AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. I did.”
“You told Immie, my daughter, to lie about her involvement. You took the whole weight on yourself—”
“You’re welcome.”
“You think I want to see you strung up any more than I want Immie at risk? You tell Swerve this, he could kill you on the spot.”
“Then you and Conn are off the hook with the investigation.”
“And what do I tell him, huh? Ire? That I knew about Jane Doe all along and didn’t tell him?”
“He has enough going on.”
“Is that what it is?” he asked. “You’re protecting Jane Doe from the Manzanis.” They knew her name. Her first name. Select people did anyway. Using the anonymous moniker was just a smart habit. “From Swerve and Silvio… Are you protecting her from the McDades too?”
“Conn doesn’t need her. She’s nothing to the McDades.”
“She’s valuable. Have you asked what she knows?”
“No. What she knows is her business. I didn’t do what I did to leverage her or what she knows.”
“Yet that’s exactly what you’re talking about doing.”
“It’s a game,” she said. “I ask, he laughs at me, I tease him with what we have, get the information—”
“And then don’t pay up? So not only will you have taken from the Manzanis, but you’ll double-cross them too? Ire can’t protect you from that. That’s not you did nothing wrong. That’s you failing to pay. Debts have to be settled and the price is her life.”
“Or mine.” Blinking, her gaze begged him to understand. “Isn’t it worth it?”
“No. To find out who killed your grandfather? No, sorry, to maybe find out. We don’t know if the Manzanis are responsible. They could know nothing about it. Then you lose your life for nothing.” He exhaled. “All the manpower Ire puts into keeping you safe from outside threats, he can’t protect you from your own stupidity.”
“Risks are part of the game. Why shouldn’t I up the stakes?”
“Because your grandaddy would kick your fucking ass.”
“You don’t know him, you didn’t know him.”
“He’s a father, just like me, and I’m telling you, he’d tell you to leave it the fuck alone before trading your life for information that’s useless to a corpse.”
“It’s not useless to Lachlan.”
“And what will losing his sister do to him? After losing Imogen, your grandaddy…”
She sighed. “I need you with me.”
“Not on this. Your life means more to me than this.”
“Fine,” she said, surging to her feet. “I’ll deal with it myself.”
“Scamp,” he called after her. She stalked down the hallway. “Stubborn fucking woman!”
Yeah, and that wouldn’t change anytime soon. Did she know better than to be careless? Yes. But Strat said it himself: debts have to be settled. That went for the Manzanis, the McDades, and the McLeods as well.
THIRTY
AT STAG, she didn’t wait for Daly and got out of the car to go over to her brother outside the main door.
“What’s going on?”
