Page 37 of Stolen Temptation (Irish Kings #3)

Rory

My pulse takes off as we race down the dimly lit corridor that leads to the garage, where we all pile into the biggest SUV we have.

Cian’s behind the wheel. He swings this boat around and barrels toward the South Gate of the estate. In the car, there’s horrible, heavy silence. None of us say anything or ask questions. How can we?

After getting hit with a bombshell of this magnitude, speechlessness is contagious.

It’s unimaginable. One of our three exclusive clubs in the city, one of three central pillars that holds this entire operation up, is ablaze.

My mouth is so dry, it hurts to swallow. My memory also keeps trying to rewind to Kiara, sitting small and alone in that chair as she recounted the awful details of her conception and how Leo never wanted her to be born.

I’ve never had the overwhelming urge to drag someone from the grave just for the express pleasure of murdering them again before, but I’d pay good money to tear Matteo’s guts out with my bare hands. It took everything in me not to rush over to comfort Kiara, which is totally fucked.

She lied to me. Betrayed me. For all I know, she’s Leo’s spy.

I huff and glare out the window. Even as furious as I am, I struggle to believe it. The disgust in her voice when she spoke of her family can’t be faked. Nor can the pain when she confessed that Matteo raped her mother. Then again, I trusted Alayna and look where that got me.

I drop my head into my hands. I’m beyond pissed. Hurt too. But I still feel guilty for freezing her out. Sharing her horrible life story couldn’t have been easy, but she did it anyway.

Regardless, I can’t think about this shit right now.

Cian barrels through the city streets, taking corners on two wheels. Pedestrians scream and shout in his wake, and stragglers dive out of crosswalks as he speeds through intersections.

As we near the club, we start to hear them. A symphony of fire truck sirens rising through the air like smoke.

Cian skids to a halt inches behind the police barricade that prevents vehicles from getting any closer to the building.

Fire trucks parked in diagonals cover the perpendicular road while firefighters perch on their extendable ladders.

We pile out of the car, and that’s when the nightmare truly hits.

Embers falling through the air like snowflakes.

Oppressive, smoggy heat bearing down on us.

And the top floor of the Raymond Tower—the shining jewel of our family for the past eighty years—going up in smoke.

Stunning flames lick at the night sky, lurching out from every side of the building like a bomb went off.

In the streets? Pandemonium.

Bystanders point and gasp from behind the police lines, and the patrons and employees of our luxury club—with their soot-marred faces and expensive, sparkling clothes in tatters—huddle and cry near ambulances, some of them even being folded inside on stretchers.

Closed body bags are wheeled away too.

Casualties.

The sirens fade away. All I can hear through this surreal moment is the echo of my pounding heart.

Lives lost. Millions of dollars’ worth of property destroyed.

Who knows how many millions more we forfeited in drugs or cash, both of which were often trafficked through our clubs.

Only one thought remains before we rush down the block toward this building’s secret entrance and climb up to the top floor to explore the ruins for ourselves.

The mole has taken too much from us.

When we find that motherfucker, I’m going to kill him myself.

By the time we get home, it’s the middle of the night, and none of us are the same.

When Darren, Cian, and I file into the war room, Donal and Thomas are already inside. Whatever argument they’ve been having up until now falls away to nothing once they catch sight of us.

After picking through the smoking, ashen mess for clues before the cops arrived and cordoned the club off for the fire marshal, we could probably double for Cinderella’s older brothers. Soot covers our clothes, and we smell like a fire pit.

Finn and Shane, deep in a hushed conversation, enter the room last. I immediately head for the wall to our right and press a discreet button set into the surface.

The wall’s wood paneling pulls apart, and a mobile workstation rolls out. We had this installed so that whenever I need to do technological demonstrations, I could have the same dexterous setup that I have in the cramped security office.

I lower myself into the chair behind the mobile desk, four curved monitors shielding my upper half from the other people in the room.

As Finn and Shane travel to the head of the table, Thomas gloms onto them, inserting himself in their conversation and dragging the rest of us into it.

“This only happened because of that bitch downstairs.” Thomas’s first comment sends my crowded mind to the image of Kiara. Rage reverbs through my system. “If we’d returned her immediately, as we agreed?—”

The thunk of Finn’s hand slamming the table echoes. “We don’t know that Leo De Luca is behind this.”

