Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

T elling him I don’t recognize Malik makes me unobservant. Of course, saying yes brings other complications.

“Yeah.” Feigning ignorance, I cock my head. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

“Coincidence pisses me off. Go chat him up in the alley. I wanna know why he’s here and not in Newport.” As we step out into the bright sunlight, Finn scans the busy street. “Take Antonio with you.”

“I can shakedown one bartender,” I scoff.

He shoots me an annoyed look. “It’s not a shakedown. I want information, not money.”

Acting dumb is my least favorite stalling tactic. Sometimes it’s the only option I have. “I know that.” My words are clipped. “I can handle this. You want to watch? Be my guest. You brought me here. You might as well use me.”

With his hands in his pockets, Finn observes the passing cars, his expression difficult to read. The other men shift their feet behind us, some of them lighting cigarettes. “You got five minutes to get me an explanation I can live with. Then I’m sending Antonio, and he’ll get answers another way.”

Finn and the rest of the men get into the waiting vehicles while I head down the narrow alley. I’m glad he’s not watching, but I can’t assume he won’t show up behind me.

Malik is tossing another garbage bag into the bin when he glances in my direction. His attention flicks from me to behind me. He inclines his head in acknowledgement, his eyes saying things I understand because I know him so well.

“Can I help you?” he calls out.

“We met yesterday in Newport. You were the bartender at the Angry Irishman.” The name made me smile the other day. Now, it doesn’t seem quite so funny.

“Oh, yeah. My last day. Got a better offer here.”

I stop not far from him, looking him over. The red shirt he’s wearing highlights the richness of his dark skin. There are things I wish I could say, would have said yesterday if I’d known I might not get a chance. Instead, we are only feet apart, acting like strangers, talking in code.

The clock in my head ticks. Watching Antonio beat Malik isn’t on my agenda for the day.

“Weird coincidence seeing you here.”

“My girlfriend, Clarissa, got me in here—she knows Shen.”

“Right.” I file that tidbit away for Finn.

Malik peers beyond me before refocusing on me. When he speaks, his voice is even and casual, as though we’re strangers chatting about the weather. “Reassignment. Dai Qing is in. I’m out as your contact. I’m here if you need me. It’ll be tricky. But I would help. Backstory will cover me and Clarissa.”

I nod, pushing my hands deeper into the pockets of my coat. “Whipped by a woman.”

His dark eyes hold my gaze for an extra beat. “It was bound to happen.”

“Something came up the other day. I have questions for you.” I want to step closer, but I don’t dare.

“Dai Qing.” He shakes his head. “Not me.”

“You. I trust you.”

“It’s a bad idea. I’m a last resort. I’m in with the Zhangs now. Contact is dangerous.”

I hate we’re having this conversation here, that our words are clipped, thoughts not quite complete. The clock ticks.

My watch beeps. I set it for three minutes. Finn might not be a down-to-the-minute guy, but I can’t risk Malik to find out. “I gotta go.”

“You okay?”

“I didn’t read the note.”

He grimaces. “I tried to tell you.”

“I know. It is what it is.”

Opening the side door, he holds my attention for an extra beat before saying, “Yeah, so Clarissa gets kinda crazy when I talk to other girls.”

“I can see why,” I purr and wink.

A woman pops her head out the door. Her long, curly brown hair is all I see. “Murray, Jesus. You’re going to get fired on your first day.” With her hand on his collar, she yanks him in the door. That must be Clarissa, his contact, his fake girlfriend.

I stride back to the cars and slide onto the leather seat beside Finn. He looks at me, eyebrows raised.

“He’s Murray. Last day in Newport was yesterday. His girlfriend Clarissa got him in with Shen. Shitty tips in Newport and a jealous, possessive girlfriend.”

“Last names?”

I shake my head. “Couldn’t slip it in during the five minutes.”

“I’ve worked with less.” He focuses out the window. “We’ll see what a bit of digging turns up.”

“Do you want me to do that?”

He chuckles. “No. I have people who specialize in getting information.”

My shoulders are tight with tension, and I tuck my hands under my legs, worry for Malik eating at my insides. If Finn didn’t get anything true or suspicious on me, I have to believe Malik’s backstory will hold. Hopefully, I’m insulated enough that even if they end up suspecting him, they won’t start to question me.

The car glides through the streets, but it doesn’t seem like we’re headed back to the house. Instead of asking, I keep quiet. Soon, I recognize other things. When the car comes to a stop outside The Cage, my mouth goes dry.

“I hear this didn’t go well yesterday.” He glances at me with a wry smile.

“I wouldn’t say—”

“You should.” Finn cuts me off, his eyes like steel. “Don’t lie to me. It’s not worth lying to me. ’Cause I’m a digger.” His jaw clenches. “I don’t give up. When something smells rotten, I peel away the rot layer by layer. Once I have the truth, those who lied to me end up in pine boxes. You got me?”

I raise my chin, meeting his stare. “I got you.”

“Mercy’ll get you killed. Better someone else dead than me—woman, man, kid—don’t matter to me.”

“Consider me warned.” My voice is even. My heart hammers against my breastbone, threatening to jump out and run away. It’s not the first time my life has been threatened, not even close. It’s one of the things I can’t get used to, can’t think of as a routine part of the job, even if it is.

“I’ll give it to you, Kimmy. I’ve had bigger, tougher men piss themselves at that speech.” Finn nods at me before knocking on his window. The door opens, and Antonio is on the other side with a few guys.

We climb out and approach the door, leaving the cars parked outside. Finn has Antonio knock and slip a paper through the open mail slot. When the door swings back, it’s packed inside again. Does the fight club run all the time? Are there that many people interested in betting, fighting, and dying?

