SWAPPED TO THE SYNDICATE KING

Chapter Two

Jarrah

"Read it again, Gideon," Uncle Silas spat, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and terror. He paced the length of the room, his hand shaking so violently that the amber scotch in his crystal tumbler splashed over the rim. "Read it again so I can comprehend how a stupid, ungrateful child just signed a death warrant for every person carrying the Barry name."

Gideon O’Reilly, our family’s senior legal advisor, adjusted his gold rimmed spectacles.

"The note is concise, Silas," Gideon said, leaning against the edge of the desk. "Tahlia writes that she cannot marry Baden Sterling. She states that she has left the state with Julian, and asks that we do not look for her. She left her engagement ring on the vanity."

Silas slammed his tumbler onto the desk. The glass shattered, dark alcohol pooling over heavy leather blotters.

"She left us to be slaughtered." Silas roared. His face was mottled red, veins bulging along his neck. "Do you have any idea what Baden Sterling will do when he arrives at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in seventy two hours and finds an empty aisle? He won't just break the truce. He will burn our docks to the ground. He will slaughter our captains in their beds. He will wipe the Barry family off the board in Victoria."

I stayed silent, watching them from the shadows.

My twin sister, Tahlia. Sweet, gentle Tahlia, who cried when a stray dog was caught in the rain. Tahlia, who spent her life flinching whenever our uncles raised their voices. For months, she had looked like a ghost walking through this house, drowning in the shadow of her upcoming arranged marriage to Melbourne's most feared syndicate kingpin.

I did not blame her for running. I only hated that she had not told me. If she had come to my private investigation office, I could have smuggled her out of Australia cleanly, leaving no paper trail, no note, and no leverage behind.

Instead, she had run with Julian, a low level club promoter who did not have the brains or the resources to hide from Baden Sterling for more than forty eight hours.

"We have to track her down," one of the junior elders, Arthur, muttered nervously, wringing his hands. "Put a bounty on the boy's head. Bring her back in chains if we have to."

"There isn't time." Silas snapped. "It took her three days to leave this note. She has a seventy two hour head start. Even if our enforcers catch her, she’ll be broken, messy, and useless by the time we drag her back to Melbourne."

Silas stopped pacing. Slowly, heavily, his sharp, predatory eyes shifted away from the desk and locked onto me sitting in the corner.

A cold, heavy knot tightened in the pit of my stomach.

"No," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy room like a steel blade. I did not move an inch, but every muscle in my legs coiled, ready to spring. "Don't even think about it, Silas."

"Jarrah," Gideon spoke up softly, stepping forward with that fatherly, comforting smile he had used on me since I was eight years old. "Look at the reality of our situation, child. You and Tahlia are identical twins. Same bone structure. Same height. Same eyes."

"We are not the same," I growled, standing up slowly. The chair scraped harsh and loud against the floorboards. "Tahlia is soft. She speaks in whispers. She takes flower arrangement classes and plays the piano. I run an undercover investigation firm. I break jaws in underground rings when I'm bored. I don't wear silk gowns, Gideon. And I don't play sacrificial lamb for a mafia syndicate."

"You don't have a choice." Silas snarled, taking two heavy steps toward me. "Your father left his shares of the family estate to both of you. If Baden Sterling tears this family apart, your mother’s legacy, your firm, your freedom, everything you built goes down in flames! You will walk down that aisle, Jarrah. You will wear her dress, you will say her vows, and you will sit in Baden Sterling’s compound as his wife until we figure out a way out of this."

"And what happens when he touches me?" I challenged, stepping right into Silas’s space, refusing to back down an inch. "What happens on the wedding night when he expects a submissive, terrified girl and finds out I can snap his windpipe in four seconds? He’s not a fool, Silas. Baden Sterling built an underworld empire by reading people’s weaknesses."

"Then don't let him see your strength," Gideon urged quietly, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. His thumb rubbed my sweater sleeve in a soothing rhythm, though his eyes were deadly serious. "Play the part, Jarrah. You are an investigator. You have spent five years blending into crowds, playing different roles for your clients. Play this one. Give us two weeks. Just two weeks to locate Tahlia, secure her safekeeping, and renegotiate our asset terms with the Sterling cartel."

"Two weeks," I repeated, the words tasting like copper in my mouth.

"Two weeks," Gideon promised. "If you do this, I will personally sign over your mother’s full trust fund to you. You will never have to answer to the Barry family elders again. You will be entirely free."

I looked from Gideon’s calm, calculating face to Silas’s sweat sheened forehead.

They thought they were cornering me. They thought they were forcing a rat into a cage. But as I stood there, feeling the pulse hammering in my neck, a cold, ruthless math took over my brain.

Two weeks inside Baden Sterling’s private estate.

Two weeks behind the impenetrable security walls of Victoria's primary criminal syndicate.

For four years, my private investigation firm had been trying to get an inside line on Sterling’s operations, trying to find the encrypted ledgers that detailed the corrupt police officials, the smuggled imports, and the unsolved cold cases tied to his rise.

If I walked into his house as his bride, I would not just be saving my sister from a manhunt. I would be walking straight into the heart of the enemy's lair with a front-row pass. I could find his ledgers, secure enough leverage to destroy both the Sterling empire and my own corrupt family elders, and vanish before anyone realized the swap had taken place.

"I won't dye my hair chestnut," I said coldly, looking Silas straight in the eye. "Tahlia dyed hers six months ago. I’m stripping it back to black, and we’ll tell the media 'Tahlia' did it for the wedding."

Silas let out a long, ragged exhale of relief. "Fine. Whatever you want."

"And I don't take orders from you," I added, stepping past him toward the double doors of the library. "I run this operation my way. If Sterling suspects anything, I burn this entire family to the ground myself."

I turned the brass handle and pulled the door open, stepping out into the grand marble foyer.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Standing at the base of the grand staircase, drenched from the rain outside, were four men dressed in sharp charcoal suits. At the front stood Brodie Lawson, Baden Sterling’s chief enforcer. His arms were crossed over his broad chest, his crooked nose and scarred jaw giving him the look of a rabid bulldog in a high end suit.

Behind him, two armed guards carried a massive velvet lined chest.

"Mr. Barry," Brodie's voice echoed through the high ceilinged foyer, gravelly and devoid of warmth. "My boss heard a rumor that Miss Tahlia was feeling overwhelmed by the wedding preparations."

Silas hurried out of the library, his face draining of all color as he stared at Sterling's second in command. "Brodie. What... What are you doing here? The wedding isn't for three days."

Brodie did not look at Silas. His sharp brown eyes tracked directly past him, locking onto me as I stood on the landing. He looked at my posture, my bare knuckles, and the sharp, unblinking glare I gave him back.

He did not see a fragile bride trembling in the corner. He saw a threat.

"Mr. Sterling does not like waiting for three days," Brodie said smoothly, holding up a heavy steel briefcase locked to his wrist. "He sent me to deliver the wedding jewelry in person. And he ordered me to escort Miss Tahlia to his private estate tonight."

My heart gave one heavy, violent thud against my ribs.

Tonight.

My two week countdown had not started in three days. It started right now.

Brodie took one step up the marble stairs, his eyes narrowing as he stared directly into my face. "Get your coat, Miss Tahlia. The groom wants to see his bride.”