2

CAMDEN

All I wanted to do was get out of there.

As much as I enjoyed lilting jazz music and glasses brimming with vintage Dom Perignon, my father’s party was the last place I wanted to be.

‘Bide your time, lad,’ my father muttered at me as I looked again toward the exits, ever alert when McGowans were around. So far, only Erik had arrived. The middle son of the McGowan clan, and probably the most laid back from what I’d seen.

He’d gone to the exclusive finishing school, St Guinevere’s, that anyone with money attended. He’d been in my year, but we spent our time with much different circles. Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay was an idiot. We had money in spades. And money bought influence. The McGowans had money too, but nowhere near to the extent that Father did.

‘Do you really need the girl?’ I asked, keeping my eyes moving through the packed room. Everyone who was anyone was there.

‘Yes.’ Father’s stare fixed on me. ‘Malcolm

McGowan promise me a wife, and a wife I will have.’

‘You hate the McGowans.’ Why he wanted to be attached to one was beyond me.

‘All the more reason to have them in my pocket. I’ve spent years eroding their influence in Scotland and I finally have them where I need them. Controllable. Bedding the bitch is merely icing on the cake.’

I clenched my fist at my side and took a slow, steading breath through my nose. I’d seen what happened to my father’s women ,and however much I hated the McGowan’s, I couldn’t help but feel for what Maddie was going to be put through. I had enough scars to know how it felt first hand under my father’s ire, and that was without his dick being involved. He had destroyed my mother, and countless others since she fled.

‘There are surely other means to control them.’

‘You’re not feeling bad for the bitch, are you? The whole family is fucking scum and you know it. If her sister hadn’t run off and shown me up in front of my business associates, she wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s their fault. An agreement is an agreement.’ Father knocked on the elaborate mahogany bar and the barman instantly sloshed a large dram of whisky into his empty glass.

‘I don’t give a shit about her. I just don’t think we need a wedding to control them. We don’t want scum in our family. There are plenty of others with eligible daughters and sons.’ Not that I wanted to marry anyone anytime soon. A quick fuck with a willing woman was enough to sate my urges with no ties. The last thing I needed was another person at home trying to control me.

‘My word is final, Cam. As well you know.’ Father took a hearty swig of his whisky before a slick grin crossed his face. ‘Speak of the devil and here she comes.’

Maddie wasn’t just a girl anymore, like she’d been the last time I’d seen her a few years previously. She was a knockout. I’d expected her to slink through the door behind her brothers, terrified to face my father, but she walked into the room with her chin high and her brothers walking a few paces behind her. The scarlet dress she wore cut almost to her navel, revealing an expanse of tanned skin. Her hair shone in dark curls about her shoulders and she wore a look of utter domination on her face.

I stole a glance at my father. He surely hadn’t expected this? She had no right to look like the cat who got the fucking cream. Father was practically salivating at the chops, a dark expression of want dogging his wrinkling features.

‘She’s showing us up.’

‘No, she’s come to play. Who knew the little wallflower had it in her?’ Father stood straighter as the crowd made way for the McGowans, more than one pair of eyes glued to Maddie as she passed.

A wave of anger flushed through me as they neared. My father had hospitalised their dad. The wars between our families had led to two McGowan deaths, and they had shit on their agreement with us. They should quake in their fucking boots. Or stilettos. But Maddie’s legs, her shapely, tanned legs, were not quivering in the slightest.

‘Good Evening Harry, Camden, thank you for the invite to your little gathering.’ My father’s shoulders tensed as her honeyed words greeted us. She may as well have kicked him. He loved to show off his wealth, and the glittering ball room decked with thousands of pounds worth of flowers, and thousands more worth of delicate morsels and bubbling champagne, was a direct display on his behalf. She tore it down with one seemingly pleasant sentence. She must have had a death wish.

