Page 50 of Forbidden Need

As everyone did that, Biggs served drinks. And twenty minutes later, they were sitting in silence, passing around nothing but glares and grumbles.

“Okay,” she said because someone had to speak first. “Everyone can acknowledge that there are two sides to this.” Her family and her lover’s family. “And those two sides have distinct skill sets.”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we act on each other’s intelligence.”

“The idea is to share intelligence to get to a conclusion,” Strat said, earning himself her appreciative smile.

“We can’t trust these people. They could feed us whatever bullshit they want and get us tied up with miscreants.”

Her father had never been an anxious person, not that she remembered. And he hid his fear under anger and bluster, but she saw it. If Conn hadn’t confirmed it, maybe she wouldn’t have noticed, but her dad was definitely unsettled about something more than the murder.

Bouncing to the edge of her seat, she reached back to rest a hand on Connel’s thigh. “Okay, then how about we start with your information? Tell us about this witness. The one who pointed at Conn.”

“So he can be disappeared?”

“I didn’t ask for his name.” Though they did now know it was a male. “You can tell us what he said. Did he name Conn, or did he fit a description?”

“No one would be dumb enough to name the boss,” Daly said.

Niall had another view. “Unless he had an agenda.”

“Should we invite Vex to the party?” Hock asked.

“No,” she said, “please, God. Connel in the same room as him is one thing. Add my father to the mix…”

“The asshole prefers you alone,” Strat said.

“Something that won’t happen again,” Connel added.

She looked at him over her shoulder and he wasn’t kidding around.

“When he finds out about you and Ire,” Lachlan said, “there could be trouble.”

On an exhale, she sank back in her seat. “He knows.”

“Vex knows—so it was only your family in the dark?”

Now that he mentioned it…

“We’ll deal with the Manzanis,” Connel said. “Find out what they know.”

“And how will you do that?” her brother asked.

“Old man was asking questions around City Hall,” Connel said, ignoring Lachlan’s query. “Find out who’s nervous. Get names or faces. We’ll lean on them.”

“What the—you can’t really expect us to give you names. These are innocent people.”

“Not so innocent if they ordered the old man’s murder,” Strat said.

“Or did it themselves,” Daly added.

“We know how to ask nicely,” Niall said, earning a few whispers of laughter from the McDade people.

“No one’s suggesting hurting anyone,” she said, trying to console her brother. Her father wouldn’t give first. Her brother, ultimately, wanted the murderer unmasked. “But you can’t deny a lot of people won’t talk to cops.”

“They talk to us, they could get arrested. They talk to McDade’s people…” And they could end up dead. Her brother shifted. “Which raises the question…”

“What question?”

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