Reckless Promise

I hate him so much it hurts. Standing inches from him is like trying to walk on the sun. It burns me to be this close without wrapping my hands around his throat and squeezing the life from his pathetic body. I release a soft snarl but force myself to get it together.

We’re here for a reason.

I hold my hand out.

Hugh looks at it. For one moment, my entire world is this interaction, from beginning to end, and my hand hovers in the air. But he reaches forward and shakes.

“Cousin,” he says.

“Cousin,” I say. “Glad you could join me.”

His lips twitch. “Clyde told me you wanted to meet about making a deal.”

“That’s right.” I gesture at the booth. “You remember Tara.”

“Hi, Hugh,” Tara says sweetly.

“Yes, I was told you’d be here.” He nods at her absently. “Should we sit and talk? I could use a drink.”

“Tara, why don’t you head to the bar while we have our meeting.”

She slips from the booth, comes over, and kisses my cheek. “Gladly.” She sashays away and I’m taken by the lovely view of her ass before I sit back down with Clyde on my side and Hugh and the guard on the other.

“Something’s not right,” the guard says in a deep, rough voice, but Hugh waves him off.

“We’re fine. Only talking.”

The waitress returns, takes their drink orders, and departs. I raise my glass to my lips and study my cousin. He looks back and I see the fear in his eyes. He’s been running and hiding this whole time wondering when I’d finally catch up, and now that I’m sitting here across the table, he’s thinking about all the awful things he pictured I’d do to him if I ever caught him.

“Clyde came to me last week,” I say quietly, watching Hugh the whole time, even though I should be watching the guard. At any moment that fucker might blow this up. “He said you’re still willing to take a deal.”

“You killed my father.” Hugh stares at me and there’s a hint of something unhinged in his eyes. “That makes it hard to work with you.”

“You poisoned my mother.” I clench my jaw. The words hurt to say. The guard looks surprised, though Clyde doesn’t react. He knew already.

Hugh’s lips pull into a sneer. “You think that makes us even? Your mother’s still alive.”

“You rotted her brain with mercury, you sick piece of trash. Cormac knew what he was getting into. You poisoned a defenseless woman.”

“Gentlemen,” Clyde says, holding up his hands. “I don’t think bickering over who did what will solve our problem.”

I take a deep breath and let it out to clear my head. “The families need to be united.”

Hugh nods to that. “Yes, they do.” He frowns and looks around. “Where’s that waitress with my drink? Where are the other damn waitresses?”

“I’ve been thinking about the family a lot lately,” I say softly, swirling my whiskey as Hugh looks around, annoyed. “When did you start poisoning my mother? How long until she was ruined enough to give you her power of attorney? How did you convince my father to let that happen?”

“Your old man was barely present those last few years. And it helped that I was poisoning him too.” He grins and laughs, unhinged and high-pitched.

My stomach twists. Fucking disgusting. I don’t particularly care that he was hurting my father—Orin deserved it—but it’s sick that this psycho was willing to feed poison to my parents. All at the orders of Cormac, I’d bet.

“That explains some of his behavior at the end,” I say, nodding to myself. “You poisoned my mother and my father. All to gain control of the family. What then? You’re clearly not good at holding on to power.”

“You weren’t supposed to come home.”

“But I did.”

“And I should’ve killed you the second you stepped in that door.” He glares at me and shakes his head. “Seriously, where the fuck are the waitresses?”