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“What did the guys we killed want?” he asked, catching her hair between his fingers as he scooped his large hand around the side of her head.
“They wanted to know who was on your payroll.” She searched her memory. “Who you were greasing.” Her attention leaped to his. “Who’s McDade got on the council?” His expression relaxed enough to agree with the conclusion she was reaching on her own. “They wanted the same information my dad wanted.”
“When your father didn’t get it the easy way, Silvio Manzani sent his guys in to get it the hard way.”
She couldn’t even think, it was… unfathomable. Her chest tightened; sickness constricted her throat.
“No,” she said, her head moving in a loose shake. “No, but that means…” Her ears rang. “My father wouldn’t.”
“People are complicated, Macushla.”
“No,” she said, trying to focus. Her father would… he wouldn’t. How could he get mixed up with someone like Silvio Manzani? “Does he have something on him?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Or your father’s like every other sap out there.” She sought an explanation. “Pussy or green, baby. Only two reasons a guy does anything.”
And family. At least he was nice enough not to add that one. If her father was in cahoots with the Manzanis, it wasn’t for the sake of their McLeod family.
“Maybe he wants evidence,” she said. “Maybe law enforcement knows you’ve paid people off and he wants to bring them to justice.”
“You wanna talk to him? Ask him what’s going on?”
Did she? Would he be honest with her? “I have to talk to Lach.”
He pulled her a little closer. “You put this on him, baby, he’ll do what any man would do and confront your father. If it’s true, he’ll pursue him.”
Would Lachlan arrest their father? Was that even possible? How could she put her brother in that position? And if they were wrong…
“This is about the Harvest deal?”
“Yeah.”
“What is the Harvest deal?”
“Over at the old Harvest site by the river, there’s a complex of empty buildings. We want it.”
“The city owns it?” she asked.
He nodded. “And we need the area rezoned.”
“You need votes and willing officials,” she said. “What does that have to do with Manzani?”
“Where is the Harvest site? Geographically?”
It struck her fast. “The border of McDade and Manzani territory.”
The Gambatto buffer was dwindling by the day.
“Aye.”
“They want it too?”
“Stopping us from getting control of the region is their priority. And that means taking it from us. It’s all haggling, baby, who has more, who has less.”
“So they have people in their pockets who will jockey for them.” But she didn’t get it. “My father doesn’t vote on council meetings. He isn’t involved in zoning decisions.”
“Bet a lot of guys in that building owe him. New guys want to impress him. You said he has power.”
“Yeah, but not like my grandfather… Oh, God…”
