Chapter One: Liam
"I'm pretty sure she's with that guy."
I grinned at Leary. "Does it matter?" I asked.
The bar was packed like it hadn't been in a long time with tweakers, thieves, and muscle, all trying to get a leg up in the Mob. I scanned the room, ignoring the faces I didn't recognize, and finally caught the eye of the young pretty redhead over near the door. I smiled back at her, and she looked away quickly. I smirked, realizing the guy with the leather jacket next to her was probably her boyfriend, or at least some idiot trying to be.
Didn't matter to me either way.
"You're such an asshole, you know that?" Leary said, laughing.
I looked at him and shrugged. Leary was a good guy, maybe my best friend in the Mob, but he was a little limited when it came to women. He got his, no doubt about it, but the word "boyfriend" still meant something to him.
I was a little more evolved than that.
"Only if she isn't interested." I paused and sipped my drink. "Which she is."
Leary laughed and downed his drink, shaking his head.
I looked away, trying to ignore the noise of the packed room. Ever since the big chaos happened, and the Mob was torn apart by the old boss, Drake's was twice as full and twice as loud. People weren't afraid like they used to be.
But they should have been. Chaos in the Mob meant more bodies in the streets. The true Right People knew that, knew that when a big gang like the Irish Mob went insane, it was best to get out of the way until the smoke cleared.
Two months after the boss skipped town and the place was still plenty smoky.
I glanced down the bar and grinned as I caught the redhead's eye again. She lingered that time, not turning away immediately, and I knew I had her. It was only a matter of when she'd find an excuse to walk my way. I ordered another whisky, content to wait.
"What's with the crowd tonight?" Leary asked me.
I looked back at him and shrugged. "Not sure," I said.
Leary wasn't one of the Right People, although he wanted to be. We had gone to high school together, back in the day, but our paths diverged from there. Where he began to do meth and deal in minor crime, I worked my way through the ranks and was made Right over two years ago. Around then, Leary started showing up at Drake's, and we quickly became friends again. He did some jobs for the Mob, though nothing major. But he wasn't an insider, and, if he kept going down the path he was on, he never would be. Which is why he decided he'd try to get sober. As far as I knew, he hadn't touched the drugs in a while, though he was compensating with plenty of drink.
"Lotta fucking pussy tonight," he said, grinning.
"Yeah, and what are you going to do about it?"
"Fuck you, Liam. You're not the only one who can get some."
I shrugged, sipping my drink. "Maybe not."
Leary may have been in the business for a while, but he had never been smart enough or ruthless enough to get a real piece of the action. So when the chaos started, Leary knew something was up, but he didn't know exactly what was going on. I wasn't about to fill him in, either. We didn't need every junkie and knee-breaker in the city panicking because Leary couldn't keep his idiot mouth shut.
"Check it out," he said, nudging me.
I glanced up and saw her: the redhead from the other end of the bar was headed in my direction.
"Catch you later, Leary," I said, knocking back my drink and standing.
"Whatever," he said, laughing.
I quickly moved through the crowd, making a beeline for her. She was a short little thing, maybe five four at best, and I made her look tiny. That was fine with me; I liked small girls, made them easy to throw around a bit. Plus, little girls like her tended to go for big guys like me.
"Hey," I said to her, cutting through the music.
She stopped and smiled at me. "Hey yourself," she said.
I stepped close to her. I could almost feel the tension between us spark immediately. Her tits were nice and big, and they heaved as she began to breathe heavy. Her whole body turned toward me as I got closer, and her full lips parted slightly into a cute little smile. I could practically read her like a book.
She was aching for me.
"Where you headed?" I asked.
She laughed. "Do I know you?"
"Not yet. I'm Liam."
I stepped in close, giving her my best smile. I stopped a few inches away from her, definitely violating her personal space, but she didn't seem to mind. She was playing it cool, though I could see through her. She was practically begging for it.
"Hi, Liam. I'm Andrea."
"Andrea, that's a cute name. Where you headed, Andrea?"
"I was going to the bathroom."
"Listen, Andrea, you should have a drink with me."
