* * *

Wells shit! He’s in one of his moods. “What?” I kept my smile in place to throw him off but he looked ready to strangle me. When the growl started low in his chest I patted my tummy and he calmed the hell down. He glowered around the car but no one was paying him any mind. Poor Shane; he’ll catch on soon enough.

Of course I’d gotten his people on my side. I just had to convince them that he was in danger and too hardheaded to listen. Dad, uncle Al and poppy have been feeding me information for weeks but since Shane refused to play nice, we’ve been keeping him out of the loop. How does he think I got to the congressman? Geez.

He has blinders on because of this legit business, so it was up to me to watch his back. I told him as much as the car pulled into the long driveway to home. He yelled and threatened, all the while with his arm around me leading me into the house.

“I’ll deal with the four of you later.” I looked back at our teams reassuringly while he dragged me out of the kitchen to our room. “What is the matter with you?” I tried calming him down.

“What the fuck is going on?” I gave him my most innocent look but he wasn’t buying it this time.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He pushed me back against the wall and crowded me. What’s with him and walls anyway?

“Don’t…fucking...lie to me. I told you about that shit already. Now you and those ancient fucks are running game on me. I want to know right fucking now what the four of you are up to or so help me…”

“Calm down mob boy, nobody’s up to anything.”

“You’ve been fucking playing me?” I rolled my eyes because I remembered him saying those exact words to me once before.

“It’s like this, we keep trying to tell you that your way isn’t working and you keep ignoring us. So we came up with a plan.” Uh-oh. He was holding the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He only does that when he’s at the end of his rope.

I thought it prudent to edge towards the door but he reached out and grabbed me. “Do I look like I’m playing with you?” He held me like he didn’t know what to do with me. He mumbled something under his breath but I couldn’t make it out.

“What do you mean my way isn’t working? Do you know how long I’ve been pulling this shit together? It took me less than two years. In that time I barely had to off anyone. In the few months you’ve been here you’ve ended more motherfuckers than I’ve had to.”

“Yeah, see, but it’s been two years and you’re still dealing with people like Kowalski and the congressman. My way there’s no repeat offenders.” I don’t understand what he doesn’t get. I have a sneaky suspicion that he knows I’m right but just to be contrary he keeps fighting me.

I pretended an interest in the buttons on his shirt when I felt his glare. “Arianna.”

“Yes.”

“We’ve been all through this until I’m blue in the face. Since you refuse to listen, why don’t you tell me what all you have planned?”

I’m not sure I trusted his easy capitulation but I allowed him to drag me over to the bed where he sat with me on his lap.

“Well, according to poppy he knew there was going to be trouble from certain factions. He’s been covering you even when you thought he was gone. He didn’t interfere, but he kept an eye on things so you didn’t get in over your head. When dad showed up and poppy came back on the scene they wanted to help as you may recall, but you wanted nothing to do with them for whatever reason.”

I ignored the look he gave me and carried on. “The long and short of it is, you’re focused on going legit, my dad’s already done that for the most part so it stands to reason that he might have some ideas on how to achieve that. From seeing what he went through, I know it’s not as easy as you seem to think. It cannot be done unless you eliminate your enemies. You can’t talk to these people Shane, trust me, I know.”

“Who else have you four decided to take care of?” I got a little bit twitchy at the question. I can just imagine what’s going through his mind, even though he wasn’t saying much. He’d see this as a betrayal, as me going behind his back and siding with the others. He wouldn’t understand that I had to do this; that I have to take care of the people I love.

“Scarletti and the triads are the only ones left now that the agent has been taken care of.”

“Mouth, you planning on going after the fucking triads?” His voice raised an octave with each word. I didn’t say one word because, hey, I’m not about to lie, but I have a wedding coming up soon and a baby on the way.

Before I met him I was more than happy to die while avenging my dad if it came to that. Now I have something to live for and I’ll be damned if I’m going to have idiot people, mucking up my life.

“How do you plan on dealing with them Shane? Having another one of your sit-downs? They put a hit out on your family, my family. My guess is the guy panicked yesterday because he didn’t expect me to see him before he struck, or for me to call out to Zane and Alec. He’s probably new.”

“You still didn’t answer my question. Are you planning on starting a war with the triads?”

“I wouldn’t say a war; you’re so dramatic. Listen, as far as we’ve found out, they’re relatively new to this area. If we show them our strength now, they’d back the hell off and find somewhere else to terrorize. I can tell you now, there’s no amount of words in any language that would dissuade these people from their course. They’re murderers Shane, you know this.”

I took a quick peek from beneath my lashes to see if he was listening to me. His face was stone cold and the look in his eyes was just a bit frightening. I was beginning to wonder if maybe I had gone too far this time, but all he did was pat my butt, kiss my forehead, and set me on my feet before getting to his. I followed him out of the room just as I heard the others coming into the house.