Page 3 of Trouble

“Sure.” If I smiled any harder, my face would be in danger of cracking. “Sounds good. I’ve put together a launch strategy—if you care to have a look?” I slid the still-damp report across the table to my client. “I apologize for the state of it. I had a bit of a fall while on my way towork.”

Perkinson took the offered papers with a look of mild contempt, making sure only to turn the pages with the very tips of his fingers. He made small grunts along the way, and I took the lack of berating to mean he didn’t find any flaws with my work. Finally, at the end of the 30-something pages, he placed his index finger against the slightly smudged text. “This. The launch party. I want that to take center stage. I want you to blow my socks off—invite everyone who’s anyone, a casino night, strippers, you know, the classy kind. Girls serving my vodka with their titties. You get mydrift?”

“I believe I do. I’ll get that coordinated with the event planner. We just need to decide on adat—”

“No!” I jumped in my seat when Perkinson slapped his hairy knuckles against the table. “You’re my account manager, right? I wantyouin charge of this event. I pay your company an awful lot of money, so I expect you to do the heavy lifting, got it? I want you to have your hands in every aspect of that launch party—and no excuses about your monthly or whatever else you pampered business girls come up with to get out of hardwork.”

I tried to contain the grimace on my face at the prospect of planning an event where I’d have to hire girls to serve vodka with their‘titties’.“I understand where you’re coming from, Mr. Perkinson, but I believe you’d be much better served with someone whose entire focus is on event planning. I will oversee everything, of course, but as the account manager, I have to keep track of everything with this launch, not just thepart—”

“Girl, do I need to go to your boss and tell him you can’t do the job I’m asking? And paying for, I might add.” Perkinson’s cool blue eyes narrowed as he leaned back in his seat, and I knew with uncompromising clarity that I hated that man. I hated him, because I knew I was going to bend over backwards to please him, even though he was the biggest prick I’d ever met. And I’d met my fair share in London’s businessworld.

“No, of course not, Mr. Perkinson,” I managed through my teeth. “I’ll do your party myself. And it’ll be spectacular, Ipromise.”

3

Liam

“Ihopeyou two realize how serious the situationis.”

I suppressed a grimace as I took a swig of my beer. “Pretty hard not to, when we have to play whack-a-mole a couple of times a week with whichever patriarch thinks his Family is strong enough to steal the throne while we’re still bloody onit.”

“Or the men you’ve had stationed around our flat for the past few months,” my twin said, a carefree note to his voice I knew he didn’t feel. We both knew why those men were there, and it wasn’t to protect us. “We’re not Blaine. We don’t do the whole entouragething.”

“I have three sons left, Liam. I’m not risking your security,” our father said as he looked at Louis with that trademarkWilliam Steelgleam in hiseyes.

Neither of us bothered pointing out that he’d gotten our names mixedup.

“It’s been two months. If anyone was going to try to get at us, it would have happened by now. And you know we can defend ourselves,” Louis said. But despite his words, we all knew what he truly meant—what we couldn’t just come out and say:It’s been two months. We’ve proven we’re loyal. Call your watchdogsoff.

Our father sighed, flattening the napkin under his beer bottle with a couple of fingers. “Perhaps I have been over-protective. You’ll forgive a father for wanting to ensure his youngest sons are safe. Maybe one day, when you have children of your own, you will know. But you do have a point—and I could use the extra manpower to strengthen the watch we keep on the Bellucci Family, now they’ve openly sworn fealty toMort.”

This time I didn’t bother holding back my grimace. Our Family’s supporters were deserting us at a faster pace than we could keep up with. It would have been a lot easier to keep under control if we’d still had all our brothers in town, but I didn’t say that outloud.

Our father rapped his knuckles against the table and got up. Wesley, who’d been standing by the near wall, straightened up the second Dad moved. Like a faithful dog, waiting for his master’scommand.

No one’d thought he’d pull through the two bullets he took to the chest just a few months ago, but unfortunately he had. And Dad had kept him even closersince.

Lucky for me, none of his loyal men saw who pulled thetrigger.

“I have business to attend. I trust I can see you two at the meeting tomorrow night?” our father said, giving each of us a firmstare.

Louis grinned. “You’re never going to let that go, are you? We said we were sorry. And we paid youback.”

“As you should have. One hundred grand down the drain because my horndog sons were too busy with a pair of floozies to get to a drop off on time.” He shook his head, eyes narrowed. “Perhaps it’s time I arrange a marriage for both of you. Blaine settled down well, after the initialdrama.”

“No thanks, Dad.” Louis shuddered for emphasis. “We’ll be on time. Promise. No need to threaten capitalpunishment.”

“Just see to it.” Despite our father’s stern tone, a glimmer of amusement shone in his eyes as he turned to nod at Wesley before walking out of thepub.

I knew he had a softer spot for me and Louis than he did our brothers. Not that William Steel’ssoft spotwas actually all that cushy, and I was under no illusion that it’d save our hides if he ever found out what we were planning behind hisback.

“Sometimes I still can’t believe he had Jeremy killed,” Louis said softly as we watched our father and his bodyguard cross the street through the pub window. “But then I remember what he tried to do toMarcus.”

“It’s pretty impressive that things could get any more fucked up than they were while we were growing up,” I agreed. Then, through sheer force of will, I pushed away the gloom threatening to settle into my chest and gave my twin a cheerful smile as I stole his last chip and shoved it in my mouth before he could stop me. “But all we have to do to fix that is to stage a coup, somehow not get killed in the process, and then gain control over twenty Families on the brink of rebellion. Who says we don’t have a solidplan?”

Louis grimaced. “Blaine, for starters. Something about covering ourarses.”

“Blaine.” I rolled my eyes. “Blaine’s such a scaredy-cat. Mira’s lovely, but getting married really took the edge off our dear brother. She’s tough enough to deal with our family bullshit. He doesn’t need to fucking coddleher.”

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