Aisling tucked a stray hair behind Tam’s ear.“I think ye might have just found the missing piece,” she grimly told Tamsin.
Two hours later,Tamsin had already gone to bed when Peyton called Aisling back.She walked outside to take the call.
“Trevor and a Prime tracked down the radiology tech and interrogated her.The bad news is she fucked up and didn’t realize it.So that’s the only glimmer of good in this whole thing.It was happenstance.Her brother had asked her for a ride that afternoon, and she’d told him she couldn’t take him.When he asked her why, she’d said she had to do a job for Trevor.
“Well, apparently, her brother is a nonshifter, and he’s over his ears in debt to clueless humans for gambling.The brother put it together that she was probably going to see Tamsin.He’d heard about Faegan looking for tips and being willing to pay, and he had access to his sister’s location on her phone via their family plan without her realizing it.So, he dropped a dime, hoping he’d get lucky and that she really was seeing Tamsin.”
“Motherfucker,” Aisling said.“I hope they skinned him alive.”
“That’s hard to do when he was immediately executed after Trevor pried what little info he had out of him.Trevor pulled the trigger himself.The woman felt horrible—about Maisie and Rupert, not about her shit of a brother—but Trevor’s not holding it against her.She literally did nothing wrong other than trust her brother.She had no reason to suspect he’d betray the pack, and she had no idea he could track her phone.”
“And now she’ll feel guilty for the rest of her life about this, and about her brother’s death,” Aisling grimly observed.
“No, it’s not her fault,” Peyton said.“They made her forget what they’d talked about.Apparently, the brother was a dead man walking anyway because Faegan took the tip and never paid him.If Trevor hadn’t executed him, someone else would have eventually.He owed money to some pretty violent people.She’ll have no idea he died because he betrayed the pack.It will be assumed that his gambling debts caught up with him.Which apparently is something they’ve been worried about.”
“Faegan welched on something, did he?”Aisling snarked.“Color me shocked.”
“Yeah,” Peyton said.“And the guy was already hiding from the people he owed money to.Trevor and his men will deliver the guy’s head to the bookie later, along with ten thousand pounds, cash, and Prime the guy to forget about anything else so her family’s left alone.”He chuffed.“And then they’ll also dump the body close by, call the police once they’re a couple of blocks away, and report a violent attack in progress and let them all get arrested.”
“Happy days,” Aisling said.“A quick death is better than that areshole deserved for what he caused.”
“Unfortunately, the only contact info the guy had was for Faegan’s sons, so nothing new there.At least it’s one question answered.He was hiding in plain sight under our snouts the entire time.”
“Here’s to one less dirtbag walking the earth,” Aisling said.“May he be reborn as the fleas on a camel’s fanny.So what happens next?”
“You mean after having read Dewi the riot act for going to Mexico without talking to me first?Oh, and that is between you and me,” he added.
“Naturally.”
“You’re the only other person who knows besides Ken, and he’s only allowed to talk to me and Dewi about it.I told Dewi not to talk to anyone else.I don’t want her knowing that you know.”
“Uh, why?”
“Because I want it siloed in case it splashes back on us somehow,” he said.
“Again I ask, what’s next, then?”Aisling closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Peyton let out a weighty sigh.“I don’t know.But that brings me around to what I originally called you about, except we kind of squirreled when we started talking about Tamsin’s ultrasound.First of all, have you decided where you’re living yet?”
“I’ve left the final decision up to her, but I’m pretty sure she wants to stay here.Every time I’ve asked her about making the decision, she hems and haws a little, but the points she ticks off are always about the kids here.”
“Well, what I want to ask of you would likely require you stay here in the States.”
Aisling chuffed.“My preference is to stay here.Not to sound all maudlin like, but this feels like home in a way nowhere else has since I was a tyke.If I tell her you want me to stay here, she won’t complain or take issue wi’ it.”
“Good.Now that we have answers regarding the lab, and that Ray Dorland and Faegan Lewis were working together, it leaves us with more questions.”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know if the business with the drug cartel is settled.Abundio Segura may come after us if he figures out who we are and that we’re connected to both Manuel’s disappearance and Jacinta’s death.Actually, I’m more worried about him finding outwhatwe are thanwho.”
“Well, how’s that supposed to happen then if he and his little child bride’s pushin’ up dirt wi’ his daughter?”
“He’s not dead,” Peyton said.
“He easily could be,” she said.“Not a problem.”
“Yeah, but Dad always swore he never wanted to be one of those kinds of Pack Alphas.And I don’t really want to be that kind, either, if I can avoid it.”
