RONAN It’s been five years since I’ve seen him. Somehow, that smile is enough to remind me of my mother. She had the same deep brown eyes that brightened or dimmed depending on how she felt. For years after she died, it made me wonder how we had missed the signs. How could we not see she was in pain? How much did she have to go through to hide it from us? Uncle Abel looks away from us and turns to the men behind him who I only just notice. “Would you look at that? My favorite nephews have finally graced me with their presence.” He points at us as his laughter echoes through the dimly lit room. “Today cannot get any better, I tell you.” It’s almost ten pm, but that’s besides the point. I take his gesture as an invitation to come forward. My brothers and Kevin follow me behind. “We’re your only nephews.” I reply with a bold smile of my own. As bold as I can muster. Even as a grown man, his presence still gives me an odd feeling down my spine. He nods, eyes laser focused on no one else but me. “Indeed.” Slowly, he looks away from me. “Little Kev. It’s good to see you’re still alive,” he examines Kevin with the same scrutiny he always had when we were younger. “You don’t look so good.” Kevin lowers his gaze to avoid my uncle’s. That’s his first mistake. Uncle Abel always believed we had no business being friends with him. He liked to call Kevin a dumpling. Soft on the inside and the outside. “He doesn’t have what it takes.” He would always say. Five years later, Kevin continues to give the man more reasons to see him as weak. Which sucks, of course, because we know he’s anything but. The older man gestures to the chairs all over the room. “Have a seat boys. Make yourselves at home.” My attention shifts downward to the bleeding man on the ground. He’s right in front of the seat I want to take. I wonder who he touched to deserve his finger being chopped off and used as an accessory. The only woman I know my uncle would kill for died fifteen years ago. He never cared for the mother of his son, our cousin. Frankly, they never cared for themselves. Last I heard, she was married to the native chief of some island, far away from my uncle. Uncle Abel orders his men to take the bleeding man away. I know he’s not nearly done with him yet. However, that’s none of my business. I settle into the lounge chair, while my brothers find their own seats. He remains quiet, as though he’s waiting for me to speak. I study his countenance for a short while. It’s important to know how to approach him. One wrong move, and we will have ourselves thrown out. He might be all smiles, but I know my uncle enough to know he’s very mad at us. The tension in the room is thick enough to be cut through with a knife. I clear my throat before speaking. “I am going to go straight to the point without wasting much of your time, uncle,” Behind him, a tall man lights the bottom of a cigar. My uncle stretches his left hand to receive it. He takes one long drag, and exhales the fumes through his nostrils. “We need your help.” His piercing stare locks onto me. “Five years,” he scoffs. “That’s how long I was in prison. You never cared to stop by, say hi to your dearest uncle. I’ve been out for what? Two weeks? And none of you bothered to send flowers.” Jaxon chuckles. Leave it to him to find humor in the worst of times. “You hate flowers, uncle.” Without turning to him, uncle Abel snarls. “That’s not the fucking point.” Silence falls on the room. He draws in another breath of smoke. “My point is, there wasn’t a single word from any of you. And now you’re here, seeking my help to clean whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into.” Malachi leans forward to speak. “When shit hits the fan, do whatever you can to keep yourself and your business safe. You taught us that, uncle. Getting involved with you would have brought the authorities to our doorstep. We couldn’t have that.” A proud look flashes in his eyes as he claps. We all stare at him in awe. It’s extremely difficult to know what he’s thinking, which is one of the reasons he’s the strangest man I’ve ever met. The only man on this earth I’m weary of. The smile disappears from his face in the blink of an eye, leaving me wondering if it was ever there. “And yet, you couldn’t deal with your failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.” He places the cigar on his golden ashtray and leans fully into his chair. “What is the thing you need my help with?” Relief floods my bones. I part my lips to speak, but Kevin beats me to it. He must be under a fucking spell. That’s the only reasonable explanation for why he’s on his knees, close to tears, and palms pressed together. I look away from him to my brothers who are seated beside him. Jaxon looks mortified, and Malachi gently rubs the left side of his head. He’s not the only one frustrated, I can tell you that for