“Of course he’s behind it!” Thomas snarls back, a vein popping in his forehead. “Any child could see that?—”

“While Leo claimed responsibility for the cop bust, before we went downtown to investigate the fire, we actually learned that the mole was to blame.” Cian’s voice, calmer than the rest, carries over the monitors.

“The mole?” Donal scoffs. In my head, I picture his blue eyes narrowing at Cian. “You’re saying that Leo didn’t send the cops?”

“He may well have.” I see the top of Cian’s head shake. “But now we know there’s more to it. If Leo really did send the cops, he did it with the help of the mole. One of the foot soldiers caught something.”

Which reminds me.

I stand from my chair, drawing everyone’s eyes. “We need to find Dax Moreland. Now . He knows the mole’s identity.”

“How do you know?” Shane pins me with his stormy gray eyes.

“Because Dax is working for him.”

With this new information, an uneasy silence ripples through the room.

It’s Finn who speaks first. “We need to divide and conquer. Getting to the bottom of all this is going to require triage.”

That makes sense. Cian, Darren, and I all nod.

“Cian, go interview the club staff not in critical condition. Find out what happened tonight and if they saw anything suspicious leading up to the fire.”

“Done.” Cian exits the room in four long strides.

“Darren.” Finn nods toward the door. “Find Dax Moreland.”

Darren’s out the door before Finn even finishes speaking.

My feet ache to go with him. I want to be the first to get my hands around the mole’s neck. But my own fury will have to wait.

There’s a reason Finn didn’t task me with finding Dax.

“Rory.” Finn’s eyes find mine, right on cue. “Check the surveillance video from before the fire.”

I nod and sit back down, booting up the screens in front of me while the conversation between Thomas, Shane, and Finn picks up once again, hot and furious. Though Thomas’s voice is ridiculously distracting, I try to focus on the task at hand.

I almost wish he was the mole. He’s greedy enough, but he was injured alongside Shane in Vegas, which rules him out. Plus, he’s been with the Kings forever.

The guy might be Harper and Riley’s dad, but he’s a real asshole. I doubt many people would shed tears at his funeral…unlike some of the poor men we lost.

Once I find my way to the surveillance video feeds, I isolate the time frame to the hours leading up to the fire, increase the playback speed, and watch.

Unfortunately for us, the exterior cameras—the few attached to the outside of the building to keep an eye on people clubbing out on the terrace—were destroyed by the fire.

And most of the cameras inside seem to be disabled for the same reason.

I narrow my focus to the couple of cameras that escaped the flames. Immediately, I notice something strange.

The time codes keep repeating.

“Fuck,” I mutter, clicking to a few other feeds.

Yep, it’s there in digital black-and-white. The cameras stopped recording around eight this evening and just kept recycling the same footage for hours.

I switch to a live view. Though the air still has some lingering smoke, it’s finally starting to clear, and I can see Madden’s vault, where we keep drug shipments and, occasionally, cash. After squinting at the image, I rise to my feet again.

Finn is the first to glance my way. “What did you see?”

“You’ll want to check this out.”

Finn, Shane, and Donal flow my way, crowding behind my chair as I blow up the image on my screen.

Finn braces one hand on my desk. “Is that the vault?”

“It’s empty.” Donal’s voice is nearest to my left ear.

“Exactly.” I turn to look at Finn. “But I’m pretty sure there should have been a shipment or two in there before the fire started.”

“So what?” Thomas interjects. “Must’ve burned the fuck up.”

“If that were the case, where are the ashes?” If the contents of the vault really had burned up, we’d be able to see the smoldering piles of evidence.

Not to mention the fact that the cameras were tampered with. Which I am not mentioning in front of Shane. I don’t have a death wish. I’ll just make sure I beef up the internal security systems.

I honestly didn’t think anyone could get into them besides me. Guess I was wrong. I’ll have to fix that ASAP.

At my shoulder, Finn straightens with a curse. “The shipment wasn’t destroyed.”

“It was stolen.” Shane’s voice silences the rest of us. His comprehension makes this situation seem more real somehow.

“The fire must have been a theft cover-up.” No matter how hard I scrutinize this footage, that’s the only thing I can think of. “Some look-right, run-left bullshit.”

Finn huffs. “Got us again…”

The atmosphere in the room changes when Shane’s fury starts to reach a fever pitch. His rigid posture, tightly clenched jaw, the veins popping out of his neck… He’s more furious than I’ve ever seen him.

