I intended to slip from beneath Ayvah as soon as she fell asleep, but when push came to shove, I couldn’t do it. For the first time in my life, there’s something more important to me than work and the operations of the family, and I don’t know how I’m ever going to work as much as I always have.
A normal day for me is sixteen hours. Eight hours as CEO of Frost Industries, and eight hours as king of the Chicago underworld. I’ve done that seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, for the last five years. Even before I took over for my father, I was learning the ropes. Even when I was at college, I had one foot in the business so I wasn’t coming in fresh.
I’ve never lived a normal life, and I’ve always been okay with that, but right now, I wish it were an option. I wish I could buy Ayvah a house in the suburbs and give her two point four children and a golden retriever. I wish I could go to work each day and return at the same time every night without ever having blood on my clothing. I wish I could give her the life I’m sure she always imagined she would have. But I can’t give her any of that, and that’s why I should let her go. She deserves that life. She deserves a man who can give that to her. But I can’t let her go either. And that’s the problem that keeps me up at night. Not the fact Annalise fucking Lounder bests us at every turn. Not that my baby sister is married to someone who was considered our mortal enemy six months ago. Not that Wynter is pregnant and still thinks she should be helping run the dark side of our business. No, it’s that I’m so selfish I’m going to condemn Ayvah to a life of crime and violence.
It’s not until the incessant buzzing of my phone makes me want to throw it across the room and smash it into a million pieces that I finally drag myself away from her sleeping body. I slip from beneath her and bring the blankets up around her neck, making sure she’s warm before I slip on a pair of discarded sweatpants and a sweater. If I have it my way, I’ll be back in this room with my face between my woman’s legs before anyone can think to comment on my attire.
I rummage through the pocket of my discarded pants and snag my phone from them before throwing the clothing in the corner. I’ll deal with them later once I’ve put out whatever fire was burning while I was buried deep inside my woman.
By the time I get to my office, I’ve ignored another three phone calls from Rayne. He can’t fucking talk when it comes to putting work second from the moment he met Emerson. I didn’t understand before, but I fucking do now. It’s impossible to put anything above her because she’s my entire world.
“Finally,” Rayne growls the second I push the door of my office open.
The room is full of people, more than would normally occupy the space, but they all seem comfortable enough in the lounges on the edge of the room. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I was otherwise engaged.” I cross the room to the desk by the window and take my seat before looking out at the occupants. Rayne and Everett are in the seats across the desk from me, while Wynter, Snow, and Elijah take up one of the leather lounges. Crew and Bishop look more relaxed than they should somewhere they’ve only ever been once on the other lounge, and Kovu and Kaos slouch against the wall, looking bored as usual. I swear the only time those two look anything other than disinterred is in the middle of a gunfight.
“Where’s Tommy?” I ask.
“He’s at the warehouse trying to find an entrance point,” Everett replies without looking up from his laptop. He’s mastered the art of doing two things at once during these meetings.
I nod and lean back in my seat. “What do I owe the pleasure of all of you in my home at this time of night?” I finally ask. We never agreed to a meeting when we parted ways, but perhaps I should have expected one. We need a plan. A better one than when Elijah said he had one, and then we haven’t heard anything since.
“We need to talk,” Crew says, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees. He’s still wearing the suit he was when I saw him earlier, and I have to wonder how long they were waiting for me.
“Now that he’s finally dragged his sorry ass away from his whore,” Kaos mutters. The words have violent rage beating down on me so quickly I barely catch myself from pulling the trigger when I reach for the gun that’s strapped to the underside of my desk and aim it right at him.
“I’d watch your mouth when you’re speaking about the women in this family,” I growl.
Wynter shifts in her seat, a smirk of amusement dancing across her lips just the same way it is Rayne and Everett. They’re all finding this too fucking amusing.
“He didn’t mean any disrespect,” Bishop says evenly. “It’s just that we weren’t aware Storm Saint James, the most eligible bachelor in Chicago, had taken a woman. Perhaps Kaos assumed she was just a date for the evening.” He’s the diplomatic one. The others, Crew included, have hotheads and will always shoot first and ask questions later, but it’s always Bishop who defuses the situation.
Kaos looks like he’s going to defend his words, but Kovu quickly slams an elbow into his stomach, rendering him speechless. They’ve both changed into jeans and hoodies, their tattoos peeking out from beneath the sleeves and collar.
I watch them closely for another moment before slipping my gun back into its hiding spot and leaning back in my seat. A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have considered pulling a gun on these men, and maybe that’s the true tell of how much my life has changed since Ayvah came into it. “What do we need to talk about?”
“We need a plan,” Bishop says. “Now Annalise knows we’re working together, she’s going to start coming hard and fast. We need to be ready for it.”
“We have a plan,” Elijah pipes up for the first time since I entered the room. He has Snow seated in his lap, his hand brushing up and down her leg in a gesture that seems to comfort them both.
Rayne chokes on a laugh. “You don’t have a plan.”
Elijah rolls his eyes and carefully moves my sister onto the seat beside him so he can stand and cross to where we’re sitting. “The plan has been in motion for weeks.”
