Page 48 of King of the Cage

The woman who had crawled inside my head.

I exhaled a long plume of smoke and clamped the butt between my teeth so I could tie my wet hair back. I recalled the momentwhere Dec had gone to light up in Giada’s apartment, and my selkie had shot him a look that could have killed to stop him. I stubbed my cigarette out on the tile.

My phone vibrated on the sink, and I checked the message.

Z Juice in Hade Harbor.I’ve got a lead. Come up here, and let’s talk to some guys about it. N

So,Niko was doing his own digging. He wouldn’t like it in his little corner of the country. He wouldn’t stand for it. Nikolai Chernov would stamp Z Juice out in Maine, and God help the person who got in his way. His kids lived in that city. That meant Hade Harbor and the rest of Maine was under thePalach’scontrol.

And New York? Did that fall to me? Was I the only person who cared enough to stop it here? If so, the city had a piss-poor champion. A man who’d only ever failed at the things he’d cared about. Then again, I hadn’t cared about much of anything at all in my life. Nothing had ever been that important to me.

Until now.

After getting dressed, I headed over to my father’s house. My apartment above the pub was only a few doors up from the house I’d grown up in in Hell’s Kitchen. House wasn’t a good description for the sprawling abode that took up nearly a block, but it wasn’t nice enough inside to call it anything else.

A rabbit’s warren of connected apartments, some with knocked-through walls, others simply with holes. Colm O’Connor, patriarch of the family, had never cared much for keeping up appearances. Other things were more important, like makingmoney and deals. My da was a lifelong gambler, and he hated to lose. He saw every day as a competition against some new enemy. It was exhausting.

Quinn was in the kitchen when I got in.

“Is that what you’re wearing to see Ma?” She wrinkled her button nose at my usual outfit of dark jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket. Right, today was visiting day.

“I can’t come. I’ve got somewhere to go.”

“Where?”

“Maine. Niko found that same shit you got drugged with in his town. Heads will roll for that.” I poured myself a cup of coffee from the machine on the counter and downed the bitter tar. Considering the cook of the house usually made her brew Irish, with a liberal helping of rye, no one much noticed the taste of the coffee.

“Really? What does it mean?” Quinn asked, chewing her lip.

“It means we find out as much as we can, from whoever we can, and then we do something about it.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. I had plenty to go on from Enrico Sepriano’s confession, and yet, nowhere tangible to start. How did I make contact with The Enclave? Sure, Aldo Sepriano was a member, but he was much better secured than his brother and would be harder to lean on. Also, if he didn’t know shit, how did I find out who the real power players were?

Quinn touched my arm. “I’ll tell Ma you’re asking for her.”

“Yeah, and she’ll say ‘who?’ Don’t bother upsetting her,” I muttered. “I want you home and safe while I’m gone. No partiesfor a while, no going out socially. Go to class, and come back, and take Ion with you,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes, but her heart wasn’t in it.

“I mean it, Quinn. If he loses you again, that’s on him. If you value his life, just know, you’re responsible for it. You ditch him again? He’s a dead man.”

Quinn frowned and pulled away from me. “Stop being an arsehole. You’re not Killian or Ronan.”

No, I’m not. They would have never let you be in danger in the first place.

“I’m not kidding. Ion will be the first to go if I hear you’ve snuck out or stayed out late. This isn’t the time for a teenage rebellion.”

“I’m twenty-one,” Quinn reminded me in a scathing tone.

“Yeah, that’s right. You’reonlytwenty-one. Declan’s in charge when Da isn’t around, got it?”

She rolled her eyes again and turned away but didn’t disagree.

“When will you be back?” she grumbled.

“Soon. I can’t stay away long. I’ve got to see about a girl,” I told her and gave her my tried-and-true cheeky grin that I knew would make her smile.

Declan lounged in the doorway when I left the kitchen.

“Thanks for making me the babysitter,” he grunted as I passed him.

---