31. Ike
31
IKE
Lock was waiting as we pulled through the gates of OPS. For the first time in my life, I was running toward something, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. Relying on other men to have my back wasn’t something I was used to.
And then there was Kavanaugh. The last fucking thing I needed was to deal with any drama he might bring to the table.
Isla stretched beside me as we came to a stop. “I’m so glad to be home.”
“Not quite home. We’ll have to stay here for a while.”
“Yeah, I know, but at least we’re not on the road.” She turned to me curiously. “Are we staying in that creepy mansion Riley was talking about?”
“I have no idea.”
The door was yanked open and Riley tugged Isla out before I could finish talking to her. It looked like that was the end of our conversation. I got out and grabbed our bags out of the trunk while Riley interrogated Isla. The whole thing was quite humorous.
“A simple phone call. That’s all I’m saying,” Riley snapped. “ Hey, I’m on my way home. Do you think that would have been too much?”
“No, Mom,” Isla retorted. “I’ll remember that the next time I stay out too late.”
“Ladies, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get inside. I have work to do. You can bicker somewhere else.”
Isla turned to me, quirking an eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest. “We don’t bicker. That’s not what this is.”
“Yeah, bickering is for old ladies,” Riley piped up.
“Then what would you call it?”
“A friendly debate between siblings.”
I rolled my eyes with a heavy sigh. “I need a fucking cigarette.”
Isla eyed me curiously. “You know, come to think of it, I haven’t seen you smoke the entire trip.”
“That’s because I haven’t been.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t like it.”
“So…you just don’t smoke around me?”
“I haven’t been smoking at all. Though, I’m regretting that more and more every day I have to deal with your demon sister.”
“I am not a demon,” Riley snapped.
But Isla melted in front of me. “You gave up smoking for me?”
“Well, you didn’t like the taste of it on my lips. I can’t have you kissing me and hating the taste of me.”
Riley snorted. “I’m sure there are other flavors of you that are just as gross.”
Isla didn’t even look as she shoved her sister over, grinning at me. “I hope you don’t think I’m giving up Jujyfruits for you. I’m addicted and I won’t give them up. Not even for you.”
“I would never ask that of you.”
“Good. Because I would end things with you before I would ever give them up.”
“I would expect no less.”
Riley stood, brushing off her clothes. “I’m fine, in case you were wondering. Just twisted my ankle as my sister viciously took me down,” she called out to anyone who would listen.
“Be happy I didn’t push you down the stairs with the armoire,” Isla grinned. “Now, where are we going?”
“Well, if you can tear yourself away from your boy toy,” Riley said, glaring at me, “I’ll take you to the creepy mansion of doom.”
Isla shook her head at her sister’s antics and turned back to me again. I pulled her in for a kiss, knowing I wouldn’t be seeing her for a while.
“I’ll be working for a few hours. I’ll call you when I can.”
The tension immediately returned to her face and her body stiffened. As much as I wanted to stay with her, I needed to end this and the only way to do that was by talking to that piece of shit husband of hers and getting to the bottom of this.
“Go with Riley.”
“IKE—”
“You know what I have to do,” I said, the tone of my voice brooking no arguments. “Go.”
She pursed her lips, pissed that I was turning her away, but she knew this was the way it had to be. She couldn’t be in that room. There was no place for her anywhere near Shawn. That would only slow us down. As soon as she was out of sight, I turned to Lock, ready to get shit done.
“Where’s Kavanaugh?”
“Out on a job.”
“Good. And Shawn?”
“Pissed and scared as fuck. How do you want to handle this?”
“The only way I know how.”
I started toward the building, but Lock put his hand up, blocking me from going anywhere.
“Just remember that Isla’s involved in this.”
“She’s the only reason that fucker isn’t dead right now. Don’t tell me how to do my job and don’t you even think of trying to stop me. I know what needs to be done.”
“As long as you don’t fuck it up.”
“That’s never been an issue,” I said, shoving past him.
It wasn’t lost on me that I needed someone else to get me through the building and down to the room where Shawn was being held. Thankfully, it wasn’t Fox who accompanied me. I wasn’t interested in his brand of crazy at the moment.
