CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
Balor
C amryn knocks on my office door. “Balor, the other team is trying to find Mr. Snow. But I did some digging of my own and found some data you need to be aware of.”
“Come in.” I wave to her. “Talk to me.”
“Under his Iceman profile, he messaged someone on his dark web page about Maverick. You. It was triple encrypted, but I hacked that easily,” she says proudly.
“What did the message say?”
“He figured out you knew who he was and that you planned to kill him.”
My blood runs cold. “How?”
“He put a listening app on your phone,” she says grimly.
The chill turns to a fiery rage. “God damn it!”
Camryn straightens her spine, showing no fear of me. “If you give me your phone, I’ll find the app and remove it.”
Without thinking twice, I unlock it and hand it to her. “Here.”
Camryn takes it, her face lighting up from my trust. “There’s more,” she says, rocking on her Keds.
I roll my eyes. “Hit me.”
“We’re locked out of Iceman’s Swiss bank account.”
“He took out our hook?”
“Looks that way.”
“Or...”
Before I fly out of control, I say, “Or...”
“I found an alias of his. He’s been traveling back and forth to places like Monaco under this name.” She shows me a fake ID. It’s him, all right. “Right before we lost access, I tracked hundreds of deductions from that Swiss account, all wired to different hotels where this guy was a registered guest.”
Monaco.
Las Vegas.
Atlantic City.
Macau, China.
Connecticut.
Gambling.
Or the Swiss account is closed because he’s broke.
“And he’s trying to get a fake passport to leave the country.”
Nerves snake down my spine. Snow is disappearing again. And he’s taking Ella. Fucking carrying my children!
I thank the Lord every day she was on that flight. Even with this pain gutting my insides, I wouldn’t give up the chance to have her in my life.
“He’s also wanted in Australia now. Under the Snow name,” Camryn says. “He never paid the rent on the house he and his daughter were living in. World Trade Bank had been including a housing stipend in his paychecks, but he kept all the money.”
“I assume that’s why he stayed behind in Australia and sent Ella to New York alone.” I look up at Eoghan. “I want Snow’s debts settled. Today . I will not have anyone come after Ella.”
“Done.” He crooks two fingers to Camryn to sort through the payees.
And then I’m going to kill Snow myself.
Riordan rushes into my office, yelling, “Jesus, fuck.”
I stand up. “What now?”
“I just got a text from Michael Brennan.” With shaking hands, he shows me a photo that makes my stomach revolt.
Ella is lying on a table wearing nothing but bra and panties. Pools of blood cover her skin and there are wide gashes on random spots on her body.
The attached text says:
Taken care of, just the way you asked. I’ll need extra money this month for pulling this one off. You’re welcome.
“Why does my informant have your girlfriend? And why is he saying I asked for this? ” Riordan’s eyes swim with anger, his voice sharp as a blade.
“You mean, my fiancée,” I utter the way I heard my brothers saying ‘my wife’ with such visceral, primal steeliness in their voices.
“What’s going on, Balor?”
“Someone is sending fucking texts from all of us to Brennan and...” I can’t even say Petra’s name. “Others. Shane is looking into it.”
I grab the phone and stare at the picture, willing away the urge to vomit. I search the photo, my brain scanning for clues around her. But I can’t tear my eyes away from these massive gashes on her shoulder, her thigh, her hip... I freeze and look at her foot.
Her tattoos. The tats she got to cover his scars.
He’s carving them off!
“Shane!” I yell.
“What?” he answers loudly from the other room. “I’m looking for Snow!”
My eyes glance at this horrific photo. Sent from MB1 as Riordan has him saved.
Brennan.
Ella’s purse sits at the bottom of the Upper Hudson River.
Near Beacon, New York.
“Fuck this.” I stomp to my laptop and look it up myself, my wrists screaming in pain.
I hack into Dutchess County records and have to sit down.
Brenna n
A Mason Brennan owns a house in Beacon... Right on the Hudson River.
I flip over to Brennan’s police records, and I tighten even further seeing his father’s name was Mason Brennan. Has to be the same guy.
Now we have the address.
I scour that house in Beacon for a Wi-Fi signal and curse, finding none. But I locate a doorbell camera across the street. After hacking into it, my heart plummets, seeing Ella dragged from a sedan and into a beat-up house three days ago.
It’s the same damn maroon Camry that picked her up in Manhattan. The driver of that car isn’t Brennan. Just another fucker I will find and kill.
Riordan drops his head close to me. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Michael Brennan. Our...” I cringe, but can’t blame my brother for what turned out to be a fucking coincidence. “Your informant—”
Rior’s face contorts. “Don’t call him that.”
I spin the laptop around and show Riordan. “Brennan’s got Ella.”
“Motherfucker. He’s dead.” Riordan shrugs with no emotion. “ I’m killing him. Priscilla can watch me. How dare this motherfucker—”
“Someone’s ordering our enemies around like puppets, pretending to be us.” I’m not defending Brennan, only reassuring my brother so he doesn’t think he’s being massively betrayed.
And fly off the handle in a fit of rage that could come back to haunt us.
“Who? Who can do that?” Riordan asks.
The texts that came from my phone.
Taken care of, just the way you asked.
Ella’s calls to me were forwarded to Petra’s phone .
Snow is the only other person I know with these techno skills to ghost my phone and break my custom-built firewalls.
Petra was at that fundraiser where he could have made the connection with her when he saw her talk to me.
Fuck!
Fury flooding my veins, I pull my phone out and dial. “Petra, did you call a Wesley Brennan or a Michael Brennan for anyone?” I bark into the phone without a hello.
“Um...” Petra’s voice goes shaky.
“Tell me before I send a drone to blow up your fucking apartment .”
“Balor...” she sniffs my name. “I got a text I thought was from you with instructions.”
“ Instructions? You, too? ” I snap. Someone is trying to keep Ella and me apart. “You didn’t mention that a few minutes ago.”
“You didn’t ask and information at this point will cost you.” Her tune changes because she realizes she’s been duped, and I don’t want her.
“How much?”
“One million.”
“Talk. I have your account information.”
“I can forward you the text. It looks like it came from you. It gave me all these instructions.” She clears her throat. “One was to call a Wesley Brennan, saying I’m speaking on behalf of your brother Riordan because you and I are together and Wes can now take back his little whore. I was told to use those exact words. That his little whore was a bonus payment for his continued cooperation with the O’Rourkes.”
My eyes fly to Riordan. “What does the rest of Wesley’s message say, Rior?”
His blue eyes lower to his phone and with them closed, he says grimly. “She won’t be a problem for Balor anymore.”
Only one other person can fake all of this. Or would .
Corvin Snow.
And he wants her away from me, so much that he’d give her back to a monster.
For what?
Shane jogs back into the office. “I found Snow. Surprise, surprise.” He smirks. “His car’s license plate tags just pinged one of our secret transmitters. He’s on the New York State Thruway.”
I bet that prick is headed to Beacon where Brennan is holding my Ella.
We have to beat him.
“Rior, I need the helicopter.”
My brother nods and gets on the phone.
Next, I call Lachlan.
“Yo!” he answers.
“I need you. Snow’s working with Brennan. He kidnapped Ella. He’s torturing her, Lach.” I can’t hold back my emotion, not even with him.
“I’m on my way.”