Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Iona
“I have a few things to buy here.” He indicates the ironmonger next to the café where I’m meeting Snodgrass.
I nod. “I should be a couple of hours.”
I walk up to the café and enter, preparing to go order a drink, when my phone chimes with a text.
Yellow Jacket’s publicist Aimee writes, “Snodgrass thought the meeting was at 4, not 2. I’m sorry, Iona, but she won’t be ready to come till 4.”
Me: No bother.?1 I’m here already, but I’ll come back.
Aimee: Grand. Thanks, Iona.
I turn around and head back to the car. Trying the back door, I find Draven has left it unlocked.
I slip in, and the heat and quiet instantly make me drowsy.
I wonder if I could catch a nap, since I didn’t sleep much last night.
Leith and I both had nightmares that required sex to get out of our systems.
Setting my phone alarm for 3:55, I lie back along the seat and cover myself with my jacket. Immediately I doze off.
I jolt awake at the sound of Draven talking on speakerphone to Leith.
“Where are you?” Draven asks.
“I’m heading over to the address I sent you in Bridgeton.” Leith sounds as if he’s in the car. “I’m going to confront Kirkaldy.”
I just barely stop my breath from hitching. How is Kirkaldy out of prison? Is Leith planning to exact his revenge now? What if he gets caught? It’ll make the Hume Irving case even worse.
Something occurs to me. What if he’s being set up to commit murder?
Darian’s words last night recur, sharp and clear. He’s too preoccupied with avenging his dead friend. Where Aaron is concerned, Leith is hot-blooded enow to do something glaikit and detrimental to the Syndicate. I can prove it to you.
In this situation with Kirkaldy, is Darian proving to Diran that Leith’s actions will harm the Syndicate?
By now, Draven has rung off from his talk with Leith. I sit bolt upright, and Draven’s eyes flare in the rear view. He’s surprised I’m in here.
“Draven, drive me to that address Leith sent you,” I direct.
He shakes his head. “No, Iona. He wouldn’t want me to endanger you.”
“Then call him back—right now.” My tone is harried.
Draven does so, but it goes over to voicemail. I raise my voice so the message is clear. “Leith, this may be a trap. Don’t go to catch Kirkaldy.” I nod at Draven, who kills the call. “I need to intercept him before something awful happens. Drive me there.”
Draven rubs the back of his neck. “I can’t, Iona.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “He said you’re to drive me wherever I need to go.
Well, I desperately need to go to him!” When Draven remains silent, I try a different tack.
“If anything happens to Leith, it’ll be all your fault.
How’d you like that?” I can see I’m getting to him.
“And if you don’t drive me there, I’ll tell Leith you made a pass at me. ”
Draven blows out a tense breath. “Fuck. Fine.” He starts the car. “But when we get there, stay with me. Clear?”
I have no intention of doing that. “Okay.”
As he drives east, I tap my foot, my heart pinballing in my chest. “Can’t you speed up?”
Draven floors the accelerator, flicking his gaze to mine in the mirror. “You really think something’s wrong?”
“Aye. I think he’s being set up.” The chills racing down my arms confirm my suspicions. My gut says this whole situation is wrong.
After what seems an eternity we pull over in front of a rundown block of tenements covered in graffiti. On the path leading to the front door, Leith approaches a man with long, curly hair pulled back in a band and a devil-may-care manner. Leith reaches into his jacket for something, and I panic.
I throw open my door and rush toward Leith. Jumping in front of him, I plaster myself to his body. “Leith, it’s a trap! Don’t hurt him! You’ve been set up!”
Leith grabs my wrist and pulls me behind him. “Watch your back, Kirkaldy. Your time may not have come yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t come.”
Kirkaldy spits on the ground. “Do your worst, Cargill.” Slouching off, he bumps shoulders with Leith and ambles onto the pavement.
“Come out!” Leith calls out. “I see you skulking in the shadows.”
Two men emerge from either end of the yard.
“What are the polis doing here?” Leith asks one of them. “Who sent you?”
“We can’t divulge that information,” one of the plain clothes officers says.
“Did Darian send you?” Leith’s eyes skip between the two men.
The other officer shakes his head, ignoring Leith’s question. “Be glad your wife stopped you from doing something foolish.”
“You’d better be on your guard twenty-four seven,” Leith gruffs.
The two policemen stalk toward their car, and Draven appears behind me, a sheepish expression on his face. “Sorry, Leith. She insisted.”
Leith spins me in front of him, searching my eyes. “How did you know it was a set-up?”
