Chapter 16 #4
The two club presidents stared at each other for a heartbeat before Poison waved a hand like she was giving permission for the meeting to continue. Ghost turned to Keys and gave him an encouraging nod.
Keys cleared his throat, nerves starting to rise again.
“We need to take out Corrigan first.” Keys looked around the room.
“As long as Corrigan is operational, Kennedy has eyes inside systems we have limited access to. If we go after Kennedy first and Corrigan learns of our involvement, then all of us will spend the next year looking over our shoulders waiting for the federal infrastructure to collapse on us.” He cleared his throat.
“Which is why I am proposing we go after Corrigan first and expose him for being corrupt.”
The room was quiet for a moment.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Papaw asked from his place at the bar. “Unless the man makes a written confession, we’re going to need proof of wrongdoing.”
“We have some proof, but it’s circumstantial at best,” Rose told them sheepishly. “And it’s not like I used legal means to hack into the Marshals’ database.”
“But we do have an in that neither Kennedy nor Corrigan will see coming.” Keys turned his attention towards Angel.
The lone VDMC female member sat up more as everyone followed Keys’ line of sight to her. “What?” she demanded.
After all Angel and Cage had done for him, Keys really hoped that Angel did not see what he said next as a betrayal. “Steel ordered me to do background checks on all of you,” he reminded her gently. “I know who your sister and your father are.”
Angel did not pale or look offended by this knowledge. Instead, she laughed. “Then you should know that I have no relationship with them. I called in any familial debt when I adopted Bree. I haven’t spoken a word to either of them since.”
Pirate lifted his hand like he was in second grade. “Um, who are your father and your sister?”
Angel made a face. “My father is irrelevant in this matter, but my sister is the Deputy Director of the U.S. Marshal Service.”
As others processed that shock, Keys kept the conversation on task. “If we get her the evidence, would she be able to handle Corrigan?”
“She would handle Corrigan because she wouldn’t stand for corruption in her agency,” Angel clarified. “But she also would not trust the evidence unless it was extremely damning or she knew the source, and like I said, she no longer knows me.”
“She doesn’t need to know it came from you then. But she would be able to handle Corrigan and not sweep what he’s done under the rug, right?”
Angel rolled her neck. “Yes,” she sighed. “She would handle Corrigan the legal way,” she emphasized. “Do we even know what Corrigan’s crimes are? Other than giving Kennedy access to classified information?”
“Based on the footprints I found, I believe Corrigan is Kennedy’s silent partner,” Rose answered.
“Kennedy got caught, but Corrigan didn’t.
When Kennedy cut his deal to get out of prison, he gave names, even listed some higher ups, but he never mentioned Corrigan.
That leads me to believe that Corrigan either kept the scheme running while Kennedy was away or he kept his hands clean so Kennedy could pick back up where he left off when he got out. ”
“I have no plans of allowing Corrigan to get arrested and dealt with the legal way,” Poison said mockingly. “Both he and Kennedy have some pain coming their way.”
“Poison, please,” Rose groaned, tightening her hold on Keys’ hand.
“This is one of the reasons I did not want you involved. Any of you,” she said to the group as a whole.
“I have no doubt that we can protect ourselves against a number of formidable enemies. But this is the federal government we’re talking about now.
They won’t hesitate to take us all down, especially to save face.
You can’t go in guns blazing. You’ll get yourself killed or arrested. We have to be methodical.”
Before Poison could respond, Angel spoke up. “Even if we get Corrigan arrested and taken out of play, what’s your plan for Kennedy? Based on what you told us, he clearly wants Oscar. He killed Katy’s handler to leave you that message.”
Keys winced, still feeling guilt about that.
He might not have been the one to shoot that gun, but he’d put the plan into motion that had led to that federal agent’s murder.
It didn’t matter that the man was unmarried and childless.
He was still a life, and Kennedy had had him killed just to send a message to Rose.
Others spoke up, offering their ideas when Keys remained silent.
Keys glanced to Thorne, Grimm, and Goose, who were sitting silently with Tom by the bar. They were here because they were Rose and Oscar’s personal security. Any plan that involved Rose and Oscar would involve them. They’d blindly followed Keys, showing their loyalty time and time again.
His eyes traveled to Ghost, who’d stepped into Steel’s shoes and made them his own. Prior to that, Ghost hadn’t been much for the spotlight. He’d liked to observe, learning all the players before he acted. But when he made a decision, he jumped in feet first and without hesitation.
Poison was a force in and of herself. At times reckless, but powerful. He’d seen a more human side of her recently than he ever had before, but then again, she’d have to be entirely heartless to not feel something when her own sister came back from the dead.
Would any of the others in this room have anticipated Kennedy going after Katy and her handler? At the time, they hadn’t known about Corrigan, but still… Would they have predicted what Keys hadn’t?
Keys did not feel like a leader. He’d wanted to give Rose closure, had offered her revenge and the opportunity to step into the light with him.
But so far, his plan had failed. Kennedy was still in hiding, Poison had learned Rose was alive and not on Rose’s terms, and his club was still hurting from an attack while Keys had been distracted.
And no, he did not believe that he could have stopped Cameron’s bomb if Rose wasn’t in Mount Grove, but he also knew that he’d been slow to respond or notice certain things because he’d been looking for evidence that Kennedy had set the bomb instead of the real perpetrator.
Rose pulled on Keys’ hand, bringing his attention back down to her.
Her blue eyes stared up at him, filled with worry—but also something that struck Keys to the core.
Beyond her love for him and her fears for their current predicament, he both saw and felt her faith in him.
Mistakes happened, and he’d certainly made his fair share, but none of it mattered. She believed in him, trusted him.
Pulling her further into his side, Keys looked around the room with new eyes.
He wasn’t the outlier, the odd man out. He was no longer the kid genius or the toddler with cancer.
He might have been wearing a cut for seven years, but he’d been treating it like a cosplay costume.
He wasn’t standing in front of a group of strangers, giving a speech about nothing they cared about.
He was talking to his tribe, his people.
It might have taken him an ungodly amount of time, but he understood now what Steel had been trying to teach him for years, what Ghost had repeated only the day before.
They weren’t blood—but they were no less family.
He’d never been able to rely on his family, and in many ways, he’d been keeping his club at arm’s length in fear of having to leave them too one day.
But that fear was unprecedented, foolish, and he was finally ready to stand with his club, instead of behind them.
“I’m sorry.”
His voice rang loudly through the room, though he did not shout. Other talk ceased as all eyes turned to him. He caught Thorne’s dark gaze, and held it a moment longer than the others’. The oldest Riley brother gave him the smallest of nods, approval in his eyes.
Keys squared his shoulders. “I should have never done this alone, should have never involved you after the fact. I started this and I sure as hell am going to finish it, but this is a conversation we should have had before I set things in motion. For that, I am sorry.” He looked to Poison.
“You will get your pound of flesh, but Rose is right. We need to be smart about this. We specifically left no trails that led to Mount Grove, and we have to step carefully to ensure it stays that way. Corrigan first,” he repeated, looking to Angel.
“Reach out to your sister. I’ll give her one chance to do this through you before I do it my way.
Maybe she’ll take me seriously when I take control of her computer in front of her.
” He caught Ghost’s approving smile. “Once we have Corrigan out of the way, and if Kennedy still hasn’t made his move, then we’ll have to dangle another carrot.
But I won’t go off half-cocked without a plan—oh, and in case it wasn’t clear, I’m claiming Rose and adopting Oscar. ”