Page 38 of Wicked Oath
“I mean, you getting caught on the goddamned video camera across the street from Patrick’s warehouse.”
He pauses. “What are you talking about?”
“Your face was caught on a security camera near the scene of the crime. Want to tell me how that happened?”
“Shit.” He rubs a hand over his face. “I didn’t mean for that. I scoped the area out, but I must have missed one of the cameras. Shit.”
“Yeah, no shit. Finian, Owen found out this little tidbit of information. He’s desperate to figure out who burned down his father’s warehouse. He cannot find out it was me. All my plans to destroy Patrick Donovan will go down the fucking shitter if Owen discovers this.”
“You already stole some of his goods. He’s out like half a million dollars from what we did.”
I sit next to him, the bar stool swiveling as I face him. “I know, which is a great step, but I need more. I need him to feel the real sting of losing all his money. We need to continue hitting more of his shipments, but we have to be careful going forward. Owen is onto you. He doesn’t know who you are, which is the only thing we have going for us. But … I can’t have you take part in this any longer.”
Finian slams his beer glass down. “What the fuck? I’m your best man.”
“I know.” I rest my hand on his shoulder. “And I’d hate to lose you. But if Owen figures out you’re tied to me, he’ll take me down, and I’ll lose everything. My reputation, my money.”My wife.I don’t mention that part to Finian, but Olivia will be taken from me. Despite divorce being frowned upon, I know her brother and father wouldn’t stand for her to be married to a traitor. I want to hurt Patrick, but I don’t want to lose Olivia. I … care for her. Shit. I cared for her the minute I saw her, and maybe it was stupid of me to marry a woman I can’t stop thinking about because, now, I can lose her if my plan goes to shit.
And I’d rather die at Owen’s hands than lose Olivia.
But I’m still going through with my plan to hurt Patrick financially. I just need to figure out how to do so without losing Olivia in the process.
“Then,” Finian says, “let’s make sure none of that happens.”
“I will. Without you.”
He spins in his seat, staring me down with his intense gaze. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means I can’t have you working for me right now.” I hold up a hand when it looks like he’s about to interrupt. “It won’t be forever. Just until Owen starts looking in a different direction. I can’t have you seen at another crime scene. Patrick informed me that he has another heroin shipment coming in tomorrow evening, and I’m sending Jacob in your stead.”
“Jacob?” he blusters. “Jacob isn’t half as good as me.”
“I know. But I can’t risk you getting caught on camera again. Fortunately, the image doesn’t show your face clearly. But you’re too distinctive with your scar. Just for now, Finian, I need to pull you from this for my plan to work.”
He slams a hand onto the table, making his glass rattle. “This is fucking bullshit. I won’t get caught.”
“Finian, my wife knows who you are.” He whips his head toward me. “She saw you at the fighting ring a few weeks ago. She asked me about you when she showed me the photo. I denied it, and she believed me, but we can’t risk her finding out the truth and telling her father and brother about our plan.”
“If you distrust your wife so much, then why don’t we threaten her into keeping silent?”
My body tenses. “Because she’s my wife, and I’m not going tothreatenher with anything.”
He scoffs. “Getting a little soft there, aren’t we, Jamie boy? The easy solution to make sure your wife doesn’t talk is to make sure she doesn’t talk. The old James would never have let anything stop him from doing what needed to be done to achieve his goals.”
“I’m a married man now. I have a responsibility to my wife.”
“Yeah, the wife you’re lying to about the real reason you married her.”
I stand up. “Finian, shut the fuck up.”
“You married her to get closer to her dad and screw him over. But now it sounds like you’re actually starting to care for her. That wasn’t the plan.”
I lean close to him and say in my most menacing tone, “You need to stop talking about my wife. She’s not a part of this. My goal is to hurt her father, not hurt her.”
Finian laughs. “You’re delusional if you think that, James. By going after her dad, you include her in this. I’m not sure what you were expecting.”
“Just do what I tell you to do. You’re out until this blows over. Don’t do anything stupid in the meantime,” I mutter as I head for the door.
“I’m not the one in danger of getting too close to the enemy. Watch that little wife of yours, Jamie boy. Focus on taking Patrick down. Do not get distracted.”
