Somewhere outside, a gull screams over the cliffs, and one of my men calls all clear on the chapel grounds. Inside, broken glass crunches under Declan’s shoes as he turns to retrieve the priest, and Nikolas starts issuing the next round of orders into his comms with the steady voice of a man who knows the job is not done, only moving to its final stage.
Patrick wanted revenge at my wedding. What he gave me instead was a map.
23
CILLIAN
Ihand Saoirse to my mother and Maeve in the sacristy while staff strip the torn hem from her dress and wrap her in a coat. She catches my wrist before I turn away, and her eyes hold mine with the same focus she carried into my office and into gunfire.
“Don’t let him run twice,” she murmurs.
I shake my head and keep my eyes rooted on her. “I won’t.”
She replies with a wry smile first. “And don’t do something stupid to prove a point.”
I look at her stomach. “I’m long past points.”
Maeve snorts and pins Saoirse’s hair back from her face. “That answer was almost romantic. Go hunt him before you start sounding soft.”
The lower house sits under the old kitchens, stone walls, no windows, one stair in and one out. Gavin is in the second room when I walk in, wrists tied to the chair, cheek swelling, shirt cut open where Conall checked for wires. Nikolas stands by the tablewith a tablet and a paper map, and Declan leans against the wall pretending he is not enjoying himself.
Gavin lifts his head and smiles through blood. “Bride leave you already?”
I sit opposite him. “You brought men to my wedding and lost them before they cleared the chapel. Patrick used to hire better.”
Nikolas places the recovered phone on the table. “Location pin sent to one of the shooters, then deleted. Quarry district. Two structures. Fuel buys tied to one of Patrick’s dead shell firms.”
Gavin looks away too quickly.
Declan smiles. “Timing.”
I keep my voice flat. “Give me the site, the fallback route, and the men inside, and this gets shorter.”
He spits at the floor. “You’ll do what you want anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll keep my breath.”
I stand, move behind him, and brace both hands on the chair back so he can hear me without seeing my face. “Patrick is already moving. Nikolas has his fuel line, I have your phone, and the men you came with are dead. He sent you here to die while he packed a car.”
His shoulders twitch.
I step back into view. “Conall.”
Conall drags in the wounded pantry man and drops him to his knees beside Gavin. The boy is shaking before I ask a question.
“Who briefed you?”
“Gavin.”
Gavin lunges against the ties. “Shut up.”
“Rally point after the chapel?” I say to the boy.
“Layby by the old mill, then split convoy. If the inside team failed, we move to Red Briar.”
Gavin goes still, and that tells me more than the words.