‘Maddie,’ he said, taking her hand and placing his lips against the back of it, ‘What a pleasure to see you. The men in your family seem to keep you out of the limelight. And I’m not surprised. It’s a wonder someone hasn’t snatched you up already.’

On the surface she seemed to maintain her composure, but as Father had kissed her hand, she’d briefly flicked her eyes to her eldest brother, Landon, for reassurance. Maybe she wasn’t as self assured as she wanted us to believe. Was she playing a game? I checked the positions of my men, and spied one of her other brothers, Mac, near the exit. Why wasn’t he up there with the rest of the McGowans?

‘Oh, I’m not so easily snatched,’ Maddie said. ‘A woman likes to be wooed.’

My father dropped her hand, which she quietly wiped against the side of her dress. Not that Father noticed with his eyes glued to her tits.

‘Enjoy the party, and we’ll see if we can usher in a new era for the Kings and McGowans. Cam and I have some business to attend to.’

‘We’d be delighted to make some friends.’ Maddie slipped her arms through Erik and Landon’s and smiled.

‘Come find me later, Landon, and we can discuss you rectifying Esther’s mistakes.’

Landon’s shoulders tensed as he nodded before heading into the crowds.

‘We are going to have to act faster than intended, Cam. Go take the youngest McGowan lad.’

I raised my eyebrows, ‘Take Mac? Why?’

‘Do you see the way people are looking at them? Not just Maddie, but the lads too? They know that there is fresh blood at the helm of their ship. Young, fiery blood. They’ll be sizing up the McGowans and deciding whether they need to make new alliances. And we need to crush any chances of that.’

‘By taking Mac?’

‘By forcing their hand until we can keep them in check.’ Father’s fingers tightened around his glass as the barman shifted nervously behind us.

Mac lingered at the edge of the room, looking like someone pissed on his chips. You’d think we had invited him to a wake, not a party. I needed to get him outside if I was going to steal him away without being seen. Thankfully, he was a smoker, and smokers smoked even more when agitated.

I stole outside into the chilling evening as the warm day turned into a cool night. The back entrance led to a dingy back alley between the historic buildings of Glasgow’s centre, a towering sea of grey and brown. The front of the hotels and shops were littered with modern accoutrements, sparking lights and glossy signs, but the back was as dank as ever. Much like the organised crime world, really. On the front, our businesses were good, tax paying, legitimate and clean, but beneath the surface it was a sea of illegality, violence and bribery.

It wasn’t long before Mac lurched into the alleyway and leaned back heavily against the stone wall, taking a cigarette from his pack and taking a deep drag on it. From the three attempts to light the thing, and the way he dropped his pack when he tried to put it back in his pocket, he’d already had one too many champagnes. Should be an easy enough job.

Costa and Tommy, two of my more trusted guys, already waited where the alley met the road with an idling van ready for me to drag Mac’s sorry arse into. All that left was incapacitating him without drawing too much attention.

I bided my time, waiting for him to finish his smoke, watching as his shoulders relaxed and his eyes drooped slightly. Attacking when someone was on their highest guard was foolish. Waiting until they believed any danger had surely passed was the way to go.

Mac threw the end of his cig down onto the ground and flattened it with his brogue. As he turned to open the door, I made my move.

I tore up behind him and clamped an arm around his throat, landing three hard punches into his gut with my other fist. His feet kicked backwards at me, catching my shins with the wooden heel of his shoe as I grimaced. Fucking McGowans. I may have stood taller and broader than him, but shit, he was like a demon possessed. It was a shame I needed him alive, really. It’s much easier to just take a guy out. So much cleaner.

His breath became more ragged as I increased the pressure around his neck, his fingers gripping desperately at the arm of my suit jacket as I squeezed the remaining breath from him.

Just as his body finally went limp, I let go of him, grabbed my gun, spun him and clocked him on the temple with it.

Lights out kiddo.

MADDIE

Harry King stared at me from his spot at the bar, though Camden had disappeared. He was a sullen piece of work, that one.

