33. Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Three
Finn
J ay’s sleep is fitful beside me. I bet he’s never been shot before. Knocks the shit out of anyone the first time. The blood loss doesn’t help.
“It’s too early to roll up to Thomas’s house,” I say to Lorcan when we enter the city limits two hours after we left Belfast.
“Jay needs a place to sleep.” He catches my attention in the rearview mirror. “We’ve also got to figure out a strategy for approaching him for help. Jay’s no good to us for the rest of this assignment.”
Carys sucks in a sharp breath. “We’re not abandoning him.”
“We can try to send him to the Volkovs in Boston, or we can see if Thomas will protect him,” I say while she stares at Jay with guilt written on her face.
“Could he get on a plane like this?” she asks.
“Not a commercial flight,” Kim says.
Carys eases her fingers across her forehead and meets my gaze. “What do you think?”
“As long as we’re sure we can trust Thomas when we talk to him, I vote we leave him there until he’s better or we’ve knocked the PLA out.”
She doesn’t say anything else but goes back to looking out the window. I wish we were alone, so she’d let me into that head of hers. She’s keeping too many thoughts rattling around, and I hate not knowing what they are. The expression on her face makes me think they can’t be good.
Lorcan steers us toward the Byrne family estate despite the early-morning hour.
“What are we doing about the two of you?” Thomas knows my brother very well, and he met Kim during a business dinner when she worked for us.
They exchange an uneasy glance in the front seats. “Until we figure out what the PLA has planned, last night proved we need protection. They aren’t going to let us do whatever we want while they execute their plan.” He meets my gaze in the mirror. “What do you reckon Thomas will think about me not being dead?”
“He’ll know we’ve cooked up some sort of scheme.” Would he assume the FBI or CIA were involved? Why would the government declare Lorcan dead otherwise? “Not sure he’ll believe there wasn’t high-level intervention.”
Kim’s thumb brushes Lorcan’s cheek, tenderness in her gaze. “The CIA doesn’t want us to reveal ourselves. Holing up in a hotel for however long isn’t a great option either.” He covers her hand.
I stare out the window as we creep closer to the Byrne residence. Like many of the other mafia families, they once had a large estate far from the city borders with various smaller properties in the downtown core to move people or products. Now, their country property is nestled on the edge of the city, in danger of being consumed by urban sprawl.
Thomas commented on the developments when he came to Boston to visit and saw how our privacy was eaten by the expanding city limits. The Donagheys have a long history with the Byrne family, and if Lorcan reveals himself, we’ll be counting on those connections not to sink us.
“I’ll go in first. Everyone else wait in the vehicle. I’ll find out about the PLA plan, and then I’ll ask for protection while we go after them. I know we’ve got the CIA at our disposal once we’ve uncovered the details of the scheme, but until then, we might be wise to have more manpower,” I say.
“You reckon Thomas will give us that?”
“Depends on why he turned down whatever they wanted from him in the first place.”
“You think I’ll be all right to reveal myself?”
I stare at him in the mirror, and he’s not going to like my answer. “Only one way to find out.”
Kim slides her hand along Lorcan’s arm to grip his fingers.
She should be worried. I haven’t got a clue what I’m walking into when I enter Thomas’s estate, but I realize we need his help, and I’ll do whatever I can to secure it.
“I want to come with you,” Carys says when Lorcan drives into a parking lot about a half mile from the entrance to the Byrne complex.
My first instinct is to tell her no. She’s covered in Jay’s blood, and I don’t know how Thomas is going to react to my request. Technically, I still owe him a favor from a few months ago. There’s more of a tit-for-tat aspect to our relationship rather than my take-take-taking. I’ve got nothing to offer yet. Maybe a nice vacation in Cape Verde in the future, but there’s no immediate gain for his help.
At my hesitation, she sets her jaw. “I’ll rephrase that for you. I’m coming.”
With a sigh, I climb out of the back seat and make sure Jay isn’t going to topple over. Carys has kept him comfortable with various painkillers during the drive. He’s barely been conscious long enough to hear how and why he was shot. I have a feeling he’ll need the story repeated once the drugs wear off.
She slips out the other side behind me and links her hand with mine while we start down the street lined with residential row houses and tiny gardens out front.
“You’ve been quiet since Jay was hurt.”
