Page 60 of Omega in Hiding

“You should listen to Conrad, Paolo.” Seamus’s voice drips venom.

“I’m not leaving.” Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Patrick starts to slip his hand inside his jacket pocket. “Don’t do it,” I bark, training my weapon on him. “I’ll shoot you. I’m not kidding.”

Seamus sniggers when my hand trembles even worse. “You’ve never shot anyone before, have you, kid?”

“So what?” I snap. “I’m more than willing for you to be my first.”

The smile fades from Seamus’s face. “This is a mistake, Paolo. This is private family matter. You have no right butting in.”

“Judging by Connor’s bloody lip, I think it’s a good thing I arrived when I did.” I point the gun at the older one. “You’re Seamus Murphy, right?” I feel the need to verify that I am in fact in the presence of the leader of the Murphy Clan.

“That’s right.” He smirks. “Now that you know who I am, you might want to rethink pointing that gun at me, Paolo.”

I laugh. “Really? Cuz I was thinking it would be no great loss if I ended you right now.”

Patrick snarls, “You arrogant piece of Syracuse shit. Howdareyou threaten the head of our syndicate.” Patrick’s face twitches with rage. “I can’t wait until we’re running things. The Irish are done kissing Italian ass.”

“Oh yeah?” I force a laugh. “Who’s gonna help you? Nobody wants to work with you bottom feeders. The Black Knives can crush you without breaking a sweat.”

“Excuse me?”Patrick snarls.

“Calm down, Pat,” Seamus says. “We don’t need this pampered pipsqueak accidentally shooting me.”

“Da, we can’t just let him talk to you like that.” Patrick frowns.

“They’re just words, son. We’ll take our rightful place soon enough.” Seamus brushes his gray strands off his weathered face. “And if he wants Conrad so bad, he can have him. For now.”

“But,” sputters Patrick, “It’s taken us six fucking years to hunt him down.”

“It’s only temporary,” mutters Seamus. “They won’t get far.”

“Connor, get over here,now,” I growl impatiently. I really want to get the hell away from these two Irish psychos. “You’re going to get us both killed by stalling.”

Connor hesitates and he glances at the still unconscious red-haired alpha. There’s obvious concern on his face, and it makes me sick and uneasy. Does he love that alpha? Would he rather stay with him than come with me?

“Please, Connor,” I say in a gentler tone.

“Pathetic weakling,” Patrick mutters. “You’re both simps.”

Connor lets out a harsh breath and he pushes past Seamus and Patrick and comes to stand beside me. I’m relieved he finally listened, but it’s still a tricky situation. The other two are armed, and if we just run down the stairs, they’ll easily pick us off. We need to tie them up or something to give us some time to get to my car.

I turn to Connor. “Do you have rope?”

“No.” Connor says breathlessly. “But I have a closet that locks from the outside. We can put them in there. It won’t hold them forever, but it should buy us some time.”

Relieved there’s some way to stall the thugs, I say gruffly, “You two, get inside the apartment.”

“Why?” asks Patrick, not making any move to obey.

I point the gun at him. “Because I said so.”

Connor says under his breath, “You need to get their weapons first, Paolo.”

Oh, yeah. Duh.

I clear my throat. “Uh, before you go inside, drop your weapons on the ground.”

They don’t look pleased, but they both pull guns from their suits and lay them carefully on the cement.

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