Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
freddie
Alastríona's breathing evens out into sleep an hour after we finish talking, grief and exhaustion finally catching up with her, pulling her under despite everything racing through her mind.
I wait until I'm sure she's deeply asleep before slipping out of bed. She needs rest, she needs peace, but I need answers. I need to know exactly how fucked we are after Murphy's call. I need to talk to Maverick, but first there are men downstairs who want answers.
Henry is in his study with Denis and Malcolm. Henry's pacing, Denis is on a call, and Malcolm's on his cell.
"How is she?" Henry asks without looking up.
"Sleeping. Finally."
"Good. We need to talk about what the fuck happened," he says, his voice not as strong as it should be. He's rattled, has been since Alastríona was taken. He cares for her deeply, and I know she's feeling the same.
Danny appears in the doorway, looking grim. "Heard you had contact from Belfast."
"We did indeed," I confirm, settling into the chair across from Henry's desk. "Murphy's been compromised. Tortured. He gave up everything he knew about Alastríona."
The room goes quiet except for the ticking of Henry's antique clock. Four faces stare at me, waiting for details they're not going to like.
"How much did he know?" Denis asks.
"Enough. Murphy said he gave up everything on Alastríona and Killian. Everything Trace needs to understand your connection to her in more detail.”
"Fucking hell," Malcolm mutters. "So he knows more than what we do."
"Gets worse. Murphy's pub was torched. Everything destroyed. And Murphy himself..." I pause, choosing my words carefully. "He's not going to survive what they did to him."
Henry's face hardens. "They tortured an innocent man for information."
"They tortured him because he mattered to her. Because hurting him was another way to hurt us."
"He should have held out," Danny says, anger tight in his voice. "He should have died before giving her up."
"Easy to say when you're not the one having your fingers cut off."
"Still. Loyalty means something. Or it should."
I understand his anger, share it even. Murphy's betrayal has put Alastríona in more danger, given Trace information he shouldn't have. But I also understand fear and pain; the moment when courage breaks under professional torture.
"Murphy wasn't one of us," I say quietly. "He was a pub owner who gave shelter to a girl who needed help. He wasn't trained for interrogation, wasn't prepared for what they'd do to him."
"That's supposed to excuse it?" Danny growls.
"That's supposed to explain it. There's a difference."
Henry raises a hand, cutting off Danny's response. "What's done is done. Murphy made his choice, paid his price. Our job now is dealing with the consequences."
"Which are?"
"Trace knows too much information about her and Killian. He'll know how deeply we'll protect her."
"He already knew that. This just confirms details."
"Details matter. They give him leverage, give him ways to hurt us which we hadn't considered."
Denis leans forward. "There's something else. The level of information Trace has been receiving suggests someone much closer to our operations."
"Murphy?" Danny asks with a raised brow.
"No. Murphy knew about Alastríona, but not about our business. Not about security protocols, safe houses, operational details. Someone else has been feeding Trace intelligence for months."
The mole. The traitor in our midst we've been trying to identify.
"Any progress on narrowing down suspects?" I ask, knowing that we need it today.
"Some. We've been talking with Maverick and Stephen. They've been analyzing the financial records you recovered. Payment schedules, amounts, timing. Building a profile of the leak."
Henry slides a folder across the desk. Inside, bank records show regular payments to an account registered under a shell company. Two hundred thousand euros over six months.
"Professional money," Malcolm observes. "Enough to make betrayal worthwhile, not enough to draw attention."
"Payment schedule suggests regular intelligence drops. Weekly meetings, specific amounts for specific information."
"Any idea who's been receiving these payments?"
"We've narrowed it down to people with access to the information Trace has been getting. That gives us about a dozen suspects."
A dozen people. Men I've worked with, trusted, called brothers in some cases. One of them has been selling us out for months.
"Want to share the list?"
Denis produces another document and hands it over. Twelve names, twelve men who've had access to sensitive information. I recognize them all.
"Shit," I breathe, reading through the names.
"Problem?"
"There are five of our men on this." There are seven Gallagher men and five Houlihan. Fuck.
"Which makes this harder, not easier."
The door opens, admitting Stephen, Maverick, and Emmanuel. Their women must be settled elsewhere, because they look ready for serious business.
