Remington (The Theriot Family 1)

“Hey, how do we know you’re not a cop?” another man asked.

I tensed.

“I don’t like cops anymore than my friend, but I do like guns, and I’m here to buy some.”

“What’s your name, Mr. Not A Cop?” That challenge came from the first man who’d spoken.

“You don’t need to know my name, Mr. Landry.” My best guess was that the speaker was Timon Landry, Clark’s youngest brother and the biggest hothead in the family.

“I say I do because I think you’re lying, and I like to know the name of every man who lies to me.”

“Put the gun down, Landry,” Lance said. A second later, I heard a shot followed quickly by another. My heart skipped a beat. Please let Lance be all right.

I rushed in. Lance was holding his arm. Blood leaked through his fingers, but he was alive and sitting up.

Timon Landry lay on the floor with a hole through his chest. Tony was nowhere in sight. Hopefully he was in a good hiding place. Lance barely jumped aside in time to avoid a bullet from Clark who apparently realized we weren’t on his side. I ended him, and I didn’t stop shooting until I put down everyone who looked ready to come for us. By that time, the men with me had subdued or eliminated everyone else.

I made my way to where Lance sat on the floor using some crates for cover. “Are you all right?”

He waved his good hand dismissively. “I’m fine. Where’s Tony?”

The little monkey immediately came out from behind another crate, screeching with excitement. Lance scooped him right up, and I rolled my eyes as I opened the crates to look at the goods that had been brought in.

As we’d expected, they contained military-grade assault rifles and grenade launchers. Whether the Landrys had planned to keep them for themselves or sell them, they would have been a pain in the ass for us. We didn’t need these in the hands of our enemies and didn’t want them in the hands of kids. If anybody was going to have weapons like these, it was going to be my family and those who allied with us.

I looked around for the man who’d shot Charles and saw him lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He wasn’t going to be answering any of my questions. That was unfortunate, but overall, the night was a success. Elandra Landry hadn’t shown up. I hoped she would get far away from New Orleans and stay there. We’d lost the gunrunners their importer and their cash for the night. Hopefully that would make them question defying our rule of the city. If not, we’d come for them more directly. No matter how badass they thought they were, no matter what weapons they had, New Orleans was mine, and they weren’t taking it from me.

Cleaning up after we’d neutralized the threat to the family business took a while. We had a lot of bodies to deal with. It was nearly six a.m. before I got back to my house. I found Corbin in the living room watching a movie and eating popcorn. I’d come home to my father’s house and seen him just like that so many times when he was a teenager. It made me smile.

“Is Henri upstairs?” I asked.

“Yes. He’s asleep. He needed vodka to cope with being worried about you, but I made him drink some water and take something before I put him to bed.”

“How long ago?” I asked.

Corbin frowned. “Maybe three hours.”

“Hopefully when I wake him, he’ll still be drunk and not hungover.”

“Yeah, I was a little worried about that. I was sure you’d want to see him when you got home, but he was terrified. He couldn’t stop thinking about you not coming home. He did insist on a shower before bed. I was worried he’d fall down and crack his head, but he managed.”

“You watched him in the shower?” My hands curled into fists. I didn’t like that at all.

Corbin rolled his eyes at my display of jealousy. “I took care of him. He’s not my type. You know that.”

His type were bad boys who got him into trouble or women who didn’t care when he didn’t call or even remember their names. They came seeking him.

“Thank you.”

Corbin’s eyes widened, and I hated that me thanking him was so shocking. I needed to do better by him.

“You’re welcome. It wasn’t like this was a hard assignment.”

“If someone had gotten in here, you were his main line of defense. I think that’s really damn important.”

“But you got to be in the middle of the action.”

I’d texted with him to confirm that things had gone as they should. “I was, but we’ve got more investigating to do, and you know what…”

“What?” He looked suspicious as hell.