Connor grins darkly. “Fuck yes, he will.”
Finn stays quiet, giving a sharp nod.
There’s a receptionist at the desk when we walk in. She stands, her mouth opening to say something, but none of us are stopping. She doesn’t squawk the way a normal secretary would, but I can hear her murmur something, probably to security.
Somehow, I end up in front. I shove the door to Antonio’s office open and almost smile when I hear the doorknob smack the wall.
Antonio stands. He looks pissed, silver-striped blonde hair ruffled when he jumps up. His green eyes are dark, his mouth pulled into a thin line.
I take one side. Lachlan stands front and center, and he waits until Antonio opens his mouth to speak, cutting him off.
“This is not a courtesy call. I think we’re beyond that.”
Antonio’s fingers are pressed to the desk. He looks like he wants to dig his nails into it and break the wood. I wish he would, wish he would lunge so I can hit him. Call it self-defense.
Lachlan continues. “We know you’re undercutting the Ravens. You didn’t hide your tracks well enough. Buyers, Antonio? Stealing their business? It’s not very nice.”
Antonio’s face is set. The bastard is stoic, if nothing else. It just makes me want to punch him even more.
“I think we should notify our friends,” Lachlan says mildly. “I think they’d appreciate knowing that they’re being fucked over. I can’t say that I’m surprised, but they might be. They might not take it well.”
Antonio’s jaw twitches. I wait, breathless, and I can feel my pulse race.
“Don’t,” Antonio says.
I feel like I’m taking a step out into thin air from the top of a high-rise. It’s the bottom dropping out of your stomach, the feeling right before the roller coaster soars.
It’s the closest thing there is to begging. Antonio clenches his teeth and says, “Don’t tell them. Please.”
That one word fills me with warmth, liquid ecstasy, relief like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I can’t even begin to explain how much I’ve wanted to hear him say it.
All that pleasure doesn’t stop the fact that I want to hit him until he bleeds.
I can feel Connor simmering on the other side of Lachlan. His leather jacket creaks like he’s tensing his muscles, preparing to barrel across the room. It feels like the place is on fire.
“The Ravens value the truth,” Finn says softly. “Don’t they, Lachlan?”
“They do,” Lachlan agrees. “I think their driving principle is truth above all…and loyalty. That’s important to them.”
“I wonder what they do to liars and betrayers?” Connor adds. There’s a savage joy in his voice. “I seem to remember something in the news last year…”
“I am asking you not to tell them,” Antonio repeats. He’s leaning over his desk a little. Maybe he’s sagging, using it for support. Maybe he’s trying to imitate a bow without having to really do it.
I can barely stand to be in the same room as the man. I want to take the paperweight on his desk and shove it down his throat, to throw him to the ground and watch his carefully-composed features crumple.
Antonio deserves everything and worse for what he’s done to my family. I want this to end here, but I also want it to drag on forever. I want him to suffer for every day of the two years I’ve suffered.
“What do you want?” Antonio asks, his voice low and his green eyes steady as he stares at Lachlan.
I can tell what’s going through Lachlan’s head. It’s going through mine, through Connor’s and Finn’s.
We all want Antonio’s blood.
But we can’t take it.
It would be easy, but it also would be too risky. The Assembly still looms over all of us, despite the maneuver we’re trying to pull.
And brute force isn’t the way the O’Reilly family works. Even if it’s what we all want right now.