Unfortunately, that left me with IRIS. That fucker was riding my ass since the morning he found me outside Isla’s house, and he hadn’t stopped nagging me since. For some reason, he seemed to think this was some kind of bonding experience. I wouldn’t mind if he accidentally blew himself up.
“Just to be clear, your roll in there is to keep your mouth shut,” I told him as we descended into the pits of the silo.”
“No problem there.”
“And don’t blow anything up.”
He snorted. “Dude, we’re underground. What do you take me for, an idiot?”
I slowly turned and glared at him.
“Yeah, okay,” he nodded, “but only in an emergency. There’s a ventilation system that would suck all the air out of the room and kill the fire.”
“And us,” I pointed out.
“There are oxygen masks,” he said as if I was stupid.
“I might just hide them from you.”
The elevator jolted to a stop and the doors opened.
“Yeah, right,” IRIS snorted.
I just shrugged as I stepped off.
“That’s just mean. Even after all that shit with Jane, I would still save your life,” he rambled as he chased me down the hall. “Hell, I stayed with you when you were down and blue.”
“And when was that?”
“When you were all mopey outside Isla’s house.”
“And who asked you to do that?”
“Nobody,” he said proudly. “But a man knows when another man is down.”
I strode down the dimly lit halls of the tunnel, peeling off my suit jacket. I was ready to get to work. I handed it off to IRIS. “Don’t get that dirty.”
“I’m not your butler.”
I removed the cufflinks, slipping them into my pockets for safekeeping, and rolled up my sleeves.
“If you wouldn’t mind grabbing a hanger, that shouldn’t really be creased.”
“Would you like me to steam it, too?”
I pulled my silk tie loose and smiled at him. “That won’t be necessary.”
“How magnanimous of you.”
“I’ll take it to the dry cleaner when I’m done. You can’t be too careful with a suit like this.”
His eyes narrowed at me, and he would have taken a swing at me if I hadn’t opened the door and stepped into the room where Shawn was being held. IRIS followed, tossing my jacket onto the table in the corner, where it fell onto the floor in a heap.
Shawn stood immediately from the chair in the corner of the room, his eyes flicking between IRIS and me. “What’s going on?”
“You know who I am.”
He nodded.
“Shawn, why the fuck are you running?” I sighed, walked over to the table, and picked up my jacket. I glared at IRIS as I brushed off the dust from the material and gently folded and laid it on the table. The man had no respect for fine things.
I turned back to Shawn, giving him my full attention.
He rubbed his hand over his head, wiping the sweat as he paced. “You don’t understand. I couldn’t stick around.”
“Because the Irish were going to kill you.”
“Not just me.”
“Isla, too.”
His head jerked up and his eyes widened. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
I barked out a laugh as I dragged a chair over to the middle of the room. I was in the mood to get my hands dirty. Unfortunately, it seemed Shawn was in the mood to talk and wasn’t going to allow me the pleasure of beating the truth out of him.
“Shawn, you put a bomb in Isla’s fridge and nearly killed her. Yet, you want me to believe that you don’t want her dead?”
“No, I don’t. I had to do that.”
“Yeah. I think that all the time, too. IRIS, you ever feel that way? You really don’t want to kill someone, but you do it anyway?”
“All the time,” he deadpanned.
Shawn rushed forward, his eyes wide and terrified. “You don’t get it. The money I owed them…they want more.”
“I figured. Mobsters tend to want more when you steal from them. Why’d you do it, anyway? You had to know how stupid that was.”
“I don’t know. It was there and…I was tired of doing all the jobs for them and gettin’ nothin’ out of it.”
I cocked my head to the side, not believing that for a minute. “You had to be getting something.”
He scoffed, walking toward the wall before slamming his fist against it. Hell, I didn’t need to beat the shit out of him. He’d do that to himself. I really fucking hated that I didn’t get to do a damn thing.