"Sorry we're late," Stephen says. "Had to arrange security for the women."
"Where are they?"
"Secure location. Armed guards, full surveillance. They'll be safe while we handle this."
Good. The last thing we need is to worry about civilian casualties while hunting a traitor.
"Catch us up," Maverick says, settling into a chair.
I fill them in on Murphy's call, the information Trace extracted, the confirmation that we have a high-level mole. Their faces get progressively grimmer as I talk.
"Twelve suspects," Emmanuel says when I finish. "How do we narrow it down?"
"Carefully," Henry replies. "These are good men, most of them. We can't just start interrogating everyone based on suspicion."
"Can't we?" Danny's voice is cold. "Because one of these 'good men' has been getting our people killed."
"Which is exactly why we need to be smart about this. False accusations will tear this organization apart faster than any external threat."
Maverick studies the suspect list. "What's the common factor? What gives all these men access to sensitive information?"
"Different things. Some are soldiers, some are security detail we've been using more now that Alastríona's here, some are your men who've helped with Alastríona. The only common thread is proximity to operational details."
"And opportunity. They've all been in a position to observe, overhear, or access confidential material."
Stephen points to a name on the list. "What about him? Sean Murphy—no relation to Belfast Murphy. He's been acting strange lately."
"Strange how?"
"Nervous. Jumpy. Asking questions about things that don't concern him."
"Could be guilt. Could also be the stress of knowing there's a mole among us."
"Or it could be fear that we're getting close to identifying him."
We go through the list systematically, analyzing each suspect's behavior, access, opportunity. None of us willing to eliminate unless we're a thousand percent sure they're not the mole.
"Six names left," Denis says after an hour of discussion. "Six men who had the access, opportunity, and means to betray us." Three Gallaghers and three Houlihan men left. One of those six is betraying us.
"How do we identify the real mole?"
"Trap," I say. "Feed different information to each suspect and see which version makes it back to Trace."
"What kind of information?"
"False intelligence about our next move. Different details for each suspect, tagged so we know the source when Trace responds."
Henry nods slowly. "It’s risky. If we guess wrong, we could be feeding him real operational details."
"If we don't act, he keeps feeding him real intelligence anyway."
"Point taken. What do you propose?"
I think through the logistics, the timing, the potential consequences. "We give each suspect a different story about where Alastríona will be moved next. False safe house locations, different dates, different security arrangements."
"And when Trace responds?"
"We'll know which story he heard. Which tells us who's been talking."
Maverick frowns. "What if he doesn't respond? What if he's smart enough to know it's a trap?"
"Then we've bought ourselves time while he tries to figure out what's real. Either way, we gain an advantage."
"And the innocent suspects? The men we're lying to?"
"They’ll understand when we explain afterward. Better to be suspicious of good men than trusting of traitors."
Stephen checks his watch. "Timeline?"
Henry runs a hand through his gray hair. "Tomorrow. We brief each suspect separately, give them their individual stories. Then we wait to see which version Trace acts on."
"And if he acts on multiple versions? If he's got more than one source?"
"Then we keep refining until we identify them all."
Henry stands and moves to the window overlooking his gardens. In the distance, security guards patrol the perimeter, professionals doing their job. Men we trust with our lives.
One of whom might be selling us out.
"Do it," he says finally. "Set the trap. But be subtle about it. We can't afford to spook our mole before we identify him."
"Agreed. And Henry?"
"Yes?"
"When we catch him, when we know for certain who's been betraying us... what then?"
Henry's reflection in the window shows a face carved from stone. "Then we remind everyone what happens to traitors in this family. You may not be my men, but you are family now."
I glance at my brothers and see them all nod in agreement. This shit has brought the two organizations a hell of a lot closer. "Understood."
The meeting breaks up with assignments given, roles defined. Tomorrow, we start the process of smoking out our mole. Tonight, we plan exactly how to make him pay for his betrayal.
Emmanuel lingers after the others have left. "You think this will work?"
"It has to work, because if it doesn't, if we can't identify our leak, this war drags on indefinitely."
"And Alastríona remains a target."
"Exactly."
He's quiet for a moment, thinking. "What if the mole realizes what we're doing? What if he warns Trace about the trap?"