"I'll invite you to my place too, but the warehouse isn't all that interesting."
"The warehouse?"
"Yeah, Shane decided to convert an old warehouse. It's a safety thing I guess. It's a huge, open space."
A phone started ringing. Well, not ringing exactly. Her ringtone was a seventies porn theme: bow chicka bow wooooow.
"That'd be the girls. Probably mine," she specified, jumping up to fumble for her purse. "The actual babysitters are likely tied up and duct taped."
With that, she moved off to the kitchen to take the call and Lea tapped my leg with her foot. "You alright?" she asked, brow raised.
I nodded at that. "Yeah."
"I know this is a lot."
"I know I should feel that way, but I'm alright. You guys, actually everyone I've met from Ryan's family, has made it easy. I don't know. You guys aren't like my old friends or family... you just... go with the flow."
Lea smiled at that. "The Mallick family is an interesting group of people. They're all crazy and intense and unique, but for them... nothing is more important than family. So if Ry is serious about you and this is going somewhere, then you will be family too and they are going to accept you like you are. Actually, Helen is itching to get to know you."
"Ryan's mother?" I asked, thinking of the stories he had told me about her.
"Yeah, she likes unique characters. Fee with her twisted past and phone sex. I work part-time in the phone sex thing and my biker background. And then there's you with your agoraphobia."
"I think my thing is a lot less interesting than your things."
"Maybe," she agreed with a shrug. "But I think Helen's thing has less to do with how nuts our stories are and more to do with how well our stories work for her sons. Ryan has always liked sweet, nice, normal girls. Like when I first met Ryan he brought a date to Helen's dinner and she was just too sweet and too good and when Helen told her that Ryan is an enforcer, she booked it. So I think she likes that he found a girl that is his style but isn't scared away by the lifestyle."
"Well, I hope she..."
"Oh, no!" she cut me off, reaching out to touch my arm. "No. I didn't mean it to sound like she would be judging you or anything. She just wants to meet the girl who finally got Ryan to get serious. She and Charlie want more grand babies. So if you could get serious fast, I'd appreciate it because since Fee declared she's done popping them out, they're up Shane and my ass about making babies."
I laughed at that. "Well, I will do my best," I agreed with a smile.
"That's all I'm asking," she said, dramatically as Fee sighed.
"Alright, I have to go save the girls. I think they have gone gray with my hellions. And since Lea drove in with me..."
"It was really nice getting to know you guys," I said, meaning it. "And thank you so much for all the supplies. That was really sweet."
"Don't mention it," Lea said.
"Oh, wait, I forgot something," Fee said at the same time, going to her purse and digging in. And then she pulled out the biggest box of condoms I had ever seen. "The only good sex is safe sex, so until you feel comfortable enough to hit a clinic again, keep yourself from getting knocked up with these. I have a limitless supply."
"I heard of the fishbowls," I agreed, as she dropped it with the rest of the things. "Thank you," I added as we all moved as a unit to the door and said our goodbyes.
I was in the middle of unpacking the bags, going over the conversation of the past few hours in my head. And then it occurred to me.
The look Lea and Fee had shared at one point.
The fact that Ryan and his brothers all had to go out together.
The way most of the day lapsed without me realizing.
"That bastard," I declared to the empty apartment.
Fee and Lea weren't there to girly bond with me.
They were there as a distraction.
Because he was doing something with his brothers. And I got the strong, almost overwhelming feeling that what he was doing involved my and Bry's problems.
But before I could focus too much on that, the low, soothing sound of my ringtone called to me from the bag where Ryan had stashed our electronics beside the fireplace.
Thinking maybe it was him, perhaps too excited and relieved at the prospect, I ran across the room and grabbed it before it finished ringing.
"Hello?"
"Miss McRae?" an unfamiliar male voice said instead, something about the cadence of his voice immediately making me stiffen.
"Yes," I said, my heart already slamming in my chest. I knew. I knew without knowing that something was wrong.
"Miss McRae you are listed as the emergency contact for a Bry Hardy."
