“I love you. I’ll be back soon,” he told her, sweeping a wave of disheveled hair out of her eyes as she sat eating a bagel and drinking her coffee.
“I love you too,” she replied, a thought occurring to her. “Hey, will you do me another favor?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“Do you have a safe I can put my money in until I can set up an account somewhere? I don’t feel safe with it just laying around in my backpack.”
“Not here, but there is one at the office where it’ll be safe enough. You want me to take it with me?”
“Please,” she told him, retrieving the money from her bag and handing it to him.
“Done,” he said, kissing her on the cheek and sticking the envelopes she handed him his jacket pocket.
Olcan reached inside the garage door and pushed the button to open it but turned to step out the front door instead of exiting the house that way. He motioned to one of the guys sitting in a chair on the front stoop. He stood and walked over, smiling.
“I have to leave for a while. If anything happens to the lass in my house, you’ll answer for it personally. I will tear you limb from limb and feed you to my neighbor’s dog. Got it, Fallon?”
The smile faded from Fallon’s face. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Glad we understand one another,” Olcan said before walking around to the front of the open garage and going inside to get into his car.
He backed the car out, looking toward the two men on the front porch. The one he had spoken too, Dane, looked back defiantly. Olcan knew he was angry, but he wouldn’t cross him. He was only upset that Niamh had endangered the family, but he wasn’t so upset that he’d challenge the Alpha over a decision to protect her. He just needed a reminder of what was expected of him.
Something felt off, and he couldn’t shake it. He’d been on the phone with Fergus several times. He wanted to come back, but Olcan had told him to stay. It was safer for his family, and this was no time for too many chiefs. Fergus was okay with leaving it in his hands, just as long as he felt like he could handle it. They agreed that he’d stay away and let Olcan handle it on his own.
Niall and Ronan met him inside the front doors and went down to the basement with him. Some of the others were coming in too, but he’d wanted to talk to them alone first. He’d gotten a message this morning that he’d not talked about to anyone, not Niamh or even Fergus.
“Sorley is coming for us,” he said, deciding it was best to just be blunt with them.
“What do you know?” Ronan asked.
“He arrived on a plane less than an hour ago.”
“Alone?”
“He arrived alone but was picked up by some more of his hired goons at the airport.”
“The airport where? Here? Boston?”
“New York, LaGuardia.”
“Driving in the rest of the way? Do we know where he’s staying?”
“It just so happens I do, and he has no idea that I have any information about his arrival.”
“Why would he do this? Why would he risk coming here alone?”
“Ego. Greed. He wants what we’ve built so badly that he’s willing to come in person to scout it out. He’s already tried infiltrating us, and that backfired. He lost Niamh due to a bunch of human mercs. He’s decided he should come over here himself.”
“That’s crazy. His clan might have driven us out of Dublin, but he’s no match for us without them,” Niall interjected.
“He’s headed for the Dracord Clan,” Olcan told them.
Both sat looking at him for a moment, an expression of incredulity on their faces.
“Dragons?” Niall said, finally.
“Dragons,” Olcan confirmed.
“Fuck me,” Ronan muttered.
“Fuck us all,” Olcan told him.
“So, what do we do? The Dracords are a bunch of ruthless bastards. The only reason they leave us alone is that we don’t interfere with their black market import-export business and they aren’t interested in our turf,” Niall asked.
“Why would they even help him? What’s in it for them?”
“I’m guessing a piece of the action. They might not want to run our trade, but they’ll be happy enough to take us down so that someone else can run it and give them a cut for services rendered,” Olcan told them.
“We’re no match for the Dracords. They have much bigger numbers, and, well, they’re fucking dragons. They’ll roast our asses and serve us up for afternoon tea.”
“That’s why we have to get moving. We’ve got to take him out before he gets to them. Get the other guys and let’s hit the road.”
“You know where to find him?”
“I do,” he said.
The conversation was interrupted by a flow of other members of the clan into the room. Olcan was quick with his orders. They had no time to lose. He sent Frances to call Niamh, Tom to work on getting her money, and Carter to track the chip data he’d been given by his contact at the rental car company Sorley’s guys had used to hire a small fleet of dark SUVs. Nothing like trying so hard to blend in that you made yourself stand out.