Page 85 of Broken Promises

“The Russian mafia? We’re dealing with the Mafia?” Cal screeches out the last word.

“At least the arranged marriages make sense now,” I say.

“How?” Belle asks.

“If Eva was trying to make herself more powerful, she’d need to form connections. Mav’s probably valuable as an asset in that way.”

“I’m not an asset. I’m a fucking person,” Maverick says, looking appalled.

“Eva had an older sister,” Harrison says. “Her name was Abigail. I think it would make sense you were her son, considering you do look like Eva, as Cal pointed out.”

“Wolfe kept referring to her in past tense. Is it safe to assume she’s dead?” Harlow asks.

“She died twenty-five years ago. It was ruled as a suicide. Maverick would’ve been one at the time,” Harrison says. “I’m hoping the journal gives us more insight into that. Let me show you what I’ve been working on since James’s arrest.”

We all gather around Harrison as he pulls up notes and pictures on his computer. “The feds already have a case against her. It’s enough to arrest her, but not enough to keep her behind bars or to threaten her with to get her to out her accomplices.”

The file Harrison has is extensive. He explains that Eva is the contact point for drugs coming into ports in Maine. She runs the drugs in all of New England, not just Maine, like we thought. Recently, she’s been dipping her toes into weapons, but the Irish have a problem with that. So she’s trying to force Maverick to marry one of the Irish mafia princesses to smooth it over. His files are reading like a mafia novel and if it were anyone else other than Harrison, I would think he made it up to mess with us.

“To summarize,” Harlow says when we get to the end of the files. “Eva married James because she saw the potential to have a political pawn, claimed her nephew as her son, and is trying to use him to form an alliance with the Irish Mob. Ezra saw something that could be her demise, but we can’t get in contact with him because if she even smells him near us, she’ll kill him.”

“I’m not great at this super detective stuff,” Declan says, “but we’re not talking about taking on the mafia right?”

“No,” Harrison says immediately. “I think whatever Ezra saw pertains only to Eva. Which means we only need to take on Eva. I’m going to continue working with the feds on this and hopefully they’ll do it for us. The DEA is obviously involved, but I don’t have contacts there. Probably Homeland too.”

“Take this,” Maverick says, holding the journal out to Harrison.

“You should read that before I do.”

Maverick shakes his head. “I’ll read it, but I can’t right now. Knowing that number is there will be too tempting.” Harrison nods and takes it from him.

Harrison packs up, promising to get the journal back to Maverick as soon as he can.

“The burgers are cold,” Harlow says.

“I’ll order pizza.” Cal grabs his phone and calls our usual order in.

I snuggle into Declan. We’re back on the road tomorrow for the final two weeks of the tour, and I can’t find it in me to want to do it right now. I just want to stay in the warmth my husband’s arms offer me. With Declan, I feel safe.

But it seems like Maverick isn’t safe. I catch Jo’s eye, and I immediately know she’s thinking the same thing I am.

Will he ever be safe?

FORTY-ONE

declan

“This is amazing!”Maggie says, while bouncing on her toes and clapping. “Willa is the coolest person I know.”

“Hey!” Gideon says. “You’re married to the captain of the Boston Bruisers and the best center in the league.”

“I said what I said.” Maggie shrugs and keeps watching Shattered Halo. They just finished the first song of their last show.

“Sorry!”

I turn and see Ben rushing up to us with Nate pointing him in our direction.

“Turns out you’re not the only one planning to announce their retirement at the end of this season. I had a meeting with media to plan an announcement. They want you both together for a photo op,” Ben explains.

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