Chapter 20
My cock isthick and full. My gaze is fixed on Jess as she dances. She”s wearing a sports bra and a pair of the shortest fucking shorts I have ever seen. Maverick brought Jess her clothes from home last night after he returned, and I practically swallowed my fucking tongue when I saw her step out of the bedroom this morning wearing a bra and those damn shorts.
She”s fucking gorgeous, and I know I”m lucky to have her.
Watching her dance is without a doubt my favorite thing to do, and as each day passes with her being away from that cunt of a father of hers, she”s growing in confidence and happiness. Before, she”d be in dark clothes, hiding her body. Now, she”s comfortable walking around showing her scars. They”re fucking bad, and I hate that she”s got them, but it doesn”t change just how fucking gorgeous she is.
”Stephen,” she says thickly. ”You”ve got to stop watching me like that.”
I raise a brow, a slow smile forming on my lips. ”Like what?”
She turns to face me, her face red from dancing, her chest rising and falling rapidly. ”Like you”re the wolf and I”m Little Red Riding Hood and you want to eat me.”
I chuckle. Fuck, I love how witty she is. ”Baby, trust me, I fucking love eating you, and I can assure you that once we”re finished here, that”s exactly my plan.”
She rolls her eyes. ”Don”t you have work to do?”
She”s been asking me that a lot. She”s upset that I”m spending all my time here rather than working. She”s still to understand that she”s the most important thing in my life and I”ll do whatever the fuck it takes to ensure that she”s safe. Work will be there when I find Thomas and Fintan.
”My work is right here, keeping you safe. That”s good for me, ”cause I don”t want to be anywhere else.” I get to my feet, my cock aching as it”s pressed against my zipper. ”You finished in here, Little Dancer?”
Her eyes soften and she nods. ”It”s been a while since I”ve danced hard like that.”
She did at least thirty minutes of dancing today, which is more than she”s done in a long time. ”Your endurance will rebuild. Once I get you safe,” I murmur as I pull her against me, ”we”ll get you back to lessons.”
She beams up at me. ”That would be great. I”ve missed it.”
I slide my hands down her body, pulling her into me, and slant my mouth over hers. I fucking love the little moan she makes in the back of her throat. My cell rings, breaking our kiss. Jess steps back, blinking, her cheeks flushed with heat. I reach for my cell and see that it”s Jer calling me. ”Go shower, baby. I”ll be in to join you in a minute.” I press a kiss to her lips and watch as she leaves.
”Jer,” I answer once Jess has gone.
”We”ve got a problem,” he says, and I tense. What the fuck could be going wrong now? ”The garda,” he continues. ”He”s getting too fucking close. This shit needs to stop.”
I grit my teeth. Fuck. I should have been allowed to deal with that fucker when he first reared his ugly head. Now he”s been digging into our lives. He”s getting too deep, and that”s not something I”ll ever allow. This cunt gets too close, he”ll ruin everything I”ve worked my ass off for.
”I”ll deal with it,” I say through gritted teeth.
Jer laughs. ”Not just yet, Stephen. See, this fucker got me thinking. If he”s watching us, along with the Kellys, Gallaghers, and the Devil”s Falcons motorcycle club, then he must be watching the O”Learys too. That fucking Garda should have the whereabouts of Fintan and Thomas.”
The anger slowly ebbs away. Fuck. Why the hell didn”t we think of this shit before? ”So what”s the plan?”
”You and Freddie are going to investigate. I don”t give a fuck how you get the information, Stephen. That fucker has the whereabouts of those cunts and I fully intend to find out where the fuck they are. This shit has gone too far. Those cunts are hiding and it”s time it ends.”
Too fucking right. With everything that had been going on with Jess, the Gardaí slipped our minds. Had it not, we would have known to fucking find out this information the moment Thomas went to ground.
”We”ll do it tonight,” I tell him. Freddie”s currently on a job, but it shouldn”t take him more than a few hours, meaning he”ll be free tonight to come with me.
”We”ll have Maverick with Jess while I lure the garda away. You”ll have the time to get what we need.”
I grin. Fuck, this could be what we’ve needed.
”I”ll call you once it”s done,” I assure him.
