Red. (Den of Mercenaries #1)(66)

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question, babe, I want an answer.”

Focusing on Niklaus, though taking one last quick glance as the man he had knocked out, she considered what he had said. “Is what going to be a thing?”

“Me telling you to do something, you doing the complete f*cking opposite.”

“You don’t understand—”

“Then, by all means,” he said as he leaned back against the wall, folding those powerful arms of his across his chest before waving her on with a gloved hand. “Fucking enlighten me.”

Ignoring his sarcasm, she said, “I haven’t heard from my brother in like a week. I just wanted to see if he was home, or at least some clue as to where he went if he did leave.”

“What did I tell you? Huh? I said I would find him—that was my promise to you.”

“Yeah, but—”

“No, buts. When I say to do something, do it. Otherwise, this,” he said gesturing to the man on the floor between them, “could have ended differently.”

“Fine. But that still doesn’t explain Jimmy, and where he is.”

Withdrawing a phone from his pocket, he punched in a number and called, handing it to her a second later.

“Say whatever you need, make your peace, then we’re getting the hell out of here.”

She didn’t understand what he meant, not until the call finally connected and her brother’s voice echoed over the line. “Where the hell have you been, Jimmy? I’ve been worried sick.”

“All the worrying you’re doing? I heard you were there when Declan made a play against McCarthy. And who in the hell is that you have with you? I heard he was a big, angry Russian.”

As she watched Niklaus haul the man up and over his shoulder, carrying him out of the apartment entirely, she didn’t disagree with that assessment.

“Niklaus…he’s a long story.”

“Be prepared to tell it the moment we get back—Shelby will have questions.”

Shelby.

Their oldest brother.

One she hadn’t spoken to in over seven years after their father had kicked him, and her other two eldest brothers out of their home.

Last she had heard, they’d gone back to Ireland and joined the rebellion.

“Have you seen him?” she asked, too afraid to hope otherwise.

“We’re coming back, Reagan. But that’s a story for another day.”

“The same day I tell you all about Niklaus, I imagine.”

There was a smile in his voice as he said, “One and the same. Now, I’ve got things to finish here, be safe there until I get back.”

As Niklaus reappeared, she knew she would be, so long as she had Niklaus at her back.

“Will do,” she said before ending the call. “What did you do with him?”

“He’s in the stairwell—will probably be out for the next thirty minutes.”

“What’s the plan now.”

“Now? We’re going back to your place, I’m going to spank your ass for not listening, then I’ll eat your *, and I’m going to sleep. Sound good?”

Was she supposed to say no to that?

As they left the apartment building, Niklaus opening the car door for her, neither noticed the man watching them from a few feet away.





Chapter Twenty-Six





He didn’t take no for an answer.

That just wasn’t the way Liam McCarthy worked. When he wanted something, he took it, by any means necessary. And when he made Hell’s Kitchen his home, and stumbled across Reagan O’Callahan, he had decided he wanted her.

For a spell, he had found her resistance cute, even entertained it for a while, but he knew she would come around—they always did.

But Reagan, she had proven to be more opposed to him than he had originally thought, but he would soon have more time on his hands to show her exactly why she was wrong.

After showing his father the receipts, documenting just how much they had earned over the last six months, he had finally convinced his old man that his decision to move to the States was a good one.

Right now, the only hiccup he was facing was Reagan, especially now that she had disappeared, and no one had seen her go in or out of her apartment.

But she wouldn’t be able to hide for long.

“He’s getting help from the f*cking Russians!”

Liam was toying with his phone, thinking over how best to handle Reagan’s disappearing act when Bobby, one of his brother’s soldiers, came walking into his office uninvited, but Bobby’s words managed to make it through his foggy head before he prematurely put a bullet in the man’s head.

“What are you going on about, Bobby?” Liam asked, careful to keep his tone neutral. It wouldn’t be the first time one of the men were too afraid to speak what they needed to say for fear of what he would do next.

Producing his cell phone, he opened up photos he had snapped, scrolling down to the one he needed, then angled the phone in Liam’s direction.

Taking the device, he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

There was a barbershop, one he had never paid much attention to since it seemed rather empty the last few times he had passed it—there was no point in taking from those that weren’t receiving. But then his gaze snapped to the two men at the focus of it.