Feathers and Thorne Series Books 1 - 3: The Complete Collection

Chapter Nine

Carter

I grab the stranger by the collar of his shirt, pushing his back against the foyer wall and pinning him there for safekeeping. Isabella is frozen in a panic on the stairs, watching the scene unfold.

“Dove, get my phone off the kitchen island and call Anita.”

She works quick to do as I say, this man’s eyes darting sideways while he watches her move. She’s wearing nothing but a towel, and it doesn’t do much to hide her stunning body. Her ass is nearly out when she reaches to grab my phone, and I move into his line of sight to prevent him from getting a glimpse.

His smile turns innocent. “Relax, Carter. I come in peace. Check me if you’d like. No weapons, wires, or otherwise.”

“I don’t need to check you,” I bite. “I’ll just have you killed for coming over here, whether you’re related to Lacey or not. You better hope you’re not. It won’t end well for you.”

Isabella speaks in a panicked whisper, my eyes catching the sight of my family spilling out of Anita’s house and crossing the lawn to get here. I’m even more thankful that I bought this house so close to my family’s hub, meaning that backup is only a few yards away.

I throw the stranger into Lorenzo’s chest, purely because he makes it through the front door first. A few other people manage to pin him down on the foyer floor, meaning I can shift my attention to Isabella in the kitchen. I take my phone from her, cradling the back of her head so I can let her lean forward into me.

I kiss her forehead, feeling her racing pulse, either from our sex downstairs or the new fear lacing through her body now. I want to calm her down, but my first concern is getting her out of sight… and fully dressed.

“Go upstairs and change. Don’t come down here, dove.” I release her, and she nods, but I take her arm and meet her eyes one last time. “I mean it. Stay up there, or we’re going to have a problem.”

She gives a more believable nod this time.

It’s not as though I don’t trust my little dove or that I enjoy punishing her more times in a day than I should in a week, but she’s very curious. She likes to be involved, and until she knows how to work a pistol and deal with some of these sadistic pricks in my line of work, then I need her to stay back.

Losing Isabella Julis would ruin me.

When she’s through the hall upstairs, and I’m sure she can’t hear the scuffle down here, I stand over the wiggling rat on my foyer floor. He is the spitting image of Jacob Lacey, which just makes my trigger finger too damn happy.

Lorenzo hands me his gun, and I’m thankful that he can read my mind, the barrel lining up to this prick’s chest while I consider how fast I want him to bleed out compared to how fast I want him to die.

“Give me a moment to explain,” he says, oddly calm for a dead man. “I’m not here to cause problems. I came alone and unarmed. Just give me the opportunity to explain.”

“A Lacey doesn’t get to explain,” I snarl. “You’re lucky you still have a tongue right now.”

He nods as if agreeing with me. His fucking gall is unbelievable, I’ll give him that, but it’s also increasingly annoying.

“What the fuck do you want, then?” I snap, needing to know what he’s thinking.

“Can I get off the floor to explain, at least?”

I give Lorenzo a careful nod, and he lets the man up off the ground. When he’s standing, I have someone check his pockets and look for a weapon, wire—anything to give me an excuse to stain my new tile floors. He comes out clean, though, so I tuck my gun into my waistband, and he sheds his jacket casually.

“Let me just say, I’m not a Lacey,” he says first, following me to the kitchen, where I pour myself a whiskey. Giving him a skeptical look, he continues in his explanation. “I’m actually a Donahue. Rich Donahue.”

“Rich,” I repeat between gulps of bitter liquor. “No doubt named by a Lacey, that’s for sure.”

“My father was William,” he explains. “I believe you two met.”

I give my family a careful look, and they make a short trip to the door. Lorenzo stays. Aunt Anita rushes inside the house with a curling iron in her hand. I roll my eyes at her determination, making her reputation as a firecracker in this family a bit comical. Her hair is half undone, but she looks at me like she’s carrying a shotgun, ready to go to war.

“Isabella is upstairs,” I say. “Do you mind?”

She hurries up the stairs, and I’m at least happy that Anita will keep my lover occupied. I’m a bit surprised that my meek aunt was ready to fight with a hot, unplugged curling iron, but I give her credit all the same. Blackthornes are resourceful, after all.

“You have a very peculiar family,” Rich says, watching everyone but Lorenzo leave my new, now-nearly empty home. “How’d they get here so fast?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me why you’re here.”

“I just want to talk.”

“Then fucking talk,” I say. I empty my first glass and consider having another. “Why are you wasting my time, prick?”

He runs his fingers backward through his brown, short hair. “I’ve come to make amends for my family. Well, I guess that’s a bit complicated to understand. I’m a Donahue, my mother’s son. Jacob Lacey, he was my father’s son. They took us separately at birth. My mother decided to divorce William in the middle of her pregnancy, and she chose me. Jacob left with my father.”

“And now you’re on my porch with a death wish,” I hum. “Get to the point quickly, or I’ll have to christen this new house sooner than I anticipated.”