”Speak later,” he replies and ends the call.
I take a steadying breath. The tenseness that”s been sitting on my shoulders since I found Jess lying on the bedroom floor of her childhood home, doesn”t ease. I don”t think it will until I kill both Thomas and Fintan. The thought of Jess being taken is my worst fucking nightmare and will bring me to my knees.
The sound of the shower is calling me. Right now, my woman”s in there, waiting on me. That”s what I need to focus on now. Everything else will come later.
My footsteps are purposeful as I move out of the dance room and toward our bedroom, my cock thickening with every step.
Tonight, I”ll find the information to keep Jess safe, but now, I”m going to fuck my woman and make her scream my name.
* * *
”Tell me what the fuck we”re looking for?” Freddie questions. ”All Jer said was that I was to meet up with you and you”ll explain everything.”
I”m driving toward the garda”s house. The man in question is currently trailing Jer, who”s been making so many damn calls today that the gardaí are no doubt thinking that Jer”s planning something. It”s given us the perfect time to get into the fucker”s home and find the information we need.
”The gardaí are getting closer,” I tell him. ”That fucker has been flying under the radar recently. With everything going on with Jess, I forgot about them looking into us. Thankfully, Jer didn’t and realized the garda would have the information we”re looking for.”
He slams his hand on the dashboard. ”Fuck,” he snarls. ”Of course they fucking would. They”ve been trailing us for too damn long for them not to have the information we need on both Fintan and Thomas. Christ... How the fuck did we not think about this before now?”
”Right?” I say, my fingers drumming against the steering wheel. ”That fucker didn”t get too deep on us. It”s been over a year, and he”s not found anything on any of us. But what if he”s found shit out on the O”Learys?”
”You smelling a rat?” he questions.
I lift my shoulders and shrug. ”I mean, it”s been eighteen months or so. There”s no doubt that he”s been searching longer than that. We only found out eighteen months ago. But he gets closer when Thomas goes to ground, and we find out that he”s working with Fintan? Come on, Freddie, there”s something that just doesn”t sit right with this shit.”
He nods. ”Then the fucker”s working with the O”Learys.”
I purse my lips. ”No one came looking for Jarlath”s killer.”
”We made sure you were in the clear for that, Stephen,” Freddie says cautiously. ”It was late at night and there were no witnesses—other than the girls, that is.”
I shake my head. ”That”s not what I mean,” I sigh. ”When a man who”s part of the criminal world in Ireland dies, it hits the fucking news, Freddie. Jarlath”s death didn”t. Fuck, they haven”t even investigated it. No one has been brought in for questioning, so it brings me back to my question. Why? How the fuck can someone who”s so deeply involved in the Irish criminal world die and no one look into it?”
”Fuck,” he snaps. ”I hadn”t thought of that,” he says thickly. ”But now that you”ve brought it up, it”s making me wonder. They found his body. Jarlath was buried, and there was a huge fucking funeral. But no cops were there. There was nothing in the news.”
If there”s one thing the Irish news likes to do, it”s comment on the criminal world, especially when there”s a death. There”s just so fucking much that”s not adding up and that just pisses me the fuck off. My mind is hyper focused on Jess and making sure that she”s safe. This is a clusterfuck. The more I think about Thomas, the angrier I get.
That cunt has managed to evade everyone. There”s no doubt that he had this planned for a very fucking long time, and that makes me wonder what else he”s got planned.
The silence spreads as we grow closer to the garda”s house. The fucker has a huge house, and for someone who”s on a cop”s salary, I”m wondering how the fuck he managed to afford something like this. I breathe deeply through my nose, trying to quell the anger and bloodlust that”s building inside of me.
”You ready for this?” Freddie asks once I turn off the engine. I turn to him, not needing to say a word, just glaring at him. He chuckles. ”Just making sure. Let”s go get this shit done and then get you back to Jessica.”
I ignore him, knowing he”s just trying to get a rise from me. That”s not happening. Right now, I”m focused. I need to get this information, and that”s all I need right now. Jess is safe. Maverick”s with her and there”s no way he”d ever let anything happen to her. I know she”s safe, and that”s why I”m here.
