Sociopath’s Make Good Matchmakers
Chapter thirty-nine
Sociopath's Make Good Matchmakers
WRAITH
Mick's door is open when I reach it.
It's always open for me. That's not sentiment. It's operational.
He's at the window when I come in, jacket off, sleeves rolled up his forearms. He turns, reads whatever he reads on my face, and moves to the desk without a word.
I set the folder down in front of him.
"áine found it in Kenneth's paper records. She was doing the modernization." I tap the first page. "Her annotations are in the margins."
Mick opens it.
I don't explain what's in it. áine's meticulously documented financial trail between Kenneth Shaughnessy and the Hollow Point Kings' human trafficking.
He can read just fine.
Mick turns the last page and closes the file. "That feckin' gobshite."
I grunt my agreement. Mick reaches for the phone.
He puts Brogan on speaker. The call lasts four minutes. Mick lays it out. Brogan asks two questions. Mick answers both.
Then Brogan's voice, rougher than it ever is when he's in front of the men. "Tribunal in three day's time."
Mick ends the call. "Do you want to be the one to bring him in?"
I jerk my head in assent.
"You still have eyes on him?" Mick asks.
"Yes." He's unraveling and it's been a pleasure to get Ethan and McLaren's surveillance updates.
Fisk stopped taking Kenneth's calls after Mick confronted him with the evidence McLaren gathered on his off-the-book activities. Special Agent Raymond Fisk works for us now.
His first job? To delete the file his office had on Mick. Job number two? To sanitize the file the agency has on our organization.
Thanks to me and my team, the Hollow Point Kings no longer exist. Demon is in holding at the Bunker. We've interrogated him three times already and every time we learn a little more.
With the drug cocktail we've got him on mixed with our enhanced interrogation techniques he'll die sooner than later from heart or organ failure.
After Mick took Lars Nystrom in for interrogation and learned the plan was not to kill him, but Brogan? Both Brogan and the head of the Swedish mafia stopped taking Kenneth's calls too.
Brogan wanted to kill him that fucking day, but Mick wasn't moved. His plans don't change because of emotion, and he wanted every traitor and every hidden deal brought to light so they can be dealt with and eradicated.
With Kenneth effectively neutered and our pool of information growing daily, we're finishing our investigation into his contacts and activities.
We weren't looking into his legit businesses for links to the Hollow Point Kings though. Who runs a human trafficking business through the businesses that are supposed to be above reproach? A man arrogant enough to believe he can get away with it and stupid enough to betray his mob brethren.
My wife found the financial trail anyway. Because she's meticulous and smart.
And now, the tribunal's in three days. That gives us plenty of time to interrogate him for answers on the few questions we have left.
I don't know about Mick, but I have no intention of making it a gentle interrogation.
"The mixture of the Greek's compound and our talk juice worked pretty damn well on Venom," I say to my boss.
He nods, apparently the thought of Kenneth screaming in pain like the gang banger did bringing a humorless smile to his face.
"When did you know?" I pause. "With Kara."
He doesn't ask me to clarify. He knows what I'm asking.
"I didn't," he says. "At first." He sets the folder aside. "Then I almost lost her because I'd labeled love as an obsession." He looks me dead in the eye. "Women need the words."
I don't doubt that, but what if I can't say them because they're not true? Should I lie and tell áine I love her when I don't really know what that means?
"When you walked into the sunroom with áine, the day Sadie was attacked." Mick gives me an unreadable look. "I saw something in your eyes when you looked at her."
"Yeah?" What did he see? My need to protect a woman who reminded me too much of my vulnerable mother?
"Obsession. I saw obsession."
Is he saying he thinks I loved áine at first sight? Am I sure I didn't?
The office is very quiet.
"You're one of the few men I call friend, Wraith. " Mick says in the flat tone I'm so familiar with. "So, I arranged a marriage."
I stare at him.
He stares back.
The sociopath is completely at peace with this. He saw what he saw, he did what he did.
And I'm fucking glad. "Thank you."
He inclines his head.