Page 76 of Redemption

“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.”

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