Chapter 39
Aisling
It was almost just over two months since Aisling’s return from Wales. Jake was still in Wales with Maya and the older children, but they’d be moving to Florida soon, as would Callum and Bryn.
Tonight, Carl and Mateo went out for a night alone together. Tamsin and Aisling used that time to have their own stay-at-home date night. Maisie was sound asleep in her crib when, after dinner, Tamsin and Aisling curled up together on the sofa in front of the TV.
Then Aisling’s cell rang. When she looked at it, her heart dropped.
Peyton.
She answered as Tamsin muted the TV. “Anseo, Walsh.”
“Can you talk?” he asked.
“Depends. I’m watching telly on the couch with Tam, but we’re alone. Havin’ a date night.”
“Sorry. This won’t take long. You can put me on speaker.”
Exchanging a glance with Tam, she did. “All right,” Aisling said.
“How are you doing, Tamsin?” he asked.
“Is this the call I’ve been dreading, where you summon her overseas for another lab raid, or something equally dangerous?”
“No, but it is work-related,” he said.
Tamsin snuggled closer to Aisling. “I love you, Peyton, but can I hate you now?”
He chuckled. “It’s all right, Tam. I don’t take it personally.”
“Did ye find another lab or something?” Aisling asked.
“No. As far as we know, it was the only one. We haven’t put paws on the money behind the lab yet, but we’re getting closer. We know who they are. Now it’s a matter of finding them.”
“Any news on who killed that cunt Dorland?” Aisling asked.
“No,” Peyton said. “And considering the message sent with his head, I’m inclined not to pursue it, as long as it doesn’t turn out to intersect with the source of the lab’s funding. I just wish we could nail down the merc team they were using.”
“What do you mean?” Tamsin asked.
“We still cannot figure out how your father found the safe house in the first place,” Peyton said.
“I had surveillance running on yer brothers,” Aisling added. “Had trackers on their cars. Garrison swears no one in his team revealed the location.”
“I’ve talked to them all personally,” Peyton said. “Multiple times. I am convinced the leak wasn’t from inside Trevor’s Enforcers.”
“That’s the mystery, innit?” Aisling said. “If we could figure that out, maybe we could run the tendrils backward and crush the head, if it’s still alive an’ kickin’.”
“We never went anywhere,” Tamsin said. “We never even went to the shops. Garrison or his men always took care of that, and we never even received the post. Anything meant for the house was sent to a secure box at one of Trevor’s businesses, sorted, and then eventually delivered to us. They were very careful.”
Peyton drummed his fingers on the desk. “What about repairmen or maintenance? Plumbers, electricians? HVAC techs? Gardeners? Is there anyone who might have done work at the safe house that we’ve missed talking to?”
“No, no one,” Tamsin said. “Once we returned from France, we traveled to the safe house in the dead of night and never once left the property afterward. Rupert didn’t even go anywhere.
Maisie and I sometimes took walks around the grounds, and sometimes Rupert came with us, but the property was literally surrounded by forest that’s not open to the public. It’s private land.”
“What about hikers?” Aisling asked. “Did ye ever encounter any?”
“No. No part of the land was publicly dedicated, and it was clearly fenced and marked as private. Plus, the fences were monitored with sensors, and they had patrols. From when we arrived until…” She choked up.
“Until that day, I never set foot off the grounds. Trevor and Elizabeth would come visit, but they drove themselves, and they always took precautions to make sure they weren’t followed.
I never even went to the physician’s office. The nurse-midwife came out to me.”
“Wait a minute, love.” Aisling turned to look at her. “Ye told me about an ultrasound. Was that the nurse?”
“No, the tech came out separately. She drove a lorry with a portable unit, with one of Trevor’s men with her. They had an X-ray machine, too. But she was a wolf shifter, part of the pack. Trevor said she did work for the pack all the time. She usually works as a tech for a veterinarian.”
Before Aisling could vocalize her suspicions, Peyton spoke. “Let me talk to Trevor right now. I’ll call you back. Stay close to the phone.” The call ended.
“What is it?” Tamsin asked Aisling. “What’d I say?”
Aisling tucked a stray hair behind Tam’s ear. “I think ye might have just found the missing piece,” she grimly told Tamsin.
Two hours later, Tamsin had already gone to bed when Peyton called Aisling back. She walked outside to take the call.
“Trevor and a Prime tracked down the radiology tech and interrogated her. The bad news is she fucked up and didn’t realize it.
So that’s the only glimmer of good in this whole thing.
It was happenstance. Her brother had asked her for a ride that afternoon, and she’d told him she couldn’t take him.
When he asked her why, she’d said she had to do a job for Trevor.
“Well, apparently, her brother is a nonshifter, and he’s over his ears in debt to clueless humans for gambling.
The brother put it together that she was probably going to see Tamsin.
He’d heard about Faegan looking for tips and being willing to pay, and he had access to his sister’s location on her phone via their family plan without her realizing it.
So, he dropped a dime, hoping he’d get lucky and that she really was seeing Tamsin. ”
“Motherfucker,” Aisling said. “I hope they skinned him alive.”
“That’s hard to do when he was immediately executed after Trevor pried what little info he had out of him.
Trevor pulled the trigger himself. The woman felt horrible—about Maisie and Rupert, not about her shit of a brother—but Trevor’s not holding it against her.
She literally did nothing wrong other than trust her brother.
She had no reason to suspect he’d betray the pack, and she had no idea he could track her phone. ”
“And now she’ll feel guilty for the rest of her life about this, and about her brother’s death,” Aisling grimly observed.
“No, it’s not her fault,” Peyton said. “They made her forget what they’d talked about.
Apparently, the brother was a dead man walking anyway because Faegan took the tip and never paid him.
If Trevor hadn’t executed him, someone else would have eventually.
