What if Tony knows what actually happened? What if Daire's version is constructed out of half-truths and lies like Daithí said? But why? What would she gain out of doing so? Especially at mine and Quinn’s engagement party.
My phone buzzes through the car’s system. Ciro’s name flashes on the screen.
"What?” I bark, my anger still rolling through me.
"The leak," his voice is low and a little muffled. "We've been looking at cross-family access, trying to find the overlap."
"And?"
"The last two incidents, the logistics contract and the property out-bidding? Both required information from inside the Mariano operation and the Delaney operation simultaneously." There’s a pause for a beat. "Lorenzo, whoever this is doesn't just have access to one family. They're inside both."
Today is a fucking clusterfuck of information and none of it useful.
"That's not a Syndicate head or second in command," I say. "It's someone who has personal and business access to both households."
"Or someone who has someone inside each household," Ciro says. "Two separate sources reporting to the same person."
"Or one person who moves between both," I say. "Keep pulling on it," I say. "I want names. Anyone who has personal access to both houses. I want the list tonight."
I end the call while Marco keeps driving. My mind whirls and I can’t keep up with the random thoughts that are popping up. Daire and her bullshit, Quinn and her lack of answers, Daithí and his overprotectiveness. I have trusted Daithí up until recently but today I looked at him differently and I saw a man who was wracked with guilt. But was it because he failed Quinn or something else entirely?
Daire spent a full fucking year engaged to me, she was at the Mariano household parties. She has grown up inside the Delaney organization, and now due to her pregnancy and subsequent marriage to Rurik Morozov, she’s going to get access to the Morozov organization too.
I think about my fathers men. I don’t want to believe that any of them are to blame for the leak, but I can’t be sure. Many of them have been with my father since the very beginning.
A memory niggles at me, of the night of mine and Daire’s engagement announcement. She and Bruno, my father’s man, one that he trusts to watch over Vittoria and my sisters, were in the corner speaking in hushed tones, looking very close.
Bruno has been with the family for a long time. He has access to the house along with meetings which has come from years of being trusted, but him and Daire cozied in a corner has stayed in the back of my mind and I’m not sure why it’s come forward now. Is it relevant? I don’t know and I guess time will tell.
Accusing one of my father's most trusted men without proof would be career-ending. I'd need more before I took it to him.
All that I can think is that someone with access to both families has been operating in the gap between them and needs that gap to stay open. Hence the moves being made. It’s causing distrust within the syndicate and that’s not a good look.
I can't do anything with the realization I've just had, not without proof. My mother's murder triggered the largest internal investigation this family has ever conducted. It wasn't enough.
Which means we either missed something or someone, this time I'll know where to look. Soon I’ll have the updated list of people with access to both households and once I do, I’ll have Marco, Tempest, and even Prior help dig into their backgrounds. This shit is coming to a head, I can feel it.
But what happens when the truth is uncovered? What’ll be left of the syndicate then?
Chapter 14
Quinn
Today is the day. Today’s the day that I become Mrs. Quinn Mariano.
I lie in the dark of my bedroom staring up at the ceiling, and I can’t stop the dread that fills my gut. This is happening, and as much as I’ve tried to prepare myself for what’s to come, I can’t. I’ve no idea what to expect once the vows are said. I’m scared that being away from home, I’ll lose the fight that I have in me.
Everything that has happened with Lorenzo has changed what I feel about going to the Mariano estate. I thought, no hoped, that by joining the Mariano family that I’d be able to find out who I truly am. Things between Lorenzo and I started a lot better than I had ever expected, but now, they're worse than I could have anticipated. The man threatened to kill me, wasn’t the first to do so and I very much doubt he’d be the last, but I never thought it would come from someone I was to marry.
I’m scared of what’s to come, of which Lorenzo I'll be greeted with today and for the rest of my life. In our world, there’s no divorce. You get married, and the only escape is through death.
I close my eyes and breathe deeply. In through the nose, slow and measured, out through the mouth. I've been doing this since I was about twelve after I punched Daire after the bitch pulled my hair and burned me with hot wax that she ‘accidentally’ poured on me while she ‘accidentally’ tripped carrying a candle. Da lost his shit, Mam was screaming and everyone was looking at me like I was the antichrist. I was twelve years old, with hot wax burning my leg, and I was crying, but everyone rallied around Daire because I punched her in the face. Da beat me with his belt, and it was Tony who actually taught me how to breathe through the pain, how to push everything down and move past it.
It’s hard to believe that in the six years since that day of learning how to breathe through pain, that I’ve had to use that technique almost every day. Nothing in this God-forsaken house has changed in those six years except for Daire’s antics. They have only intensified and gotten worse. She’s learned the art of manipulation and has managed to isolate me from my family, or tried to at the very least. Thankfully, both Caden and Daithí don’t put up with her bullshit and see right through her. I wish everyone else would too.
But that’s not ever going to happen. Daire’s beautiful and conniving. She knows exactly what it takes to turn a situation around to fit her needs and get everyone on her side without breaking a sweat. There’s no fighting that type of narcissism.
I get up before anyone comes to find me. The last thing I want is an argument about me being lazy on a day like today. Mam would no doubt love to point out every single flaw as she berates me. I won’t give anyone the satisfaction of hurting me today.
