Chapter 41
Reid came marching back into my living room, where Marksen, Luc, and I were still making calls and trying to find out who would have taken Eddie, and where.
We were pretty sure it was the Irish mob, but the “why” was becoming less and less clear.
I had assumed it was because they found out I had an open investigation on them, but Detective Doyle hadn’t been bailed out yet. It wasn’t impossible that he’d gotten word to his family, but it wasn’t likely. And even then, he just knew of evidence tampering, not that I had connected him to the O’Murphy clan.
“Did you find anything?” I asked, not even trying to hide the emotion in my voice.
“Maybe.” He rubbed the back of his neck like he was uncomfortable.
“Spit it out,” I said.
“You might want to come into the other room so we can speak privately. This may be a bit delicate,” he said.
“Just fucking spit it out!” I had run out of patience the second she was taken. I refused to be delicate or follow any type of ridiculous etiquette when it came to getting her back.
I had already called and threatened two judges that I knew were on the O’Murphy payroll. I was willing to burn down every single bridge and poison every well. I would break every law and ruin my career, taking down every corrupt politician, bribable judge, and dirty cop with me.
So help me God, if there was a single bruise on her delicate skin, I would burn down the motherfucking world.
“Some of my men in the police force overheard others talking. They believe the person who put a hit on Ms. Carmichael may have been your mother.”
The entire world stopped for a moment.
There was a distinct ringing in my ears. My heart beat faster and faster as my fingers curled into tight fists. I shouldn’t have been surprised, and I wasn’t.
There were several emotions swirling in my body, but surprise wasn’t one of them.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, trying to keep a tight leash on my rage. “Did you just say that my mother, Mary Quinn Astrid, was the one who had Eddie taken?”
“It’s worse than that,” he said, this time losing his look of discomfort. He stood with his feet a little more than shoulder width apart, his hands tucked behind his back.
“How could it possibly be worse?”
“They believe it wasn’t a kidnapping. They think it’s a hit. They were supposed to hold her until your mother calls and gives the order to execute her. They are thinking they’re supposed to hold her for a few days before they kill her, and her body will be found in the Hudson.”
My entire body was filled with a cold fire.
Luc stood in front of my face and tried to grab my shoulder, saying something.
I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear the words.
Then suddenly, all of the rage just exploded out of me, and, stepping back from Luc, I sent a right hook straight through the plaster of the closest wall.
A loud howl of rage resounded around the room, and it wasn’t until I caught my breath that I realized the sound was coming from me.
Calmly, I pulled my fist from the wall, straightened my shirt sleeves then turned and looked at Luc.
“We need to go. Now.”
“Absolutely,” Luc said. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to face my bitch mother, and God help her if they’ve hurt Eddie.”
Luc must have seen something in my face because he took two large steps back, his eyes wide and his mouth open before he shook himself out of it and nodded.
“Amelia said she was at a meeting earlier today, but she should be home by now.”
“Call Amelia, have her call my mother and verify that she’s home. Do not let her know we’re on our way,” I barked, grabbing my suit jacket and heading out the door, not bothering to look if the men followed me or not.
I didn’t really remember the car ride to my family’s estate. I didn’t remember pulling up or marching into the house. The only thing I remembered was the look of shock on my mother’s face when I barged into her sitting room, where she sat surrounded by her friends who were all on some type of committee about saving something completely fucking asinine. Where, as usual, they would spend more money throwing the parties than they actually got in donations for whatever they were raising money for.
“Harrison, darling, what are you doing here?” she asked, a little flustered when she saw my face.
She quickly stood and tried to usher me and the others out of the sitting room to somewhere more private.
The only reason I allowed that to happen was I knew that I was going to lose my shit. And the last thing I needed was the added pressure of being the subject of more societal gossip. If I was going to threaten my mother with death, I didn’t need any strangers witnessing it.
I didn’t say a word until we were in my father’s office.
The only room I knew for certain was soundproofed.
My father was sitting at his desk, typing away on his laptop. He put his glasses on the desk and looked around the room at Luc, Marksen, and Reid.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he asked.
“Tell him.” I ordered my mother.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snipped, still trying to put on airs since we had company.
“Tell your husband what you did,” I repeated, while taking a few threatening steps toward her.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean.” She clearly intended to play dumb.
My mother was many things, but dumb, unfortunately, wasn’t one of them. It would have been far easier to control her scheming if she was stupid.