He owed money to some pretty violent people.
She’ll have no idea he died because he betrayed the pack.
It will be assumed that his gambling debts caught up with him.
Which apparently is something they’ve been worried about. ”
“Faegan welched on something, did he?” Aisling snarked. “Color me shocked.”
“Yeah,” Peyton said. “And the guy was already hiding from the people he owed money to. Trevor and his men will deliver the guy’s head to the bookie later, along with ten thousand pounds, cash, and Prime the guy to forget about anything else so her family’s left alone.
” He chuffed. “And then they’ll also dump the body close by, call the police once they’re a couple of blocks away, and report a violent attack in progress and let them all get arrested. ”
“Happy days,” Aisling said. “A quick death is better than that areshole deserved for what he caused.”
“Unfortunately, the only contact info the guy had was for Faegan’s sons, so nothing new there. At least it’s one question answered. He was hiding in plain sight under our snouts the entire time.”
“Here’s to one less dirtbag walking the earth,” Aisling said. “May he be reborn as the fleas on a camel’s fanny. So what happens next?”
“You mean after having read Dewi the riot act for going to Mexico without talking to me first? Oh, and that is between you and me,” he added.
“Naturally.”
“You’re the only other person who knows besides Ken, and he’s only allowed to talk to me and Dewi about it. I told Dewi not to talk to anyone else. I don’t want her knowing that you know.”
“Uh, why?”
“Because I want it siloed in case it splashes back on us somehow,” he said.
“Again I ask, what’s next, then?” Aisling closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Peyton let out a weighty sigh. “I don’t know. But that brings me around to what I originally called you about, except we kind of squirreled when we started talking about Tamsin’s ultrasound. First of all, have you decided where you’re living yet?”
“I’ve left the final decision up to her, but I’m pretty sure she wants to stay here. Every time I’ve asked her about making the decision, she hems and haws a little, but the points she ticks off are always about the kids here.”
“Well, what I want to ask of you would likely require you stay here in the States.”
Aisling chuffed. “My preference is to stay here. Not to sound all maudlin like, but this feels like home in a way nowhere else has since I was a tyke. If I tell her you want me to stay here, she won’t complain or take issue wi’ it.”
“Good. Now that we have answers regarding the lab, and that Ray Dorland and Faegan Lewis were working together, it leaves us with more questions.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know if the business with the drug cartel is settled. Abundio Segura may come after us if he figures out who we are and that we’re connected to both Manuel’s disappearance and Jacinta’s death. Actually, I’m more worried about him finding out what we are than who.”
“Well, how’s that supposed to happen then if he and his little child bride’s pushin’ up dirt wi’ his daughter?”
“He’s not dead,” Peyton said.
“He easily could be,” she said. “Not a problem.”
“Yeah, but Dad always swore he never wanted to be one of those kinds of Pack Alphas. And I don’t really want to be that kind, either, if I can avoid it.”
“What kind’s that?” she asked.
“The kind that uses a bullet to solve his problems.”
“Seems sometimes that’s exactly what’s needed, though.
To a hammer, every problem is a nail, innit?
Well, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get the job done when it’s not a nail.
Doesn’t mean the hammer’s wrong fer tryin’, either.
Might be messy and look like shite but done is done.
In some cases, the why is far more important than the how, as long as the result is the same. ”
She heard an office chair squeak on his end of the line, like he leaned back. “I guess I didn’t realize how lucky I had it all these years. I thought losing Mom and Dad would set the bar pretty fucking high on bad times.”
She laughed. “Naw. Never tempt the Goddess like that. She’ll always one-up ye just to keep ye humble.”
“I’m learning that,” he finally said. “But I need to finish this. I want to show them never to fuck with us again.”
“Them, who, exactly?”
“Ken’s picked up some strange information from the Seguras lately,” he said. “I don’t know what it means, if it’s something to do with us, or the cartel, or both. We don’t know from what direction a new threat may emerge, either. But when it comes, we aren’t holding back.”
“Scorched earth, then?”
“Scorched fucking earth. You have experience I don’t, Aisling. And I know you’re newly mated, but with your skills and training, I need you to take point on this.”
She sighed. “That’s what I was afraid ye were gonna say. What do you want me to do?”
“I want everyone in both compounds armed and ready. I’m not as worried about people living individually, because the risk of Segura coming after anyone like that is too remote to be an issue.
I mean, if someone wants arms and training, absolutely, we’ll provide it, all on the pack’s dime. But my main concern is the compounds.”
She blew out a breath. “Ye want me to put together an emergency response plan to repel a coordinated attack, is what yer askin’.”
“Yes. And our resources are completely at your disposal.”
“Well, the first step is we need to arm everyone meetin’ yer parameters.
Every man, woman, and child old enough to stand their ground needs to know how to fight.
Armed and unarmed. By armed I don’t mean just firearms; we need to teach ’em how to use knives, bows, slings—everything.
They have to be able to use improvised weapons, set traps, and how to track.
We’ll need to run drills. And presumin’ this feckin’ eejit does come for us, he’s gonna come hard and fast. Good thing is we have the advantage in more ways than one. Including the most important one.”
“What’s that?” Peyton asked.
“He might think he’s more dangerous because he has nothing left to lose, but I guarantee that old man’s not nearly as clever as he thinks.
If he sends another batch of cannon fodder to us, we take a page from the Russians and send their heads back to him with a video and a note to leave us alone, with the ‘or else’ clearly implied. ”
“Hmm. I think you’re right.”
“Ye know I’m right. Ye asked me for my advice? This is it. We send him an unambiguous message and leave him practically insane wi’ fear. And even if after all of that he keeps tryin’ to fuck wi’ us? Well then.” She sucked her teeth. “We’ll just wipe him off the feckin’ planet, won’t we?”
The End