free. Our best friend has definitely forgotten how much cowering irritates our uncle. Uncle Abel’s face twists in disgust, but Abel doesn’t seem to give a fuck. “My sister has been kidnapped by their father,” Kevin pleads in a shaky voice. “I don’t know what vendetta he has against them, but they’re convinced you’re the only one who can help us.” The disgust on his face starts to fade away, leaving a confusion I recognize. He turns away from Kevin and narrows his eyes on Jaxon. “That’s impossible.” Jaxon heaved a sigh. “I wish it were. He resurfaced about two weeks ago, around the same time you got released. He came to us, asked us for some money…” Uncle raises his left brow. “And you boys just let him walk out the door?” It’s fucking silly now that I think about it. “We were…we were trying to do better.” I mutter the words loud enough for him to hear. “For who?” None of us reply. What can we possibly tell him? However, our lack of response is more than enough to tell him what he needs…wants to know. “I see.” He inches forward. “Love is a fool’s game. I raised you boys better than that.”“We’re not going to apologize for falling in love, uncle. But the damage is done. Like saw a weakness and he exploited it. I promised him he’ll be dead in four hours. You’re the only one who can make that possible.” I reply, looking him straight in the eyes so he knows I mean every fucking word that comes out of my mouth. I always do. And it works. In a matter of seconds, our uncle rises to his feet and takes his sweet time looking at all four of us before saying, “Follow me.” Now we’re talking. We follow him out of the room, to the dim hallway that stretches before us. The scent of his cigar and sandalwood clings to him like a second skin. It lingers in the air between us as we approach the elevator tucked at the end of the corridor. For a man his age, he is still remarkably tall. The doors part and we step inside. He doesn’t press a single button. The elevator knows just where to take us. When the doors open, it reveals the top floor where his office resides. We had only ever heard about this floor growing up. We never had the opportunity to see what it looked like, not even when we had our meetings with him. Uncle Abel walks ahead, his fingertips brush across the spines of his books until he stops at one. It’s a blue hardback with no title. Just a silver symbol etched along its edge. When he moves it, the entire bookshelf makes a hissing sound, before sliding away. Revealing the gigantic room in front us. I clench my jaw to stop it from dropping to the floor. I’m staring at a state of the art surveillance technology. Every single thing in this room has our HawkThorne logo on it. From the massive and high definition screens covering every inch of the front wall, full cinematic display spanning nearly floor to ceiling, to the laptops and monitors on the rows of curved desks that form a horseshoe around the main screen. Every worker seated behind a desk is a girl. “So,” Malachi says. “This is what you built with all the technology you had us smuggle for you.” He turns to uncle Abel. “Military grade?” I am personally too stunned to speak. We definitely came to the right place for help. He chuckles. “Better. The military wishes they had this shit.” He turns to me. “Have you been in any contact with him?” I manage to tear my gaze away from the magnificence in front of me, and nod. “Yes. He called us about an hour ago.” Why the fuck have I never thought of putting something like this together? “See if you can get through again. I have a thing or two to say to him,” a dangerously bright smile forms on his face. “He’s family after all.” He taps my shoulder with his right hand, and reaches for the girl in front of him with his left. She adjusts her glasses to meet his gaze. “Get me Barnes, will you?” She bows her head. In less than five minutes, Barnes comes in. Uncle Abel faces him. “Do you remember the men I tasked with taking care of my brother-in-law?” Barnes is hesitant, but he finally nods. “How could I forget, sir?” “I want both legs, two fingers—you know my preference, an eye, and a heart. Fresh and clean. Don’t fail me, Barnes.” My intestines tie themselves into a tight knot. I don’t even want to know what he plans on doing with those body parts. Once Barnes is gone, we get his attention again. “I’ll have his location pinned in one minute once you call him. After that, we will be able to follow him anywhere he fucking goes. I’ll have my girls surround him immediately…” “Thank you, uncle.” “But, I have one request.” “Anything and everything.” “You’ll hand his body over to me.” Malachi and Jaxon grumble just a little, while I reply to him. “We would have preferred to watch him burn and beg for his life, but we can sacrifice that pleasure for your help.” I take a long, deep, pleased breath. “You have my word.”$$