Chapter 14 Saoirse
SAOIRSE
“And he jumped out the window?” Cormac stands over me with a glass of Scotch in hand, offering it to me as he stares down in disbelief.
I refuse it with a shake of my head. “Yup. I’ve never seen anything like it. Fucker was out of there. I have to assume what he told us was the truth and he knew the Triad would kill him for talking, so he took his own life.”
“Shit.” Cormac’s brows twitch at my refusal but he doesn’t comment and moves behind his desk with both drinks. “How much can we trust what he said is truth and not just garbage to shock you into turning your back?” Cormac sits in his large leather office chair and sighs deeply.
“Well…” My fingers slide along the carved whorls of flowers in the armrest and settle repeatedly over a rather satisfying slope.
“I don’t trust it. But I can’t ignore it.
” Last week’s disaster with the Triad weighs heavily on me and where Cormac’s office usually brings me a sense of comfort due to the warm, homey nature of the place—including the gorgeous scented candles Evie always makes sure are lit near the fireplace—anxiety sits heavy under my ribs like heartburn.
“Tell me what you have.” Cormac drinks slowly. “All of it.”
“Well, I’m working with Bruno Del Prete.”
Cormac frowns. “Who?”
“Exactly. Don’t worry, I checked him out. Did you know Domenico had a son?”
Cormac shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Me either. He’s been in prison for the past fourteen years.”
“For?”
“Drugs. He was arrested neck deep in the stuff. On the surface it looks like a stupid mistake, but Bruno made an off-hand comment once that makes me think he took the fall for his dad, and he’s sour about it because Domenico acts like he doesn’t exist.”
“You think it’s guilt?”
I shrug. “No clue. He doesn’t talk about his family much outside of being convinced that his father is being framed. He’s hoping to prove it.”
“And get back in good graces with Daddy.”
“Exactly.”
“What do you think?”
My teeth sink into my cheek as I mull over how best to answer.
“I think there’s truth in it. Bruno really seems to believe it and it’s that belief that had him listening really closely to the Triad in prison.
He thinks someone is moving around in the underworld using the Del Prete name for clout and power.
And his investigation linked up with mine.
Discrepancies in the drug shipments, missing people, missing weapons orders.
He thinks someone is shipping people under the guise of guns and what we heard from the Triad confirms that. But that’s not all.”
“I know that look.” Cormac drains his glass and sets it down, then leans both elbows on the desk. “Tell me.”
“That man claimed it wasn’t just the Italians feeding into this black market ring. It’s us too.”
“Us?” The pain in his tone hits me like a blow to the chest. After all the good work Cormac’s done to scrape his reputation out from the shadow of our older brother and the man who nearly burned the city for his girl, something like this could break us.
“He didn’t give names but he made it pretty clear that Irish blood is involved.”
Cormac’s gaze falls to his joined hands and he nods slowly. “This is serious.”
“I know.”
“And you know we can’t act on it.”
Nodding slowly, I sigh. “I know. Either we listen and investigate openly and then alienate every Irish who thinks we’d believe Triad over them, or we investigate quietly and risk creating unrest that we’re looking into our own people.”
“But we can’t ignore it.” Cormac’s frown deepens. “We’ve never been involved in the skin trade. I can’t even think of a family fucked up enough to even try.”
“But,” I say cautiously, “there are a lot of families under us and we don’t know them all.”
Cormac nods. “I can trust you to take care of this delicately?”
He’s not asking me directly just in case this comes back to bite us, and if it does then I will happily take the fall. I nod. “Of course. Same as always.”
“Thank you. We need it to be watertight.”
“I know.”
“And Saoirse—” His voice makes me pause as I stand.
“Mmhmm?”
“Are you alright?” Gone is the tough mask of the Irish Captain and in its place sits the worried look of my brother. “You look a bit…”
“I’m fine,” I assure him as he searches for the right word. “Honestly, I’m just tired. This is keeping me up, but I’m working on it.”
“Hmm. Alright. I don’t want Cian biting my head off for working you too hard. And keep an eye on Bruno,” Cormac says, not sounding entirely convinced by my excuse. “I don’t know him so I don’t trust him.”
“Don’t worry,” I reply softly as I turn away. “I’ll keep a close eye on him.”
He’s the first person I call as I leave Cormac’s place.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Bruno says as he answers, sounding out of breath.
“What are you doing?”
“Jogging.”
“You jog?”
“Well, technically, I’m on a treadmill, so it’s more like ambling because this thing only has three speeds, but what can you do?”
“Never pegged you as a gym rat.” I slide into my car and start the engine.
“Kept me sane in prison. Sort of working the same now.”
“Fair. Listen, I think we need to put our heads together and start from the bottom. Since our lead tossed himself out of the window, our next best bet is finding out who took our women from the hospital.”
“Sounds good. Meet for drinks?”
I’ve never realized just how often alcohol gets involved in my life since I can’t have it. Shaking my head briefly, I keep my tone light. “Sure, Black Ox?”
“Perfect. I’ll be there in an hour.”
In the hour between hanging up the call and driving to the Black Ox, I do absolutely nothing.
I should go home and do laundry, call Cian about the masquerade people, maybe even call my doctor about my baby but all of that sounds too exhausting so instead, I park by an intersection and just sit there.
My thoughts tumble over one another as I struggle for something to focus on because everything feels too much.
This issue with the drug discrepancies and guns is growing more worrying if the Triad spoke the truth.
Hiding people in our international weapon shipments is insane and I’ll need to check out the docks as well as border security.
Can something like that really be happening when our shipments are getting flagged more than usual?
And just how deeply are the Irish connected?
Finding out who is going to be challenge.
Between this and the baby, I barely have time to breathe and I know I should do something about it. I should tell someone.
But as soon as I do that, this baby becomes real and I’m not ready for that. Not yet.
Throwing myself into work is the only distraction I have right now and as long as we wrap this up in a couple of months, I’ll still have time.
Thoughts of the baby torment me all the way to the Black Ox but as I pull up into the parking lot across the street, the sight of Bruno walking down the road brings me an odd sense of calm.
Shit. I barely know the guy and already he’s got me feeling shit I shouldn’t feel. Parking, a smile slips onto my face and stays there as I climb out of my car.
Suddenly, Bruno yells from across the road and I look up in time to see Bruno being tackled to the ground.