see it being a problem.
Armed guards stepped outside, but their weapons remained strapped across their backs. Not a threat, more a reminder we weren't the only ones with weapons. Lino and Georgio climbed out of the SUV that Simon had vacated, stern looks on their face as they prepared for the shit show we were about to walk into.
There would never be any certainty when walking into a man's house to tell him his successor had been trafficking women behind his back. Building up a business that Liam wouldn't endorse, with little care for how it affected the old man.
It didn't matter, since Tiernan’d had plans to kill Liam as soon as Liam’s daughter, Aoife, was his wife. We had evidence of that, too, courtesy of Ryker getting text messages off a burner phone from his latest victim.
The devil himself stepped out of the front SUV, his face etched in hard lines. He’d worn a suit for the meeting, but that couldn’t contain the reality of what Ryker was. Matteo’s Executioner, who lived for blood and pain. He favored his hatchet when the time came to put someone out of his misery. Yavin came out the other side, along with a few more of our guys climbing out of the backseat. Bryan's eyes met mine, and even though I liked the guy plenty, it made my trigger finger twitch every time I looked at him now. The knowledge that he almost spent all his time with Sadie. That he'd almost been her guard, and if it hadn't been for her being difficult, he could have been the one who slipped between her thighs in that boxing ring, had she allowed it.
Brotherhood had always come first for me. Women never came close to competing with that.
But for Sadie, I might have had to kill the fucker.
That didn't sit right with me. Threatened everything I thought I knew about myself, another symptom of the change Sadie inspired in me from the moment I first saw her.
I led the way, nodding my head for Bryan to join me at the front of the pack as we made our way up the steps and greeted Liam's men. "He's waiting in his office," one of them said, his face remaining expressionless as he turned on his heel with military precision and made to guide us into the elegant home.
The interior of the Bellandi estate had been professionally decorated, and Ivory had taken over a year to put her stamp on the space before erasing that cold feeling that dominated the home Matteo grew up in. Liam's estate lacked that chill. Traces of a woman's personal touch were littered throughout, with little decorations and photos everywhere the moment we stepped inside. I briefly wondered if it had been his wife's doing before she died, or if Aoife had put her stamp on the home she'd be forced to leave soon if we didn't intervene on her behalf.
Liam sat behind his desk, tapping his pen against it as he studied whatever paper was in front of him. His man knocked on the door frame, announcing our arrival as I moved into the office. I studied all the exits, the windows at his back and the French doors leading to the backyard. Positioning myself between Liam and those doors with my back to the rear wall, I widened my stance to be comfortable, and watched. Liam stood once he caught sight of Matteo, moving around the desk to greet him with a friendly smile. The wrinkles around his eyes crinkled with the force of it, the grey hair at his temples marking how much he'd aged since the last time I attended a meeting between the two men. It hadn't even been a year, and yet the physical signs of the growing split in his syndicate were tangible in the lines of his face.
"Liam," Matteo greeted, smiling tightly. It was as close to a friendly smile as he managed when he wasn't solely with the closest members of his inner circle.
"Matteo. What was so urgent, my boy?" he asked, stepping back around his desk. After gesturing for Matteo and Lino to take their seats, he steepled his hands and watched while Ryker handed Matteo the file he held in his grip. Matteo didn't waste any precious time stalling with the news that he knew would likely rock Liam's world. He dropped the folder on top of Liam's desk, and the Irish man sighed before leaning forward and rapping