Lorenzo #3
He's right that it's more than I'd say about most people two months before putting them in a position of proximity to everything I'm working to protect.
But Quinn is already in that position, which means the question of trusting her was never really mine to decide.
The arrangement made that decision. What I can control is how well I understand her before the wedding, and right now, I don't understand her well enough, and that's going to have to change.
I'm aware that she's holding things back.
I told Ciro as much after she left. What I didn't tell him is that it doesn't feel defensive.
Whatever she's holding back doesn't feel like something aimed at me.
It feels more like something she's holding onto for herself.
Keeping something private because she's decided it's private, not because she's hiding something that threatens me.
It’s been a few hours, and we’ve spent the rest of the time catching up.
Seems as though I’m not the only one with a new woman in their life, regardless of whether I wanted one or not.
Tempest does too. His next-door neighbor is a woman whom Tempest has worries about.
She’s skittish and cagey. I’ve told him I’ll look into her if he needs, but he waved me off.
"Let me know if anything comes up," I say as we get ready to leave.
"Always do."
Tempest leaves and I stay where I am. The waitress passes and I lift two fingers. "Another," I say and she nods and disappears toward the bar.
I settle back into the booth, the same seat I chose when I arrived. Back to the wall. Clear view of both exits. The bourbon arrives a minute later and around me, the bar carries on as normal, people drinking, talking, laughing.
Nobody’s paying attention to me, which is exactly how I prefer it. There’s no staff here waiting for instructions, no soldiers asking questions, no family members needing decisions.
Just noise, space, and time to think. That's the real reason I picked this place tonight.
I take a sip of bourbon and start where I always start. With us.
The leak has already cost us a logistics route and a property acquisition. Two separate hits. One against distribution, one against property. Neither large enough to cripple us.
Both expensive enough to be felt. The Mariano operation rests on three things: property, distribution, and influence. The leak has touched two of them already.
I stare into my glass.
Whoever is feeding information out isn't picking targets at random. They're choosing the parts of the operation that hurt without creating enough damage to force an immediate response. That requires knowledge, not just of what we do, but of how we do it, of which pieces matter most.
I move to the Delaneys. Ronan's operation is different from ours.
Protection, extortion, businesses paying for the privilege of operating without problems. They distribute too, but they're not the source.
They move product and take their cut. The losses they've reported haven't touched distribution.
They've hit protection. Businesses under Clann protection suddenly receiving better offers elsewhere. Cheaper offers and better terms, enough to make people switch.
That requires information. Names, amounts, and collection schedules. The sort of information that doesn't leave Ronan's inner circle. Which means somebody close to Ronan Delaney is either talking or being watched.
Then there are the Kings, Prior's operation is the cleanest of the lot. He deals in weapons, routes, brokers.
The losses they've taken have all hit shipments, not the weapons themselves. Their routes were compromised before product could be moved, or shipments intercepted before reaching their destination.
That requires timing, knowing when something is moving and where it's moving through.
I take a sip of bourbon.
Prior doesn't trust easily, and neither does Landon, Scanter, or Miller. Their circle is small, which makes their leak the most concerning, because whoever is feeding information out isn't standing on the edge of the operation looking in, they're close enough to be trusted.
I turn the glass slowly in my hand, the pattern is obvious. The Marianos lost a logistics route and a property acquisition. The Delaneys lost businesses paying protection. The Kings lost shipments.
Different operations, different losses, but with the same precision.
Nobody guesses their way into that. Nobody gets lucky three times. Whoever is behind this knows exactly where to apply pressure and how much pressure to apply. What bothers me is the overlap, we don't share operational details with the Delaneys, and the Delaneys don't share them with the Kings.
We're allied, not transparent. For someone to hit all three organizations this accurately, they either have multiple sources or one source sitting somewhere that gives them sightlines across all three.
I don't know which yet.
One is a leak, the other is something far more dangerous.
I finish my drink and set the glass down. I still don't have a name, but eventually everyone slips.