Page 16 of Vengeful Vows

Gray’s already at the dining room table, sipping coffee and eating a plate full of sausage. He’s got a massive plate in front of him, and I wrinkle my nose, eating my muffin.

He narrows his eyes at me. “Sugar’s not good for you.”

My mouth full of muffin, I shoot my middle finger up at him, and Gray rolls his eyes.

We’re always like this, at each other’s throats in a playful way. It’s different with our sisters. They need to be protected, but Gray and I? We’ve battled a lot over the years, getting into fistfights over something as simple as the last piece of cheesecake. I like to think we’ve grown up a little, but stuff like this makes me think differently.

He scoffs at me. “Childish.”

I slowly raise my other middle finger up, grinning at him, and then Gray finally cracks, breaking into a laugh.

“How’d it go with your wifey?” Gray smirks, and I shake my head.

I’m not one to kiss and tell, even in this situation. But in reality, it’d been out of this world. I can’t believe how good it was, how well she took me, how much she gave back.

“That good, huh?” Gray responds, but I ignore him. “I need you to come down to the warehouse.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I thought I was on my honeymoon?”

Gray snorts. “Yeah, right.” He finishes his sausage and stands, putting his coffee cup down on the table. “Come on. You’re late.”

I look down at my watch. It’s only nine in the morning, so I’m not that late.

“You guys are really going to make me work the day after my wedding?”

Gray chuckles, walking out the door and expecting me to follow. I sigh, annoyed, but I follow him anyway.

When we arrive there, Jimmy Connor, one of my father’s right-hand men, is already there, popping open crates of the shipments we’ve gotten.

Gray goes to him and claps him in the back. “Have we lost any to Murphy this month?”

Jimmy scoffs. “Not yet, but there’s still time.”

Niall Murphy, unlike my father, started his business outside of Ireland. He basically keeps things going by stealing from us, causing havoc and chaos, etcetera. Even when he can’t manage to steal our shipments, he fucks them up somehow. He’s a snake, plain and simple.

The warehouse is huge and abandoned, dust everywhere, the building dilapidated and nearly falling down. There are leaks in the ceilings and we have to be careful how long we keep our product there. Of course, we can’t do renovations, or it would be suspicious, even though we own the business.

“What do we have today?” I ask.

“Thirty kilos of china white. Fifteen kilos of dust. Three hundred firearms.”

“Pistols?”

“AKs,” Jimmy responds. “All accounted for.”

I hum. “Have you tested the dust? Last time they tried to pass off ten kilos of basically baby powder.”

“Tested and pure,” Jimmy brims.

He helps my father with arranging shipments and a few other things. He’s Da’s most trusted man, besides us, of course. Jimmy’s a few years older than Gray, and he’s been basically like a brother to us.

“So, things are going well?” I ask.

“I mean, for now.” Jimmy raises his eyebrows. “Word on the street is that Murphy’s pissed off. Out for blood.”

I grin. “Good.”

Jimmy looks at me, confused.

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