After speaking to Conor last night, I lay awake until the early hours of the morning, thinking about him and Jessie out there on the road alone. Jessie believing she saw the Wolf must have terrified her, and I hate to admit it, but it’s freaked me out too. There is so little we know about him, it makes me nervous. He literally just upped and disappeared eight years ago. If he is still alive, he could be anyone. Jessie is the only person known to have seen his face and lived to tell the tale. If she thinks she saw him yesterday, who are we to say she was mistaken? Conor seems to think she was, and I suppose I’ll have to trust his gut.
Rubbing my temples, I wince at the pain as it sears through my forehead. I need to get some fucking sleep. I’ve always been a bit of an insomniac, but the truth is I’ve never slept as well as I did when Jessie was here. Even when she wasn’t in my bed, just knowing she was close by helped. And when she was in my bed — well I slept like a fucking baby. The sooner Conor gets her back home safely to us, the better for everyone.
My cell phone vibrates on the table in front of me, and I glance at the screen. It’s an unknown number. I accept the call and hold the phone to my ear, but I don’t speak.
“That you, boy?” I hear the voice on the other end of the line that sounds vaguely familiar. The accent is hard to place, no doubt a result of living in so many countries and never settling in one long enough to call it home, but there is a distinct Irish lilt buried in that low, gravelly tone that is probably only detectable to someone who grew up around it.
“Padraig?”
“Who else?”
“What the fuck? I haven’t seen you for almost twenty-five years. Where the hell have you been?”
“Around. You know I had to get out of there, Shane.”
“Yeah? Well, we all did,” I say with a sigh as I rub a hand over my jaw as the memories of my uncle Padraig teaching me to shoot a sniper rifle when I was ten years old come rushing to the surface of my brain. I had almost forgotten about it. He was a marksman in the army and he was never around that much, but whenever he came home from tour, he always stayed with us. They were some of the happiest memories of my childhood. But just like he ruined everything else, my father eventually drove Padraig away. He left when I was fourteen and the last I heard, he was working as a mercenary for some very bad people in Italy. I assumed he was dead.
“I hear the old, evil fucker is dying?” he says before he’s overcome with a fit of coughing.
“Yeah. You don’t sound very well yourself, Uncle? Everything okay?”
“Me? I’m fucking invincible, nephew. Don’t you remember?” he laughs, but it’s a cold one, because there is nothing amusing about what he just said. My father almost killed him at least half a dozen times.
“Is that why you’ve resurfaced? You think he’s left you something in his will?”
He laughs out loud at that — a genuine one this time. “I wouldn’t accept a penny of that sadistic fuck’s money! But I’ll go to his funeral, if only to make sure he’s really dead. And then I’ll piss on his grave.”
“You spoken to him at all these last few years?”
“No!” he snarls. “Have you?”
“No. I haven’t seen or spoken to him since we came to New York.”
“Ten years!” Padraig lets out a low whistle. “A long time not to see your father, Shane!” he sneers.
“How did you even know we left Ireland?” I frown as I turn on my computer. He knows we left ten years ago, and that makes me nervous.
“I’ve kept tabs on my nephews. Condolences on your failed engagement, by the way,” he chuckles.
“Fuck you!”
“Still got that smart mouth, I see. So, why did you finally leave?”
“It’s a long fucking story.”
“Well, then you can tell me at the old fucker’s funeral?”
“Maybe,” I sigh. “Where the fuck have you been, Pod?”
“I told you. Around.”
“You still killing people for a living?”
“Shane,” he feigns his indignation. “We never discuss business on the phone.”
“No, of course not,” I laugh. “But, now that we are. In your line of work, you ever come across the Wolf?”
He doesn’t reply, and I listen to the sound of his labored breathing for a few seconds. “Why the fuck are you interested in the Wolf, kid?” he eventually snaps.
“Professional curiosity.”
“I hear he retired. But there’s a rumor he’s resurfaced.”
My heart seems like it stops beating, as though Padraig has just thrust his hand into my chest and has it squeezed in his fist. “You have any idea where he is?” I grind out the words.
“Russia, or so I heard. Why the hell do you need to know anything about the Wolf?” he asks again.
“Nothing really. I told you, professional curiosity.”
“You don’t need the services of a hitman, Shane. Between me and your father, didn’t we teach you enough about how to deal with your enemies by yourself, kid?”
“You sure fucking did,” I snap. Pair of sadistic assholes.
“Yeah? Well, stay away from the Wolf. He’s bad news.”
“Isn’t everyone? Anyway, you said he’s in Russia. So he’s nowhere near New York, is he?”
“You hiding something from me, kid?”
“Plenty. But not about this, no,” I lie again. “So, I’ll be seeing you soon then, Uncle?”
“It seems so,” he coughs again. “Let’s hope that cunt dies soon, eh?”
“Hmm,” I agree, but my mind is elsewhere. Where the hell has Padraig been all these years?
After I end the call, I open one of Jessie’s files on my computer. I make a quick scan of the document, which comprises bank details and money transfers dating back at least ten years. I have no clue what I’m looking for, but I’m hoping something might jump out at me. Because I am no closer to finding out where Alexei Ivanov is, and I know he holds me and my brothers responsible for losing his daughter — again. It’s only a matter of time before he comes looking for vengeance. And when he does, he will most definitely find it, because I have made it my mission in life to kill that psychopathic motherfucker for everything he has put Jessie and my brothers through.
Once he gets a sniff that she is back with us, he will act quickly to get her back. So, we need to strike first. But it’s hard to do that when we have no idea where the slippery Russian prick is. Whereas we are right where he knows to find us. However, I’ll be fucked if I’ll run and hide from him or anyone else. The Ryan brothers hide from no-one.
A few minutes later, I turn off my computer again. My conversation with my uncle is playing on my mind. Something is niggling in the back of my mind like an itch that I can’t quite reach to scratch. So, the Wolf is back? Why now? Has Alexei learning of Jessie’s survival reached him too somehow? Nobody knows who the Wolf is. He could be one of Alexei’s own men, for all we know.
I close my eyes and rub my head again. This whole fucked up situation is making my headache even worse. And the best way I know to soothe any tension is currently a half day’s drive away. But tonight she’s going to be standing right here. And fuck, I might just tie her to my bed and bury myself so far inside her that we both forget about everything that’s happened these past three months. Except that as much as I wish I could, I can’t forget. I may even be able to forgive her one day, but I will never be able to trust her again.
“Hey, Erin is here,” the sound of my younger brother Mikey’s voice snaps me from my thoughts.
“What? Why?” I frown at him. I’m not expecting her.
Mikey shrugs. “I don’t know, bro. But she’s on her way up now.”
“Fine,” I sigh as I lean back in my chair.
“I can tell her you’re in a meeting if you like?” he offers.
“No. It’s fine,” I say with a shake of my head. “She’s been working on some contracts for me. She might have some news at last. Just tell her to come through.”
“Will do,” Mikey says with a nod of his head before he disappears out of the doorway again. Of all the days Erin decides to show up here, it has to be the day Jessie is coming home. I already have a ball of dread in my stomach at the thought of facing her after everything that’s happened. Perhaps I’m fooling myself that her coming back here has anything to do with me. I sent Conor after her, because I see the love she has for him. The connection they have runs deep. He never doubted her, even when I was sure she had betrayed us.
