“Big. Mean-looking. One had a scar across his cheek.”
I rake a hand through my hair. “Did they leave when she did?”
“Like I said, I didn’t see her leave. I’m paid to pour, not watch people. .”
I’m already pulling out my phone to call Manino back. “I need every surveillance camera in a six-block radius checked. Irish men, probably driving something dark and nondescript.”
We rush out of the bar, and I look at Kingston. “Give me your phone.”
He hands it over and I scroll through his contacts until I find Declan Blake’s number.
“Kingston,” Declan says when he answers. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s not Kingston. It’s Bronx,” I grunt. “Your daughter’s been taken.”
Silence greets my terse words.
“By who?”
“I’d be my left nut it was Murphy’s guys. The same bastards who you owe two million euros.” I grip the phonehard. “The same assholes who threatened to kill both your kids if you didn’t pay.”
He sucks in air. “That’s a mistake. I told you about the Tribunal’s th?—”
“Cut the shit, Declan. We just met with the Tribunal. They told us there was no fucking threat. That you made the whole thing up about Connor. We figured it out, you son of a bitch. We know exactly what you did.”
After a long minute, he finally speaks.
“How much do you know?” he asks.
“Everything. Connor told me about the university course you destroyed in Dublin, how you forced him to coordinate with your people while he’s been in New York, how you’ve been using both your kids to save your own worthless ass.”
“It’s not that simple?—”
“It’s exactly that simple. You manipulated your daughter into stealing intelligence, then used that intelligence to marry her off to protect yourself from debts you couldn’t fucking pay.”
“I was protecting them,” he says, his voice pathetically weak.
“Protecting them?” I shout. “Tierney’s been kidnapped because of your debts. Connor’s been living in fear because of the lies you forced him to tell his sister, the closest person in the world to him.”
Declan’s voice goes cold. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“I want you to fix it. Right fucking now.”
“But how? The Murphys won’t negotiate with me.”
“Then you better find a way to make them.” I stare at cars speeding past, feeling moreand more helpless as the seconds tick past. “Because if something happens to Tierney, if they hurt my wife because of your lies, I’m coming to Dublin to finish what the Murphys started.”
“You’re threatening me?” he says, his voice edged with anger.
“No, I’m making you a promise. Your daughter married into my family. That makes her mine now. And anyone who hurts what’s mine answers to me.”
I stab the screen to end the call and look at Kingston and Reign. They just stare back.
I grit my teeth after a few seconds of silence pass. “Don’t fucking look at me like that, okay? She’s not a pawn. Not anymore. She may have started out that way but…” I let out a sigh. “I love her. Like, really fucking love her. And I will end anyone who hurts her.”
Reign exchanges a knowing smirk with Kingston.
“Fucking called it.” Then he turns toward me. “So what’s the plan?”