“Yeah.” She clings to my arm. “I was terrified he was going to die. And then… and then, talking to John made me realize how far apart my father and I have drifted. I don’t know anything about his life anymore. That should make me sad, shouldn’t it? But—I don’t know—I don’t think it does.”
I kiss her temple and remain silent. Her father is a shit, but her relationship with him has never been that simple.
“I’m forty-six. Shouldn’t I be over this?”
I chuckle. “Over a shitty parent? Nah. That’s not a thing. We carry that dysfunction with us. I’m damn sure going to try my best to be better to Lucas than my father was.”
While we walk, she rises on her toes and kisses my cheek. “You’re already a better father for wanting to be your best.”
We’re nearing the guarded entrance of Thomas’s house, so I don’t say anything in response, just squeeze her hand. We’ve got miles to go before I get to put my fatherhood prowess to the test again. I don’t even know Lucas anymore, and the thought brings a brief pang of sadness before I push it down. I’m going to have a lot to make up to him and Carys when my sentence is done.
We approach the crew of guards, and one comes out of his guardhouse on the other side of the gate.
“We’re here to see Thomas Byrne,” I say.
The guy checks his watch and squints at us. “Mr. Byrne doesn’t have any appointments this morning.”
“Excellent.” I offer a wolfish grin. “Means he’ll have no trouble seeing us. Tell him Finn Donaghey and Carys Van de Berg are at the gate. He’ll let us in.” Will he at this early hour? I don’t have a clue, but confidence breeds results.
The guard ducks into his hut and speaks on the phone for a few minutes. Other men shift, giving us furtive glances, flashing their concealed weapons. The camera on the top of the gate tilts in our direction, and I glance up, offering a wave. Thomas must be wondering what the hell is going on.
“We’ll search you both for weapons.” The guard returns to the small entry door off the larger one meant for cars.
Clearly Thomas doesn’t trust this visit too much, but he’s going to let us in anyway. The guards take the gun lodged in the small of my back and the one in Carys’s purse. I haven’t managed to accumulate any other weapons, but they are thorough. Thomas hires good people, which makes me more secure in asking him for protection.
We make the walk along the tree-lined drive to his estate built from some sort of stone. The house has a vague resemblance to a castle. I haven’t been here in twenty years. Do his brothers still live on the estate as well? If I remember correctly, there were lots of cottages and outbuildings spread throughout the sprawling property.
At the front door, another guard searches us again while two German shepherds sit watching us. I have no doubt they attack on command or the first sign of trouble. Rather than annoyed, I’m pleased with the extra layers of protection until the guy’s hands wander a little too close to Carys’s more sensitive places, and she flinches.
“Hey,” I say. “Watch where those hands are going on her.”
The guard gives me a wry look, and the dogs growl at my tone. “Women are notorious for stashing shit where men are too timid to check. Next time she can come naked if she doesn’t want my hands on her.”
I’m about to respond with my fist to his face, dogs be damned, when Thomas chuckles in the doorway behind. Beating up security isn’t the right tone to set.
When we step past the guard and dogs, Thomas, in his late forties with thick reddish-brown hair, offers his hand to shake. Carys doesn’t loop herself around me like normal, but instead adopts the business persona I haven’t seen much of since I got out. I suppose Van de Berg Ammunitions did have deals with the Byrne family. Habit, maybe, for her to become so cool and aloof.
“To what do I owe this shocking visit at 9 a.m. without a driver, or security, after a risky jailbreak and both of you covered in blood?” Thomas leads us through his hallway and into a narrow, but modernly decorated, sitting room. He gestures for us to sit on one of the couches. Carys takes one end and I take the other.
“The jailbreak was well planned.” I smirk. “Nothing risky about it.” No need to mention our morning escapades. Makes us appear weak.
“Except I heard the PLA hijacked Evander Williams’s carefully crafted plans. Bit riskier then.” Thomas’s gaze pins me.
We’re jumping right into it, then. Suits me fine. No need to pussyfoot around why we’re here. “I wasn’t so keen on being their puppet.”
“Looks like you’ve evaded them. Though I heard Donal McCaffrey paid your price with his head. Why not return to Cape Verde? I hear rebuilding is in order.”