“Tell them how you hired the fucking Irish mob to kidnap my girlfriend.”
“Harrison, you’re acting irrational. Your mother said you and Catherine broke it off.” My father rose, standing behind his desk.
“Not Catherine,” I growled. “Eddie.”
My mother laughed with her hand on her chest. “Calling that girl, a common secretary, his girlfriend.”
“Tell him what you did. Admit it,” I said again. “Or I swear to God not only will I tell him, but I will also have you arrested and, as I’ve already promised you, will throw every single thing I can think of at you. I will charge you not only with racketeering and for the kidnapping and attempted murder of my girlfriend, but I will also throw the rest of the book at you. I will make sure that you are charged with Olivia’s abduction and kidnapping, as well as for the abuse that Amelia had to deal with, and that no doubt Rose still does.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” She rounded on me, a wild look in her eyes, claws bared.
“I will have you charged with corporate espionage and embezzlement. Every single sin will be brought to light, Mother.” I spat the last word.
“Everything I’ve done has been for this family. You and your sister are so ungrateful. You don’t understand the things I have done for you. You’re going around calling that trollop your girlfriend. She’s nothing. She’s not good enough for you. She’s not good enough for anyone. That is not a woman that you date or marry. That is a woman that you sleep with on the side and hope you don’t impregnate, or catch an STD from to bring home to your wife.”
“Where is she?” I growled out, hovering over my mother, intimidating her the same way I would opposing counsel if they had tried to play dirty.
“She’s where she belongs,” my mother said. “I had to do it. After you let the world know your dirty little secret, I had to do something to protect your reputation. You were going to throw it away on some common piece of trash. You need to call Catherine and beg her to take you back.”
“If anything happens to Eddie. If a single hair on her head is misplaced?—”
“You’ll what?” she taunted, facing me. “You can’t do anything because anything you do toward me would ruin your career.”
“She is more important than my career. I don’t understand how you don’t get that. Maybe it’s because you’re a heartless shrew whose only joy in life comes from meddling in the lives of others. But I swear to God, if you do not tell me where she is, I won’t bother having you arrested after all. I’ll kill you myself with my bare fucking hands. Because if she’s not in my life there’s no reason not to throw it away.”
“Harrison, don’t be dramatic.” My mother rolled her eyes like she was talking to a petulant child. “I did you a favor. All this girl was going to do was drag you down.”
“You don’t even know her,” I argued.
“I don’t need to know her. I know her type. But more importantly, I know what type she isn’t. She is not built for the life you need. She would not be the wife to elevate your career. She would drag you down to her level, and I will be damned if I let all the work that I have put into you go to hell for some little gold-digging slut.”
“Tell him where the girl is,” my father ordered, his voice sterner than I had ever heard.
My father was not a weak man, but he believed that strength was not demonstrated by yelling or showing your hand and letting your enemy see your emotion. The stoicism that I exuded came from him, biological father or not.
“No, I will not let him throw his life away,” she screeched.
My father placed both hands flat on his desk and leaned forward, taking a deep breath, his nostrils flaring as he stared my mother down.
“You will tell him where the girl is, and if you don’t, I will divorce you. I will leave you absolutely destitute.”
“You can’t do that,” she said, sticking her nose in the air.
“Oh, I absolutely can. Read the prenup. It has a fidelity clause. I’m not the only one that it applies to, dear.”
“I can fight that. I can ruin you.” She pointed one of her long red claws at my father.
“Let me explain to you exactly how this is going to go down. You’re a bright woman, I’m sure you can follow. I will file for divorce, and then I will persuade every single lawyer worth his salt in the state to shun you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“I would make sure that no lawyer with any talent or ambition would touch your case. You will be left with a public defender who just graduated from a third-tier law school.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said again, this time more to herself.
“Try me.” The way my father hovered over his desk and the steely calmness of his voice as he spoke sent chills down even my back.
My father was a soft-spoken man who listened more than he spoke. Because of that, many people assumed he was weak. They thought this assumption was confirmed when it came out that I was not his biological son, and that he knew and raised me anyway.
This man was not weak. I hoped that I had spent enough time at his side that his strength and grace rubbed off on me.
This was the man I hoped that I could become, but only with Eddie at my side.
My mother looked at my father for a few moments. I thought this actually had been the first time that he had ever raised his voice to her, and finally, she relented.
“They took her to a warehouse on the docks, but you’ll never get there in time.” She shrugged like she was talking about missing a movie.