you very much. Pen and paper had been good enough for his ancestors. They were good enough for him.

Burying himself in the numbers and shipments of his warehouse imports, he successfully drowned out the drunken noise below.

An hour later, the pounding on the door was a welcome distraction. The familiar knock—two hard, one soft— made him roll his eyes and sigh. The man was so predictable. “Come in, Oscar.”

The chunky man stomped inside. He was huffing and puffing, and that was likely because he’d walked up only nine steps to get here. The man was in pisspoor physical shape, but he was loyal, and he was family, so Kevin gave him a pass he might not give to someone else.

“You busy?” Oscar wheezed.

“I’m always busy. What do you need?”

“I got something I think you’re going to want to see. May be nothing, or it may be something. Something big.”

Oscar had a way of delivering news. It was occasionally entertaining, but most of the time it was beyond irritating.

“All right. What is it?”

“You heard about that rich guy getting his head blown off last night?”

“Franco Bass? Yes.” The assassination had been all over the news ad nauseam. Twenty-four-seven news cycles made sure everyone, including the family pets, had heard the story at least a dozen times. The killing hadn’t been a surprise. Everyone in the criminal world had known Bass had been living on borrowed time. The man himself, however, had apparently never gotten that memo.

“Somebody filmed the whole thing.”

“Yes, I’ve seen the footage.” Watching someone get killed held no mystery or interest to him. He’d seen that dozens of times and had been the perpetrator for most of them.

“Well, somebody filmed the audience, not the actual kill.”

Trust Oscar to call witnesses to a shooting the audience .

“And?”

“There’s something you need to see.” With that, Oscar pulled his phone from his pocket, swiped his finger over the screen a few times, and then handed it to him.

Despite his irritation at Oscar’s penchant for drama, Kevin found himself intrigued. The gleam in his brother-in-law’s eyes told him something monumental was about to be revealed.

Kevin watched the scene unfold on the phone’s screen. So far, it was just overdressed men and women sitting at various tables. Some were eating, some were talking, a few were laughing. Upscale elevator music played in the background. There was an indistinct buzzing that, based on his experience, resulted from dozens of muted conversations joined together in a cacophony of sound.

The camera feed covered most of the restaurant. There was a slight pause in sound, as if everyone stopped talking at once. Then Franco Bass appeared within the view of the camera as he walked into the restaurant. Interestingly enough, the camera didn’t stay on Bass, but once again panned the room, perhaps to give the viewer the opportunity to see the impact the man’s appearance had on the patrons. In the background, Kevin noticed the buzzing noise increase, indicating the excited chatter. The camera continued panning the restaurant.

Kevin was about to growl his frustration at not seeing whatever Oscar wanted him to see when the camera swept past a couple seated at a small table in the corner. It was only a flash before the camera moved on, but Kevin immediately spotted exactly what Oscar was so excited about.

His heart pounding, he snapped, “Rewind it. Let me see it again.”

Oscar grabbed the phone, swiped a few times, and handed it back to Kevin.

The feed had been stopped, freezing on an attractive young couple. His pounding heart stopped, and his breath left his body.

“Looks just like her, doesn’t it?” Oscar whispered. “And she’s about the right age, too. That’s got to be her, don’t you think?”

Mesmerized, Kevin shut out Oscar’s yammering and focused on the woman. Hair the color of midnight, glowing skin the shade of a light pink rose, a pointed, dainty chin, a heart-shaped face, and dark brown eyes with a hint of gold in their depths. Small, petite, and delicate looking. Sheer perfection.

Admittedly, he had seen and enjoyed many beautiful women in his fifty-five years, some just as lovely as this woman. Beauty was fleeting—it would fade and dry up. But blood? That was what mattered. And it was her blood that he wanted. This beauty could bring him to heights he’d only ever dreamed to reach.

“Too bad Ryan is married,” Oscar said. “She’d be perfect for him.”

Ryan? Kevin held back a huff. His straight-as-an-arrow son wouldn’t know what to do with this gift. Despite all of Kevin’s urgings and occasional beatings, Ryan had turned away from his legacy. He didn’t deserve to reap the reward this beauty would bring.

Ideas and scenarios raced through his head. He had a lot to think about, a lot to do. His first order of business would be to ensure that she didn’t get away. Not this time.

“Guess she isn’t dead after all,” Oscar continued to prattle. “We looked high and low for her, though.”

Of course she hadn’t been dead. No one had believed that. But that had been during one of the darkest times in their organization’s history. They had been too busy trying to survive to concern themselves with one little girl, no matter how valuable she was to them. They were now on stable ground, but they were still fractured—the cohesiveness they’d once enjoyed had been demolished. This one woman could change all of that. She could change everything. She could reunite them all and bring about a revolution.

A revolution that he would lead.

Not taking his eyes away from her face, Kevin asked, “Do we know where she is?”

“Not yet. Still in Seattle, hopefully. I’ve already dispatched Miles and Kip. They’re like bloodhounds. They’ll find her.”

Yes, they would. In the meantime, he had a lot of things to work out.

“What do you want them to do about the big guy?” Oscar asked.

“What big guy?”

“The man with her. They seem pretty familiar with each other. The way he’s looking at her, I figure he’s sweet on her.”

Hmm. He’d been so focused on the woman, he’d shut everything else out, including the man at the table with her.

He handed the phone back to Oscar. “Play it again.”

Oscar backed up the footage and shoved the phone back beneath Kevin’s gaze. When his eyes rested on the man, he saw something familiar—not because he knew the man. No, this was an instinctive awareness. Like recognized like. This man might be dressed in expensive togs, but he was no pretty boy. Whoever this guy was, he was dangerous. Meaning he wouldn’t give up easily. If they snatched the girl, the man wouldn’t rest until he’d found her.

“Get rid of him.”

“You want ’em to go ahead and grab the girl, too?”

“Absolutely. That’s the first order of business. We can’t risk losing her.”

“She’s a little older than Malcolm’s son, but stuff like that don’t matter much anymore. I hear he’s got a girlfriend, but I’m sure he’d come around. She’ll be a welcome addition to the family.”

Marrying the girl off to a distant relative was not going to happen. This was too big of an opportunity to pass off to someone who wouldn’t appreciate what they had.

Oscar was fishing, and as much as Kevin appreciated this being brought to his attention, there was no way in hell he was going to share with anyone his plans for the girl. Especially not his brother-in-law. No one could know until it was fait accompli.

Placing a friendly arm around Oscar’s shoulders, Kevin led him to the door. “You did good, man. There will be a little extra something in your bank account this month.”

“Thanks, Kev. Glad I could help. Let me know if there’s anything else you need me to do.”

“Let me know the instant you secure her. I’ll have a place ready.”

“Sure thing.”

“Oh, and, Oscar? She may not come willingly, but tell them she’s not to sustain one bruise. Understand?”

“Sure thing. These guys are professionals.” He grinned and added, “Besides, how much trouble can a little thing like her cause?”

The door had barely closed before Kevin was back at his desk. He was a meticulous and organized man who planned his actions ahead of time. Taking a new notepad and pen from his top drawer, he began to jot down a list of things he needed to accomplish. He stared at the third item on the list, drew in a breath, and flipped the page. That one would require a list of its own. At the top of the blank page, he gave the new list a title: Get Rid of Current Wife .