I’d thrown up twice in the car on the way to the party, but I had to admit walking in and feeling all those eyes on me felt good. Being younger than Esther had always left me feeling somewhat overlooked. But walking in filled with as much fake bravado as I could muster sent electricity through me. I could only imagine feeling like that every day.

Sure, I’d known what it felt like to be desired. I’d had my share of flings over the years, but never had I felt imbibed with power. No wonder people got addicted to it.

It had taken every ounce of tolerance I’d had to let Harry lay his lips on me without slapping the shit-eating grin off of his face. The utter contempt his son, Camden, had looked at me with gave me chills. He was like a man shaped ice sculpture, beautiful but utterly devoid of humanity.

We’d left the party after an hour of schmoozing, with Landon ensuring he didn’t agree to any of Harry’s requests, but didn’t outright deny them, either.

The car ride home was quiet, all of us exhausted from the charade of being in control when we were anything but. Mac had disappeared long before we left and I looked at the text I’d received again.

Found some entertainment for the night - see you tomorrow. M.

Mac was always a bit unpredictable and hell, we knew he was furious. I’d half expected him to try to take out the King clan at the party all on his own. But to just leave? Well, it wasn’t like him to go without a bit of dramatic flair. Maybe he’d gone beyond furious. The weird little M signature was passive aggressive as hell, too. A night to cool off would probably be best.

‘You did good, Maddie,’ Landon said from the seat across from me. ‘I didn’t know you had it in you.’

‘Full of surprises. Maybe you should let me be involved more.’

‘No. This was a one off to keep him hoping until we can get to the skeletons hiding deep in his closet.’ Landon glanced at his phone before shoving it in his pocket. ‘I can’t believe Mac just took off.’

‘You know him. He just needs to cool off,’ Erik said.

‘Still, we were supposed to be showing a united front.’ Landon’s mouth turned down at the corners. He was still trying to perfect his new control. Our brother Malcolm Jr was meant to take the reins, and although it wasn’t unheard of for a second son to end up at the top, he certainly hadn’t expected to be there.

‘United when it suits you,’ I said as I watched the changing cityscape whizz past as we headed to the suburbs toward our gated mansion.

‘Leave off it, Maddie. Don’t ruin it by sulking.’

I sighed as I pulled out my phone and scrolled through Instagram. My feed was awash with pictures from the evening. Mostly couple shots or groups of girlfriends smiling at the camera. I even saw one or two of me in the background. Maybe if Esther saw that I had raided her wardrobe, she’d be mad enough to come home. The dress had been new with tags on it and I’d coveted it since Esther had tried it on once at home. I hoped she was furious.

Then I spotted Camden behind a group of smiling people in a photo on my feed. His face was in that tense, dour expression he always seemed to have had in the few times I’d seen him. He had never directed it my way, heck I didn’t even know if he’d realised I was there. As much as it pained me, I had to admit that he wasn’t bad to look at. He had the air of a young Sean Connery, unfortunately with none of the charm.

As the car turned into our long driveway and made it past the security and double locked entries, I slid further into my heated seat.

The evening had been for nothing. My brothers still didn’t want me to be a cog in their machine.

The next morning, a host of commotion rampaging throughout the house woke me with a start. Raised voices clashed with slammed doors and the sounds of many footsteps filtering through the large open foyer below. Pulling on some clothes, I popped my head out of my bedroom door and looked out at the circus below.

Men swarmed in far greater numbers than were ever in our home. Most of the business undertaken here was for our closest circle of people, my immediate family, and our trusted men. They talked any other business out in the myriad of backrooms of our various business fronts.

Something big must have happened. With a dry mouth and a hollow feeling in my stomach, I headed down into the foray.

I found Jack, one of our security guys, leaning next to the main entry.

‘What’s going on? Did Dad die?’

‘No.’

‘Tell me what’s happened.’ His shrug in response set my nerves on edge.

