Page 18 of Connor's Claim
“I need a word,” I said.
“Then get in.”
Dropping into the passenger seat, I shut the weather outside.
My friend took me in. “What’s wrong?”
Everything.
I flexed my fist, my energy becoming more difficult to contain. “We need a solution to the problem of Everly.”
Arran rubbed his chin. “I asked a few people. No one seems to know about any connection between the Four Milers and the mayor.”
“I have an idea for how we find out. It involves Convict.”
His muscles hardened, and Arran shot me a look. A month ago, Convict had been one of us. A core member of our skeleton crew. Loyal and trustworthy.
Until he wasn’t.
By his own admittance, he’d taken a cash job for the Four Milers, and prior to that, he’d disobeyed a direct order that no one from our crew enter into Arran’s game. Arran had mostly let that one slide, because he himself had gone in to claim Genevieve, but working for a rival gang went beyond the pale. Whatever Convict’s excuses, he’d lost our trust. He’d almost lost his life as well, and I hated that I regretted laying my fists into him.
He’d been a brother. One of us.
But where he went, Alisha followed. The two of them had been tight. Fucking, probably. She’d been persuaded to take a terrified Genevieve to Convict and leave her with him. She’d also given Convict the run of the basement when our backs were turned, rather than leaving him locked up in a cell.
In the game, Convict had hunted Genevieve, thinking she’d signed up for the violence. Alone with him again in the basement, the woman almost had a breakdown. I only knew this from Arran. I couldn’t imagine how Genevieve had felt, or why Alisha could have persuaded herself it was okay.
It turned out Convict only wanted to apologise to Genevieve, but where Alisha had got the benefit of the doubt, barely, I couldn’t imagine trusting Convict again.
I didn’t forgive easily.
In some cases, like with Everly, read that as never.
Arran wouldn’t even talk to the man. He curled his lip. “You want to use Convict. After everything he did.”
“We need someone on the inside of the Four Milers to find out why they want Everly. They already know Convict and were happy to give him their money. We patch him up, make a show of kicking him out, and send him there with the objective of information gathering.”
“A double agent.” Arran swore, staring out of the rain-speckled windscreen. “You’ll have to do it. I can’t be in the same room with him without wanting to drive my fist into his face. All I imagine is his hands on Genevieve.”
His words dried up. I tried and failed to understand the emotional toil. There was no one I could put in that role in my life. Someone so treasured I’d kill for them. To have that, I’d need that person to want me in the same way, and that was a fucking tragedy all in its own right because I’d never believe them if they said the words. Not again.
“I’ll handle everything,” I promised.
“I have two questions,” my friend said. “The first is what happens if he defects entirely?”
“Then we’ve lost nothing apart from the man who already fucked us over. What’s the other?”
“His incentive.”
I twisted my lips, because there was only one thing Convict wanted, and that was to return to the fold. “A new job with us was my thoughts. Not in the crew, but maybe on the outside.”
A long moment passed of consideration, then Arran gave a single nod. “Everly’s important to you, so I’ll follow your lead.”
“She’s nothing to me.”
He barked a laugh. “That’s why she’s locked up in your apartment.”
“It’s for the sake of our crew,” I argued. “For the city. If she’s abducted, the Four Milers will have leverage over the mayor. Whatever they want won’t be good for us.”