Derry ambles out of the crowd, but he doesn’t have the same smarmy smile and attitude as he had yesterday. He’s wary, unsure. More of Derry’s men crowd around him, surrounding him, protecting him.

“Finn.” His voice is strained. “What are you doing here?”

“You want to do this out in the open?” Finn throws his arms wide.

“No, no. Course not. Come back to the office.” Derry glances over his shoulder at some guys, and they check their weapons.

It would make me laugh if he hadn’t given me so much shit yesterday for touching my own gun. The same rules don’t apply when Finn’s here.

Leading the way back to his office, Derry keeps himself well-insulated with men. Pausing at his door, he surveys the crowd in the hall. “You and one other designate. No one else.”

“Come on, now, Derry. You don’t trust me?”

Silence greets us as Derry stares at him, uneasy.

“Kimmy.” Finn checks for me in the crowd. “Come in with me. I know how much Derry loves looking at a pretty woman.”

“Women are only useful when they’re on their knees or bent over my desk.” Derry smirks as his focus travels along my body.

Finn’s eyes narrow. “It’s my understanding my brother warned you about speaking like that to her.” He cocks his head to the side, a puzzled expression on his face that I’m sure is fake. “Are you disrespecting my brother?”

Derry swallows. “No. No.” He enters the room and sits behind his desk. “Come in, Finn.” After a brief hesitation, Derry says, “Have a seat, Kim.”

I lower into the chair beside Finn, but the air is so tense in the room, I can’t relax. The door clicks closed behind us. Derry has five men around the back of him. This setup is very different from yesterday with Lorcan. Is it because Finn thinks Derry killed his father? Or is it something else?

“Lorcan was here yesterday.” Finn slides a knife and a block of wood out of his jacket pocket.

Derry eyes Finn warily, and then his attention flicks to me, accusing. “He was.”

Finn whittles away at the piece of wood, letting the chips fall to the ground as he takes his time continuing the conversation. “Your offer was shit.”

Swallowing, Derry sits up straighter and puts his forearms on the desk. “What do you care? He’s trying to get funds to go to war with you.”

“We’re not going to war.” Finn glances up. “If that’s not happening, then your shitty offer to him was actually a shitty offer to me.” He digs into the wood with the knife. Something is starting to take shape, but I can’t quite figure out what it is. “How do you think that makes me feel, Derry? To know you were fucking me over through my brother?”

A thin sheen of sweat appears across Derry’s forehead. “I didn’t know.”

Finn blows on his carving, and I realize what he’s doing. My lips quirk up, and I focus on the boxing photograph above Derry’s shoulder to avoid an outright smile.

“Until bullets start flying in the streets, assume that when you screw over my brother, you’re screwing over me. You got me, guy?”

It’s the first hint of an accent I’ve heard from Finn. His voice is dipped low, menacing.

Derry’s hand inches toward the edge of his desk.

“Your hand goes anywhere near your gun, and I’ll blow your head off.” Finn looks up at him, their gazes connecting.

Holding up his hands, Derry tilts back from the desk. The O’Malleys are too afraid of Finn to have killed anyone in the Donaghey family. It’s so clear to me. I can’t understand why he would even try to blame them.

Finn places the tombstone with the word O’Malley carved into it. “You’ll notice I didn’t put your name on it, Derry.” His flinty blue eyes pierce the men in the room. “’Cause when I come for you, it ain’t only you. It’s your whole family—guilty, innocent, doesn’t matter to me.”

Shoving back his seat, Derry says, “I know how you work.”

“Then I shouldn’t have needed to come remind you.”

“I thought I was dealing with Lorcan.”

Finn’s jaw tightens. “We’re family, me and Lorcan. Until one of us is dead, we’re a package deal.”

“Not sure Lorcan got that notice.”

Finn’s lips twist. “I’m working on it. You keep your own house in order and stay outta mine.” Tucking his knife back in his pocket, he rotates the tombstone on the desk and smirks. “Now, write up a contract that’s good to us, and we got a deal.”

Derry’s mouth flaps like a fish suffocating. “I—I—it was a deal for Lorcan.”

“Now it’s a deal for me and Lorcan. I’ll leave my Kimmy here to bring the paperwork back to the house. I got some other business to take care of around town.”

Inside, my heart tap dances. Thrusting my hands into my pockets, I brush them against the lining to get rid of the sheen of sweat that pops up. Lorcan warned me not to stay here alone. Suggesting I need support makes me appear weak to both Finn, who may not care, and to Derry who’ll circle me like a shark afterward.

The distaste on Derry’s face says it all. He smacks his lips together. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Your proxy can wait in the hall.”

“That’s a big word for you. You going back to school? Finally gonna graduate high school?”

Derry’s hands clench at his sides. “I know what a fucking proxy is.”

“Good. Then you’ll know anything happens to her, it’s like it happened to me. You got me, guy? You lay a hand on her—anywhere on her—you might as well be doing it to me.”

With a curt nod, Derry moves to the door.

I exit first with Finn on my heels. He extends his hand to Derry. “Nice doing business with you.”

Derry doesn’t take his hand.

In the hall, Finn’s icy stare connects with mine for a moment. “I’ll see you back at the house. He lays so much as a fingertip of one of his fat, filthy fingers on you, you tell me. Ian will have the car waiting outside for you when you’re done.”

“Understood.” I lean against the wall where the memorial photos end.

As Finn and the other guys wander the wide, well-lit hall, Derry closes the door to his office. I’m left in the hallway, alone.