morning.
Your reports come
to me first.
Matti is talking when I slide the phone back in my pocket.
“The Irish hit the distribution point in Red Hook again plus they attacked our guys twice in Carroll Gardens. All told, they got three of ours and lost two of theirs. They’re moving on the docks, too. Not aggressively yet, but they’re establishing presence.”
My mind is zipping through calculations as he talks. Red Hook is more than a few blocks from the Arsenal and Carroll Gardens, so Sophie and baby shouldn’t be impacted. But the docks? She goes to a fish market down there once a week.
I pull out my phone and text her.
Don’t go to the
fish market by
the docks again
until I tell you
it’s clear. Irish
have too big
a presence there
for it to be safe.
I stare at the text for a second before I send it. Telling her to do something risks her bratting and doing the opposite just to spite me. But I have to trust she’ll put the health of the baby first.
Matti pauses, and I look up.
“Is there more?” I ask.
There is. I match every location he mentions against my mental map of her daily routines and text different guards, telling them to post up accordingly so that she’s protected.
“So what do you want us to do about it?” Matti asks.
“You know my answer to that.”
Matti nods. “But Sophie isn’t here.”
I grind my teeth. No fucking shit she’s not here. “I’m going to bed.”
“Hold on.” Siena crosses the room and blocks my way before I have time to turn around.
From the look on her face, I already know what this conversation is going to be about, and it’s not a conversation I want to fucking have.
“So Matti told you that Sophie’s pregnant,” I say. I give him a flat look.
He shrugs one shoulder. “I don’t keep secrets from my wife.”
“That makes you a security risk, fucker.”
“It makes me a married man,” he says, with zero apology.
Siena cuts in before I can respond. “I haven’t said anything to Sophie. I’m not going to say anything to Sophie. She’ll tell me when she’s ready and that’s her right.” She pauses. “But I do have a few fucking things to say to you: what are you going to do about this? Are you going to step up? Are you going to be there for her and for this baby? Or are you going to be an asshole?Again?”
