14. Chapter 14 Seamus
Chapter 14: Seamus
T here was a traitor in the room.
Beside me, Kamilla was stone cold. On my other side, Aria lounged in her chair like a lazy cat, her eyes half-lidded and her lips curved in a sardonic smile. I could see the tension in the line of her shoulders, the way her fingers twitched towards the knives hidden in her sleeves. Liam stood behind her, and I wondered to what lengths he would go to protect her. Cara and Finn sat at the head of the table, Cara already giving me permission to take lead on this. This was personal for me.
I cleared my throat, and the low, murmured conversations of the Irish died away, every eye in the room meeting mine. I let the silence stretch before I spoke.
"We have a problem," I said. “Someone has been feeding information to our enemies, letting them know our every move before we make it. And I want to know who."
The tension in the room ratcheted up another notch, the air crackling with the electric hum of suspicion. I saw hands inch towards weapons, saw eyes dart and narrow, searching for any sign of guilt or deceit.
"I don't believe it," Connor, one of the oldest and most loyal soldiers, said gruffly. "We're family, all of us. We would never betray each other."
"And yet, someone has. Someone in this room, someone who swore an oath of loyalty to Cara, the to Irish, has been spilling our secrets to Piotr fucking Sokolov."
"Impossible.” Someone called out. “None of us would ever stoop so low as to work with that piece of shit. Anyone who allies with him is dead to us."
Murmurs of agreement, low and angry, rumbled through the room. I held up a hand, my eyes still scanning their faces, searching for any flicker of guilt, any tell-tale sign of deceit.
"And yet, the proof is irrefutable," I said softly. "Piotr has been one step ahead of us at every turn.”
"We start with the money," Aria said suddenly, her voice like silk and honey, deceptively sweet. "That's the key to any traitor's heart, in the end.”
Liam grunted his agreement. "She's not wrong. If someone's selling us out, they're doing it because Sokolov is lining their pockets.”
I nodded slowly, the pieces beginning to click into place. "So, we follow the money.”
"Liam can do that," Aria said. “We both trust him and if there's any dirty money changing hands, he'll sniff it out."
Liam nodded. “It will take a few days but I’ll see if I can trace anything.”
"In the meantime," I continued, my gaze sweeping over the room once more, "I want everyone to be on their guard. Trust no one, question everything. And if you see or hear anything suspicious, you bring it to me. Immediately."
As we strode from the room, I felt a flicker of unease, a prickling at the back of my neck that made the hairs stand up on my arms. Something wasn't right. Something was still off. I didn’t know what, but I knew I would find it eventually.