Page 97 of Alfie: Part Two

I wasn’t surprised. I’d seen their budget and knew their priorities.

“Which brings us to where we are now.” Finn took over again. “Ford, you recently had a sit-down with Henry from Strawberry Mansion, and he further proved we gotta put our foot down. Freelancers and smaller outfits are getting cocky north of Diamond, and we’ve had more shit brewing in the south too.” Like Luka and Jakov, I assumed. “This is why I wanna make an example outta the Balkan boys who thought it was a good idea to brutally assault five women around Pennsport.”

Shan cleared his throat and poured himself a cup of coffee. “I’d say it’s particularly vital we strike backbecausethey did this in Pennsport. Not only because we’re from there, but because we don’t want violence in the area when we’re in the middle of negotiations for our rezoning project on Ritner. We have a lot of residential property down there.”

I wasn’t sure I should be here for this, but nevertheless, I soaked up the information. The more I learned, the better I understood—and if they had invested in property around Pennsport, the crime rate mattered even more. In addition, a rezoning project? On Ritner? That struck me as odd. Were they trying to build a commercial corridor or something? I didn’t think Finn would be on that side of the ongoing debate.

“What are you doing in Pennsport?” I felt the need to ask.

“Nothing, aside from protecting it,” Finn answered. He seemed irritated by the topic. “We’re trying to prevent some new-money cunts from opening up a district of vegan bakeries,dog cafés, and artisanal burger joints where you get flakes of gold in the bun. Take your $60 gold dump elsewhere.”

I shared a grin with Shan.Nowit made much more sense.

Alfie stifled a yawn.

My sweet boy.

“Moving on.” Finn circled his finger and went with the next printout in his folder. “Thanks to Jakov’s and Luka’s contributions, we have ten body parts to distribute around the city. Luka’s head will be left outside the precinct where Hanna works.”

Jesus Christ. I shifted in my seat and swallowed. Like a flip of a switch, my easy-breezy Friday turned into a headache, because I knew what that kind of message would do to the city. Hell, this would get picked up and spread across the country.

The news department atmyshow would be all over it.

“Why not Jakov’s head?” Alfie asked.Thatwas his question? “I made it so pretty.”

Finn sighed. “Because we can make sure there’s no Son DNA on body parts. We can’t do that on…what the fuck I should call Jakov’s face. Blood salad?”

“I was thinking blood suey,” Kellan noted.

Finn found that funny. “Either way, it was better to go with the person whodidn’tassault your ma, Alfie. Now that we’ve done the work for them, the police are gonna know two things. The mother of someone closely linked to the Sons was attacked, and the Sons solved the case and dumped evidence on their doorstep.”

Right, so should we discuss that? Because it sounded fucking insane.

“You will all be brought in for questioning,” I stated.

“On what grounds?” Finn asked curiously. “It’s not like we’re gonna carve ‘Best regards, the Sons of Munster’ into the limbs. There’s a difference between knowing and knowing, West.”

I planted my elbow on the armrest and scrubbed a hand over my mouth.

They were fucking certifiable, the whole bunch.

“They will knock on our doors, of course,” Shan reasoned. “But nothing will actually connect the evidence to us. And when I sayus—” He glanced at me. “I’m not sure that will include you and Alfie.”

“It likely will,” Hanna said quietly. “Only because it was O’Dwyer’s mother who was attacked. They’ll basically ask if you know anything. We can’t do anything else.”

Alfie and I looked at each other. If that was all it was, I didn’t mind. I could deny, deny, deny. No problem. As long as he didn’t become an actual suspect.

“I’m cool with it if you are,” he murmured.

I inclined my head and faced Shan. “Is there any way we can get a heads-up so the children aren’t home when the police show up?”

He shifted a questioning glance at Hanna.

“That won’t be a problem,” the detective said. “I have a buddy on the case, and he couldn’t keep his mouth shut if I paid him.”

Philly’s finest, huh?

“In that case… Okay.” I cleared my throat and nodded. “A bigger problem is my work. I can’t—and won’t—stop my news department from covering this, and I can tell you right now it’s going to be a clusterfuck of a month.”

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