Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
RONAN
I’m sitting in the living room, answering some emails on my phone, when Cormac strolls in. I glance up and immediately notice the stone-cold look on his face. Perhaps he overheard my extracurricular activities with Ciara in the kitchen.
I open my mouth to apologize, but then I remember this is my house, and I can fuck my wife in any room I please.
If he doesn’t like it, he can get the hell out.
I notice the brown file tucked under his arm. “Did you find something?”
“Have you seen this?” He tosses me the file.
I set my phone on the coffee table and quickly flick through the papers. “What the hell is this?”
I scan page after page of receipts, all of which are made out to McCarthy Enterprises.
“It’s exactly what it looks like.” Cormac takes a seat in the armchair beside me and runs a hand through his hair.
My jaw clenches as I read over the amounts my father paid out. It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars, which in the grand scheme of my family’s wealth is barely a drop in the vast ocean, but that’s not the point.
Not when I have a sinking feeling that these numbers match the encrypted payments that I’ve had both Connell and Ciara looking into for the past few weeks.
I glance at the closed door. “These were paid to Ryan McCarthy.”
Ciara is upstairs in her room, no doubt trying to process everything she’s learned about her father, and the last thing she needs is for me to go charging in there demanding answers that she likely doesn’t have.
I exhale a breath as I pick up my phone and log onto the payment system.
Cormac is quiet as I look through the list of encrypted payments, lining each amount up with the receipts he found in Da’s office.
They’re all there, down to the last cent.
Fuck.
“Cormac.” I do my best to keep my voice low despite the anger building inside me. “Where the hell did you find this?”
“It was in the back of the closet, stuffed under a box of old golf trophies. Are you gonna tell me what the hell is going on?”
I hesitate, not because I don’t trust him, but because once this gets out, there’s no taking it back.
Then I flip the folder closed and toss it on the table between us. “These receipts… they’re proof that our father was working with the McCarthys.”
Cormac blinks like he didn’t hear me right. “What?”
I rub a hand down my face. “I’ve been trying to piece it together for weeks.”
“Piece what together?”
“I found some encrypted payments on the account system, and I’ve had Connell trying to decode them, but he’s had no luck. They’re locked down tight.”
“Da clearly didn’t want anyone finding out about them.”
“Exactly, and when you told me about the secret calls to Callum, I couldn’t help but think the two were connected because why else would Callum be speaking to our father?”
“You think Seamus and Ryan were working together back in the day?” Cormac laughs bitterly. “I highly doubt that.”
“Maybe not together…” I glance at the folder. “But they were certainly tangled in the same fucking web, and these receipts prove it. They match the amounts on the encrypted payments down to the cent.”
“Jesus.”
“And you and I both know our father didn’t have a charitable bone in his body when it came to the McCarthys, so there must have been another reason for him to send Ryan this kind of money.”
“You think Ryan was bribing him?”
I clench my teeth. “It looks that way.”
“But then why would he put a bullet in his head? It doesn’t make sense.”
“None of this makes sense.”
The two of us sit in silence as we stare at the evidence of our father’s secrets laid out before us.
Fuck. This is so much worse than I thought.
“Do you think Ciara knows about any of this?”
“No, I don’t.”
“But if she did—”
My fists are balled up and my knuckles are white. “She doesn’t. And we’re not going to go down that road.”
“Fine. So, what do we do now?”
I rub a hand over my stubbled jaw as I try to think. “Are you and Brennan still tailing Callum?”
“Brennan’s following him now, but there’s been nothing out of the ordinary.”
“That doesn’t matter. We can’t afford to be blindsided, so I want the two of you to continue to watch him like a hawk. I didn’t trust the guy before, and I trust him even less now I know he was secretly dealing with our father right before he was killed.”
Cormac leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Do Kieran and Brennan know? About any of it?”
I shake my head. “No, but I think it’s time to tell them.”
I drive myself and Cormac to Kieran’s place in the city. For the conversation we’re about to have, I figure it will be best to have it as far away from Ciara as possible. Right now, she needs time to find some peace, and bringing my brothers into the mix would only obliterate that.
As I park in the underground garage of Kieran’s building, beside a brand-new steel-gray Aston Martin, Cormac sighs. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”
I shake my head. “To be honest, I hoped these payments were secretly Kieran.”
“What would he be spending that kind of money on?”
I dip my chin toward the line of luxury cars, and Cormac chuckles, though the sound is anything but light.
