Fighting For Irish (A Fighting for Love Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Gina L Maxwell Page B

money?”
    Sully raised an eyebrow. “Can you?”
    “It’ll take me a few weeks to get it, but yeah, I can.”
    Vinnie’s lip curled up in a canine-like snarl. “Yeah, right. Where’ve we heard that before? No dice, asshole.”
    “You said yourself you’d rather have the money, right? If you give me a few weeks, I can get you double what she owes.”
    “You can get us forty grand?” Sully asked suspiciously.
    Aiden nodded. “Forty. But I have a condition I want met.”
    A chuckle from the leader. “You’re not exactly in the position to make demands.”
    “You’re right about that, but you’re not on a deadline. And if you give Sicoli the twenty Gs, he’ll give you half of that, plus you’ll have the other twenty I’m giving you. So you each walk away with fifteen grand plus whatever you normally get paid. I’d say that’s not a bad deal for sitting around on your asses and waiting for it.”
    Vinnie looked confused from all the numbers being thrown around, but Sully was quiet and contemplative. Aiden stood his ground and never broke eye contact. He refused to let them see him sweat. They were like rabid dogs. Smelling fear would cause them to attack.
    “Let’s hear these conditions of yours and then I’ll decide if this is worth my time,” Sully said, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee.
    “I want you to let her think I’ve convinced you to wait on Lenny getting out of jail. That means stop tailing her and let her come back to her apartment.”
    “Sure, no problem,” Vinnie jeered. “How ’bout we book her a nice day at the spa, too, while we’re at it?”
    Just as Aiden was about to shoot off at the mouth, Sully beat him to it. “Shut the fuck up, Vinnie. Is that all, Mr. Smith? You want her to think she’s no longer in danger?”
    “That’s it. I don’t want her to see you, smell you, or know you exist.”
    He shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with that, but I want to be clear about something. Just because you’re the one getting us the money doesn’t mean she’s not our main collateral. So until we get the money, we’ll be keeping tabs on her. If she so much as steps foot outside the county limits, we’ll know it.”
    “How?”
    “A couple of weeks ago we placed a tracker in her arm so we could find her if she skipped town again.”
    Chills ran down Aiden’s spine. “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
    “You’d be surprised what you don’t notice when someone bumps into you in a crowded bar. Any irritation is usually passed off as a bug bite,” Vinnie said, looking way too proud of himself. He must’ve been the one to stick her with the tracker.
    Aiden’s blood was reaching the boiling point. He hated being at anyone’s mercy on a normal day, and this situation blew normal out of the water. “If you’ve been able to track her this whole time, what’s with all the obvious tailing? And why didn’t you show up at my place last night or today?”
    “Intimidation, and once we realized she’d found herself a knight, we knew her hero would eventually try to avenge her. So thanks for being predictable.” Sully flashed him a malicious smile, then stood and signaled for Vinnie to put his firearm away. “All right, hot shot, you’ve got a month to get us the money. You don’t deliver, they’ll be adding ‘blunt force trauma’ to your medical records. Then we go after the girl.”
    “Yeah, yeah. Little mercy, lots of torture. I get the picture.” Aiden opened the door and held it open. “Now get the fuck out. We’re done here.”
    Sully pinned him with a look that clearly said he was only leaving because he wanted to. “We’ll be in touch, Mr. Smith.”
    When Vinnie drew up level with Aiden, he studied him so hard there should’ve been smoke coming out his ears. “I can’t shake this feeling that I know you from somewhere.”
    “Yeah, I get that a lot,” Aiden answered tightly. “Guess I have one of those faces.”
    As soon as the goons crossed the