Page 25 of Reckless Seduction
Apparently, Dracula over there has a similar structure when it comes to females who serve under him. Even allowing them to become enforcers and hold leadership positions. We haven’t evolved that far yet. Women aren’t allowed near any type of enforcer positions, but they aren’t kept from the day-to-day dealings if that is what they want.
“What can you tell me about Eriksen’s relationship with the senator?” My father’s question drags me back to the conversation. He quietly orders a whiskey from one of the kitchen staff we employ on the housing level before turning back to Matthias.
The Russian wrinkles his nose like he’s caught a whiff of something sour. Dashkov and Eriksen aren’t enemies, but like us, prior to Ava, they aren’t friends either. Many people have a strong beef against my father in the underground, and Eriksenseems to be at the top of the list. What none of us can figure out is why. If he is working with the senator, it could spell disaster.
“I’ve heard about your problems with both of them,” Matthias admits, nodding a thanks to the maid who hands him his drink. “I haven’t personally had any dealings with the man, but my little bird tells me he’s been seen meeting with several of Richard Crowe’s men.”
“I thought Crowe wanted the biker gangs and mafiosos out of the city?” Ava asks. He and Elias would hold strategy meetings. I thought it was Elias trying to become more political, but since I learned Matthias had him under his thumb, it makes more sense that he was trying to push them out of the city.
“The things you paid attention to astound me,malyshka.” Matthias holds up her hand and kisses the back of it. Kiernan gags at the show of affection.
“Ouch,” he hisses, then glares at our sister. “Did you just kick me like a five-year-old?”
Ava sticks out her tongue at him. “Don’t act like one, then.”
I can’t help but laugh at their sibling antics. Even my father is smiling, his eyes darting between the two.
"What I wonder is why the arranged marriage with Knight?” Matthias wonders. “I heard rumors of it a few years ago, but not much since. It doesn’t seem to have a purpose, especially since Bailey isn’t the socialite her sister is. She doesn’t even carry Crowe’s last name. Besides a few random appearances here and there at social functions, she is practically a ghost. And why wait so long to get married? It would have been more prudent to marry them when she turned eighteen, and she’s nearly twenty-six now.”
“That does seem odd,” Kiernan agrees. “Knight has a huge amount of political capital, and if he backs Crowe in that election, he’s a shoo-in. Maybe that is why they waited. Stage the wedding right before the election. Voters would eat it up.”
“Crowe could have run for office years ago,” my father says. “Why wait?”
“It is unusual,” Matthias admits, tilting his head in agreement. “Maybe he is waiting for something.”
“Maybe she didn’t want to marry him.” Ava’s face twists, her nose wrinkling in distaste. If anyone has a reason to hate arranged marriages, it is Ava. Matthias forced her to marry him when he first took her as collateral against the man she thought was her father.
Our father had been livid when he found out but has since come to accept that despite how Matthias had forced Ava to marry him, she is safe with him, and for some off reason, she seems to care for the Russian potato.
Questionable taste, in my opinion.
“Bridgett says that Drew Knight has been trying to get out from under his father’s thumb,” Kiernan adds.
“That could have something to do with the delay,” Matthias muses. “Maybe he is against the marriage and is trying to figure out a way to get out of whatever contract his father had with Crowe. He would have to do it just right, though. Everyone knows that daddy dearest has a tight leash on his son’s finances.”
“Where did he get all the money to finance his startup, then?” Our father wonders.
Matthias shrugs. “I’m not sure,” he admits. “When we got into the security game, we looked into every aspect of his business but couldn’t place where he had gotten the cash to fund everything. He didn’t have any known investors in the first few years. No doubt people would have been too afraid to cross his father. But I do know that there was an influx in activity the past few weeks with Crowe. Eriksen has been meeting up with Crowe’s men, and over the past twenty-four hours, Magnus has been panicking about something.”
“Maybe because the arranged marriage he set up is about to come crumbling down,” I tell him, smirking.
Matthias’s forehead creases. “How would you know that?”
“Because I refuse to marry a cheating pig.”
NINE
The building isnothing short of awe-inspiring.
Nan leads me down the hallway toward the elevator, filling the silence with idle chatter about the structure. The building was built in the late eighteen hundreds by Kane O’Connell, Seattle’s first Irish mob boss. It was continually added on to until the end of the O’Connell mob in the late 1950s. It lay vacant until Nan’s husband, Finn Kavanaugh, took claim over it when he moved from Boston in the nineties.
“There are seven floors, plus the parking garage,” Nan rambles as we step into the elevator. I wonder if she is aware of how much the chatter helps my nerves and racing pulse. “The ground floor is made up mostly of the McDonough’s bar. The second floor is the family area. Living room, kitchen, and the like. The third and fourth floors are the residential suites for the main family. The fourth floor belongs to Liam, and only his print can open it. The final floors house the soldiers without anywhere to go.”
“The whole family lives in this one building?”
That is a lot of people all living under the same roof, constantly underfoot. Liam Kavanaugh has two more sons anda daughter, and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have everyone home at the same time.
Nan laughs. “Jaysus, no.” She smiles at me through the reflective mirror of the doors. “Liam and his wife have a house near Greenlake, and the young’uns reside in Ireland for the time being. The twins have an apartment somewhere. God knows where. The two of them move more often than a plow sowing a field.”
