It sounded as if Hadeom scrubbed a hand over his face, and his voice was very quiet when he said, “Knowing he is alive is enough. He has found a group that will go to great lengths to protect him. That’s enough for me.”
Sawyer and Ciaran exchanged a frown, and then Ciaran looked at Dirk. “What do you want me to do with Dirk?”
“Official answer is whatever punishment you see fit,” Hadeom said. “You are not bound by any law that pertains to detaining a consortium leader because he no longer is one. He has no consortium.”
“And the unofficial answer?” Sawyer asked.
“Unofficially,” he replied. “I don’t give a fuck what you do to him. He was a shit leader who failed his men.”
Tobin caught Fray’s gaze, and he chuckled. Beau’s smile held a little more satisfaction.
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad Beau and Hudson are working out,” Hadeom said. “Happy endings are rare in my line of work.”
Ciaran looked at Beau when he spoke. “Both are valued members of our consortium, contributing and helping already. I’m glad they’re here.”
Fray gave Beau a nudge, and Beau smiled shyly. It was pretty clear he’d never heard praise from his old leader, and the way Dirk sneered in disgust said all Ciaran needed to know.
“Thank you, Inspector,” he said. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, Sawyer,” he said. “Hold off on any future correspondence. I’ll be out of office for a while.”
Sawyer frowned again. “You don’t want my reports?”
“You’ve never sent any,” Hadeom replied.
Fray snorted, and Sawyer smiled at him. “Okay, so no correspondence. At all. Roger that. For how long?”
“Until you hear from me again.”
“Understood.”
The call ended, and Sawyer looked at Ciaran, then Tobin. “That was really fucking weird.”
They all nodded because itwasweird, and then they were left with Dirk, who was shaking his head at Ciaran.
“You have no idea who he is, or what he’s capable of,” he said with a sneer. “How do you think I knew Lusca was coming before you did? Huh? Who do you think told me? Why do you think I got the hell outta there?”
“We should have come here to help!” Beau said, finally stepping forward. “We voted for, and you vetoed us against. You left them to fight alone.”
“Because she would have killed us all,” Dirk said. “And if she didn’t, Hadeom would have.” He looked at Ciaran then, eyes pleading. “He’s not who he says he is. And you trust him over one of your own? He’s more powerful than you can imagine.”
Ciaran smiled at him. “Oh, we know.”
Dirk shook his head. “No, you don’t. Whatever you think you know, you don’t know the half of it.”
Ciaran grabbed him by the arm. “Get up.” Then Ciaran looked at Tobin and Fray. “Can you take him to Strahan?”
Tobin nodded. “Sure.”
“Or drop him fifty miles off the continental shelf, I don’t care,” Ciaran added. Then he turned to Dirk, his voice low. “Otis and Pania will go with them to make sure you behave yourself. If you say one word they don’t like, or if you look at Pania in a way Otis doesn’t care for, he has my full permission to tear you apart. So my suggestion is keep your head down and your mouth shut.”
Dirk swallowed hard and nodded.
“You’re not welcome back here,” Ciaran said. “Ever. When you get to Strahan, keep going north, you hear me?”
Sawyer grimaced at Dirk. “And my suggestion is maybe work on yourself as a person because you’re a bit of a dick. Make some friends. Get some hobbies. I dunno. Something fun, maybe.”
Of course Fray laughed at that.