“What fucking plan?” I ask.
Everett looks at his cousin as if trying to convey a message without words, but they’ve never been close enough for that kind of thing to work.
“Do you know about this plan?” I ask my best friend and right-hand man.
He sighs. “Yes. Elijah and I have been working on it for a few weeks. We just didn’t want everyone to know about it because it’s… delicate.”
“Delicate, how?”
“Annalise didn’t find out where we were tonight and who we were with by accident.” Elijah shrugs.
“What?” I growl. I’ve wanted to kill my sister’s husband more than a few times since they said their vows, but the fact they put all our lives in danger, my woman and sisters included, makes me want to strangle him for his stupidity. I turn to Everett who’s staring at his screen guiltily. “Did you know about this?”
“Yes,” he replies, not bothering to look up.
“We need to draw her out. The more we have her in the city, the more chance there is that she, or one of her men, is going to fuck up,” Elijah explains like it makes perfect fucking sense.
“You endangered the two most influential families in Chicago, and the princes of the goddamn underworld in New York. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“That we could get exactly what we did.” He shrugs.
I turn back to Everett, my fists clenched so hard my knuckles have turned white. One of these two fuckers better give me answers soon, or one, if not both of them, will be finding themselves at the bottom of the goddamn lake. “What’s he talking about?”
“We have trackers on their cars, and we managed to install an app remotely on several phones that tracks incoming and outgoing calls and messages,” Everett explains.
“You can do shit like that?” Kovu asks, his deep voice rumbling through the room for the first time since I entered.
Everett flashes him a smile over his shoulder. “I can. Others… not so much.”
“No one likes a gloater, babe,” Wynter calls from her seat.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and blow out a long breath. I can’t believe Everett would do this without my permission. And the fact he was working with Elijah only has anger burning hotter in my veins. But it’s hard to argue with their logic, especially because it’s worked out in our favor. It’s hard to be mad about something that worked out in the long run, but I can’t have my second in charge running around behind my back.
“Are the apps working?” Crew asks.
Everett nods, typing furiously on the laptop before a voice fills the room. A female voice.
“That’s Annalise.” Wynter sits forward and listens to the call.
“Did you find out what The Legion is doing in Chicago?” a male voice asks.
“I suspect they’re worried we’re going to move into their territory next and they’re trying to make alliances to stop that from happening.”
“I see.”
“They don’t realize that they’ve signed their own death warrants by aligning themselves with the Saint James family, and then their place in New York will be open for the taking.”
“There’s no guarantee the five families will stand for us taking that role, given we’ve never had any business in the city.”
“They’ll do as they’re told or they’re going to meet the same fate the Saint James family are going to.”
“You need to be careful, Annalise. I know you have it all planned out, but they’re a lot smarter than you’re giving them credit for, and your broth—”
“He’s not my brother,” she snaps, the venom in her voice so lethal I’m not surprised when there’s a pause on the other end of the line.
“When are you coming home?” he finally asks.
“Once every member of the Saint James, Masters, and Russo family are six feet under.”
Everett presses a button on his laptop and the call ends. “That was Stephen Lounder.”
“It kind of seems like she’s calling the shots…” Wynter trails off.
“And surely a man like him doesn’t take kindly to his woman overstepping like that,” Bishop adds.
I rub my hand down my face before leaning back in my seat. “I want someone monitoring those phones at all times. I don’t want to miss one second of a call, and I want to know anytime Annalise leaves wherever she’s holed up.”
“I’m happy to help monitor the calls,” Snow says, sitting forward in her seat.
I open my mouth to argue, but Wynter catches my eyes. She’s shaking her head and I know what she’s trying to tell me without hearing the words. Snow has always felt like she didn’t have a role in the family, and if I turn her down now, if I don’t allow her to help with this, she may never forgive me. And hell, she’s already involved anyway. She’s married to Elijah, and he’s all for her being his queen, his equal in a business that has always been run by men alone.
“Okay. You can take shifts. I want to know immediately if anything of interest is said. And if there’s any wind of shipments of women, I want our guys there.”
“We’re due to head back to New York in the morning, however, we are happy to lend any assistance we can. While I agree with Stephen that the five families wouldn’t take kindly to a takeover of the system that has worked so well for so many years, some of the younger generations are… aspirational. I don’t want to risk it, and if we can stop Annalise in her tracks, we’re willing to work with you to make that happen.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
The Legion file out of the room one by one with Rayne trailing behind to walk them out. As soon as the door clicks shut, I turn to Everett with a glare. “If you ever go behind my back again, I will not hesitate to have you removed from the company. You’re my right-hand man, and if I can’t trust you, you’ll be out on your ass.”
“Storm,” Wynter starts.
“No. I don’t give a fuck if you’re married to my sister, or if you’ve been my best friend for the last twenty years. I cannot have the precedent set that I will forgive such transgressions.”
Everett stares at me for long moments, regret and anger dancing in his eyes before he eventually nods. “Got it.”
I stand up without another word and take long strides out of the office. The sooner I’m wrapped around my woman with my cock deep inside her cunt, the sooner the rage will settle.
