Chapter Twenty-Six

Maggie

As we sat in the restaurant things seemed normal for the most part, but I could tell Aidan was distracted. It wasn’t hard to see his mind was elsewhere. Not that I could blame him. After everything that had happened, it wasn’t surprising that he wasn’t entirely focused on me.

I was surprised when he asked me to dinner, and I told him I’d be fine if he wanted to just grab a pizza and relax, or if he just wanted some alone time that evening. But he said he wanted a bit of normalcy and happiness in his day, and he wanted to take me out.

I certainly wasn’t going to argue.

We were at a little Italian restaurant he knew about. It was a small, intimate, quiet place that obviously catered to the locals and others in-the-know. It had a quaint, kind of old-world feel to it—I could almost believe I was in some old Italian mother’s kitchen. And the aromas that saturated the air made my mouth water.

The waitress stopped by our table and gave Aidan a wide, approving smile before turning to me. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“A glass of merlot, please,” I said.

The waitress nodded. “And you, sir?”

“Club soda, please,” Aidan said.

I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. Not that he was a heavy drinker, but I knew he liked to have a drink most nights. When the waitress left to get our drinks, I gave him a small smile.

“Club soda?”

He shrugged and grinned at me. “What, you’re going to be upset with me for not getting sauced?”

“Not at all,” I replied. “Just surprised is all.”

“I met with Emmett today,” he said. “Probably had a couple more than I should have.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t come into the office.”

It worried me more than a little bit when he hadn’t come in, or even called to tell me he’d be out all day. That wasn’t like him. But given what we’d gone through, what he was going through, I wanted to cut him some slack and give him some space if he needed it. The last thing he needed was a clingy girlfriend.

He nodded. “Aye, had to figure some things out.”

“I can imagine,” I said. “Don’t worry though, the boys took very good care of me. Kept me entertained the entire day.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re making friends.”

“I am, thank you,” I said and flashed him a smile. “Thank you for the protective detail. I have to say, it was weird to have those two shadowing me at first, but I got used to them. And with Amon still out there, I felt safer with them around.”

He nodded. “Well, get used to having them around,” he said. “At least for a while. I’m going to have eyes on you every minute of the day until this thing gets sorted.”

The waitress came back and made eyes with Aidan while she took our orders. He either didn’t notice or chose to ignore her altogether—which, given the fact that she was absolutely gorgeous and made me feel terrible about myself in comparison—made me feel incredibly good.

She threw him a pout as she turned and walked away from the table with a very pronounced swish in her hips, no doubt, for Aidan’s benefit. All he did was sip his club soda and stare off into space. Hah! Like she ever had a chance.

“Want to talk about it?”

“There’s really not much to talk about,” he replied.

“I’m a lot of things, but a fool isn’t one of them. I can see your brain working so hard, there’s smoke pouring out of your ears.”

He gave me a rueful little grin. “Can’t ever put anything by you, can I?”

“Nope. And it’s best you learn that now.” I grinned and winked at him.

He sighed and took a sip of his club soda and then filled me in on everything he’d talked to Emmett about. I could tell he was absolutely disgusted by the idea of ordering somebody’s execution. That wasn’t Aidan at all. But I also knew in his role as head of the organization, he wasn’t going to always be able to act like the Aidan I’d always known. He was going to have to get his hands a little dirty. Do some things that were maybe a little less than tasteful—and illegal as hell.

I wasn’t sure what it said about me that this other side of Aidan—this more dangerous, bad boy side, not only didn’t bother me, but it actually turned me on.

I’d never been one for the bad boy types, but something about seeing Aidan in that role was incredibly appealing. Maybe because I knew deep down, he wasn’t. He had to put on the mask and be that for the benefit of others at the moment, but he truly wasn’t a bad boy.

“So, what are you going to do?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know yet, I mean, what Emmett said makes perfect sense. It’s perfectly logical and rational. I know I need to prove myself. And the organization needs to know they have a strong leader.”

He looked around to make sure we weren’t being overheard and pitched his voice low. “I don’t know if it’s the right way to go about it, but Emmett was right—it would not only get this prick off my back, it would also send a very strong message to the brothers.”

“And what message would that be?”

“That I am in control, and it would be wise for them to not cross me.”

He spoke with a quiet ferocity and intensity that was sexy as hell to me. Which was also too bad, knowing what sort of day he’d had and what kind of mood he was in, I highly doubted there was a night of passion in my future. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t still making me soak my panties.

I did my best to clear my head and push all carnal thoughts out. Right now, I needed to focus on helping him—not fucking him. Even if that meant simply listening to him, I was going to do what I could to help him through this. I imagined that it couldn’t be easy to find out you have a brother and then realize he was trying to kill you.

