Page 107 of Crush

When the insane idea of reaching out to him had hatched, I researched him on the internet and came up with nada. The only news about the Kinlan family was of Gerard’s arrest and ongoing court case. There wasnothingwritten about his son or any other family member. His name came up on Companies House as the Director of several haulage companies and that was it. I’d even gone back to the old vault warehouse where Kai had held Leonie, wondering if he’d have offices there but I suppose you don’t shit on your own doorstep.

In the end, I’d been forced to go through Gabe. My friend, as you can imagine, kicked the hell off, saying I was a crazy fucker to go anywhere near the Irish mafia, but I eventually convinced him. I was forced to explain what had happened to Amber and how I felt about her. Gabriel being the shrewd fucker had seen through my bullshit and had known I had feelings for her before I did.

Gabriel also understood my protective instincts having fallen in love with Leonie.

I knew I was in love with Amber but I needed to be strong and dwelling on that emotion was a head fuck consideringeverythingthat was going on.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I tried to remain focused on what was important. I didn’t usually do nervous, but under the circumstances who could blame me?

Gabriel had explained that Kai was now running part of his father’s empire from an old storage hub. He had liquidated his father’s assets and reregistered the businesses under a new name. Of course, he’d have to, the old portion was still under investigation.

The premises he was operating from were on a back street behind Tottenham Court Tube Station on the edge of Soho; not far from Gabriel’s building.

To the naked eye, the place looked legit, behind the scenes not so much I imagined. I wasn’t sure what type of business Kai ran from there, but it would be a smoke-and-mirrors scenario. It appeared that after Kai’s father was sentdown by his stepdaughter Kai had been forced to step in or loseeverythingthat had been built; even those businesses which were established legally.

Gabriel said that although he’d always disliked both the Kinlan’s, Kai had at least attempted to go legit.

As I followed one of Kai’sassociates, I wasn’t so sure. There was an underbelly there, it just wasn’t showing in plain sight.

Like father, like son, was my thinking.

When I’d pulled up in my car, I stared through the windscreen as the rain poured down it like floods of tears for at least twenty minutes. Eventually, after spotting me with the engine still running a few yards from the entrance, the meaty thug by the security barrier motioned me over.

After confirming my name through his radio, I was stunned when the barrier had lifted and he’d let me through. I drove slowly and parked beside three SUVs with blacked-out windows and a black Ferrari with a private plate. The lettering showed it belonged to one of the Kinlan’s. There was no doubt in my mind that it was Kai’s.

Another rough-looking bloke had met me in a small waiting area, introducing himself as Hamish. I was then led through the place with no blindfold and escorted to the big man’s office. If the shit they were doing in the warehouse was dodgy, I’d witnessed the entire operation. The whole placereekedof immoral activity and once again I regretted my decision to seek an audience with him.

I couldn’t imagine anexperiencedgangster would keepanythingincriminating lying around; but who knew? It was as far from my world as you could get.

As I walked through the factory floor, it all appeared normal and those working looked fairly content. There were even a few laughs flying around. They were all as rough as fuck of course.

As I stood, impatiently waiting inside Kai Kinlan’s office, the realisation that I had sought out a meeting with one of London’s biggest uprising mafia bosses hit me like a sledgehammer.

What the hell was I thinking?

Because you need him, he is the only one who understands how that prick Harker’s mind works.

I considered it as a take-one-to-know-one scenario.

But what if they were friends or past associates?

I glanced around the space. It was neat, but dimly lit and carried an ominous vibe. Kinlan’s office was on the second floor and overlooked the warehouse. God only knew what was in the containers that littered the floor space there. Guns, drugs, coffee grounds—bodies? The whirring of the forklift as it moved back and forth had started to get on my nerves.

Feeling tense, I scanned the rest of the room. Filing cabinets with locks, ran down one wall and there was a bar at the far end of the office with assorted bottles of booze and glasses stacked there. There were also pictures on the walls and a corkboard with various notices stuck to it. I decidedagainstscrutinising them.

The room was decorated with oak wooden panelling; it partly resembled the headmaster’s office at school, just darker and more depressing. I was surprised there were no animal heads mounted on the walls and yes, I meant animal heads, not human ones;theywere probably displayed somewhere lower key. There were also several CCTV screens on one side of the door highlighting different areas of the warehouse and its grounds.

Kinlan’s desk carried numerous files and there were two closed laptops. I narrowed my eyes at the large leather chair tucked under there. Boss Man’s throne, where I imagined he lorded over his minions. There were also a couple of chairs facing the desk. I decided against taking a seat. Turning my back to the door wasn’t a good idea as I needed to be on my guard.

I perched on the desk and folded my arms, watching the door, waiting. My sense of survival sharpened as I heard voices down the corridor.

I checked my watch; I’d been waiting almost twenty minutes, and I wasn’t the most patient of men.

Screwing my eyes up, there was a suspicious-looking stain near the door which drew my attention. Was that blood? Jesus, if I wasn’t so desperate, I would have been high-tailing it out of there.

Suddenly I heard footsteps and took a deep,calmingbreath. I could do this. I was a big fucker, an experienced fighter and could handle myself. Under normal circumstances anyway. These were asfaraway from that as possible. At the end of the day, I wasn’t armed. There wasn’t a person on the planet who could battle against a bullet; well, superman I supposed. A list of superheroes shot into my thoughts; OMG I was losing it.

“What is thatclowndoing in my office?” Kinlan said to the guy who showed me in there earlier. Our eyes met through the glass panel of his office door, and I pushed to my feet and lowered my gaze, pretending to check the phone I clutched. I had Gabe’s number ready and could call him with just one tap. I didn’t want to get into a stare-down before I’d even had the chance to give the guy my pitch.

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