I take a beat to consider his words. He’s got his ear to the ground if he knows about the bomb in Cape Verde, Donal’s missing head, and also the PLA kidnapping me. “They framed Carys for crimes she didn’t commit, and they sent her a confetti bomb as a joke. As you can imagine, it’s not a joke I consider amusing. I’ve got an axe to grind, and I intend to grind it right down their bony spines.”
Thomas laughs, and genuine amusement lights his face. “I have no doubt you will.”
“They were trying to get me to come here to talk to you.” The smile falls from his lips at my words.
“Yes, they wanted to grind an axe into me as well. Wanted me to come work for them. Reorganize my men to help them. Take orders from PJ—Pearl Jade.” He gazes at Carys. “No offense to you, but I’m not likely to take orders from a woman, particularly one so keen to use her body as manipulation.”
Carys straightens and purses her lips. She won’t like the comment about women not being capable of being in charge, but she won’t like that her sister was using sex as a weapon either. Both are against Carys’s personal beliefs.
It is interesting that Jade revealed herself to Thomas, and the PLA still wanted me to come down here to negotiate. She wanted me to discover her identity. “In Ireland? They wanted your help in Ireland?” The bombs they shipped went to so many places it’s hard to believe their focus was solely here.
“No,” Thomas says. “I’ve got connections, maybe what you’d call a small faction, in Shanghai and another in Russia.”
“In Russia?” A frown mars Carys’s forehead.
Have I told her about the bomb orders we found in Pierre-Jacques’s office? Not yet. She won’t be pleased to be one step behind.
“Volgograd.” Thomas’s smile is wolfish. “I’d planned to go after Demid, but someone else beat me to it. My money is on Semyon, but it could have been the PLA. Demid didn’t want to play their games either. Perhaps he wasn’t big enough to fend them off.”
“A car bomb is hardly a fair fight,” she says while one of Thomas’s servants brings in a tray of tea and coffee.
“Does a fight need to be fair?” He pours himself a coffee. “Help yourself.”
Carys and I fall on opposite sides of that line. I’m not going to highlight our difference by answering Thomas’s rhetorical question. “So, you’re not a fan of the PLA either?”
“Is anyone?” Thomas tips the cream into his coffee and stirs it with a spoon.
“I want your help to go after them.” Might as well cut to the chase. “We’d like to stay here under your protection. I also have an injured man I need protection for.”
Thomas sips his coffee and looks from me to Carys and back again. “That’s no small thing. What can you offer me in return, other than money?”
She leans forward, getting her own coffee fixed. “What do you want?”
Thomas sets his coffee cup on the table and focuses on me. “Here are my two issues with helping you.” He meets my gaze to be sure I’m listening. He crosses his arms. “For one, you killed your brother, and I’ve heard you played a part in your father’s murder. Maybe one of those I could live with—your father was an arsehole—but the other I can’t. There’s an honor code amongst families, and you violated it.” He runs a hand down his face. “Then there’s the matter of what you lost in killing your brother. You’re not the strategy man. You’re the muscle. We know it. Lorcan is the plan, and you’re the execution. Nothing wrong with that, worked for you both quite well. But I’m not keen to throw my lot in with a man who can’t win.”
Carys tenses and glances at me. She’s probably wondering the same thing I am. Is now when I admit Lorcan isn’t dead? Doesn’t change the fact that maybe a small part of me meant to kill him in the warehouse, or at the very least, was prepared for him to be severely injured in that confrontation. Thomas is right that impulsiveness can be my undoing.
“I’ll regret what happened between my brother and me until the day I die.” Maybe regret isn’t the right word because the warehouse led me back to Carys, and I’m never going to be sorry about that. The complete truth won’t do me any favors. “So, if my brother were still here, we’d be aces?”
Thomas eyes me. “Why would you put that question to me unless his death was a trick of some sort? Lorcan isn’t dead?”
“I’ll tell you everything, the whole sorry tale, if you’ll agree to protect us and help us.”
A hint of a smile twitches Thomas’s lips. “I must admit, I’m a sucker for a spot of intrigue and fucking over the PLA. If you’ve got your brother stashed away somewhere, you’ve got my protection and my help.”
“Then I guess we’ve got a deal.” I extend my hand to Thomas to shake, and I pray that once Thomas realizes Lorcan and Kim work for the CIA, he doesn’t put a bullet in our heads.