Chapter 40 #2
Irish took over before Rory had time to think about County Clare.
My mind moved automatically through routes, access, land, ownership, and whatever waited inside that property.
My mind moved automatically, and for once I didn't mistake that instinct for regression.
Irish existed for a reason. The club had given me a name that belonged to competence, loyalty, and the man I became after surviving something that should have ended me.
I didn't need to discard him simply because Rory had come home. Toxic noticed me studying the map.
"Not tonight." I looked at him.
"Didn't say anything."
"Didn't need to." Skye laughed quietly beside me. Traitor. Toxic pointed at the table.
"Cipher confirms property. Trigger works surveillance rotation. Nobody charges another compound because Irish gets nostalgic for burning buildings."
"I did not burn Saint Brigid's."
Raze nodded solemnly. "Important distinction."
"Harrow burned it."
"Still seemed like your trip had a theme."
I stared at him. He grinned. The room loosened enough for Ledger to breathe again.
Maybe that was why Raze did half the stupid things he did.
I would never tell him. Cipher finished the debrief with the only piece of information none of us wanted to hear.
Vale had resurfaced financially rather than physically.
A shell account activated twenty-four hours earlier in Rotterdam, moving enough money through three charities to suggest part of the European network was relocating.
Harrow remained absent. Croft remained in British custody and had apparently decided silence was preferable to cooperation.
The Order was bleeding, but it was not dead.
Toxic closed the meeting after assigning watches, legal follow-up, and enough operational restrictions to prevent anyone from interpreting fresh information as permission to start another international incident.
Ledger remained seated after the others stood. I paused near the door. He looked up.
"You good?" It was a stupid question. He knew that. So did I. His mouth moved faintly.
"No." Fair. I leaned against the table.
"Want company?" He studied me. Then nodded once. The room emptied around us except for Toxic, who remained near the far wall without pretending he wasn't staying too. Skye paused at the door. I looked toward her.
"Give me a minute?" Her expression softened.
"Of course." No suspicion. No need to be included in everything simply because we loved each other. She left. Ledger stared at the dark screen.
"You knew your family was dead." The sentence came abruptly. I understood what he meant.
"Aye."
"I don't know if she's alive."
"No."
"I don't know if she's actually my sister."
"No."
"I don't know whether I want her to be." That one surprised me. Ledger rubbed both hands over his face.
"If she is, then somebody took her."
"Aye."
"If she isn't, I'm chasing some stranger because I want the story to make sense."
"Aye." He looked at me.
"You're not very helpful."
"I've been told."
His mouth moved. I let the silence sit. Eventually I said, "Don't build the ending before you have the facts." His gaze sharpened.
"That advice cost you fifteen years."
"Aye." I didn't soften it.
"Which is why I'm giving it." He absorbed that. Toxic crossed the room and rested one hand on Ledger's shoulder.
"We verify." Ledger nodded.
"And if she's mine?" Toxic looked at him.
"Then she's still hers first." Skye's lesson again. Ledger stared at the table. Then exhaled.
"Okay."
We left him with Toxic. The common room had thinned while we were inside.
Sunshine and Storm were gone. Raze had apparently been removed from whatever camera crime he'd attempted.
Hawkeye stood near the hallway speaking with Cipher, while Skye occupied the table beneath the wall of Harbor House plans. She looked up as I approached.
"Ledger?"
"Not good."
"Understandably."
"He'll get there." She closed her notebook.
"You?"
"Aye."
"Truth?" I sat beside her.
"Aye." She watched me. I looked toward the chapel door.
"Order keeps finding ways into people."
"That's what systems like that do."
"Da saw one piece."
"Yes."
"Thought if he exposed enough, maybe it ended." Skye's hand settled over mine.
"He couldn't have known how large it was."
"I know."
And I did. That was another change. Knowing no longer meant merely repeating something other people told me until eventually the sentence lost meaning.
I could look at Da's decisions and understand where he had been wrong without turning his mistakes into evidence that he deserved what happened.
He had tried, failed in some ways, and succeeded in others, and eventually we would do the same. Skye leaned against my shoulder.
"We'll go after the East Coast property."
"Aye."
"Together."
"Aye."
"With a plan." I glanced down.
"Probably." She pinched my side. I laughed.
"Fine. With a plan."
"Good."
We sat there for another minute while the clubhouse settled around us. Then Skye said, "I've been thinking about something."
"Always dangerous."