Page 43 of Redemption

She nods. “I hope so. You don’t go anywhere alone.” Then she opens the door to the main house.

Chapter Nineteen

Finn

Thewarroomisn’tas good as the one Lorcan and I had in Boston. The space has been ripped out of the pages of a 1970’s design catalogue. Whoever tried to remodel the castle had zero sense of taste. In the center, the table is large and wooden, but people have carved their names into it like it belongs in a playground instead of as a symbol of power. Still, the map of Ireland spread out across it makes my pulse race. Is this when I find out what’s going on?

Noel is on the other side, as is Pierre-Jacques, and another man whose name I haven’t bothered to learn is at the head of the table. He’s pale white, like me, but he’s got red hair, and his brown eyes are at half-mast as though he smoked one joint too many.

“Daniel will take us through our strategy.” Pierre-Jacques signals the redhead to start.

For the next ten minutes, Daniel points to places at random and makes grand proclamations about overtaking munitions sites, raiding money laundering ventures, and oddly, infiltrating a prostitution ring.

My brother nudges me with his shoulder, but we don’t look at each other. He has to be thinking the same thing as me. Jay’s frown is so deep I’m pretty sure I could plant a garden in it, but he’s not asking questions either.

“What the fuck is this?” I burst out when I’ve had enough of Dopey Daniel.

“Daniel’s strategy for taking down the McCaffrey family,” Pierre-Jacques says, his tone mild, but his gaze twinkles with amusement. “He’s our best strategic person.”

Lorcan, who had been leaning over the map, stands up straight and crosses his arms. He’s still not offering questions or ideas. Is part of his cover to be dumb? ’Cause there have to be thoughts circling in his head. Planning shit like this is his specialty.

“What’s your problem with the McCaffrey family?” I mirror Lorcan’s posture. Tactics aren’t my area of expertise, but I’m smart enough to realize nothing Daniel suggested will work.

Pierre-Jacques draws the dagger out of its place on his hip and taps the tip against his finger. “They’re not nice people.”

I chuckle and gesture around the room. “None of us are nice people.” Maybe Jay, but that’s a weakness here, not a strength.

Pierre-Jacques slides into the chair and stabs his knife into the wooden surface. “I have a big project planned. We need a lot of men. Men who are slaves to money and power. If I have both, they becomemyslaves.”

Can’t disagree with his logic, but I’m not convinced the desire for those things resembles a plan. “You’re going to snap your fingers, and all of it will come to you like magic?” I point at Daniel. “That’s basically the nonsense he was spewing.”

Daniel’s face scrunches up as though he’s going to argue then he shrugs. “We need what they have.”

I rub my forehead and hope Lorcan speaks up. Then, I forge ahead. “Youcanget it, but what you presented was a wish list, not a plan. What’s your timeline?” I fold up the map. “I’ll need this.”

“One week,” Pierre-Jacques says.

“You want to put a plan in motion within a week?”

He shakes his head. “I want to own it next week. Not start. Be done. We’re on a schedule.”

“Screw your timeline,” I say. Even at my most unreasonable, I understood when something couldn’t be done. “We’re not geographically close to these places in the south you want to raid. Have you got another crew down there? Otherwise, it’s not gonna happen in a week.” Zahir warned me the PLA has its base in Northern Ireland, but divisions lurked unnoticed in many cities.

Pierre-Jacques steeples his fingers and seems to consider my outburst. “I thought I hired someone capable of getting this done.” He stares at me. “No?”

My lips twist with suppressed anger. “Hired? You kidnapped me.”

A ghost of a smile flickers across his face. “So I did. But Carys came here willingly, no? Would be a shame if she was not free to leave here to see her baby boy.”

Ice shoots through my veins. I’ve been in enough of these confrontations to keep my features schooled to neutral, but they have to have ears in our bedroom. If Zahir didn’t have a leash on me, I’d be across the table at his throat. Three against three, and I have more confidence in my men than in his. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking you hold the cards. I killed my brother. Okayed the murder of my father. Consequences be damned, I do what I want.”

Pierre-Jacques nods. “Ah, yes. Including murdering that baby’s father.”

Jay tenses on the other side of me. Pierre-Jacques has to be fishing because no one knows I put a bullet in Eric’s head. Didn’t use my gun. No witnesses. “I do what I need to.” Gives me more street cred to sidestep the question.

“Good. What you need to do now is find me a way to get what I want. We all win when I am happy. Otherwise,” he says with a smile and a shrug, “people start losing.” He rises and tugs his knife out of the table. “Cape Verde can be explosive this time of year. I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Jay lunges at him across the wooden surface, and Lorcan wrestles him back.

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