Page 75 of Queen of Blades

Paul looked away. He hated being the reason his father had to clean anything. That was his job.

“Give me the update,” Joseph said, snubbing out his own cigar.

“We lost five,” Eddie informed. “Pretty sure they lost more.”

“Diesel?”

“Dead,” Paul answered.

His father nodded. “And the clubhouse?”

“Burning.”

Reaching for the bottle on the table, Joseph refilled his glass with the red wine. “Dario wants us to run the bikers out of Oklahoma.”

Paul frowned. The bikers included Harper’s brothers. She loved her family, even if they were shitty people. He couldn’t fault her. No one could pick their blood.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Eddie asked.

Joseph lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know, but it was his offer to call the dogs off, Paul.”

Paul winced. He hated that his father had to accept a deal he didn’t like for his benefit. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He was supposed to help his family grow their syndicate, not make things more complicated for them.

“That’s going to take some time,” Eddie offered.

“He knows, but he wants to see progress.”

“At least they’re weak,” Paul commented. “They don’t have any leadership or a base of operations at this point. It’s going to take a lot for them to regroup.”

Eddie nodded.

His father stared at the wineglass as he swirled the liquid in it.

“I say we go after their businesses. We already took their deal with Sebastián. That was most of their income. What else do they have?” Paul asked.

“A low-end strip club, where Boris funneled them women. They ran guns for Niall. The body shop is the last thing I can think of,” Eddie said.

Joseph took a sip of his wine. “Niall won’t do business with us right now. We have to work with Dario for guns.”

“So then we’ve already cut them off at the ankles,” Paul commented hopefully. “All Eddie has to do is get their club, and we’re set.”

Eddie bristled. “That’s not really my—”

“Do it,” Joseph interrupted him, still staring at his glass. “What about Harper?”

Paul shifted in his seat and winced from the pain in his leg. That was the question, wasn’t it? Frankly, he didn’t know. “I suspect she’ll want to go home.”

Joseph turned and stared at him. “After all this?”

Swallowing hard, Paul diverted his gaze. “I don’t know.”

“Well, find out,” his dad demanded as he slammed his hand on the table. “If she wants to go back, Tommy will fire up the plane, and we can ship her back tonight. If not, then we have to deal with that.”

Standing, Joseph buttoned his suit jacket as his gaze bounced from Paul to Eddie. “Eddie, take me home. I have funerals to pay for.”

43

Harper

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