“Last night Darian as good as told Diran he was going to prove you were too hot-blooded when it came to Aaron and that you’d get the Syndicate in trouble. I didn’t think of his words until I heard you and Draven talking about Kirkaldy in the car.”
Leith passes a hand over his scruff. “This morning a policeman who was afraid for his family tipped me off that two members of the polis would be here to film me and witness me killing Kirkaldy.”
So Leith knew about the ambush. “Why did you come anyway?”
“To find out who my enemies are. I didn’t plan to off Kirkaldy just yet.” Leith studies me. “In light of what you said Dar told Diran last night, I wonder if he’s trying to force me to choose between my work and revenge and he’s confident I’ll choose revenge.”
I’m about to agree when Leith’s phone lights up with a call, and he opens it. “Aye.”
* * *
Leith
As Diran speaks, my mind is only half on his words. The other half can’t get over the way Iona rushed to warn me about the set-up. She could’ve gotten killed, but she risked her life to make sure I didn’t get in trouble.
“Come to my bit at 4,” Diran instructs.
“I’ll be there.”
We ring off, and I glance at my watch. I have just enough time to get there. I turn to Iona. “Didn’t you have a meeting with your author?”
Her jaw slacks. “I forgot completely! It’s at 4.”
Draven nods. “I’ll take her.”
I hold Iona’s chin in the crook of my hand. “I’ll come home after Diran’s. We can talk more.” Pressing my lips to hers, I murmur, “I should punish you for this.”
As she hums into our kiss, I decide her punishment will be more of a reward.
On the way to Diran’s I think about how Iona was prepared to jeopardize her ties with the press that published her author’s work—all to save me.
She threw herself in harm’s way, not caring about her own well-being.
She clearly cares about me enough for me to trust her not to run. I may take her off house arrest.
A few minutes later, Diran’s housekeeper Jacqueline shows me into his study. Diran nods, and I take a seat in the chair opposite him in his meeting area.
“Is it true you just confronted Kirkaldy at his cousin’s bit?” Diran fixes me with a piercing look.
“It is.”
Did Darian tell him?
“Leith, I’m gaun to level with you. If you put half as much time into the Lowing case as you put into finding Iona’s biological da, getting even with Kirkaldy, and clearing yourself of those murder charges, the case would be in the bag by now.
” A deep sigh rolls through him. “As it is, I’ll have to put someone else on the Lowing case.
You’re on furlough until further notice.
You’re no good for any legal work till you’ve squared away those other matters. ”
The floor drops out from under me, and my heart sinks with it. Momentarily at a loss for words, I process what he’s just said. He’s letting me go until I’ve wrapped up everything else in my life.
How does he know so much about my side projects?
Finally I find my voice. “I’m the best there is, and you know it.”
He bows his head. “I do know it, Leith. And this isn’t for good.”
“Whom will you hire for the Lowing case?”
“I’ll put both Manton and McCormick on it.”
“Then let me have a few of their cases.”
Diran shakes his head. “I want you to settle your own affairs first.”
“There are only five days before the trial,” I remind him.
“That’s why I’d like you to brief them fully on what you’ve got so far.” Diran checks his watch. “This evening.”
I run a hand through my hair. “Are you sure you want to do this, Diran?”
He lifts a stern brow. “Are you questioning my authority?”
I’m stunned that he’d react so defensively to my innocuous question. “Of course not.”
He pushes to his feet. “Arrange with Manton and McCormick for a meeting tonight.”
Full of misgiving, I rise and pull out my phone, texting my two colleagues.
From Diran’s I drive straight to McCormick’s office, where we eat takeaway while I brief the two men on the Lowing case so far. It’s past 10 by the time we’ve finished.
It’s only when I reach home that it fully hits me: I’ve been fired. Temporarily, but it still hits hard. A brick weighs down my stomach.
Iona meets me in the entrance hall. “What did Diran want that took so long?”
“He suspended me from the Lowing case and all work until I’ve taken care of other matters.” I stuff a clenched fist in my pocket.
Her face falls. “Och, I’m sorry. But it’s so late, right? Isn’t the trial on Monday?”
“Aye.” My jaw tightens. “I think it could be Darian’s doing.
He must’ve told Diran I went to confront Kirkaldy.
He might even have set me up this afternoon.
He wants it to look as if I’m putting revenge before my work for the Crew.
Since he believes I’m competing for the boss position, he wants me out of the running.
” I feel this to be true especially after Diran aggressively asked me if I was questioning his authority.
“Fuck,” she breathes. “Would he really throw you under the bus like that?”
“Darian believes in winning, not playing fair.” I gather Iona in my arms, thumbing her lower lip. “Are you ashamed of me?”