Page 93 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

“I just want to help you and your mother. I think it would be good for you if she were here, but it’s going to take a little manipulation and strategy. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course. If it means that she’ll get to stay here with me, I’ll do whatever’s necessary.”

“Good. She’ll be here in a few weeks.”

“Why so long?” I asked quickly. I was desperate to get moving on this.

“Because there are things your father has revealed to me, and if I move too soon on anything, he’ll suspect something. I need to be careful how I proceed from here.”

I nodded, but disappointment hung heavy in my chest, which was ridiculous since up until ten minutes ago, this wasn’t even an option. Asher was giving me something I could only have hoped for, and I had to be patient if I was going to get what I wanted.

“So…what do we do now?”

“We wait and listen.”

34

ASHER

“Where are we with Ambrose?” I asked as I stormed into the study. It had been weeks and we weren’t any closer to moving on him.

“Still nothing,” Chase said. “Aside from the fact that he wanted the informant brought in, he hasn’t said a word.”

I sat down at my desk and thought things through. “Do you think he found the bug?”

“Nothing suggests that he has,” Patrick said, shutting the door and taking his own seat. “He’s not a very trusting person, so it’s possible he’s just very careful about how he discusses business.”

I sighed heavily, running my hand over my face. I was getting impatient, not that I had very much patience to begin with. Ever since Jade entered the picture, I was having a hard time keeping control of my reactions.

The only upside I saw in any of this was that we’d all been forced to take the time to recover from the last attack. Patrick was fully healed and Chase was doing much better. He still wasn’t at one hundred percent, but at least he didn’t look like he was going to pass out every five minutes.

And Jade was better. I spent most nights with her, and she hadn’t had a single nightmare. She slept for a full eight hours every night and even seemed to have her appetite back. That was the only reason I was able to restrain myself from storming into Ambrose’s house and putting a bullet in his head. The thought that she had so much control over me was not a good thing in my line of work. I was supposed to be taking her father down. Yet, I hadn’t made any progress on that front. Instead, I was more worried about his daughter and how she was doing.

“Asher,” Chase said, his eyes watching me carefully.

“Yeah?”

“I was asking if you got anywhere with Zavala.”

Ebarardo Zavala, the piece of shit that ran the drug cartels that were ensuring trafficking would continue to be lucrative. He supplied the drugs that knocked out the women and kept them compliant. Because of him, those women got hooked on some nasty shit and lost the will to fight back. Not that they really stood a chance once they were captured. The only chance of escape was if they were bought by someone with a conscience that would eventually let them go. But how much damage was done by the time that happened?

“He agreed to the terms of the next shipment, but he’s still sending his second. Unless we get a face-to-face with him, it’s not very likely we’ll get the intel we need on him.”

Patrick sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “Who knew working with the criminal underworld would be so fucking hard?”

Chase snorted. “Did you think they were just going to meet up with us and hand over all their secrets?”

“It would have been nice,” Patrick grumbled. “Can’t they see that we’re trying to take them down and give us just a little fucking help?”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” I grinned. “Are we being stupid for believing we can take them down?”

“You mean, you don’t trust Rafe?” Chase said sarcastically.

“Maybe he’s fine with doing this for the rest of his life, but this is not how I envisioned my life going.”

“You knew this was a long job,” Patrick said. “Why did you agree to it?”

“At the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. He needed someone for the job and none of us were involved with anyone.”

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