Chapter Fourteen
Steele
The second I was back at the house, I called Cooper.
“We have a situation,” I said, heading to the storage room off the garage. I had an entire arsenal at my disposal.
Cooper sounded sleepy, hungover, or both. “What the hell, Steele?”
“Ashlynn’s been taken.” I put my phone on speaker and threw it on the table.
“So? She was a big pain in the ass, let her father deal with her—”
“It wasn’t her father. It was the O’Leary’s.” I removed a set of keys from my leather jacket and unlocked the gun storage.
“Shit! How the hell did they get involved in this?”
I pulled a shotgun out, slinging it over my back, tucked a pistol into the waistband of my jeans, shoved a knife in each boot, and fastened a bulletproof vest around my chest. I hesitated, then grabbed a rocket launcher just to be safe.
“I don’t know, but I doubt Topher would work with them to get his daughter back. They are cruel men with the worst type of reputation, and she’s not safe in their presence. Even if he paid them to get her back, she’ll more than likely be attacked and raped before she even makes it to the border.”
“Then what’s their angle?”
“Who knows? Maybe Topher screwed them over too? If he was ballsy enough to fuck with me, he must be in deep financial trouble.” I hurried out of the storage room and got in the front seat of my Hummer. If they were taking her to Ireland, I needed to intercept them before they crossed the border.
Cooper yawned. “Steele, you lost the girl. It’s time to move on.”
“I’m on their tail,” I said, opening the tracker app on my phone and seeing Ashlynn’s tracker dot zooming towards the countryside. “They’re just heading out of the city. I’m sending you over some GPS coordinates. I need back-up.”
“What the fuck? Steele, it’s the middle of the night and the worst of the Irish mafia has your hostage. It’s time to let it go. Let them ruin and torture his daughter. Either way, it’s payback. Mission accomplished.”
I gripped the steering wheel harder, thinking of the words I needed to convince Cooper to do this. “I won’t let my hostage go free. It’ll…weaken my position.”
Cooper was silent on the line for several seconds. “Steele, do you have a thing for this…girl?”
I pulled out of the garage, and started down the street, my eye on the coordinates of the tracker I’d placed in Ashlynn. Time to try another tactic with Cooper. “Absolutely not. But think of this—we know where the Irish are. We can take them out—and move into their territory. Take control of their importing. Think of the money.”
It only took Cooper a split second to make up his mind. “Send the coordinates. I’ll call our men.”