Page 72 of The Celtic Resolution
The only decent thing about a bar brawl is that no one is willing to admit fault so I’m thrown into a police cell and ordered to sleep it off until morning. It’s the first time I’ve been truly alone since finding that woman in the container and the silence is almost smothering. But sleep comes quickly. I spend a few hours completely passed out in my cell until I’m woken by the morning shift checking that I’m still alive.
My headache is nothing compared to the anxious ache in my gut as my plan unfolds and I’m finally granted the opportunity to speak to the one person I did all of this for. When I’m dragged to an interrogation room to give my own side of the story about who started the brawl and put a man in hospital, I have only a handful of words to give the officer.
“I’ll only speak to Detective Sarah Gogs.”
It takes them an hour to find her but I have never been so relieved to see a cop as the moment she walks into my interrogation room with a folder in hand.
“Bruno?” Her brow knits together as she sits slowly on the other side of the table. “They told me some guy named Craig was in here.”
“I gave a fake name when they brought me in.”
She glances up from the file and looks over the edge of her glasses at me. “Why? Something like this is easy to turn a blind eye to. Rocky will pay reparations to the victim and his family… in fact we would have cleared this up last night if you’d given the right name.”
“No,” I say hurriedly, leaning forward and lowering my voice. “I had to do it this way so I could talk to you.”
Her brow deepens. “And you couldn’t just call me because…?”
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time okay and neither does Saoirse.”
Sarah’s eyes widen in an instant. “Saoirse? What the hell are you talking about, Bruno?”
“Just hush, listen!” I don’t mean to snap but the last thing I need is someone interrupting before I can get the important information to her. “I know where Saoirse and Cian are, okay? In fact it’s mostly my fault they’re even in this situation but you have to listen to me. You cannot trust my father.”
“Domenico?” Her eyes narrow briefly. “Why?”
“You have to promise me that you won’t go to him, okay? If he gets even the slightest hint that I’m here, talking to you, or that you know anything then my sister died.”
“Mary?” Sarah’s mouth falls open and her eyes dart back and forth as if she’s trying to decipher something I can’t see. “Enough riddles, tell me what the hell you’re on about.”
“My father is one-third of an underground human trafficking organization that rose up six months after the Russian Godmother stamped out the market. He’s been working with the Triads this entire time because after Noah, he has no faith inMatteo and his ancient, lazy way of dealing with things. And he doesn’t trust Rocky because Rocky married you and you’re a cop. He sees you and Rocky as completely liabilities. Mary has been sent away by my father since August and he’s been keeping her hidden from me, threatening her life if I don’t do what he asks.”
“It’s nearly October,” Sarah murmurs. “What does he have you do?”
“I pick up containers and deliver them to the docks.”
“What’s in them?”
“Guess.”
Sarah nods slowly. “How does Saoirse fit into this?”
“You know she was investigating this, right? Well… when I first told my father that, I thought it was because someone was trying to frame him and take advantage of the weak position the family was in. I thought I was doing the right thing but he flipped it immediately and made it look like Saoirse was trying to frame anyone Italian. But she wasn’t. She was tracking missing guns and drugs, we found trafficked women but they were taken from the hospital and I now know that Domenico had something to do with it. He tried to sell Saoirse and he’s nearly killed Cian. They’re imprisoned and I’m doing everything I can to keep them alive but I’m running out of time. The whole reason I started that fight was because I knew I’d get arrested and it was the only way I’d be able to talk to you without a tail or interference.”
It pours out of me in a rush, including every detail that might not even be important but I’m in for the whole hog now. And it’s a relief to finally spill it all to someone.
Sarah remains silent, watching me as I speak and by the time I’ve finished, her face is almost gray.
“My God,” she murmurs. “I…” She shakes her head. “I thought something was off after the wedding. Rocky and Cormac have a solid friendship and it was strange to me that Rocky could turn so quickly. I know he wanted our wedding to be perfect andit was. But Domenico is like a father to Rocky and his opinion holds a lot of weight but still… I know Saoirse. I know Cormac.”
“They aren’t your enemy,” I insist. “Please, believe me.”
“I do.”
My heart stalls. “You do?”
“Yes.”
“So you can tell Rocky? You can put a stop to this?”
