Page 124 of Corrupt Game

I took the gun he handed me and sat it on the nightstand, then headed for the shower. Colette would need one too, and it was best to get necessities out of the way.

And after she had her shower, we could get to our work.

Chapter 43 Colette

Even with that horrible video niggling at the back of my head, Dublin was amazing! I couldn’t believe all the things I’d seen, but even the pictures were much more magnificent in person.

The street lights and buildings cast a historic glow as we sped through the darkness of the night. We were here for sad ugly business, but a part of me loved the sight of it.

It took some time to reach our hotel, which was a chain hotel somewhere on the edge of the city.

I was fairly certain that we didn’t want to be on any mafia’s radar, but what Ian had mentioned seemed a personal grudge for this Sergi guy, who wasn’t in charge. So while we needed to be careful, I didn’t feel much more worried than usual.

Kathy met us. She asked for my help, looking tired, and I was more than happy to give it. She’d been kind to me and now I could pay it back.

Rossi gave me the eye, and I gave it right back. I had a knife on me and while I probably wouldn’t need it in the hotel, I might need it when we got out on the streets to start searching for Heather.

World travel was a new experience, but dealing with lowlifes and thugs had been a part of my existence for many years.

There wasn’t a woman alive that had lived or worked in the high crime areas of any city that hadn’t had to deal with many types of men thinking she couldn’t handle herself. I might be small, but I was scrappy and could defend myself, and had no qualms with seriously hurting somebody if it meant I could get away.

Kathy’s room was an office with a bed in the corner. The woman needed a vacation after this!

“Excuse me, please,” I said to Kathy as I ducked into the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I was finally alone for the first time in days, or rather weeks. I’d been alone all of my life and now I had someone with me twenty-four-seven. Sometimes, I just wanted a few moments where no one was watching to allow my mask to slip.

I hadn’t had any time to process all that had been going on in the last day. Even though we were working together, the decision about whether an and I would be a thing still waited. Sure, Ian and I had some amazing sex, which was wonderful, but that didn’t negate the fact that he had major trust and loyalty issues.

The take off sex was totally worth it though. I wanted a repeat performance of that.

I finally flushed the toilet and took a moment to wash my hands.

The mirror revealed a tired-looking woman in serious need of sleep. It was something I was looking forward to immensely. I hadn’t been able to rest on the plane after watching that video and working on finding out more information on the Irish mafia.

Both those men seriously needed to die.

I yawned. My body was exhausted. Jet lag sucked as much as everyone said it did. I had information, but it jumbled around in my head. I’d learned the Irish mafia was a completely different entity from the IRA or Irish Republican Army.

The mafia dealt in guns, drugs, women, and other commodities while the IRA was more focused on freedom from British rule.

Edmund Kelly kept his head down and kept his dealings out of sight of the majority of the public world. The only info I had on him came from Ian’s files.

Whereas the McGintys, the other mafia group I’d been able to get information on, was the organization that controlled Dublin.

If we could find a way to make contact with the McGintys, they might have enough of a pull to help us create an escape route for Heather and her baby after we found them.

While I wanted Andy’s killer dead, I knew that helping the living, his child and the woman he loved, was more important.

What I hadn’t taken into consideration was the plain fact that the underbelly of Ireland was vast and all consuming. This extraction would not be easy, but my life was built on struggling and fighting. For my brother’s child I wouldn’t hesitate.

And in order to do that, I should leave the bathroom, help Kathy out with the Danderson issue, and head back to my room for a little sleep.

I exited the bathroom. The morning sun slanting through the blinds, already brighter. At the desk, Kathy thumbed through a manila folder, and smiled at me.

“Thanks for helping, Collette.”

“No problem. What’s going on?” I asked, settling in the other chair.