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“Which one?” I snarled.
“The empty one, but two of our men were arrested.”
“For what?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Fuming, I glanced through the crowd. “Something has happened.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“Has the chief of police arrived?”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
“Find him. I’m going to see what Barrett has found out.”
Tristen nodded, immediately returning to the crowd. I headed through to the other side of the casino and into the main foyer, locating him just as he was getting off his phone.
“You know?” he asked as he walked closer, keeping his voice down.
“The raids are continuing.”
“It would appear so. I haven’t been able to find out much, but there’s significant police activity in several areas of the city.”
I scanned the crowd, uncertain what the hell to think. “Keep checking.”
“I need to ask. Is there anything the police can find?”
“You know me better than that, Barrett.”
His phone rang and I waited as he answered, trying to act nonchalant although I was completely on edge. The event had been in all the newspapers, several of the city magazines, and on television. Danika had spared no expense making this the event of the year. It was the perfect opportunity to taint my reputation with a bogus arrest.
“Interesting,” Barrett said to his caller, lifting his head toward me. “I appreciate the heads up.”
I waited as he pocketed his phone, his face pensive. “The water patrol is checking every barge on the river. Evidently, a large shipment of illegal arms was found late last night and seized. That wouldn’t happen to be the deal you were interested in, would it?”
The Grassos had taken the bait, if that was what I wanted to call it. “It was.”
“Well, you made a good decision to cancel your plans. I have a feeling the coordinated effort is going to become a pain in the ass.”
“So it would seem. We get through tonight then go about business as usual. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“Just stay the course, Constantine. You’ve worked too hard in order to follow in your father’s footsteps.”
His fatherly advice didn’t piss me off this time. He had vested interest to the tune of millions of dollars of stock. This could be a perfect opportunity to cut out a certain percentage of our business as I’d already desired.
I finished off the champagne, finding a tray to deposit my empty glass, then headed back toward Jade. There was nothing else I could do at this point but wait.
My phone rang, my pulse immediately increasing. Then I looked at the screen.
“Brogan. I was hoping to hear from you. Please tell me you have something.”
“I know who he is, my brother. Ryan O’Leary is his birth name. Now, he’s called the Emissary. I told you I’d heard the name before. The man is a ghost and has been since his name was first mentioned over twenty years ago.”
“How the fuck did you find out?”
“I pulled every string in the book. I’ll be honest with you. I’m not certain everything I was told is true since there’s nothing to back it up. I had to use a little old-fashioned Irish interrogation skill with an ex-DEA agent. O’Leary is also considered rogue and has been for several years. He was a high-ranking DEA operative in a special division, then went off the grid.”