He waves his hands between us, a little boyish in his movements, like he’s not nearly out of his adolescence yet. “I don’t need you to baptize your home in my blood. It wouldn’t be that fun; trust me, I’m anemic. You’ll just end up with a watery version of red on your floors. Horrible for the grout.”

“Get to the fucking point!”

His eyes widen. “I can see the bridge between our families has certainly been burned. I didn’t know about that at all. I’m here as an ally, or a prospective one, at that. My brother and father died, which means everything in their name funnels to my mother. She’s sick right now, terminally, and I’m her power of attorney now. Everything she has comes to me now. Hence—”

“You’re the new Lacey boss,” I cut in.

“Exactly.”

My fingers stroke the handle of my pistol. “Not looking good for you, Rich.”

His eyes follow my movements with precision. “Look, if you kill me, you’ll just end up with my third cousin Bernie. He’s a dumbass. Trust me, you’re better off dealing with me. I don’t want anything to do with guns, drugs, casinos, or strippers. I don’t care what you’re working with, Carter. I just want to make things right between our families.”

My brows hike, and I look to Lorenzo to make sure I’m not going crazy. “He wants to be friends.”

“I don’t think he knows what he’s in for,” Lorenzo taunts.

“Certainly not.”

“Listen, I understand the hilarity in this moment. I do,” Rich says, begging for the benefit of the doubt. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m trying to offer you an opportunity here.” He straightens out his shirt before methodically rubbing the wrinkles out of his coat that lies on the back of the chair. “I have a piece of property that might interest you.”

“I already have the downtown development,” I snarl. “Bought it cheap in an auction after the owners mysteriously wound up dead in their mansion.”

“Funny how that happens,” Rich adds, still trying to break the tension here.

“Well, congratulations on that property. It’s a hotspot, for sure. But it’s not the one that I’m referring to. This is one that was passed down from William’s name to my mother’s—and it has inevitably fallen into my lap. It’s a section of the docks.”

I pour myself another crystal glass of whiskey. “Go on.”

“It’s a building my brother was going to dedicate to international trade. It includes four docks, each of them large enough for freight liners. I’d like to offer you the chance to lease the place out while still providing funding to complete the project with our crews.”

It takes everything in my fucking willpower not to burst out in hysterical laughter right now. “Okay. Let me clear this up right now,” I snicker. “You want my family to pay your broken, scattered little remains of a family that you claim no loyalty to as a Donahue to fix a project that Jacob was working on and then make me pay to lease the property after just paying to build it?”

He looks up through his eyelashes as if tracing the plans in the air. “Yes, that’s right.”

“This guy is a joke,” Lorenzo groans, leaning on the kitchen island. “Want me to take him out of here, boss?”

“No,” I say, sipping on my whiskey, the heat of the alcohol starting to burn the base of my throat. “I’m actually enjoying the entertainment. I wish I had popcorn.”

Rich chuckles lightly, his smile crooked just like his filthy brother’s. It brings me back to the moment I saw Jacob Lacey pinning Isabella against his desk. It was the first time I had met either of them, and she looked so terrified while he was smiling.

Planning on ravaging my precious dove, he was fucking smiling at the prospect of her fear and pain.

I pull my pistol out, my trigger finger twitching. Everyone notices it, and it brings a stiffness to Rich’s back. He holds his hands up near his shoulders, watching my gun while I rest it sideways on my kitchen island. When it looks like he’s finally serious about talking again, I give him the opportunity.

“I’m not here to offend,” Rich reassures. “I’m here to offer you a business opportunity. That’s all. I would pay to have the project completed and just sell it myself, but I’m reaching out in an act of peace here. Besides, most of the money that came from my brother and my father is going to my mother’s debts and her medical expenses.”

“Surely they had a few million,” I counter.

“Not even close. Most of the money went to trying to pay off everyone they owed money to. That included taxes that they had been avoiding for years. I ended up paying the government more money than my mother will ever see.”

“Okay, so I pay to have the project finished. Your family of construction crooks finishes the job, and then you lease the building and the docks to me?” I shake my head, wishing I knew how this man had enough guts to come to this horrible idea. “It’s not that I’m saying you’re a jackass, but you’re acting like one.”

“Totally understandable,” he says.

Why does it seem like for everything I fire at him, he has a way of deflecting the bullet and letting the shell casing roll off his shoulder? I can’t pin his charm on work now, but it’s so odd, and weirdly enough, he’s confident about it.

“If you lease the property, then you’ll have full access to the docks. With those, I’m sure you can take your operation to the next level. You ship things in all the time, right? And don’t you ship out goods for guns and whatnot?”

“Perhaps,” I say coyly enough. “What do you want out of it, though?”

“I just need the lease money to keep my mother on treatments as long as possible. The construction fees are to help my family finish the project. If it falls through, a lot of my distant relatives will be stranded without a paycheck.”

“This is the same family that attacked me and my family, right?”

He nods solemnly. “If it makes any difference, I did get rid of those who were closest to Jacob Lacey.”

“The Donahue and Lacey clans are coming clean? Doubtful.”

