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Ariana takes a deep breath. “Edgar Walsh is part of a four-man team sent to New Orleans by Joseph Cullen, the head of the Irish mob out of Boston.”
I stand in silence as Ariana speaks, keeping my eyes on the water. It’s better this way. I don’t want her to see me turn intohim.
“They faked their own deaths over a year ago, so they could operate undetected while gathering intel on you and your family. Walsh said that Cullen was working with someone in New Orleans to take you down. He didn’t know who.”
“That’s convenient,” I grumble.
“I know. But there’s more.” I nod, still refusing to look at her. “According to Walsh, as far as they knew, this mission was undisclosed. Only Cullen, whoever their New Orleans contact was, and their handler, Avery Gallagher, knew of it. They were given a burner phone by Avery before they left Boston. It was how they communicated with Cullen. Or rather, how Cullen communicated with them.” Ariana hesitates.
This is it—the thing she doesn’t want to tell me but knows she must. My insides coil and burn knowing there is someone in my midst plotting against me. This entire time! How could I not— No. Of course I suspected it. I’ve suspected there was a traitor in my father’s organization ever since the night my mother was killed. And now—now I have confirmation but no name, no face to punch, no body to destroy. My fingers shake as I fight the urge to hit something, anything. That rock over there, it’ll do.
“Ah!” I grunt, crossing my arms to keep my hands from doing things they shouldn’t. “Just tell me, Ariana.” I turn to her, the sight of moving water nearly as suffocating as this news. It’s then that I see the small wrinkle between her eyes. Her lips part the same way they did before. Now it is she who turns away from me. “No,” I say, stepping into her eye line. “I want you to look at me when you tell me. If it’s this goddamn hard for you, I…I need to see you so that I don’t lose control.”
She bites her lip as sweat dampens my chest. My heart feels like it beats one thousand beats a minute as I wait for what she’ll say next. Finally, she lifts her eyes to meet mine and—
“They only heard from Cullen twice. The night of the Halloween party when they were ordered to capture Sophia and…” She fights the urge to look away as her eyes glisten with tears.
No. No, don’t say it. I half reach out to her, half stumble as I finally understand. I take Ariana’s hand in mine and she brings her other to my neck to steady me. I shouldn’t be this close to her. Not when she finally reveals the truth, making it real. I could hurt her if I’m—
“Say it,” I whisper. My voice cracks with emotion as over Ariana’s shoulder, next to the tree line, I spot her—Cara. Ariana brushes her thumb across the skin of my neck as if she senses the rage and heartbreak coursing through me. “Say it,” I say once more, this time with more grit.
Ariana nods as I squeeze her hand, holding on to her for dear life. Finally, she says, “They were the ones who abducted Cara and brought her to the brotherhood. What happened to her was never the brotherhood’s plan, though they went along with it. Cullen is the one who ordered the hit. It was part of his plan to dethrone you.” Ariana’s words rip through me forcing me to let her go for fear I’ll break her if I don’t. “Hey, hey,” Ariana says, bringing both her hands to my cheeks. “Look at me. Look at me. You’re in control.” She nods as if it’ll make it true. “You’re in control.”
As my blood boils inside me and my head aches with memories of the past year, memories now tainted with this revelation, I back away from her. “You need to leave.”
“No. No, I’m not leaving.” She takes a step toward me, but I put my hand out to stop her.
“Ariana,go.” I give her the death glare, the one I hoped she’d never have to see, the one that’s made grown men piss themselves at my feet. Still, she doesn’t flinch.
“It’s okay,” she says. “It’s okay to let go. It’s okay to lose control. I won’t judge you.”
I shake my head and walk away from her. When I lose control, people die. So, if she won’t leave, I will. I can’t be near her, not when I’m this angry, this—
“Alister!” The bite in her voice stops me dead in my tracks. It shocks the rage right out of me. Though, as it leaves me, I wish it would’ve stayed. Because left in its place is a hollowness so all-consuming I feel as if I may succumb to it.
Light-headed, I drop to my knees and sit among the grass along the bank of the lake. I rest my head in my palms as emotion courses through me. This is why I still see her. This is why she haunts me. It’s because her abductors, the men truly responsible for Cara’s death, still breathe. I’ve killed countless men in the name of avenging my sister. I’ve bathed in their blood and yet it still isn’t over. When will it end? Will iteverend? Will she ever truly have peace? Will I?
“Alister?” Ariana drops down beside me and brings her hand to my back. Like before, I welcome her touch, though it does confuse me. Ariana doesn’t know me. She has no reason to comfort me at my lowest point, to stay even when I tell her to leave, especially after I’ve already promised to help her find her mother’s killers.
“God,” I moan, rubbing the ache from my forehead. “None of this makes sense,” I say. Little does she know I’m talking about more than Edgar’s claims against Cullen. And yet, even those aren’t completely adding up. Word gets around in a world like ours, which is why I know that Joseph Cullen died over a year ago. Unlike his men whose deaths he helped fake, his body was found and positively identified by his daughter, the new head of the Irish faction in Boston.
“Ariana, Cullen died before Cara was abducted, which means whoever truly ordered the hit against my sister, whoever was contacting Walsh and his men via the burner phone, was not Cullen at all. It was the New Orleans traitor, the nameless man I will soon uncover or die trying.”
As the words cross my lips, I turn to Ariana and find not an FBI agent sitting next to me nor even a woman only here because she needs my help. No. In Ariana I see a kindred soul, someone who understands my need to uncover the truth, someone who understands my need for justice. Which is why I know she’ll grant my request to interrogate Walsh myself.
“I need to see Walsh.”
Ariana pulls away from me, turning toward the lake. She’s smart enough to know turning him over to me will make her an accessory to murder. Still, there’s no way in Hell I’m allowing the man responsible for my sister’s death to walk this earth when she can’t.
“Ariana?”
“Alister, he’s already in Witness Protection. It was the only way I could get him to talk.”
As Ariana’s words leave her, I’m sure I’ve heard her wrong. “Say that again.”
“Alister…”
I turn away from her and push myself up off the ground. This time she doesn’t follow.Smart girl.I pace the bank of the lake, doing my best to stay calm, but it’s no use.
