Page 97 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

All around us, people picked themselves up, swearing, cursing, helping one another to their feet, staring in confusion.

Well, some were staring at one another in confusion. The criminals among us, the crime syndicates organized along lines of national origin? We all looked fucking ready to kill.

Liam’s eyes froze over, and I saw the emotionless butcher who’d massacred dozens back in Ireland. “Go find Cormac. I’ll handle this,” he said, the lilt thickening as he shrugged off his ripped jacket, exposing the guns and knives he wore in holsters.

Thumbing his phone, he started a group chat. “Add Dante,” he ordered as he strode over to the epicenter of the destruction, sinking into a deep squat as he fingered the ground.

Lorenzo

News?

Dante

Dante’s driving. This is Sofia. Going to a safehouse.

Lorenzo

Accardi and the Costas are gone.

Cormac

Feeds cut just before the explosion. I’m stuck in the control room.

The door to the control room was blocked by debris. I made quick work of it, then threw the door open. Cormac sat comfortably in his swinging chair, his phone illuminated on the table, casting an eerie glow over his umber skin.

He pressed his lips into a grim line when he saw me covered in dust. “We fucked up.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t fuck up anything. You underestimated Sergio.”

Cormac nodded, swiping his hands over his face. “You’re fuckin’ right we did. Gimme some more light.”

Once he had me to shine the light, he opened a closet and started unscrewing hard drives from the server. “We’ll have to look at these from our house. They would have recorded right up to the moment the power was cut.”

“And after?”

“The feeds were hacked, not cut. All the emergency power in the world won’t be able to fix that.”

“Isn’t that what you’re for, to prevent that sort of shit?” I snapped, exhausted, sick with worry about Lizzie and Patti.

Cormac just looked over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow, the unflappable asshole. “You pissed at me or yourself?”

“All of the above.”

When he finished with the hard drives, he stood, dusting himself off. “Let’s go see what Liam dug up while we were dicking around here.”

Police and paramedics had invaded the ballroom, setting up emergency lighting that made it impossible to make out the details of who lurked in the shadows.

Liam lounged in a banquet chair, glaring up at a cop. “Morelli,” he shouted, beckoning me close. “This asshole wants to interview every person still here about what happened tonight.”

I couldn’t hold in my bark of laughter. The only reason anyone had let the cops in was because the wounded needed help. The death toll from today would be low, but the injured numbered in the dozens, at least.

“What do you want, Ramos?” I asked, holding out my hand to shake his.

The cop looked at me, annoyed. “Are you going to obstruct this investigation?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Investigation of what?”

“Destruction of property, assault, kidnapping?—”

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