Page 14 of Fractured Vows (Fraser Crime Syndicate 1)

CHAPTER6

Lucas

“Are you fucking listening?” Kane demands. I snap my gaze towards my brother, realising I haven’t heard a word he’s said.

I’m thinking about Alice. The way she felt beneath me is etched into my brain. That wide-eyed innocence is impossible to encounter among the women I normally sleep with. I find it damn enticing.

But Alice isn’t who she says she is.

There are secrets in her eyes, and lies. I shouldn’t get embroiled. Fuck knows I have enough shit to deal with, but I can’t stop thinking about her and her predicament, whatever that may be.

“Well, you were being boring,” I mutter, earning a glare from a man who can kill me with his bare hands. I don’t fear my brother.

“Your head has been stuck up your arse all day,” he grumbles. “The fuck is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me.” I shift my gaze to the floor-to-ceiling window of the office we are sitting in, overlooking the London skyline. Fraser Holdings has business interests across the globe, both legal and illegal. The latter fly under the radar, hidden from view, but they make as much money as the above board shit. It’s the only reason we continue to do it.

That and because my father likes the power.

As does my mother.

She would never allow Anthony to give this life up. And we all know Anthony Fraser does whatever Charlotte tells him.

“Yet you’re barely focused. Do you even know what I told you?”

Since I have no idea, I shake my head. He’s right. I am unfocused and I need to not be. All I can think about is whether my little dove will be waiting in the bar for me.

“Was it interesting?” I’m being a dick and I know it. If I was anyone else, Kane would have put his fist through my fucking face, but despite his temper my brother has never laid a hand on any of his siblings.

“I was talking about our mother and how she’s moving pieces on the board. Again.”

I let out a breath and shift my shoulders. “When isn’t Charlotte moving shit on the board?”

Kane can’t argue with that, and he doesn’t try to. Our mother is a meddlesome bitch. She plays Anthony like a fiddle, making him dance to whatever tune she wishes. Anthony might think he’s the head of the family, but he’s wrong. Power has never been his but Charlotte’s.

“She’s trying to cement an alliance with the Adams’s.”

I snap my eyes towards him. The Adams’s are another crime syndicate who operate in London. Like us they own a slice of territory, a small piece of a larger pie, but they are powerful. They have contacts and the ability to cause chaos if they choose, so keeping them onside is always a good idea.

For the first time in a long time, the syndicates of London are all at peace. War is a dangerous and expensive undertaking. We all try to avoid it as much as possible, and we have been successful for a while. We currently have a tenuous peace with the other firms, so I’m not sure why my mother wants to shore it up even more. What would we have to gain from an alliance that is already in place? “Why?”

“She fears the Eastons. They are gaining strength and becoming more powerful in their own right. She wants to ensure we have the means to stand against them should they decide to come at us.”

I have met Declan Easton a few times over the years. He is a first-class arsehole, but he’s not a stupid man. He doesn’t strike me as someone who would come after his allies just to gain more power.

“Why does she fear them?”

Kane pushes up from his seat and goes to the window, digging his hands into the pockets of his suit trousers. The view is spectacular, and it looks down over Canary Wharf. He’s used to it, as I am, but I still can’t stop myself from staring at the tiny twinkling lights starting to appear on the dusk skyline.

“There is a rumour that Declan means to marry his daughter to Jeremiah Wood.”

Wood has territory in Manchester, a city north of London. It has a reputation for gun crime, drugs, and all manner of nefarious acts that rival those of the capital. In fact, a few years back it was known as Gunchester because of the amount of gun crime. Lately Manchester has been exerting power, seeing itself as a key player in the criminal underbelly of England. It’s something I told my father time and time again we need to quash. Those fuckers believing they are on our level is dangerous.

Knowing Wood is trying to build alliances within the capital is fucking cause for concern. What the hell is he hoping to achieve? And why does Easton want to marry his daughter to a man like that? Wood is known as ‘the Butcher.’ He has a dark reputation that mirrors our own. Ruthless, cold, and calculating, he’s not a man to trifle with.

“Who is the daughter?” I ask. I don’t recall her. In truth she’s not on my radar. She is not someone I need to worry about.

“Charlotte says her name is Sariah. I’ve never seen her—not in public. From what I hear, Declan keeps her locked up tight and has done since she was a little girl.”

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