6. Ryan #6
“We keep looking at what each person does.” Danny gestures toward the files.
“Pennington groomed families and used blackmail. Lucian had drugs, laundering, businesses. Reece handled distribution and violence. Hartley had her own connections and people she’d pay to do shit.
Roman has politics. Victor has whatever the fuck Victor has. ”
“International access,” Theodore says.
“Maybe.” Danny nods. “But they don’t all have to do everything.” Arthur watches him. Danny’s scientist brain is fully awake now. “They just need to do their piece.”
Dad leans forward. “Facilitation.”
Arthur looks at him. “That’s the prosecutor’s word. One person has political access. Another can move money. Another can make an introduction. Another has a legitimate company or foundation. Another knows someone at customs.”
Thomas’s face hardens. “Another has a vulnerable family.”
Callum adds, “Or creates one.”
Thomas rubs his hand over his mouth. “They groom the families.”
“Sometimes,” Arthur says.
And there it is. The thing that’s been sitting underneath all of this since September.
Not one crime. Not one family. A system.
Rich men with legitimate jobs and legitimate businesses and political connections and foundations and charities and money moving through places normal people never see.
They don’t need some fucking clubhouse. They don’t need robes.
They don’t need a secret handshake. They already have access to each other.
And when one of them needs something, somebody else can provide it.
Money. Drugs. Information. A judge. A customs official. A politician. A family. A girl.
I look at Arthur. “Who’s above Roman?”
“We don’t know that anyone is.”
“Someone is protecting this.”
“Possibly.”
“Pennington goes down and it keeps moving. Lucian goes to prison and it keeps moving. Hartley gets arrested and Roman sits at dinner talking about all three of them like he’s reviewing bad fucking investments.
” Arthur doesn’t answer. “Victor talks about them like mistakes.” Still nothing. “Somebody is still fucking standing.”
Dad looks at me. “That doesn’t necessarily mean one person.”
Maybe it’s the whole machine protecting itself. Maybe there are five more Romans. Maybe there are fifty. Maybe there is one person in the middle. We don’t know. That’s what makes it worse.
Iz leans forward. “Somebody has to know the whole thing.”
Arthur looks at him. “Maybe.”
“Pennington knew his piece. Lucian knew his. Hartley knew enough to know Roman. Roman knows Victor. But somebody has to know where all the pieces meet.”
My phone feels heavy in my pocket. Ally has lunch with Victor today. While we’re sitting here realizing the man she’s been promised to since she was thirteen is part of something that has been circling all of us since September.
Dad clears his throat. “Earlier this week, Jane called Cassandra. She needed someone to keep Tobias for an hour until Ally got out of school.”
Callum frowns. “That’s not unusual.”
“No. We’re neighbors. Our families have known each other for years. Cassandra would’ve taken him without thinking twice.” Dad pauses. “What wasn’t normal was Jane asking Cassandra not to tell Roman.”
Thomas leans back. “Jane deliberately went behind him.”
“Then yesterday,” Dad says, looking at me.
I take over. “Roman went to Boston.” The memory is so different from this room that it almost doesn’t fit.
Sun on the lake. Tobias running around. Mom feeding everybody.
Dad telling increasingly elaborate lies about his failed leprechaun hunt.
Ally laughing. For three hours, she was just mine.
Not Victor’s future wife. Not Roman’s daughter.
Mine. “Tobias wanted a playdate,” I say.
“Ally used that as cover. Jane was sleeping at home. Roman was gone. She brought him to our lake house.”
Xander looks at Dad. “Did you tell him about the leprechaun?”
Dad looks offended. “Obviously.”
Iz groans. “What leprechaun?”
“The one my father failed to catch,” I say.
Dad turns toward me. “I did not fail.”
“You slept on the couch all night.”
“Surveillance.”
“And ate the bait.”
“It was stale.”
Kaiden’s mouth twitches. “What was the bait?”
“Pretzels.” Dad points at me. “Which your girlfriend then stole.”
“One pretzel.”
“After accusing me of eating evidence.”
“You were eating evidence.” For half a second, the room breathes. Then I remember what happened after. “Ally took one and said something about my baby making her hungry.”
Kaiden’s eyes widen. “Oh, fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“Tobias heard her.”
“What happened?”
“Exactly what you’d expect from Tobias.” I rub a hand over my face. “He asked what baby. Then whether there was a baby in Ally’s stomach. Then whose baby it was. Then if Roman knew. Then if Victor knew. He was firing questions faster than she could answer them.”
Clifford looks at me. “And Ally?”
“Panicked. She kept trying to tell him he couldn’t tell anybody. He didn’t understand why, so he kept asking. She couldn’t get him to stop long enough to think.” I can still see her face. The second the words left her mouth. The horror. “She yelled.”
