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I put my hand to her flat belly, and she covered it with her palm.
She nodded, and her chin trembled. My beautiful girl. She’d been through so much already, and my heart tugged to give her what she wanted and stay, but this was the man who’d killed my father. While I’d been raging at the Gilligans, he’d been sitting back and laughing at the shitstorm he’d stirred up.
The head of the Irish, Finbar Fury, was a mad bastard, and everyone knew it. He was the type of bloke who would tear someone’s ear off in a bar fight just ’cause he thought the person had been looking at him the wrong way.
Had Finbar wanted my father dead all along, or had Tam and Leo been the target? I had to wonder. After all, they’d been the ones to sneak onto the traveller site and kill the Estonian responsible for murdering Leo’s fiancée, amongst other things. Tam and Leo had torched one of the traveller’s cars, but it was doubtful the Irish were bothered about that—it was probably nicked anyway. It was more that the Estonians had been under their protection and the Cornells had dared come onto their territory.
They’d killed Harvey because of the girl, but I assumed the bombing had also been in part revenge for Tam and Leo attacking their camp.
“Time to go,” Tam said.
Similar farewells had been going on between him and Hallie, and Leo and Kaja, too. Maybe it was old-fashioned for the men to go off fighting while the women stayed home with the babies, but we weren’t the type of men who’d allow their women to put themselves in danger. If something was heavy, we carried it. If something was dirty, we dealt with it. If there was danger, we put ourselves in the way of it. That was just how it was.
I hugged Ivy one last time, both of us clinging to one another, and then forced myself to let go. Unable to make eye contact with her again for fear that I’d break and refuse to leave her side, I put my head down and followed Tam out to where the vehicles were parked. We were taking Tam’s classic-style Land Rover, which though brand-new, had the style of a military vehicle.
I took a seat in back, while Tam drove and Leo rode shotgun.
We’d pulled together as many men as possible—from both the Wynter and Cornell sides—to meet a mile from the traveller site on the outskirts of Bexley Farm. We’d roped in almost twenty men, and while the Irish might be on home turf, we were larger in number, plus we had the element of surprise.
The Irish weren’t going to know what hit them.
The longer I was allowed to dwell on it, the angrier I became. Some of the fire I’d thought had died away completely since losing Ivy returned to me. I hated the idea of Finbar Fury laughing behind our backs.
We needed to drive the travellers away from the city and show them that the Wynters and Cornells wouldn’t sit by and allow our family members to be killed.
They needed to understand that we were onto them and we wouldn’t stand for it.
We did the drive in near silence, not even the radio on to break things up. Mentally, we all needed to be prepared, and now was not the time for casual chit-chat, despite all the bombs I had dropped back at the house.
We were first to arrive at the meeting spot.
My stomach knotted. I’d hoped there would at least have been a few people here to meet us.
How many men would come to our call? The Irish were known to be ruthless, and that might mean some would hold back, but I hoped enough would come to ensure our victory.
Tam parked the Land Rover, and we all climbed out, slamming the doors behind us. From the tense atmosphere that settled over us all, I got the feeling Tam had been expecting people to already be here, too.
I didn’t bother saying anything to try to reassure him. Right now, my words were meaningless.
The grumble of an engine approaching, followed by the roar of a couple of motorbikes, met my ears.
Our call had been heard.
Over the next thirty minutes, more men arrived, all of them prepared and ready for a fight. We shook their hands and clapped them on the back. The atmosphere morphed to one of joviality rather than war.
When it looked as though everyone was here, Tam raised his voice to get their attention.
“Thanks for coming, everyone. It seemed we have a scourge on our city, one we’d been too preoccupied to notice. We’ve recently learned Finbar Fury and his gang were responsible for my brother, Harvey’s, murder, and we also believe them responsible for the bomb that killed Marlon Wynter.”
He was like a sergeant instructing his army.
“I don’t want any women or children harmed,” Tam instructed us. “I mean it. No shooting unless you know exactly who you’re shooting at—got it?”
The caravans were like tin cans. Bullets could easily penetrate them and kill whoever was inside. Accidents happened that way, and none of us were into taking the lives of innocents.
“Our main sights are on Finbar Fury. Even if he wasn’t directly behind Harvey’s shooting, nothing goes down among his people without him knowing about it. I’d like to hear the truth come directly from Finbar’s mouth, so ideally I want him taken alive, but if we have to kill him, so be it.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
