“Secondly, sir, we frequently make many choices in the publishing journey. Sometimes, we have to make an unfortunate?—”
I lean across the table and in one fluid motion yank his shirt so the fabric’s fisted in my hands. The woman squeaks, but the man only eyes me with wide eyes.
“Do you have a wife?” I ask. “Any children?”
“Yes,” he whispers. “Which is exactly why I can’t tell you anything.”
In one hard motion, I yank his head and slam it against the desk. He winces and grunts as I right him.
“Try that again.”
“They’ll kill me,” he whispers.
“I’ll kill you first.”
He blinks and can tell I fucking mean it. “Someone came to my house last night, demanded we pull the series.”
“Did they have anyone with them?”
He shakes his head. “Didn’t see.”
“What was the reasoning for pulling the series?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t know. I imagined something in the books hit too close to home for someone.” He eyes the woman. “We’ve gotten threats.”
“What kind of threats?”
“Cryptic things, warnings that the books have hinted too close to truth. And then the visitors…”
I nod. “Aye. What did they look like?”
He doesn’t answer right away, but when I tighten my grip, he whimpers. “They’ll kill my family.”
“I already told you,” I say, giving him the full truth behind my threat. “I will first. Now you tell me everything you know, and I’ll make sure your family is safe.” One call to Keenan is all I need.
He nods. “Okay, alright,” he whispers. He tells me everything he knows. The tattoo marks on the arms of the men who came to him. Their insistence that he call every bookstore and get the books removed from publication. The fact they were driving a silver SUV. I take all the notes and call Leith and Keenan on a conference call.
“Welsh,” Leith confirms. “Our sources say they’re in Ireland, that’s what they’re driving. And they’re the ones who might be at risk with the next book publication.”
“We all are. Were,” I tell him. “But they were pulled. All of them.”
He blows out a breath. “Question is, where are they now?”
“We’ll start by tracing their steps back. He says they made him pull the books from publication, which I’m assuming could’vebeen done anywhere but maybe they thought he needed to be here to do it.”
Here. Realization dawns on me as I think it over. They’re here. They baited us. They knew we’d find them, and they knew we’d come for them.
“Where?” I ask.
Real fear shines in his eyes. I let him go and reach for the woman. She cringes, but she isn’t fast enough for me. I reach for her, and in one swift motion fist the knot at the back of her head and yank it back. I don’t bloody care who I hurt to get to Fran and my sisters, I’ll find them.
My instincts have been right thus far, the girls are nearby and they’re in bloody fucking danger. The Welsh mob isn’t right in their fucking heads, I don’t know what they’re capable of or what they’ll do next.
“Let her go!” he shouts, on his feet.
“Tell me where they are.”
“Our warehouse!” he says, slumping to the desk when I release her. “They took them to our warehouse, we have evidence they did.”