She shook her head softly. "I can't. I'm here with someone."
I shrugged. "I'll show you around the back room and the basement, give you a little tour of the place."
She smiled. "What makes you think I'd go into a basement with some stranger I just met?"
"Because I can tell from the way you're breathing and smiling that you find me attractive, and I find you attractive too. And you seem like the type that would want to explore that."
There it was. I wasn't bullshitting her; I really could tell she was into me. But it was definitely a line, and it didn't always work. She had a surprised little look on her face, and she probably wasn't used to a man like me going right for her.
"Okay, Liam. I'll be back. Then you can give me that tour."
Then again, maybe she was.
I grinned at her and touched her hip. She didn't shy away. "I'll be here."
She gave me this fucking cute-as-hell look and started off. I stared at her firm ass in her tight jeans, and I guessed she was in her early twenties, probably a few years younger than me. My cock began to stir in my jeans as I imagined all the dirty shit I knew she'd let me do to her. I was sure she'd be begging for more by the end of the night.
And I wouldn't give it to her.
I looked around the bar, smirking softly, and reminded myself again, maybe for the fiftieth time that night: it was good to be a Right Person.
"Liam," a gruff voice called out, cutting through my good mood.
I looked over and spotted Max, all six-foot-eight of him. His thick beard was unkempt, and he had this serious expression on his face that immediately killed my hard on. I made my way over to him, picking through the crowd. I was over six feet and fit in my way, but Max made me look almost skinny.
Almost.
"What's up, Max?" I said.
"We got a job coming," he grunted.
Shit. I glanced back toward the bathrooms.
"Can it wait?"
"Not for some pussy, it can't."
I gritted my teeth and shrugged. "Fine. What's the deal?"
"Follow me."
He stalked toward the front door without another word, and I trailed him, glancing over my shoulder, cursing softly. It was a shame to leave her, but there would be plenty of other young chicks with nice tits. There always were.
We pushed through the front door and out into the cool summer night. I followed him north, up the block, across the street, and stopped in the shadow of a big tree growing in the middle of an empty lot.
"What's with the secrecy, Max?"
"Sensitive shit. Can't be overheard."
That cut through my annoyance. If we had to talk outside the bar, then it probably meant something serious was about to happen.
"What's the play?" I asked.
He paused and looked at me seriously. "You got a hit," he said.
I blinked. "Are you kidding?"
He shook his head. "Nope. Word from the boss. Time you started getting your hands dirty."
I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed my hands into tight fists. I hadn't been ordered on a hit yet, although it wasn't like I hadn't done my fair share of violent and nefarious things. I just hadn't killed a man, or at least I hadn't done it on purpose. Every Right Person was ordered on a hit sooner or later, and usually more than one. They were a way to prove your loyalty.
For a while, I was protected from the worst of it because of my father. But my father was gone, and I was just another guy that needed to be tested. And in a time of chaos, there were a lot of questions about loyalty floating around. I knew that if I didn't perform, my loyalty might be questioned. And that would be very, very dangerous. One false move and I'd wake up with a bullet in my back.
Or not wake up, I guess.
"Who's the guy?" I asked.
"Some dirty meth head over in Kensington. Robbed one of our people in broad daylight and broke his leg with a pipe or some shit. Nearly beat him to death, but some locals chased him off."
I shook my head. It was pretty bad when our people were getting beatdowns from drug addicts.
"When?"
"Tonight."
I cursed and glanced back at Drake's.
"That a problem?" Max pressed.
"No, it's not a fucking problem."
"Good. Tom should be here with his van in a minute. We'll drop you close to where the guy's staying and leave you with a piece. You do it, you ditch the gun in a drain, and you lay low for a few days. Got it?"
"I know how it goes," I grunted.
Before Max could give me more bullshit, a white van pulled around the corner and slowed to a stop in front of us. Max pulled open the back door and climbed in, looking back out at me. I hesitated, knowing full well what it meant if I got in that car. It meant I was going to kill a man, probably a deserving, violent asshole, but a human nonetheless. I was going to pull the trigger to defend my people.