“If it helps, I’ll show you receipts for where the money would be going. My mother, she’s my everything. I’m trying to keep her well enough to watch the Donahue name rise to some level of respect. Being associated with the Lacey family has ended with us dragged through the mud enough.”

“You also put my family through hell,” I snarl, the gun feeling heavy in my hand, even with it resting on the counter in front of me. “Why would I want to work with you?”

His eyes flicker to the stairs, something small catching my eye as well. I turn enough to see Isabella nearing the top of the stairs as Anita tries to pull her back, but she’s unsuccessful. I growl slightly, slipping my gun into the back of my waistband. She hurries down the stairs, stopping a few feet away from Rich.

Her eyes trail over his features, the same ones that resemble Jacob’s far too closely for comfort. Anita isn’t far behind, giving me a pleading look. She heads for the front door, leaving this meeting with a slam of the front door.

“Bella,” I breathe, watching her snap out of the trance that she’s in. “Go upstairs, dove. Please.”

She gives me a pleading look, eventually stepping around Rich so she can come to my side. “I got scared,” she whispers, kissing my cheek. “I didn’t hear a gunshot.”

“He’s trying to convince me to spare him.”

“Are you going to?”

I bring my lips to her ear, her body twitching when my bare chest hits her loose blouse and tight shorts. “If you don’t go upstairs right now, I’m going to take you back down to that hot tub, dove.”

I can hear her swallow. “I want to help.”

Her hands run over the impressions of my abdomen. She’s trying to soften me up, and weirdly enough, it’s working. I kiss the tip of her ear and wrap my arm firmly around her waistline. After the conversation she was having with Sam earlier, the one that accused me of being a cheater, I suppose she just needs to feel involved and not in the dark.

I’m happy to accept that for now.

“He wants the Blackthorne family to pay for the completion of a dock project for the Laceys,” I explain. “If we pay for the job to be done and then lease the building, we can use the docks, which means we might be able to skate around marina fees and having to bribe the inventory police.”

Her lips pull to the side. “The dock project where we met?”

My stomach aches with that unfortunate realization. “Oh, I suppose so, dove. That is the one you were working on before, wasn’t it?”

She nods slowly, and I take her mind off the trouble of it all. I tuck her hair back behind her ear, and she leans into my warmth.

“What do you think, Ms. Architect?”

“I didn’t finish my degree, Carter. I’m not an architect.”

“I still trust your judgment, dove.”

She stands a bit taller with that assurance. “It’s a nice piece of property. There’s nothing like it on the docks. There’s even a basement in the project. It’s pretty deep, lots of storage.”

“Sounds like you’re on board.”

Her eyes flicker to Rich, a certain unease on her precious features. I aim to relax her, but the best way I know how to do that is better suited when not so many people are around. For now, I pull her closer and let my hand take hold of her ass. She goes tight, her cheeks striking red.

“I think you might have a deal then, Donahue,” I breathe. “I need to go out there to see how much needs to be done to it first, just for my own curiosity.”

“That’s fine. All the equipment and workers have been sidelined for now, so you’ll be alone out there if you want to give yourself a tour. It’s still pretty rough, so I wouldn’t go to the top floor, but the others will be fine to climb and explore.”

I lean forward, my seductive growl purring in Isabella’s ear. “Go get some shoes on, dove. I’ll be upstairs soon to grab a shirt.”

She hesitates, obviously not keen on leaving my side. I knew she was stubborn before, but the chaos with Jacob Lacey has only exacerbated that. I can’t be sure why she thinks that she is going to protect me from Rich or the Donahue and Lacey families or what she’s even trying to prevent in the first place.

It could be her lack of trust in me when it came to Lilian, but she doesn’t know that whore yet. I’m just thankful that I’ve managed to postpone that trouble for a while. She will be back, though.

I have to protect Isabella at all costs.

“Fine.” I surrender, kissing her forehead. “Lorenzo, show Mr. Donahue out, please. And get Ernesto to bring the car around. We’re going out tonight to check out this project.”

“You got it, boss.”

Rich stops, taking a long step forward with his hand outstretched. I take it as a courtesy, and he leaves his hand out, motioning toward Isabella next. She stares at him tentatively, unsure what she wants to do with his hand right now. He’s the spitting image of Jacob Lacey, and she’s hardly over that ordeal.

“I’m so sorry for the pain my father and brother have caused you, ma’am,” he says, his smile innocent enough, even for someone related to a Lacey rat. “If you’d accept this as a peace offering, it will mean the world to me and my family.”

“I just don’t want any more trouble,” she whispers. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

His smile sprouts even more than before. “We have the same goals.”

“Good,” she says at last, taking his hand gently.

Something passes between them, and I don’t know if it’s his bloodline being so close to a Lacey that it just makes me uncomfortable or if it’s the simple fact that they have this wordless, gentle passing of emotion right in front of me. Either way, it’s frustrating.

I pull Isabella back, and she sinks into my chest, both of us watching Rich leave with Lorenzo. When we’re alone, I spin her around to face me, my fingers pinching her chin.

“Let’s go see what this project is all about, dove.”

Her eyes light up with familiar fires. “Together, right?”

“Always.”