“You hear from Connor yet today?” Cian asked as he watched Liam working out at Sean’s gym. His brute of a brother took jabs at a punching bag, dancing on surprisingly light feet around the dangling object.

“Yeah, he’s still at the hospital. I don’t think we’re going to be able to get him to come to work until she’s released. I still can’t believe the old man pulled Ricky off protecting her.”

Cian raised an eyebrow at Liam. Liam was the only one other than their father who’d been there all those years ago. He was the only one who knew what Robbie’s initiation for his oldest son had involved. “Really? Doesn’t surprise me at all,” he answered coldly.

Liam looked uncomfortable and shrugged. “Yeah, guess not.” He took another half-hearted jab at the bag before removing his gloves and resting his ass on the edge of the adjacent ring, letting his arms hang over the ropes behind him. “So, what are we going to do about Vasquez?”

Cian watched a few of his guys working out on the other side of the gym. He always let them work out when he did. No sense in making them stand around getting fat if they had a chance to put in some gym time. And he had to admit, most of his men were in great shape. He prided himself on having a fit crew. Liam joked that Cian’s worst nightmare was running a crew like Tony Soprano’s—a bunch of middle-aged fat guys in bad suits.

“Connor’s going to insist we retaliate,” Cian said, his attention shifting back to Liam and the question of what to do about Vasquez.

“How the hell can we not?” Liam asked. “He fucked with us not once but twice in one evening.”

“His guy’s still alive?” Cian asked.

“Yeah. There’s someone watching him. We let him eat this morning. He’s fine.”

“Here’s what I want—in Vasquez’s mind, Jess was his due for Connor sullying his sister. In my mind, Lila was extra, so we get the soldier to balance the accounts. If he’ll agree to that, we’ll make peace, and Ricky can handle the soldier once the deal is made. It’ll give him some satisfaction. I’m sure he’s pissed about Jess since she was his assignment.”

“He feels like crap,” Liam said. “I was afraid Connor might go after Ricky, but he knows there’s no reasoning with the old man when he gets something in his head. As soon as Pop let Ricky go, he went to the hospital. Got there about two a.m.”

“Okay. I’ll have Finn send the message to Vasquez. If Connor’s busy at the hospital, maybe that’ll keep him occupied until a deal’s been negotiated.”

“What about the info you have on the informant in the Vasquez ranks?” Liam asked.

“I’ll save that to sweeten the deal if he doesn’t go for it initially.”

Liam shook his head. “I’d still like to get a piece of him. The guy rants about his honor, but who the hell does that to a female civilian?”

“I agree, but with this new project with Rogue, we don’t have time for a war right now. I need this to go away so we can focus on the business end of things.”

Liam nodded and stood. “Okay. I’m going to go to the hospital and keep an eye on Connor. Since him going off half-cocked is what started all this, I’ll try to keep him in line.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Cian bumped fists with his brother, shot a text off to Finn, and leaned against the wall of the gym for just a moment. He sighed. The exhaustion in him ran bone deep. His head was a tangle of FBI demands, mob wars, and internet sales. He doubted any corporate CEO had more complications to deal with.

“You ready to go, boss?” one of his men asked. Cian gave him a thumbs-up, and the guys gathered their stuff, one of them heading out first to bring the car around.

Back at his condo, Cian took a shower and dressed before pulling out a burner phone from the top drawer of his desk. He dialed the preprogrammed number and waited until Don answered.

“Yeah. What do you have?”

“A load of international laundry. Three years’ worth.”

There was a pause on the other end. “Yeah,” Don answered casually. “Just email me that invoice now.”

Cian ended the call, popped open the phone’s SIM tray, and pulled the card out, destroying it before also removing the battery, then crushing the burner’s case under his bootheel and tossing it in the trash. Next, he pulled out a zip drive from the locked drawer of his desk, slid it into his laptop, and did a click and drag to a shared drive that popped up on his screen. After the file transferred, the drive was unshared as quickly as it had shown up.

Next, he removed the zip drive from his USB port and sat back in his office chair, a tension headache spreading through his skull. He stared at the zip drive in his hand for long moments before grabbing a staple remover sitting alongside a fancy set of pens his mother had given him when his dad retired and he took over the business. He placed the small piece of plastic in the jaws of the staple remover and crushed and twisted until it was thoroughly destroyed, then he tossed it in the garbage with the phone.

Several miles away at the headquarters of Rogue, Xavier watched the footage of Cian making the phone call while he also pulled up the files his hack had copied while they were briefly being transferred from Cian’s laptop to the shared drive.

“Oh, MacFarlane,” Xavier said, grinning as he opened the files. “You’ve been a very naughty boy.”

* * *

“What do you mean we’re not going to hit back?” Connor ground out as he stood in front of the hospital facing Liam.

“You know I’d love to go after him,” Liam counseled. “I’d always rather fight, especially with a pussy like Vasquez who goes after women, but Cian’s right about this. It’s not the time. This new venture with Rogue means we don’t have the resources for a war.” Liam leaned closer, putting his hand on Connor’s shoulder as his voice dropped. “We’ll get him later. I promise.”

Connor shrugged off Liam’s touch, a fire raging inside him. This couldn’t be happening. From his father, he’d expect it, but from Cian? Cian always had his back. Always. His oldest brother was the foundation Connor’s life was built on.

When a kid in middle school decided he’d like to take on a mobster’s son, it was Cian who showed up at the end of the school day and stood there leaning against the side of the school building waiting for Connor to come out. He’d done nothing more than put an arm around Connor and watched the other kid. As the kid had looked back at Cian, his eyes wide with fear, Cian had talked in a low voice, coaching his youngest brother on survival in the MacFarlane world.

“People will be gunning for you from here on out because they know who your dad is,” he said. “You remember you can’t ever let them see fear. You are ice, and they cannot melt you. If they throw the first punch, then you punch back hard, just the way Liam’s been teaching you at the gym, but your first and best weapon is your cool. You can’t be bothered to get scared, because you have the ultimate weapon—you have me and Liam and Finn, and we are always behind you. Together, we are invincible.”

Connor shook his head at the memory. Yeah, since he was twelve years old, he’d believed that, but now it looked like Cian had forgotten his promise.

“To hell with later,” Connor spat. “There’s no way you guys can expect me to make peace with the man who fractured Jess’s wrist, her cheekbone, and two ribs.” The rage curled inside him, turning his stomach sour and making his head pound. “They could have killed her.” His voice dropped to nearly a whisper. “They could have raped her. I will not make peace.”

Liam’s voice was kind, but his words were less so. “You’ll do whatever the head of the family tells you. That’s how this works, kid. I know it’s hard, and you’re justified to want revenge, but timing is everything, and it’s not the time. Cian’s good to us. He wouldn’t make a decision like this if he didn’t think it was necessary. Finn and I both agree. You’re just going to have to be patient for your payback. Maybe in a few months. We’ll see.”

Connor clenched his fists and stared at the cloudy sky above. Fuck Cian. Fuck Liam and Finn too. They couldn’t make peace with Vasquez if he got to the man first. So, he’d do what he had to. It wasn’t the first time he’d ignored his older brother’s orders; probably wouldn’t be the last. All that really mattered was making sure that bastard could never hurt Jess again.

“Fine,” he bit out. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go take care of Jess, since no one else seems to give a damn.”

“Connor, come on,” Liam pleaded as Connor stomped off into the hospital. But Connor didn’t respond. His thoughts had already moved on to more important things—namely, how he’d find Vasquez and get him alone to do it. Once he’d answered that question, Connor had guns to grab and plans to make. He was going to take down Alejandro Vasquez, and he was going to do it tonight.