Page 27 of Demanding Mob Boss

Maybe it's time to absorb Walsh's territory into ours. Quinn will want a piece of the action since the Walsh clan runs the area between our two mobs.

"The Kicks Bandidos are running girls too," Connor says. "Ronan called while you were gone."

"What did he say?" I ask.

"His people picked up three whores working the street outside the Lucky Charm."

On paper, the Lucky Charm is an escort service. One of three we run. The men and women who work for us get medical, dental and vacations. The services offered that are not listed on the websites are lucrative for us and them.

Ronan's team makes sure the johns don't break our rules or push for anything not agreed to up front. Our people set their own limits, and some are straight up escorts with no extra bennies offered. There's plenty of rich old men who like to have arm candy.

They don't solicit on the streets. Safer for them and it keeps the cops out of our business. No sweeps and mass arrests. No leverage for law enforcement.

Not all the clans handle things the way we do, but the others know that our streets aren't their playground. When Ronan runs across someone tricking on their own, he assesses. If they're of age, sometimes, he recruits for one of our places, or he moves them on. He's got a soft spot for vulnerable teens and has a shelter he works with to help them. If there's a pimp involved, then they learn to respect our boundaries.

Ronan is damn good at dealing the pain necessary to make sure those lessons stick. If the pimp is running underage whores, Ronan is also damn good at disposing of bodies.

"He questioned them."

It's not a question, but Connor nods. "They didn't want to talk at first, but admitted they're working for the gang after some persuasion."

"Where are they now?"

"Ronan has them in a room at the Lucky Charm. He wants to talk to you."

"I'll go over there when we're done here. Let him know."

Connor pulls his phone out and sends a text.

"Do you want me to come?" Lachlan asks.

"No. You stay on the search for that fucking supplier. I want him found. And put some pressure on our informants in the Walsh mob. If the problem is bigger than him being an ass about giving us contact information for the gang, we need to know now."

If Walsh has decided to ally with the gang, that puts a new spin on the dealers and sex workers showing up in Doyle & Byrne and Murphy territory.

~ ~ ~

Ronan is waiting in the hidden basement of the Lucky Charm. The entrance is in the back of the storage cellar, behind a shelving unit that slides to the side. It doesn't rest on the floor so there are no tell-tale marks from the shifting of the shelves.

There are cells down here where we keep people on ice and an interrogation room like we have in the apartment safe house.

His grey eyes empty, Ronan nods in greeting when I enter his office. He has an office upstairs, but this is where he keeps the real records and the computer that cannot end up in the hands of the FEDs.

"Where are the girls."

"Cells 1, 2 and 3."

"You kept them separate. Good."

"The woman in Cell 3 is tough, but I think she's the one with the intel."

I doubt sex workers sent to ply their trade on my streets are going to have any more information than the dealers, but Ronan has good instincts.

"You questioned her?" I ask.

"Yes, but without persuasion."

Without torture, he means. I don't like torturing women, but having ovaries doesn't make a person weak or exempt when they come against me and mine.

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