And if I were being entirely truthful, I wasn’t going to lose a wink of sleep over the idea of Aidan taking Amon out and removing him from this world entirely. Amon was a disgusting piece of filth and needed to be treated as such. Knowing he was dead and gone would make me sleep a lot easier at night.

“What I worry about, though,” Aidan said, “is that by doing this, I’d be sacrificing a piece of myself. My soul. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t worry about what you might think of me after the fact.”

I gave him a small smile. “You don’t have to worry about that, Aidan,” I said. “I know that’s not you. I know it’s part of the job.”

His chuckle was dry and bitter. “That’s one way of putting it, I suppose.”

“Hey, I know you were reluctant to lead the syndicate in the first place. Given everything that’s happened with Flynn, and now Amon, you really have no choice in the matter. Not to offend you or anything, but you’re kind of in over your head with these sharks.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You know what I mean.” I swallowed a sip of Merlot and set the glass back down on the table. “Look what happened to Gerard. And he was good. Trained by the best. So, what Emmett suggested, that’s what you have to do. That’s what they do. That’s what they’ve done all their lives. This isn’t anything new or surprising. You’ve known these thugs all of your life. You’re just going to have to catch up with them.”

“And if I don’t do something to earn their respect and trust soon, I’m going to lose control of the organization. Emmett’s concerned that a lot of those men would rally behind Amon to take me out of power.”

“Do you think he’s right?”

Aidan nodded. “Aye. I think Emmett has the pulse of the organization,” I said. “I think he has a much better perspective on it than I do. I’m pretty sure that what he says, I can take as gospel.”

“Wonderful,” I replied, my tone less than enthusiastic.

He nodded. “Tell me about it.”

We sat in silence for a few moments, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Aidan’s plight was harrowing, and I had to wonder what ordering a hit on Amon would do to him mentally. He wasn’t a hit man. Hell, he wasn’t even a real mob boss. Aiden had constructed his life a certain way, operated by a certain code of ethics and morality that I’d always admired. But now, he was going to have to violate that code. Betray that morality. I was concerned about the destruction such act would cause. Would it chip away at his soul until he was no longer the man I’d fallen in love with? Or would he be able to cope with it better than I was giving him credit for?

I had no idea, to be honest. But I also knew he had to do something. I wasn’t stupid and knew that if he refused to act, he was going to have a full-scale mutiny on his hands. If he wanted to retain control of the syndicate and not get himself killed in the process, he was going to have to do some things he wouldn’t ordinarily do. Things that went against his principles.

“For whatever it’s worth, I think Emmett is right,” I spoke, finally breaking the tense silence that clouded the air between us.

“You think I should have Amon taken out?”

I took another sip of wine before speaking. “I don’t see that you have any other choice, babe.”

“There are always choices.”

I nodded. “True. But there are smart choices and choices that’ll get you killed. You know I’m not a big fan of that life—”

“Maybe not,” he chuckled, interrupting me, “but you certainly seem to have a knack for handling some of the stickier situations.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I laughed. “I am working my way to becoming an attorney, ya know.”

“I know. That’s why all of this scares me. We could both lose our licenses. Be disbarred. For what? Some feckin’ gangsters who don’t give a rat’s arse what happens to me or my family?”

“I understand, but this is real, Aidan. Amon is coming after you, and you need to get him before he gets you. This is about your survival, and I have a very vested interest in that.”

He sat back in his seat, a frown crossing his face. “I thought you’d try to talk me out of it. Maybe tell me to run or something.”

I scoffed. “I can tell you that if you want me to. I know you, and running isn’t your style. Have you ever ran from the courtroom? No. You don’t run. You’re a fighter, Aidan. You’ve never backed down from a challenge.”

“Maybe not, Mags, but I’ve never played in a game where the stakes are this high. If I lose this one, I’m as good as dead.”

The thought had crossed my mind more than a few times. Aidan was playing a dangerous game with very dangerous people. This wasn’t some gangster show on television, this was real life. The bullets and blood were real, and people really died. And for his sake, he needed to get the syndicate under control. His control. He needed every one of those pricks to fall in line and start doing what he said, if for no other reason than to make sure he stayed alive.

If one conniving bastard like Amon had to die to ensure Aidan’s safety, I’d pull the fucking trigger myself.

“Then it looks like you’re going to have to make sure this is a game you win.”

“I hope it’s that simple.”

“It’s not a matter of it being simple,” I said. “It’s a matter of it being a necessity. It’s you or him, Aidan. And I know in situations like this, I’m much more comfortable betting on you.”

He gave me a small smile. “I hope I don’t let ya down then.”

“You won’t, baby. You won’t.”