He slid down the wall and rested his elbows on spread knees. “Do you have any idea how much I was risking every day? At work, with Isla, it could all be gone like that,” he snapped his fingers. “There were so many times I almost got caught. My career would be over, but they didn’t give a shit. I was their inside man, and that was all that mattered to them. And if I walked, I’d get a bullet in my head, and someone else would replace me. So, I figured I’d take what I was due and run. But it didn’t quite work out like that.”
“You got caught.”
He nodded, chuckling as he dipped his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Two hundred fifty grand. And they wanted it all back in full. When I told them I didn’t have it, they wanted me to take Isla out and collect the insurance.”
“And that’s when you blew up her fridge.”
His eyes met mine again. “It wasn’t supposed to be that strong. I swear to God, I tried to make it a weak blast. I thought if I made it look like an attempt, I could get them to back off and I could buy some time. I never wanted to kill her.”
“And that’s why the drive-by at her house didn’t hit a single person,” I said.
He nodded, his throat bobbing up and down. He scrubbed a hand over his face as the stress got to him. If he were anyone else, I might actually feel sorry for him. But he wasn’t anyone else. He was Isla’s husband, and she hadn’t done a single fucking thing to deserve this shit from him.
“That still doesn’t explain why you tried to kill her at the club, Shawn.”
His head jerked up as I stood and walked over to him. “I?—”
I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to his feet as anger washed over me. I remembered how I held her in my arms, praying we made it to the hospital in time. “Your guy almost killed her. Did you know that?”
He shook his head wildly. “That wasn’t me.”
“No? That wasn’t you?”
“I mean—I went to him, but?—”
I slammed my fist into his gut. He keeled over as the air whooshed from his lungs and he coughed harshly. I jerked him back upright, gripping his throat as I slammed him against the wall. “You know, you almost had me going there. Poor Shawn, wrapped up in a game he couldn’t get out of. It’s touching, really. Right up to the point where you tried to kill your wife three times. Did you really think I would just forget that you went after her because you’re a piece of shit who gambled her life for money?”
“It wasn’t?—”
“If you even think of telling me it wasn’t like that, I will shove a knife in your eye and cut it out.”
Thankfully, he kept his mouth shut.
“How much money do you owe now, Shawn?”
“I don’t?—”
I rammed my knee up into his balls and then slammed my fist into his face. “Don’t fucking lie to me. How much do you owe them?”
He coughed hard as blood dripped from his mouth, pooling on the floor at his feet. “Seven…Seven hundred fifty thousand.”
I shook my head as I tossed him to the ground and walked away. IRIS was leaning against the back wall, watching the whole thing go down with a bored expression on his face.
“That’s a lot of fucking money,” IRIS pondered. “You should just hand him over.”
“Isla wouldn’t like that,” I sighed. “And I’m not sure it would do any good, anyway. The Irish want their money. That’s why they didn’t fucking kill him to begin with.”
“Then turn him over to the police. He could turn on them and go into WitSec.”
“And where would that leave Isla? She’d never be safe.”
There was no right answer here. Not unless I fucking paid them off, which I would be willing to do if it meant keeping Isla safe. Or I could just fucking kill all of them, but that would mean a very timed and strategic attack with planning that I just didn’t have the time for. Besides, I wasn’t entirely sure that OPS would be on my side if I told them I wanted to take out an entire sector of the Irish mob.
Turning around, I strode back over to Shawn for confirmation of what I was pretty sure I already knew. I grabbed him and hauled him to his feet for the last fucking time.
“What happens if you run again? What happens to Isla?”
He winced. “That’s why I ran. If they can’t catch me, they can’t make me file an insurance claim on her. I hoped that would protect her.”
“What about your boss? Did you try going to him? Maybe you could set up a raid and get them off the streets.”
He shook his head. “As soon as they found out what I’d done…there was no talking to them. They assumed I was still working another angle and wouldn’t make a deal. So, I ran.”
“There has to be someone who will listen.”
“If there was, I’d already be talking to them.”
I wasn’t getting anywhere with this guy. I dropped him on the ground and stormed out of the room. Maybe he didn’t have any contacts, but OPS had a shit ton.