Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
RONAN
The silence in my office is short-lived as my phone buzzes for the third time in five minutes. After checking my messages, I realize there’s been yet another delay with one of our shipments, and another has been canceled altogether.
A string of expletives leaves my mouth as I toss my phone down on the desk.
It’s not just the shipments that have been going wrong. Some of my most trusted clients, people I have been in business with for years, are hitting my reputation hard.
But this isn’t a problem I can solve while I’m in a rage.
I grab the edge of the desk and take a breath, forcing myself to calm down, but it’s hard when the empire my father worked so hard to build is crumbling by the second.
The mole inside our ranks is no longer just passing information back and forth; they’re actively orchestrating disruptions.
It started small with miscommunications between suppliers, but then shipments began showing up at the wrong ports or not at all. A supplier I’ve worked with for eight years called this morning to say they’re reevaluating our contract and will be in touch, which is bullshit.
Somebody got to them, and whoever they are, they’re trying to ruin me from the inside out. They’re coming for my money, my power, and my empire. They want to cut off the limbs before they go for the head.
The payments were a way to get my attention, and now that they have it, I have a feeling they intend to keep it.
I rub the back of my neck and get to my feet to stretch my legs. It’s time I speak with my brothers before this spirals beyond our control, but before I can leave to drive over to Kieran’s place, I need to make sure Ciara is safe.
I send a quick message to Stephen asking him to meet me in my office, and less than a minute later, the door opens, and he steps inside, his posture straight and his expression unreadable as always.
At six foot four and over two hundred twenty pounds, he’s an immovable force. But that’s not why I chose him for the job. It’s because he’s loyal to a fault, and I know he will do whatever is necessary to make sure Ciara is safe.
“I need you to keep an eye on Ciara while I’m out. She doesn’t take a step outside this house without you right behind her. Bathroom, garden, kitchen—I don’t care. You are glued to her side, understood?”
Stephen’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “Understood.”
“I’m serious, Stephen. I don’t want her unattended for even a minute. I don’t care if it seems excessive; it’s necessary. Ciara is stubborn, and she has a tendency to ignore orders, so do what you have to do to keep her safe.”
“You have my word.”
I give him a nod, feeling a little better knowing that Stephen will follow through.
Ciara may not like it, but that’s not enough for me to back down. There’s no telling what this mole will try next, and with Callum lurking in the background, Ciara is in more danger than she realizes.
As I step out of the elevator and enter Kieran’s penthouse, I’m hit with the smell of whiskey and leather.
It seems my brothers have been waiting for me for a while as I find them lounging on the black Chesterfields in Kieran’s study, arguing about some trivial stuff that I don’t have time to catch up on.
I don’t waste time on pleasantries as I cross over to the bar where Kieran is standing and pour myself a drink. “We’ve got a problem. Bigger than we thought.”
Brennan swings his legs off the arm of the Chesterfield and straightens. Cormac, who was leaning against the mantelpiece, comes to stand beside me at the bar.
I throw back my drink in one gulp. “Whoever the mole is, they’ve moved beyond passing intel. They’re actively sabotaging us.”
Kieran leans forward to rest his bare forearms on the marble counter, his sharp eyes narrowing. “How so?”
I set my glass down and motion for him to refill it. “Delays, diversions, clients getting cold feet out of nowhere… Even some of our legit front businesses are reporting issues like code violations and surprise inspections. Someone somewhere is pulling strings.”
Brennan shakes his head. “Jesus. You think it’s coming from one of the old factions?”
“I don’t know. It could be. Kieran and I have already narrowed it down, but we’ve got nothing concrete yet.”
“The O’Keefe brothers,” Kieran clarifies at Cormac’s puzzled expression.
“They’re still around?”
Brennan gets to his feet to join us at the bar. “I thought Da took care of them?”
Kieran scoffs before turning around to grab a fresh bottle of whiskey off the shelf behind him and topping up our glasses. “Apparently, he didn’t do a very good job.”
“But Liam Kelly has been linked to them,” I clarify.
Brennan frowns. “The guy who took Mila?”
I nod.
“Shit. So, the O’Keefes paid him to go after Mila because…”
Cormac shrugs. “It was meant to be a scare tactic.”
I take a sip of my second drink. “I suspect they took Mila because they knew Ciara would come after her.”
Kieran nods. “And that you would follow.”
