Page 136 of Mob Princess

Fuck no. She didn’t want to give him any sign that would make him think he could manipulate her. If she hadn’t refused, I would have insisted she not make the call. He hinted at Colt’s condition but didn’t describe it. I feared she’d talk to Colton Senior about it. She didn’t.

They spoke, but it was about Ewan’s accountant. She eventually told me Blake had gotten handsy with her once and tried to box her into a room. She’d gotten past him, but he’d been an arse to her after that. She asked Colton to take him out, and he did. Ewan and all the O’Malley men know she ordered it, but they don’t know Colton did it. They just know it was one of them.

“Did Nikki ever share her encryption?” Finn’s as curious about how her system works as I’ve been.

“Yes. She suggested we wipe them out last night. Is that what you want? Empty all of their accounts?”

Yesterday morning, she heard from a woman who dated Blake but can’t stand him now. Lina and Suzette are friends, so Suzette told Lina that Ewan only wants to talk to her because he wants her to smooth things over between the O’Malleys and us. Apparently, he was going to tell her that if I love her, I wouldn’t keep her in the middle since he’s ready to extend the olive branch.

Dillan nods. “Yes. Move all the money that goes into payroll for their legit employees into an account, so they don’t get fucked. But take everything else. Finn, you handle where it goes. Hide it all.”

Finn has accounts a pack of bloodhounds couldn’t find. Accounts buried so deep into shell corporations, behind DBAs, and under stolen social security numbers that we can weather a storm strong enough to need Noah’s ark.

I glance at my watch. “I gotta go.”

Shane stands when I do. “You got everything?”

“Yup.”

I’m more excited than on Christmas. Our parents never got us matching anything for Christmas or our birthdays unless we asked. It was never a case of one of us opened a present and the other wondered which color he got. We’ve been separate people to them since the moment we were born. I loved opening presents.

“Call us in the morning.” Dillan gets up with the rest of the guys.

“Not a fecking chance. It’ll be at least three before I plan to talk to anyone besides Lina. Pish off.” I know Dillan’s fucking with me.

I get to the driveway just as a car pulls up. I wave to Lina and get in when it stops in front of me. From our kiss, you’d think we’d been a part for days rather than hours. I’m like a puppy when I’m away from Lina. I have no concept of time. I’m always excited.

When we pull apart, she realizes we’re still on Dillan’s street—which connects the neighborhoods with every married syndicate couple our age and those of our parents. Finn and Ally are six doors down from Dillan and Mair. We drive past a house for sale that’s next door to Maks and Laura. Definitely not stopping there. We turn onto another road, and we pass Gabriele and Sinead’s house. I internally shake my head and roll my eyes as we pull up to a house four doors past them. There’s a for sale sign here, too.

“Sean?”

“I figured we could look around at a few since you keep telling me you like the area.”

“I do, but wasn’t that a Cosa Nostra house back there?”

“Yeah. There are three more between this street and the next cul de sac over. Eight doors down and across the street is a bratva couple.”

“If a neighborhood could be incestuous, this would be it.” She half mutters as our driver, Tommy, opens her door.

“It’s not like we have pineapples out and swap.”

“Because that would be a bloodbath. None of you could stop the women from carving each other up if they looked at a man other than their own husband.”

“Would you?”

“I’ve been sharpening my knives since we started talking about moving in around here.”

I let her know when Justin could no longer be an issue. We started talking more earnestly about the future and what that would look like for us. Today we’re house hunting.

We visit every house on the market in this neighborhood and the one next to it where more syndicate couples live. Mostly the ones my parents’ age. We’ve just come back for a second tour of the third house we checked out.

“Do you really like this one the most, nounours?”

“I do. We can make an offer now if you want.”

“Really?”

She knows this is going to be a cash purchase. It’s not like we need to line up a preapproval first.

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