“I said no, Rhys, of course I did,” Tommy half-lied. Hehadsaid no, but he had come close to saying yes. Multipletimes. “The first time it was a bribe, which would have been enough to buy my sister the medication she needs. Now they’re threatening to destroy me. Seems he knows just how to do so,” Tommy said grimly as Rhys swore.
“Couldn’t be easy to tell me, Tom,” Rhys said gruffly. “Thank you.”
“We’re a team, right?” Tommy said, as positively as he could.
“Who is he?” Rhys asked.
“Never seen that man before this moment,” Tommy said. “Last instructions I had were through a note. But I have a feeling I know who he works for.”
“Who?” Rhys asked, narrowing his eyes.
“It’s a long story, but Minnie’s involved,” Tommy said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Let’s go find the girls and we’ll tell you all about it.”
It took some time before they were all assembled.
Minnie had been with Emmaline and Lily when Tommy was at practice or otherwise occupied.
They were all at Lily’s now, Minnie sitting on the floor playing with Lily’s baby while the rest of them sat around the dining table, eating together.
When the men had first walked through the door, Tommy had drawn Minnie to the side with a quick kiss on her cheek, both relieved and happy to see her, as always seemed to be the case these days.
He had then murmured in her ear an explanation as quickly as he could, asking if he could share the details of Blackwood and her father with her friends, although most of them already knew the main parts of the story. She had nodded, though she had looked over to Emmaline with a worried glance. But Emmaline would understand. She would have to.
Tommy had asked Jonny to join them as he seemed toknow a decent amount about Blackwood, while Minnie’s friend Ada was also present.
“Is someone going to tell us what’s going on?” Emmaline finally said through the tense silence.
“You sure you want to share with the women?” Jonny leaned over and murmured in Tommy’s ear, but he wasn’t as quiet as he thought he was, for he only earned himself a glare from the four women at the table, and he lifted his hands in the air in self-defence.
“Just didn’t want to worry you, is all,” he said.
“A stranger approached me after practice,” Tommy began, causing Minnie’s head to snap up toward him. He quickly continued with the story. “I have a feeling he’s connected to Blackwood.”
That caused Jonny to heave a sigh, as he was the one most aware of what that could mean for them, while Ada’s brow furrowed.
“Who is Blackwood?” she asked.
“Blackwood,” Jonny said, leaning forward, his big shoulders looking out of place at the dainty dining table, “is the last man in Manchester you would ever want to cross.”
Tommy noted Minnie’s shiver at the words, and he wished she was sitting next to him so that he could wrap his arms around her and reassure her. That would have to come later.
“What do we do now?” Colin asked, directing his question toward Rhys. “Last time the team was threatened like this, we figured out a way to bring down the man who wanted to see our downfall, but this seems much more dangerous.”
“It is,” Jonny said, shaking his head. “So dangerous. You want my opinion? Stay out of it. Do what he says.”
“We arenotthrowing the game,” Rhys said, his lips tightening.
“It’s just a game,” Jonny said. “Blackwood is far worse. At least make it look like you tried to.”
“What if we could find a way to stop him?” Minnie asked, standing with the baby on her hip, and something in Tommy’s chest turned just a bit at the sight before him.
“How would we do that?” Ada asked, for Tommy didn’t seem capable of words at the moment.
“Do what we did before,” Lily said, pausing from serving the drinks around the table. “Find proof. Follow the transactions and see where they came from, where they are going.”
“How would we even find them?” Tommy asked.
“My father would have ledgers,” Minnie said. “I found some before, in his study. I’m sure I could go to the docks and find more.”
