“Obviously someone who doesn't give a shit about being subtle,” Kingston says. “The question is why.”
“Could be Tribunal,” I say. “They must know Connor's here. I know Declan said he’s got other enemies but theydon’t have beef with Tierney. If they wanted Connor, they’d have gotten him by now, yeah?”
“Maybe,” Dad says. “Connor’s been around the city and if his security snoozed on things yesterday, he’d have been vulnerable any time he was out on his own.”
Kingston's jaw goes tight. “Unless it's not about Connor.”
We all look at him.
“Think about it,” he says. “He was with Tierney. And Tierney is the one who broke into their most secure facility. She made them look like amateurs.”
“So?” Reign asks.
“So maybe they think she saw more than she did. Took more than just our intel.”
An icy sensation snakes through my insides. “You think they want her too?”
“I think they probably want to know what she knows,” Kingston says with a pointed look. “And they want payback for making them look weak.”
Dad puts down his glass. “It’s possible. But we can’t make assumptions without concrete information.”
“Professional surveillance teams mean they are targeting someone,” I say. “And I’m gonna bet they’re close to acting.”
“Whoever it is could just be testing our defenses,” Reign says. “To see how we’d respond to a threat.”
“Or they could be mapping for a grab,” Kingston grunts, running a hand through his hair. “Either Connor, Tierney, or both of them.”
Dad walks to the window, staring out at the busy street below. “If they want Tierney, this becomes our problem. This is beyond just protecting Connor. And it complicates things.”
“Tierney became our problem the second she and Bronx said, ‘I do’ at City Hall.” Kingston’s face twists into a grimace. “She's family now. And Declan could have foreseen this happening, knowing Tierney would be a liability to him since he’s such a small fish. He needed us, Connor aside.”
“Is she family?” Reign asks, eyes sliding back to me. “Or is she still just the job until we get what we need?”
The question hangs in the air like a toxic cloud I don’t want to breathe in. A few weeks ago, there would have been an easy answer. But now...
“She's my wife,” I say through clenched teeth, my fingers balling into tight fists.
“That's not what he asked,” Dad says without turning around from the window.
Kingston narrows his eyes at me. “The job was to marry her, keep Connor safe, maintain the arrangement. Somewhere in there, you were supposed to stay detached.”
“I am detached.”
“Oh yeah?” Reign smirks. “Because you look ready to burn down half of New York over a surveillance team.”
Fuck. They're not wrong.
“What do we do?” I ask, trying to deflect their attention.
“Full lockdown mode,” Dad says. “No movement without clearance. We can’t risk loss of control and let’s face it, at this point, we’re right on the brink. There’s too much at risk and any rash moves will leave us vulnerable.”
I shake my head. “She'll lose her shit. She already thinks she’s a prisoner.”
“I don’t give a shit how she feels.” Kingston's voice is sharp enough to slice through glass. “She’s only your wife because we need to know what informationDeclan has on us.. That’s how we take control over this shit show. Once we know what we’re up against, I don’t give a damn who snatches her because we’ll be whole again. But she’s here for a purpose.” His eyes laser me to the spot. “Don’t forget it.”
“How long do you think we have?” I ask, rubbing the growing stress knot at the base of my skull.
“All I know is this,” Kingston says. “If they get to Tierney, her father might panic and leak the information to whoever would help him. Then we’re shit out of luck. Declan would have no loyalty to us if his daughter goes missing. And I don’t like our secrets floating around on a fucking laptop that anyone could access. So we need to figure out what Declan knows about us and cover our tracks as soon as possible.”