Getting into the house is easy, especially for Freddie. For such a fucking big house, the garda has very little security. The small bits that he does have, Freddie bypassed within a minute.
”Let”s get this done,” he says. Gone is the goading nature, and now it”s sheer focus. He”s good at what he does and that”s why he”s the one here with me.
”Christ,” I growl as I enter his office. There”s nothing fucking here. ”Where the hell are his files?”
Freddie glances around the room and finds a safe hidden behind an ugly fucking painting. ”Now that”s what I call security measures,” he says with a grin. ”He”s cautious. He”s got the best safe in the world. Question is: why does he need it?”
”How long will it take you to open?” I ask as he gets started.
”Three minutes is my quickest time,” he says with a grin, and I know he”s going to try and beat that time.
I rifle through the drawers in his desk and let Freddie do what he needs to do. There”s very little paperwork here. It”s frustrating as hell that this could be a wasted trip.
I continue to go through everything in the office, but fuck, there”s nothing. Not a fucking thing that could help us. All the paperwork is bills and bank information. Stupid man. He should have put that shit in his safe. I pocket the bank information, knowing that once I”m back and have seen Jess, I”ll be making sure the fucker has no money left while I look through his transaction history. I want to know if he”s on the O”Leary’s payroll.
”I”m in,” Freddie exclaims as he opens the safe.
I grin when I see stacks and stacks of files in there. Here”s fucking hoping it has the information we need.
”Here,” Freddie says, handing me a stack.
I flip each one over, revealing name after name of all the men who are part of the Houlihan Gang. They have very little information on the majority of us. He has a fucking tonne on Jer, though I”m not surprised by that. After all, Jer is the head honcho of the Houlihan men.
”Christ, they”ve got a fucking lot on Denis,” Freddie says, holding up a thick fucking file. ”It includes every member of his family, including Callie.”
Christ. What a fucking bastard.
”I”m looking, Stephen,” he says. ”I”ve got details on the Gallaghers, the Kellys, the fucking Devil”s Falcons, and none on the O”Learys.”
I grit my teeth as I flick through my own file. Thankfully, the fucker hasn”t been following me hard enough, so there”s no mention of Jess in this file. ”Nor is there a file on Thomas in this stack, but every other member of the Houlihan men is here.”
”Those motherfuckers,” he snarls. ”They”re definitely working with him then.”
That”s becoming truer as each moment passes. ”Anything else in that fucking safe?” I question, hoping there”s something—anything—that could give me something that will help me find out where the fuck these fuckers are.
Freddie reaches into the safe, sweeping his hand along it. ”Well lookie here,” he says with glee as he pulls his hand out and I note the thumb drive between his fingers.
”Let”s get the fuck out of here,” I say, taking the thumb drive from him and pocketing it, before he starts to put the files back into the safe. ”Once we”re gone, call Jer and let him know the coast is clear.”
”On it,” he says as he closes the safe and places the picture back in front of it. ”This is fucked up, Stephen. Why the fuck are those cunts working with the gardaí?”
I shake my head as I make sure everything is exactly as it was when we entered. ”Something isn”t adding up. It”s fucking shit. What the fuck are we missing?”
Freddie shakes his head. ”I don”t know, but I think until we figure it out, we”re not going to find Thomas.”
My jaw clenches. That”s not what I wanted to hear, but I know it”s the truth. Thomas Grace has a fucking lot of secrets, and that motherfucker has managed to keep them for years, so now we”re struggling to find them.
God, he”s a cunt.
We exit the house and slide into the car. ”I”ll call Jer once we”re headed toward the road.”
I nod, unable to speak right now. I”m too fucking pissed. Too damn angry.
”We”ll keep her safe,” he promises me. ”Nothing will happen to her, Stephen. We”ll never let it.”
I swallow hard. I”ll die before I let it happen, but fuck, I can”t stop the dread that”s filling my gut. We have no idea where any of them are. It”s fucked up, and I”ll go home now and I’ll have to admit that I have no idea where her da is, meaning she”ll continue to live in fear.
The day I have that cunt’s whereabouts, I”m not holding back. I”ll kill him, and I”ll enjoy every single second of doing it.