“Exactly.”
The room falls quiet as we all sip on our drinks.
Kieran looks at each of us in turn. “That means the mole's had eyes on Ciara for a while, and subsequently those close to her like Mila and Max.”
I nod before turning to Cormac. “Which is why I need you to start watching Mila’s apartment round the clock, just in case.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Do you think she’s still in danger?”
“She might not be the target anymore, but she’s still leverage, and I don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’ll handle it. They seemed pretty shaken the other day after that hospital visit… Something happened, didn’t it?”
I shrug, keeping my face neutral. “She lost her brother. That’s going to mess anyone up.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Cormac swirls the whiskey around in his glass. “Mila looked fine coming out. If anything, it was Ciara who looked like she had seen a ghost.”
My gut tightens, but I don’t let my unease show on my face. “Don’t read into it. They were probably just talking about Max.”
“Sure.”
I can tell from the look in his eyes that he doesn’t believe it, and in truth, I’m not sure I do either.
The sun is starting to set by the time I leave Kieran’s after having spent hours going through each screw-up that has happened with our businesses over the past few days with my brothers.
I need all of us to be fully up to date on everything because I can’t afford for anything to slip through the cracks.
My head is pounding as I park my car in the garage, and I’m desperate to take a shower to try and clear my thoughts. But before I do that, I need to lay eyes on my wife.
I find her in the lounge, curled up on the couch with a book in her lap, though I can tell she’s not reading it from the way her eyes stare blankly at the page. She’s already in her pajamas, with her hair damp and loose around her shoulders.
My eyes scan the room, landing on Stephen, who stands by the window looking out over the grounds of the house.
He catches my eye and gives me a curt nod.
“You can go.”
Ciara’s head snaps up at the sound of my voice. She must have been so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear me come in.
“You’re home early.”
“I had to cut the meeting short.” I take a seat beside her.
I could easily have stayed at Kieran’s until the early hours of the morning, but the ache in my chest from being apart from Ciara was too much to bear.
It seems married life has turned me soft, at least in the matters of the heart.
I lean back, lifting Ciara’s feet into my lap. “Cormac’s watching Mila’s place for now.”
She nods, though I can tell she’s still distracted from the way she’s not meeting my eyes.
Something is clearly off. I can feel it radiating from her.
“Everything okay?” I start massaging her heels.
She hesitates, then nods, setting her book down beside her. “Just tired.”
“You’ve been tired a lot lately.” I watch her face closely.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
“Talk to me.” I dig my thumbs into the heels of her feet, eliciting a quiet moan from her lips that has my cock twitching in my pants.
Ciara’s eyes flicker, and for a second, I think she’s going to shut me out, but then her shoulders sag as she looks at me. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”
My body stiffens. “Okay...”
“It’s about Callum… The day we left for Vegas, I went over to the house to speak with him, and he said something to me…”
She takes a deep breath, and I have a feeling I’m not going to like whatever she’s about to say, but I continue massaging her feet, letting her know that I’m still here no matter what.
“He said he was planning something that could get me out of this marriage.”
I freeze.
“But I don’t know what it is, and I don’t want out of this marriage,” she says hurriedly, a panicked look in her eye. “But he wouldn’t listen, and I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure what it was. Ever since I found out he knew about our father, we’ve barely spoken…”
I grit my teeth, fighting the urge to explode. The old Ronan would have lost his shit at what he just heard, but I’m trying to be better, for Ciara.
“You should have told me sooner.” I keep my voice even despite the ringing in my ears.
It seems Callum McCarthy is becoming more of a pain in my ass with every passing day.
She fiddles with the hem of her t-shirt. “I know. But I was afraid of how you would react. I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t want to be married to you anymore.”
“How the tables have turned,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood, though what I really want to do is storm out of here and put a bullet between Callum’s eyes.
“It turns out I quite like having you around.” The corners of her lips twitch, though her eyes still have a haunted look. It’s clear this information has been weighing on her mind for a while.
I reach out to cup her cheek. “Thank you for telling me. I appreciate your honesty.”
Relief floods her expression, and I’m glad that some of the weight on her shoulders has lifted by coming clean about her brother’s intentions.
But I am feeling anything but relief.
If Callum is planning something, it’s time we stop watching him and start preparing for a direct strike.
We can't afford to be cautious any longer, not when he’s trying to interfere with my marriage.