Honored_ An Alpha Mob Romance(50)

“Okay, so who’s this other guy?”

“His name is Boss de Barra. Frankly, he’s fucking terrifying.”

“I can’t imagine he’s any scarier than Colm or any of the other psychopaths you deal with.”

“He is, though. He runs out of north Philly, which isn’t exactly our typical home turf. He staked out some neighborhoods, cut a bunch of throats, and made it his own. People say he’s a complete nut, like crazier than the craziest guy in Colm’s entourage.”

“What do you mean, people say?”

“I’ve never met him.”

I stared. “You’ve never met him?”

“He doesn’t come down from his territory very often. It’s basically a little fortress he runs up there.”

“So let me understand this. You’re entrusting our lives to some crazy guy who lives way up in the north and barely ever comes down here?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“That’s insane.”

He nodded. “It’s a little insane.”

I groaned, shaking my head, and looked at the piles in front of us. Not only did we have nothing so far, but if we did find something, it was totally up in the air whether or not it could even help. Liam’s plan hinged on an insane guy, someone he had never even met.

Then again, at least it was better than nothing.

“I guess we should get back to work.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess we should.”

I grabbed another piece of paper and began to skim it. My eyes felt heavy and frustration was welling up in my chest, but I forced myself to keep going forward. I had to keep going forward. I felt Liam watch me for a minute or two, and then he turned back to his own pages, getting back to the hunt.

The sun was coming up by the time we finished.

“Fuck,” Liam said, slamming his fist down on the windowsill.

I looked at the papers scattered all across the room once again. We had read and reread and checked each other’s stacks at least five times. I was exhausted and my limbs were heavy and I felt like I was about to fall over from fatigue.

And we had nothing. At least nothing that Liam didn’t already know. There were no new leads, no new incriminating records, nothing.

“Fuck,” he said again, looking out over the neighborhood.

I felt nothing. I felt hollowed out and empty. It felt like too much effort to work up the energy to be pissed off. I should have been livid and terrified. We had just spent hours working through a bunch of useless papers, trying to find something that could save our lives. Liam had risked a lot even getting the papers in the first place. But there we were, back to square fucking one, with a bunch of pissed-off murderers scouring the city for us and nothing that could save our lives.

I should have been screaming. Instead, I just felt like taking a quick nap.

Liam had his head in his hands, rubbing at his eyes.

“What now?” I asked, not really caring what the answer was.

“We need more.”

“What do you mean, more?”

“We need more documents. More papers and shit.”

I groaned. “Liam, all the paper in the world won’t save us.”

“No, you’re wrong. I know the fucker did it, I know he was stealing. And he was smart enough to keep the real shit off these books. But I know he has to have some records of it.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Let’s assume he has some. How are you going to get it? Short of breaking into his hideout, or whatever you Mob guys use, and stealing it?”

He turned and gaped at me for a second. I made a face at him.

“What?” I said.

“You’re brilliant.”

“I think you just lost your mind.”

He walked over to me, dropped to his knees, and practically fell on top of me. He was laughing, and he pinned me down to the floor. Excitement jolted through me at his touch, though I was pretty sure he had completely cracked. Before I could speak, he pressed his mouth against mine and kissed me deeply.

I didn’t care if he was going nuts. I savored his kiss and returned it greedily. I wanted as much of him as I could get before we were both killed, or whatever was going to happen.

He pulled away and grinned down at me.

“I have a plan,” he said.

“Go ahead and share.”

He rolled off me, and I sat up, supporting myself on my right elbow.

“I’m going to rob the bastard.”

I blinked at him. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah, I can do that. I’m a master burglar.”

“So you’ll just rob the boss’s hideout?”

“His pub. I’ll rob his pub. If he has more financial stuff, or a second set of books, it’ll be in there, probably in a safe somewhere. I’ll break in late tonight and steal whatever he has.”