Theodore’s expression changes. “At Tobias?”
“Enough to scare him.” I look down at my hands. “She wasn’t angry with him. She was fucking terrified. But Tobias didn’t know that. He started crying and ran to me.” Nobody says anything.
Dad does eventually. “Ryan handled it.”
Arthur looks at me. “What did you tell him?”
“The truth.”
“All of it?”
“The part a six-year-old needs.” I lean back.
“He wanted to talk man to man. I told Tobias Ally has my baby in her stomach. Showed him the app. Showed him how big it is right now. Explained that the baby is okay and Ally is okay.” Danny’s eyes drop.
Clifford’s hand finds his shoulder again.
Danny doesn’t pull away. “I told him it’s a secret because some adults would be angry, but not because Ally did anything wrong. ”
Callum nods. “What did he say?”
“He asked if it was Victor’s.”
Arthur’s voice goes flat. “Why?”
“Because Victor told him Ally is going to give him babies.” Nobody moves. “Lots of babies,” I say. “Apparently sons specifically.”
Theodore whispers, “Jesus Christ.”
“Roman told Tobias Ally needs to do better than Jane did because Jane only gave him one son.” Dad’s jaw flexes. “He told Tobias Victor picked Ally because she’s a good girl.”
Thomas goes still. Picked. The same fucking word. Kaiden hears it too. I can tell.
“Tobias knows Ally is supposed to marry Victor. He understands she’ll live with him. He understands Victor will be in charge.”
“How?” Gideon asks.
“Because Roman and Victor fucking teach him.” I start counting them off. “Women listen to men. Wives listen to husbands. Men handle money because women don’t need to worry about it. Men make the decisions. Women make boys soft if they baby them too much.”
Clifford’s face darkens. “He’s six.”
“Yeah.”
“Roman is telling his six-year-old son this. What does Tobias think?”
“He thinks Roman is mean.” That almost makes Dad smile.
“And Victor?”
“He doesn’t like him.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor talks about taking Ally away.” Arthur’s pen stops. I continue. “Roman tells Tobias he needs to stop needing Ally so much because she’s going to have her own family. Victor told him he’d teach him how to be a man.”
Xander’s jaw tightens. Gideon’s hand lands against his forearm before he does anything. X looks at him. “I am literally sitting down.”
“Tobias told Victor no,” I say. Dad looks at me. I already know what he’s about to do. “Don’t.”
“He asked Ryan.”
“Dad.”
“Tobias asked Ryan to teach him how to be a man instead.” Nobody says anything for a second. Then Clifford smiles too. I point around the room.
“Absolutely fucking not.”
Xander looks delighted. “Papa Ryan.”
“I’ll kill you.”
“Uncle Xander will protect you, Tobias.”
“I will kill you twice.” Danny actually laughs into his coffee. Good. Worth it.
I wait until they shut the fuck up. “Then Tobias got embarrassed because he’d been crying.” Danny’s smile disappears. “Roman tells him boys don’t cry.”
Clifford sighs. “Of course he does.”
“So I told him Roman was wrong.” I look at Danny. “I told him you cried when Daisy died.” The room goes quiet. Danny holds my eyes. I don’t apologize. I wouldn’t have used her if I thought he’d want me to. After a moment, he nods.
“Good.” Clifford’s hand tightens on his shoulder.
“I told him I cried too. That Dad’s seen me cry. Mom has. Ally has. The boys have. The girls have. I told him needing people doesn’t make him weak.”
Danny looks down at his coffee. Then back at me. “Good.”
“After that, Tobias talked.”
Arthur immediately asks, “Did you question him?”
“No.”
My answer comes sharp enough that he lifts a hand. “I needed to ask.”
“I didn’t interrogate a six-year-old.”
“We talked. I let him talk.” Dad nods. “Ryan did exactly what Cassandra would’ve done.”
“Tobias told me Roman says Ally makes him soft because he always runs to her when he’s upset. That he needs to stop bothering her because Victor won’t want him around all the time.” Arthur writes. “And then he said if Ally isn’t good, Victor might not let him see her.”
Arthur stops writing. “What?”
“Roman told him if Ally doesn’t behave after she marries Victor, Tobias might not be allowed to visit.” Silence. Real silence. The kind that makes the ticking clock on Arthur’s shelf suddenly loud.
Callum’s face goes hard. “They’re using the child to control her.”
“Yeah.”
“And using her to control him,” Dad says.
“Yeah.”
Thomas looks at Arthur. “There it is again.” Arthur’s eyes move to him.
“The family.” Nobody needs him to explain.
Roman doesn’t just control Ally. He controls Jane through fear.
Ally through Tobias. Tobias through Ally.
And he’s already trying to teach Tobias how to become another version of himself.