Page 38

Story: Duncan

“We started in-house,” Niall explained. “With Irish-owned businesses in the area where Tyran disappeared. We spoke with the business owners to see who would act squirrelly.”

“I take it Garritt did.”

“No,” Niall answered.

Taking a deep breath, I said to myself.I will not lash out. I will not bloody my knuckles on this kid’s face.Not when they would be on Freyja’s body tonight.

“Speed it up, kid,” Mac warned.

I eyed him, silently thanking him, and he nodded.

“Garritt is a nervous guy. All the time. There isn’t a conversation he’s had in the thirty years he’s been alive when he didn’t act squirrelly. Until yesterday. The guy was fuckin’ calm as a cucumber.”

“Where the fuck does that saying come from?” Oscar asked.

“Cucumbers are cool to the touch, even when it’s hot as hell outside, due to their high water content. Basically, it means you’re able to control yourself in tense situations and not get hot. Letting your temper get the best of you,” Liam explained, and I turned to glare at him. “Sorry, boss.”

I liked Liam McGuire. He was smart. He had a good head for business and he was a great leader. But he was a fucking walking encyclopedia and couldn’t help but answer every fucking question someone asked.

“How the fuck did we get to Garritt?” I growled, my patience wearing thin.

“Like I said, he was acting strange—”

“By not acting strange?” I asked, and Niall nodded. I waved my hand, silently telling him to continue, and then rubbed my chin and the side of my face. I’d forgotten to shave this morning. Too busy watching the goddess asleep in my bed.

“So, we ran his phone records. Saw Tyran’s number multiple times as well as two others.”

“So, we have two other assholes helping him out?”

“Yea,” they all answered together.

“Have you run those numbers?” I asked, turning to Cian.

“Yea, I fuckin’ ran them. They’re burner phones. The name on the phone is bullshit. And I can only trace a location if they’re turned on,” he grumbled.

He hated it when we questioned his abilities, but the fucker didn’t offer up information in front of just anyone. Especially guys we didn’t work closely with. No, instead he made me ask. Then got pissed that I asked him for the information he knew I knew he had.

He had gotten surlier since Caity had moved back to Boston. He wasn’t handling it well, having her in the same city and not being able to claim her as his.

“Ok, so we need Garritt to tell us who the other two numbers belong to. Have you tried contacting Tyran? Maybe texting him from Garritt’s phone and set him up to meet on our terms?”

No one said a word as I looked around the room. “What? No one thought of that?”

“We thought about it. Even did it, boss,” Mac said, and handed me a phone.

Nice try, assholes.

“FUCK!” I shouted and threw the phone across the room, watching it shatter when it hit the wall.

“Good job, boss.”

I glared at Cian. “Fuck off. You get everything from it?”

“Yea.” He smirked.

“Good, then you don’t fuckin’ need it, anyway. Have you tried calling the other two numbers?”

The look on Cian’s face told me he wanted to hit me. He wouldn’t do it, though. Not here. When we got home, all bets would be off. But in this room, I outranked him, and he would never disrespect me in front of the others.