Page 11 of Harry

***

The elevator doors swish open and we head to the fountain. Two women are standing quietly, not speaking or taking in their surroundings. I shake my head. How can these three survive this world? They are like lost lambs in a wood full of wolves.

“Morning,” Harry says and the women look up. Both looking as sleep deprived as Harry. The only change to their features is surprise when their eyes land on me.

“This is Aidan, Dad’s…” she trails off and looks at me.

“Capo,” I say, for lack of a better term.

The darker-haired sister laughs, but it isn’t with humour.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m still struggling to take all of this in.”

“There’s a way out, I think,” Harry says to her sisters and it’s news to me. I lift a brow and look in her direction, waiting to hear whatever it is she has concocted in her mind.

“Apparently, Uncle Philip is here, and can take over dad’s business.”

The girls all look at each other for a moment before the one who looks to be the youngest of all three of them says, “What is Uncle Philip doing here?”

“Ladies,” I interrupt before this turns into a conversation of conjecture. “Let me take you downstairs and we can talk about this in more detail, and in private.”

“We’re on the ground floor,” the darker-haired one says.

“I’m aware of that,” I reply with a grin, but she is clearly not taking any shit today.

“Dad’s letter to me said we should trust him,” Harry says. All three turn to look at me and I face them full on, not letting the discomfort at being scrutinised show on my face.

“Fair enough,” the dark-haired one says and begins to step towards me. I turn and head towards a separate bank of elevators that will grant us access to the lower levels. “Only I’m supposed to try and find someone called Vaughan.”

I stop in my tracks.

“Vaughan?” I ask and she nods once.

“It’s Julian for me,” the other one says and I’m finally seeing the pattern.

Harry

We follow Aidan as he flashes his wrist against something and before I know it the doors are opening to reveal a large bar area.

People are huddled around in their own booths, some eating and drinking, some smoking fat cigars.

Jack tenses beside me. It’s clear we are entering a different world right now, and I suppose none of us knows if we’ll get out. But it will be going against every fibre of her being to be here. Knowing Jack, she will be fighting the urge to arrest them all. I’ve already caught her reaching for her shoulder, where she would usually have a radio hooked into her protective vest.

I find her hand with my own and give it a squeeze but when her eyes meet mine she just shakes her head.

“Brothers,” Aidan says as we approach two men. One of them has a shaved head but is all muscle and not skinny in the slightest. The other is slender, like Aidan. They turn at the same time, their expressions flat when they find Aidan is not alone. “We need to talk.”

Both men stand, making three giants next to me and my sisters.

Quietly we follow them to a booth in the back.

When we are finally seated, a waiter appears with a jug of water and six glasses before quietly moving away again.

“Vaughan,” Aidan gestures to the shorter of the two men, who is as broad as he is tall, “And Julian, this is Harry, and…” he looks at my sisters and I realise that I never introduced them earlier at the fountain.

“I’m sorry, this is Jack and Brig.”

“They’re definitely not men,” the one called Julian says. His dark hair is swept away from his face but a little too long, and keeps flopping forward.

---