And he’s utterly silent.

Fuck , that’s scary.

“Aren’t you forgetting that Leo promised us more trouble?” Thomas paces the short side of the room. “He’s pissed that we stole from him, and now he’s getting his revenge. Or worse. Maybe he’s just getting started.”

“Fuck that.” Shane’s seething fury pervades the room.

Thomas pauses his pacing. “If we ship the little bitch back, we might actually get some peace.”

I bite back a snarl. If Thomas Brennan doesn’t stop talking about Kiara, I’m going to deck him in his ugly mug.

Unaware of how close my temper is to snapping, he continues yapping to Shane.

“Think about it. If she’s returned, it’ll be one less thing on their plate to worry about.

If we keep her, even after Leo and his forces have just razed one of our clubs, then all we’re doing is tempting that bastard into doing something even more deranged to get her back?—”

“Why are you so certain Leo’s behind this?” I shove to my feet, challenging the general head-on.

Thomas’s dark brown eyes widen as they clash with mine. In the past, I’ve never used that tone of voice on him or questioned his intentions. “What?”

“The De Lucas aren’t our only enemies.” My spine straightens.

“The Red Hill boys could have done it. Or the Gabroni family. The Riccis were always jealous of our holdings in Manhattan. Everyone knows we’re embroiled in war right now.

This is the perfect amount of chaos for someone to feel safe looting. ”

“But how would any of them have known the shipment would be there tonight?”

I don’t understand why this is even a question. “Because we have a fucking mole .”

Thomas throws up his meaty hands and spins away, muttering to himself about how we’re ignoring the biggest reason for people to torch our entire operation to the ground. I even hear him grumble Kiara’s name under his breath.

My fists ball up, ready to pummel his face in.

After what seems like an eternity, Finn moves from behind my mobile desk and commands the attention of the room.

“Let’s focus on one thing at a time. Our top priority is the mole. If we can’t figure out where these leaks regarding our business operations are coming from, it’s not going to matter what we do to appease Leo. If he’s being fed inside information, he’ll find some other way to blackmail us?—”

“You’re wrong!” Thomas whirls around to point at Finn. “You’re all wrong.”

I’d like to say I’m shocked by this outburst, but Thomas’s hot temper is rather famous in the upper levels of this mafia. Though I admit I’ve never seen it directed at Finn.

“Watch your mouth, Thomas.” Finn’s scowl is strong enough to break a mirror. “Don’t tell me?—”

“Finn, that’s enough.” Donal doesn’t normally speak up to Finn anymore—not since Finn started taking on more heir-like duties—but now his voice is a welcome addition, especially since Shane hasn’t moved an inch. “Thomas. You’ve said your piece.”

Thomas’s vitriolic gaze shifts from Finn to Donal and finally to Shane. “You’re just accepting Finn’s failure, and we’re all going to pay the price. Returning the girl would have spared us from this. Things will only get worse now.”

“Is that a threat or a promise?” I stalk around my desk to stand at Finn’s side.

Thomas’s head snaps in my direction, like I’m pissing him off.

Good. Because no one threatens my little painter but me.

“Your father was soft on you,” Thomas growls at me. “Never taught you any damn manners.”

“Maybe not.” I move into Thomas’s personal space.

It’s like getting up close and personal with a shark.

“But he did teach me how to think . And right now, I’m thinking that you’re head of the Irish Kings’ security, and if one of our facilities burns down on your watch, that’s your fault. Not Leo’s.”

Thomas narrows his eyes. “I’ve been loyal to this mafia longer than you’ve been alive, Rory. And you’d do well to remember that.” He turns to Shane. “We need to deal with that girl now , while we still have something Leo wants. Unless you want the De Lucas to bring us to our knees.”

With that parting shot, Thomas storms out of the room, leaving the rest of us in his wake.

Once he’s gone, Shane addresses me. “Since he raised the question…what is your plan with the girl?”

His mild tone catches me by surprise. “Why are you asking me?”

“I’m asking you because it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that your relationship with her goes beyond abductor and abductee.”

“It shouldn’t.” I rake my hand through my hair. “She lied to me…us. Maybe Thomas is right…maybe we should deliver her to Leo’s doorstep with a bow on her head.”

Shane studies me for a moment before dipping his chin. “If that’s what you want, just say the word. But maybe take some time to think it over first. Once you take a drastic action like that, it can’t be undone.”