‘Landon is heading toward the meeting room if you want to catch him.’ He was throwing me a bone. If he couldn’t tell me what was happening, I’d sure as hell force it out of Landon.

His longer legs carried him quicker than me, but I caught up with him without having to break into a full run as he reached the ornate door to the meeting room.

‘Landon, what’s going on?’

‘I’ll fill you in later... I need to head up this meeting.’ Tension marred his face. He already looked five years older than he had a few months ago.

‘Like hell you will. This must be something big, and I’ll be damned if I’m the last person to find out about it.’

He ran a hand through his hair while he let a guy pass him and go into the room beyond.

‘Please?’ I asked, touching his arm. ‘Don’t freeze me out.’

With a deep breath and a hard stare, I thought he was going to dismiss me once more, but his shoulders dropped as he gave in. ‘It’s Mac. The Kings have him.’

With that one sentence it was like someone had wrapped me in ice, unable to move, yet inside it was like every part of me burned with white furious rage. I could not lose another brother to those fuckers. I would not lose Mac.

‘I’ll kill them,’ I whispered.

‘You won’t. But I might.’

‘Are you planning to go there? Is this what this is about? I thought he was trying to make peace?’ My words were a flurry, a quick tumble of thoughts.

‘Not exactly. He’s sent a messenger. He’s due to arrive soon.’

‘I’m coming in.’

‘No, you’re not. You know the rules.’

‘Landon, so help me god, if you try to stop me I will go over there right now.’

‘Don’t be a twat, you’d get yourself killed.’

‘All the more reason to let me in. He’s my brother too.’

Landon groaned, but relented, holding the door open and letting me pass through. ‘Fine, but stay at the back and keep your emotions out of it. Keep quiet and don’t make me regret it.’

I slipped into the room, with its wood-panelled walls and elaborate hung chandeliers. It had once served as a dining room to entertain guests who really needed impressing. The mansion was old, built long before even the industrial revolution turned Glasgow into a thriving city. I often wondered about the former owners. Maybe they were movie stars of the forties or from old money, with ancestors spilling back into the country’s ruling history. Or maybe they made their money from illicit means too. The atmosphere was thick with testosterone and barely contained anger, perhaps even excitement. A lot of the men gathered hadn’t been brought up like we had, in the lap of ill-gotten luxury. Many had seen prison time, had come from shitty parts of the city where education was poor and crime was an appealing career choice. But they were loyal. Fiercely so. My Dad had been as firm with them as he was with us, but the hierarchy worked well with so many of them. They wanted to belong.

There were no windows in the room, placed as it was in the centre of the home, but there were curtain lined alcoves along two of the walls to help the room echo less. I tucked myself into one and leaned back against the soft fabric. A few eyes glanced my way, the odd eyebrow lifting in a surprised salute. They all knew better than to challenge my brothers publicly, though.

Landon and Erik took their places, Landon at the top of the table next to Dad’s vacant seat. It was a customary reminder that he was an acting boss, and that Dad was still alive.

He spoke with a cool, level tone, though his tight posture gave away his inner turmoil.

‘As many of you will have heard, Harry King has taken Mac.’

A murmur broke out amongst the gathered men until Landon lifted a hand to silence them.

‘We believe this is in retaliation for Esther’s reneging on the wedding agreement, although we had been trying to work out an alternative deal to calm the situation.’

My palms became increasingly more clammy as he spoke. The thought of Mac being held by those monsters made me want to march over there and demand answers.

‘A representative of the King family will be with us shortly to enlighten us about their demands.’

Erik spoke up. ‘I’ve a mind to kill the fucker.’

A loud babble of agreement rang out throughout the space until Landon once more raise his hand.

‘We will hear their demands, and then we will let him go with our response. We don’t need anyone doing anything rash,’ he said, glancing at me, ‘while they have Mac.’

I pressed myself more firmly back against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest.