Page 32 of Blood in the Water

“Blow up Seamus’s operation, disrupt it the way the Syndicate disrupted his sense of security by planting the explosive in his house,” Nolan said.

A line formed on her brow. “Sounds dangerous, and not just for you.”

“It’s not my preferred method.” The IRA might not care about blowing up innocent people, but Nolan did. The bulk of Seamus’s operations were conducted from public spaces — the Cat, the Playpen, Palmer’s. Sowing chaosthere meant the possibility of innocent people getting hurt, and for the first time Nolan understood why Seamus had set it up that way: he was thinking like the ex-IRA operative he was, spreading the organization out to make it harder to hit him, to make it more dangerous for the public, rightly assuming the Syndicate and people like Nolan would think twice before putting innocents in their crosshairs.

“What else is on the table?” she asked.

It was a problem he’d been working ever since he got the call about the threat that had been made against Bridget’s family. “Openly recruit his men, get them to turn away from him in large enough numbers that he decides it’s wiser to jump ship on the territory now.”

It was Nolan’s preferred method. Now that he and Bridget — and Will by default — had nothing to hide, they could openly recruit. There had been enough chaos of late that they had a good shot at bringing a lot of the men over to the Syndicate. It wasn’t without risk. They would have to be visible to recruit, and Seamus would be gunning for them now, but it was probably their best option.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“We take him out,” Nolan said simply. “It’s the only option we’d have left.”

“Could you do that?” she asked.

“Yes.” The idea wasn’t as repugnant to him as it had been a week earlier. The threat Seamus had made against Bridget and her family — sending Sean into her home, having him fuck with Owen’s medication — had crossed the line. It had been the hard-hitting message Seamus had been aiming for, but it had also opened the floodgates on Nolan’s rage.

They could have come for Nolan. He wouldn’t have begrudged them the move. He’d opened himself up to thepossibility of being a target by working as a mole for the Syndicate. He was fair game.

But coming for Bridget meant the motherfucking gloves were off.

“What does Christophe say?” Bridget asked.

“Not much so far. I’m sure he’ll have more to say when we meet.” Nolan had been in touch with Christophe via the Syndicate’s encrypted email system, but they’d been necessarily brief.

She chewed her lip. “I think you should ask him for help.”

“What kind of help?”

“Resources, men…. whatever they can give you. I don’t like the idea of you and Will going it alone against Seamus and all of his men, especially with Baren and Oz in the picture.”

“I’m hoping I can get Will to stay here,” he said.

She looked surprised. “Why would he do that?”

“Because I’m going to ask him to. Because I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“I’m not alone, Nolan. I have my family, and it doesn’t make sense to leave Will here. No one knows we’re on the island, and it’s so cut off from the mainland it would take effort Seamus probably doesn’t want to waste to get here. And for what? What could they possibly accomplish by coming for me here? You’re the threat — you and the Syndicate.”

“They came after you at home,” he said tightly.

“Because it was easy. And I’m still not convinced Seamus even knows I’ve been feeding you information to give to the Syndicate.”

“You know how I feel about that.” They’d argued about it earlier in the day, when they’d been cooped up in thehouse, making plans to get Owen out and wondering if they could pull it off.

Bridget thought the message had more to do with her secret relationship with Nolan, one Seamus had probably only figured out because he’d had someone follow her after she checked Seamus into the Westin after the explosion. She’d been upset when she’d left the hotel, had admitted to being preoccupied, forgoing her usual attention to the possibility of being followed to the apartment where they met.

Nolan didn’t think it was that innocuous. If it had only been about their relationship, Seamus would have called them both into the Cat, embarrassed them by airing the details in front of Baren and the other men. He would have asked them if it was going to interfere with their work, if there was a reason they’d kept it a secret.

The message Seamus had sent by dispatching Sean to Bridget’s house, by having him tamper with Owen’s medication and planting Oz outside, had been clear: they’d been keeping secrets, and with everything that had been going on, with the mounting suspicions that there was a mole, secrets of any kind made you a traitor.

Did Seamus know for sure Bridget was complying with the Syndicate through him? Maybe, maybe not. But Seamus wasn’t operating on an evidence-based system anymore. The suspicion of betrayal was all he needed for a conviction.

And a conviction in Seamus’s eyes meant death.

“Even if you’re right,” Bridget said, “Seamus has bigger problems on his plate than me. He’s not going to hit pause on the Syndicate’s threat to the territory to come after me. You need Will more than I do.”