Bry.
Emergency contact.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice a strained whisper.
"Mr. Hardy was brought in with a gunshot..."
I didn't hear the rest.
I didn't need to.
And, unlike the time in my apartment when only my life was at stake, I didn't freeze. I didn't panic. I ran across the room and found my shoes, grabbed a sweater that had been in one of the bags, ripping off the tags as I ran out the door.
All I could think of as I rode down the elevator and exploded into the outside willingly for the first time in years was that he had always, always been there for me. No matter what, he stood by me.
I was going to be by his side when he needed me too.
Except, I wasn't Bry's emergency contact.
And the hospital didn't really call me.
And the shit was about to hit the fan.
FIFTEEN
Ryan
"You need to take a breath," Shane told me as we all climbed into the car together. "She'll be fine with Lea and Fee. And you know we have to do this."
This meaning we had to handle her situation.
We couldn't just sit and hideout at the fucking residence. That was no way to start a relationship. We needed to give it a fair chance in my apartment where she could settle in and get comfortable and feel like she could branch out.
So that meant me and my brothers were on the way to Chaz's to have a meeting with our father and see what we all thought the best move was.
Quite frankly, I hadn't given the whole situation as much thought as the severity of it demanded.
Though, considering that was because I had been having my hands, mouth, and tongue all over Dusty and, finally, my cock inside of her, I wasn't exactly pissed at myself about it.
What mattered was she was safe. No one could get past the residence desk if they weren't a resident. And even if you could do so, there was only one elevator to the two penthouse apartments and the only way to access them was with a key. Each member of my family had a key to the elevator and door.
The other penthouse resident, Ross Ward, was the only other person with a key to the elevator. He didn't let anyone come anywhere near his place so he was no concern. Actually, if anything, having him across the hall when the girls were there alone was another form of protection. He might have minded his own business the majority of the time, but he wouldn't sit on his hands if he heard something amiss across the hall.
They were safe.
She was safe.
But it was temporary.
She would never be fully safe until we handled the situation once and for all.
If the Dom guy was as big a deal as he seemed like, it wasn't going to be easy.
"Alright," Hunt said, pushing a file across the table we sat at, Chaz's closed until dinner time. "Dom Donovan. Drug dealer. Rapist. Murderer. General shithead," he said, sighing. "Bry got himself attached to a real gem."
"Alright," my Pops said, leaning back in his chair. "Really, there are two choices here. We take a trip to Camden and try to talk to Dom, businessmen to shithead businessman. But, to be honest, I don't see how that is going to help. He seems like the kind of bastard who will take our money and deal and then shoot us in the back on our way out."
"I can't say I don't agree with that," I said, nodding. "Bry isn't some hardened criminal, but he seems like he's been hustling his whole life. He's likely been involved with several dealers over the years so he knows dirtbags, but he is scared of Dom. He heard me tell him to get off the street and he fucking ran. Literally. While on the phone with me."
"You saw the picture," Eli added, body stiff, ready to spring into action, wanting blood. "If they'd do that to a woman..."
"Exactly," Pops said, nodding.
"So the other option?" Shane prompted, calmer than you would generally expect to find him. He was usually extroverted, loud, crazy. Since the shit went down with Lea's ex, he had a certain seriousness toward work situations that he hadn't had before.
Pops shrugged. "We have someone else handle it for us."
Right.
Navesink Bank managed to be the odd cesspool of crime it did because everyone knew their place. Everyone had their niche. The Henchmen MC ran their guns. The Grassis ran their docks. We illegally loaned money. Ross Ward had his underground fighting. Breaker was hired muscle. Shooter was a killer. V and Lex Keith were the shittiest of shitheads and dealt in skin and other deplorable acts. Hailstorm did... whatever the fuck Hailstorm did.
As for drugs, well, we had two main players- Richard Lyon had his highbrow cocaine which he supplied, mostly, to businessmen who needed a jump. Then there was Third Street who had their heroin and other lower-end street drugs.