Page 85 of Forbidden Need

No Imogen today or Whisper. Raze was off on the periphery. More than a dozen McDade soldiers protected their perimeter. Intimidation or necessity?

“If you’ve got names, we’ll follow up,” Daly said. “Old man owed nothing off the grid. No gambling, no drugs, no hookers.”

“He didn’t share his suspicions with his lady friend,” Lachlan said. “Though she admitted he’d been distracted and tense for a few weeks. Could’ve been just regular council stuff, but it wasn’t like him to be stressed.”

Look at that. Her brother. Ford. Daly. All factions working together, almost.

“Still don’t have anything concrete on who shopped our guy to the cops.”

“Uh, I kind of have a lead on that,” she said to Hock, also on his feet. “I know who it was, I just don’t know who it was.” She frowned at the contradiction. “We’re haggling over payment.”

“We’ve got money,” Niall said.

“No, this isn’t about money,” she said. “They want something else.”

“Something what?” Connel asked, gripping her thigh. “Something I’ll tan the guy for?”

She pressed her hand on his. “It’s a woman, actually.” Not that gender made anything prohibitive. “And I won’t sell your virtue. I’ll figure something out.”

“They want me?”

“Let’s talk about this later,” she said to her guy, bouncing her hand on his.

“You can just tell us who,” her brother said. “We know the source. We can tell you if the info matches up.”

“I’m a journalist, Lach. We don’t give up sources.”

“Did this someone approach you?”

“This is a McDade problem,” she said. The shock that impacted her brother rebounded to her. Had she really…? “One we need to solve, I mean. The price will have to be paid by the McDades, if we decide it’s worth it. I don’t want to compromise your professional integrity any more than I want to compromise mine.”

“What do you think this person will give you?” her brother asked, a little harsher than before. “Even if you find the witness, what do you expect to learn?”

“It’s a lead,” Daly said. “A good cop should know to follow those up.”

“If someone recounted what they saw, that account won’t change from what they told us.”

“If they really saw it.” Which they hadn’t because Connel couldn’t be in two places at once. “If they didn’t, their motivation could be key.”

“Some people won’t talk to cops,” Niall said, reiterating what had been highlighted at their last meeting. “We can be more persuasive.”

“And if I hear something happened to this witness—”

“Things happen to people every day. You want to blame us for every assault this city sees?”

“Odd that you went straight to assault.”

“No one ever got arrested for asking nicely.”

Oh, damn, typical. Just as she thought things were going well, everything went to shit.

Her brother’s position wasn’t enviable. “I can’t claim not to know there was a threat to this person.”

“Who threatened him?” Hock asked.

“You think I don’t know what persuasive means?”

“If someone’s coming for us, we have a right to defend ourselves.”

---