“Well, I wouldn’t say you’re mytoy,” I say, swirling my glass with a smirk. “But plaything?”
“You’re not funny, Julien.”
“Come on, wife, have you forgotten about your list already?”
She shakes her head sharply. “I’m not joking around.”
“I’m not either.” I lean forward, voice lowering. “What’s the point of being faithful to each other if we’re not going to act on this tension between us? Come on, don’t look like that. You hate me and I’m not particularly fond of you either, but we both want to fuck each other into drooling submission.”
Her mouth hangs open. I love it when she’s shocked—those pretty lips look perfect in a little shockedoh.
“Not happening,” she finally mumbles, looking away.
“You’ll change your mind.”
She stares at me with a mixture of anger and defiance, but she doesn’t disagree, and I’m surer than I’ve ever been that I’m going to peel her open and break through that icy exterior sooner rather than later.
Chapter 15
Julien
On our way back to my apartment, I got a frantic call from Jean, telling me to come meet him at the warehouse. I make sure Brianne gets inside safely and assign the same two guards from the restaurant to keep an eye on my apartment and make sure she stays safe.
“I shouldn’t have to say this, but you will treat my wife with the utmost respect. Is that clear?”
Both men nod and exchange nervous looks. “Yes, sir,” they reply in chorus like a couple of scared schoolboys.
I don’t have time to think about Brianne any more than I already have tonight. I get back into my car and head west of the city, rolling through stoplights and ignoring street signs, going as fast as I dare. Jean didn’t tell me what happened, but I could hear the serious worry in his voice.
Tonight was supposed to be the shipment from Ronan, and it was supposed to go out to a warehouse I own off the books. If Jean’s calling me here in the middle of the night when he knew I was taking my wife to dinner, that means something very badhappened, and a rotten knot in my guts is telling me it has something to do with the shipment.
Only I don’t know if it’s Grandpère or Dusan I have to worry about.
I turn onto a narrow road that leads through a field. This whole place used to be farmland once, but developers bought it out and dropped a massive tin and metal structure right where the barn stood for generations. There are cars in the lot up ahead and people milling around, which is a bad fucking sign, but no truck.
My heart is in my throat when I see all the broken glass. I park and get out of the car, and immediately Jean comes jogging over to me, looking grim. “Boss,” he says, which is what he calls me when shit’s gone very, very wrong. “You need to see this.”
More of my soldiers are standing near the loading docks. I step over spent shell casings, evidence of a fight that happened not too long ago. “Who?” I ask Jean, but he only shakes his head.
A body’s lying on the pavement. I don’t recognize him, which is extremely bad. I stand at the edge of a pool of the man’s blood, his face twisted in agony, four holes standing in a garish red on his chest.
“Irish,” Jean says.
Fucking shit.
Ronan’s man dead on my goddamn turf.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. There are two more injured, one of mine and another of Ronan’s. They tell me the story through pained grunts as one of the other guards bandages their relatively minor wounds.
The deal went down smoothly. Ronan’s driver and his guard brought the truck out to the warehouse and my men came out to meet them. They got out, everyone shook hands, and that’s when men came pouring out from the fields all around them. The gunfight was brutal and fast, and the attackers forced my men back into the warehouse. The driver died on the spot during the initial wave. By the time they got themselves organized and pushed out for a counterattack, the truck was already gone, and only the wounded were left behind.
I exchange a hard look with Jean and pull him aside. My head spins with possibilities as anger flares inside my guts. “That doesn’t sound like Grandpère,” I say quietly and Jean nods his head.
“I agree. It’s got to be Dusan.”
“How the fuck does he know about this place?” I gesture around us. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“I can’t say for sure, but Dusan’s smart. Back when we were allied with him, I’d bet he had us all under surveillance.”