I kill the engine. “He’s going to go off like a fucking rocket when he learns about this.”
“We might as well just go and get it over with.”
I tuck the file of receipts under my arm as Cormac and I take the elevator straight up to the penthouse.
Kieran is already pacing back and forth in front of the large sectional couch as Brennan lounges in an armchair, dressed in workout clothes with a backwards cap keeping his dark hair out of his eyes.
When Cormac and I enter, Brennan gets to his feet and walks over to us. “What’s this about?”
“Sit down.” I dip my chin toward the armchair he just vacated. “I have something to tell you.”
Kieran faces us. “What is it?”
I take the file out from beneath my arm and set it down on the glass coffee table. “Sit.”
For once, Kieran does as I ask. He keeps his mouth shut as I open up the file and lay out the dozens of receipts for them to see.
Brennan and Kieran both lean forward, their eyes scanning the payments.
“What the hell is this?” Kieran’s expression darkens by the second.
I perch on the edge of the couch as Cormac takes the other armchair beside Brennan, then I dive into the full story.
My brothers are quiet as I fill them in on the encrypted payments as well as the secret phone calls to Callum.
Brennan glances at the receipts on the table. “And these match the encrypted payments?”
I nod. “Almost perfectly.”
Kieran looks seconds away from launching himself at me.
Out of all of us, his temper is the most unpredictable, but right now I don’t blame him for being angry. If it wasn’t hard enough losing our father, now he’s learning that he was potentially being bribed by Ryan McCarthy, of all people.
“You knew something was off weeks ago, so why the hell are we only hearing about this now?”
“I wasn’t sure. And I wasn’t going to accuse our father of being in bed with the McCarthys unless I had proof.”
“Well, this is proof, Ronan!” Kieran gets to his feet and runs his hands through his hair. “Do you have any idea what this means? What it could do to all of us if this gets out?”
“I know exactly what it means. I’m the one who’s been living with it.”
Brennan holds up a hand, and I dip my chin at him to speak.
“Could it be fake? Maybe someone’s trying to make Da look guilty and has directed these payments to the McCarthy accounts on purpose.”
“Maybe.” Though, I don’t believe it. “But the accounts are real, and so are the payments, and the phone records between him and Callum McCarthy.”
Silence falls between us as the reality of what we’re dealing with starts to become clear.
Brennan runs a hand over his face. “So, what do we do?”
“First, we need to keep this between us. And second, we keep a close eye on Callum. I’ve never trusted the guy, but even less so now that I know he had secret dealings with our father.”
Kieran’s eyes are still full of fire. “What about Ciara?”
“She’s not involved.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I meet his eyes and see the challenge in them. “Don’t start.”
“She’s his daughter, Ronan.” He stalks over to the bar and picks up a rocks glass. “You don’t know what she knows, what she’s hiding—”
“She’s not hiding anything.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” I get to my feet, my temper rising. “Because if she were, I’d see it. I’d feel it.”
Kieran scoffs. “Feelings don’t mean shit. You don’t think it’s a little too coincidental that our father was being bribed by Ryan McCarthy, and the second he’s in the ground, Callum McCarthy comes out of the woodwork and ends up marrying his sister off to the new head of the Sullivan empire?”
“I was the one who suggested the marriage between myself and Ciara,” I remind him.
“Then I guess you went and did all the hard work for him.”
I bristle at his words, but I don’t let it show on my face that he hit a nerve.
Kieran picks up a decanter of whiskey and pours himself a measure, not bothering to offer any to the rest of us. “I get that you want to protect her, but you don’t get to gamble with the rest of our necks to do it,”
“What do you want?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“All I’m saying is that there’s no harm in having eyes on her as well as Callum.”
Brennan shakes his head. “She literally lives with Ronan.”
Kieran shrugs. “So? She’s alone right now, isn’t she? Who the hell knows what she’s up to?”
I ball my hands into fists, fighting the urge to send one into my brother’s face for even daring to question Ciara.
I think of her face this morning, of the tears that streamed down her cheeks and the pain in her eyes as she clung to me like I was the only thing holding her together.
She’s not part of this.
I know it in my bones.
But I also know I won’t win this fight with Kieran right now, so I dip my chin and cross my arms over my chest. “Fine. But if she finds out we’ve been keeping tabs on her, you’re the one who has to explain it to her.”
Brennan chuckles to himself. “Can’t wait for that conversation.”
Kieran scoffs. “And if it turns out she’s been playing us?”
“Then there will be hell to pay.”