Page 106 of Ruthless Reign

“A little over a hundred, but he was still bringing men in from across the pond. He could have more now.”

Dad whispered something to Zade and he left, rushing back to the car where Ma was waiting.

“Will you give us the location?” Dad asked him.

Aodhán’s bright green eyes flicked to Becca and held there. “Yes.”

Her lips parted in surprise and his lips pulled up in the ghost of a sad smile. “Give me your phone,” he told Dad. “I’ll show you where it is.”

True to his word, Aodhán marked out the exact location of the nondescript triplex set at the edge of the city, on a street filled mostly with industrial complexes.

Ma came in, leveling a look on Aodhán that could’ve scorched the devil.

“Could it work?” Dad asked her, showing her the location on the phone.

Ma zoomed in on the screen, thought quietly for a second, and nodded. “I can make it work.”

“Pack up, boys,” Dad said with a grin, pocketing his phone. “We’re going to a bonfire.”

Zade whooped, chasing Ma back outside.

“You’re going to let her use the RPGs?” I asked, unable to share the same level of excitement I saw in Dad’s eyes. In Zade and Ma’s.

“Let her?” he asked with a raised brow. “Son, you should know by now that I don’t let your Ma do a damn thing.”

“You should stay here,” Becca was saying to Aodhán. “You don’t need to watch that happen.”

“Actually, I’m afraid he does,” Dad corrected her. “I’m grateful for what you did for us, boy, but I’m a long way from trusting you. I need him watched. At all times. No offense, Irishman.”

“It’s Aodhán,” I corrected Dad. “His name is Aodhán.”

Aodhán’s surprise was evident in his expression as he turned to me with a nod of acknowledgment. I ignored Dad’s glare.

This Irishman was a lot of things, and I didn’t trust him, either, but after what I suspected he went through last night to buy us some time, he’d at least earned the respect of being called by his name.

“No offense taken,” Aodhán told Dad as he slid from the table. I half expected him to fall on his ass, but he stood strong. “Ready when you are.”

We couldn’t risk tipping off the Sons about our approach, so we needed to position ourselves carefully to avoid being seen. We also couldn’t evacuate the neighboring buildings. Ma assured us that according to her calculations, the other buildings would sustain minimal damage and no loss of life.

I looked to Aodhán for the fifth time since we arrived on the roof of a building half a block down the street. I didn’t like the look on his face.

“What is it?”

He shook his head. “Something’s not right.”

“What do you mean?”

“They aren’t there.”

“Are you sure?”

He bit his lip, thinking, watching.

We hadn’t seen any of them, but there were a few cars outside. One of which Aodhán picked out as a stolen vehicle used by one of Séamas’ men.

“You don’t get it,” he said in a low voice that I almost thought wasn’t even meant for me to hear. “My da is always one step ahead. Always.”

“But he didn’t expect you to take out the warehouse, right? So he can’t be this time.”

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