Page 19 of Harry

“It was Philip who ordered the hit on your father.”

Aidan

I expect the information to help her make her next move, but the way her face crumples tells me that perhaps she isn’t ready for this after all.

This would be a perfect example of why women don’t head up crime syndicates, they can’t box up their emotions the same way men can.

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” her voice is brittle and cold. A thin layer of ice that tells me I’ll drown if I don’t tread carefully.

“I didn’t know you were staying before.” It’s simple, and yet now I feel like it’s something more. A minefield. One wrong step and I’m done for.

She begins to walk to the bathroom, where just a few moments ago I was planning on joining her. “I want you out of here by the time I’m done washing you from my body.”

Her words slice through me in a painful and unexpected way. She asked me for the facts and now I’m being banished from her bed, her room, her body?

Instead of leaving her alone to process, I follow her.

“I don’t think so,” I say, pulling her against my body before she gets a chance to stand beneath the scalding water.

“Let go of me,” she grits out from between clenched teeth.

She struggles, but I hold tight, my arms wrapped around her, pressing her to my chest.

“You don’t get to pick and choose the facts, Harriet.”

She spins her head around to face me as much as she can in this position. “You think that’s what I’m angry about? You stupid idiot.”

Confused, I ask, “Well if it isn’t that, then what is it?”

“It’s that you knew before and never told me, something as vital as that. How could you not tell me as soon as you found out? Wait,” she finally calms down enough for me to trust I can let go of her without her hitting me. “How did you find out?”

I raise an eyebrow, knowing that torture is probably on her list of bad things she needs to come to terms with slowly.

“Oh for fucks sake,” she says, pushing her hand through her hair.

“This is what I mean,” I say. “You want to take over your dad’s business like it’s a fortune five hundred when it couldn’t be further from it. You’ve stepped into a different world and it runs in a different way. You might be the best fucking businesswoman in the world, but it doesn’t make you capable of running Richard’s empire.”

How the fuck I’ve kept my cool is anyone's guess, but my temper is beginning to fray.

“The drugs, the weapons, the torture and killing. It’s all part of the fucking game, Harriet. You’re too nice for this world, too good for it.”

The realisation that this is why Richard kept them out of it hits me like a slap in the face.

“What?” she asks, trying to gauge my expression.

“He didn’t want you in it. Not until he found out about the trafficking and he knew he couldn’t in good conscience let Philip have it. That’s what he was going to talk to me about. He wanted me to train you, Vaughan to train Jack and Julian to train Brig.” I scrub a hand over my face. “There was tension at the wedding, they must have been arguing about it that morning.” I shake my head from side to side, angry at myself for not putting it all together sooner. “I’m his Capo. I was supposed to take the bullet for him. I just never saw it coming.”

I leave Harriet in the bathroom as it fills with steam from the hot water and grab my clothes. Pulling on my trousers, shoes and shirt, I leave her.

She is too good for this world, and we need to get all three of them out of the US as soon as fucking possible.

Harry

I try to make sense of everything Aidan said, but it’s all swimming about in a sea of confusion. He is right about one thing, though, I don’t belong here. I barely understand a single thing I’ve learned so far about this insanely dangerous world.

“Are you okay?” Jack asks.

After my shower I sent an SOS text to both my sisters, asking them to meet me in my room. It’s a long-standing deal we have. No matter what’s happening between us, if we send an SOS the others come.

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