“Tribunal retaliation? Threats about Connor?”
“Maybe. And check out these shipping records. Three of his major routes have been hit in the past six weeks. Product stolen, drivers beaten, operations shut down.”
I narrow my eyes at the data, my gut twisting. “Why haven’t we heard about any of this? Why wouldn’t he look to us to step in? Based on all of this, the marriage can’t all be about protecting Connor, not if his organization is in shambles.”
“Someone's been taking apart his organization piece by piece.” Reign pulls up another screen. “And look at this communication intercept from our guys in Dublin. Declan had been reaching out to other crime families before Tierney’s vault break-in, trying to negotiate protection deals before he came to us.”
“And all of them turned him down?”
“From what I can tell, yeah. Most of them, anyway. The few who'd consider it wanted valuable intelligence in exchange. Now that he has it…he’s got leverage to do what he wants.”
I grit my teeth. That motherfucker has enough on us to play us against our enemies and allies.
“Based on all of this, he doesn't just want protection for Connor from the Tribunal. He wants protection for his entire operation, and he had been whoringhimself out before the break-in, dangling the possibility to access intel that can feed those other families more power. I guess that’s why he sent Tierney in.”
I lean back, mind racing. If there are enemies hitting Declan this hard, that gives us serious leverage. We could threaten to cut him loose completely, let them finish him off. Whoever they are. The Tribunal may be after him for the vault break-in but clearly there are others.
“This could work,” I mutter.
“What could work?”
“We threaten to end the protection arrangement entirely. Tell him we're withdrawing protection from Connor and from his operations. Let the Tribunal or his other enemies have him.”
Reign nods slowly. “He'd hand over the intel in a heartbeat rather than lose everything.”
And I wouldn't have to manipulate Tierney's feelings to get it.
But I keep that part to myself.
“There's just one thing that doesn't add up,” Reign says, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“What?”
Reign pulls up another file. “The surveillance patterns. The teams that followed Tierney and Connor in the park.”
“What about them?”
“The tactics definitely don't match known Tribunal methods. Too sloppy, too visible. Tribunal's usually more subtle. And if they wanted to take Connor and Tierney out, they’d already be dead.”
I frown. “Maybe the surveillance wanted to be seen. To send a message?”
“Maybe. In any case, there's more than one player in this game.” Reign lifts an eyebrow. “That makes a hell of a lot more sense, knowing what we do about the Tribunal.”
I grip the arms of the chair. “Who do you think it can be?”
Reign shrugs. “People who want him dead for reasons that have nothing to do with the vault break-in. The Tribunal doesn’t pussy foot around. They break shit, fast and hard.”
I scrub a hand down the front of my face. “That would explain the financial pressure. Multiple threats hitting him from different angles.”
“Yeah. The question is, do we need to worry about these other enemies, too? Or just focus on the Tribunal threat? Declan made it clear he needs to protect Connor from the Tribunal, and that was his bargaining chip when the marriage talk started. He needed us to protect his son. Of course, he’d never want to air his dirty laundry with his future in-laws.”
Shit. We’re potentially chasing multiple enemies and threats right now. And Declan has been holding out on us, based on what Reign dug up.
“Keep digging,” I say. “Declan sure as hell isn’t gonna tell us what we want to know, and based on what you just found, there’s a lot he’s keeping from us for some reason. Once we figure out who’s got his dick in a vice, we can deal with the situation our way. Find any leverage you can. We need a leg up on him if we’re gonna get that intel back.”
“And if we can't?”
My mind trips back to Tierney in mybed, how she’d felt pressed against me, how she looked at me in the shower, how she let her guard down for the briefest time.
