Page 23 of Shadow Of Sin

It’s time. Today is Tuesday. My five days were up on Sunday and today we’re meeting.

I was already awake before my phone buzzed on the nightstand. I don’t sleep much on a normal night because of the constant noise between my ears, and I slept even less last night.

I get up, pour a bowl of Cheerios, and eat standing at the counter the way I do every morning. The box goes back lined up with the edge because that’s where it belongs. I make coffee, check the feeds on Sal who’s still safe, and sit at the table staring at those three words on my phone.

Ronan wants results. I have plenty, but none that I can actually give him yet. Eva’s been feeding me intel from Dmitri’s jobs for the past few days—the new one and past ones she’s done—and the picture is already taking shape. What I don’t have is a way to hand it over without exposing my source. Right now, this whole operation is dependent on keeping her safe and working for Dmitri.

The second I say Dmitri’s name, Ronan will pick up the phone and call Viktor. Dmitri will get tipped off. And the second I reveal that my source is a woman who’s been poking around inside both families’ systems for months, Eva will go from asset to threat in Ronan’s head.

So I need more time. Not to gather intel. To figure out how to bring it to my brother without losing my only source. And without putting Eva in a room with people who won’t see what I see when they look at her.

I don’t unpack that last part. Not right now.

I pick up my mug to blow on the hot coffee before taking a sip. Her case file flickers through my head the way it has since I met her. The gaps I noticed almost two years ago. The parts that didn’t add up. I push it down because right now it doesn’t help either of us.

I take off my glasses, rub my eyes, put them back on.

I pull on a clean shirt, Zeppelin today. Then I grab my keys.

In addition to meeting Ronan, I have a basketball game to win against Cillian. I’ve been basically invisible since I got the flash drive from Eva…set up in a crappy apartment across town, running a parallel operation my brothers don’t know exists. No texts to my brothers, no showing up at Cillian’s bar Venom, nothing.

Ronan’s going to have questions.

But so will Cillian. He just asks them differently than everyone else. Sometimes that makes them even harder to answer.

Ronan sits behind Dad’s old desk when I get to the house an hour later. He looks up and gives me a nod. “This better be good, Wolfe. We’ve waited long enough. I even gave you extra time against my better judgment.”

Christ. Here we go.

Lochlan sits in a chair by the window with his arms crossed. Gavin’s on the couch with his feet up and a bruise on his jaw that’s turned a yellow-green color. I guess I missed the blue-purple phase for that one. My brother attracts trouble like rotting meat attracts scavengers. Cillian leans against the wall near the door, which is where he always stands because Cillian likes being close to the exit. Smart man.

“Talk,” Ronan says.

“I’ve identified the ghost. I’m monitoring their activity in real time. But I need to keep watching to trace who’s directing them. If I move on the ghost now, the person pulling the strings disappears.”

The lie comes out clean. Everything I just said is technically accurate. I have identified the ghost. I am monitoring her activity. And I am trying to trace the full scope of Dmitri’s operation. What I’m not saying is that the ghost is a woman named Eva Moreno who’s sitting in an apartment twenty minutes from here feeding me intel from the inside. Or that her name crossed my desk almost two years before any of this started, and I saw something wrong then and filed it away like a bill I didn’t want to pay.

My thumb taps against my thigh under the table. The rhythm I fall into when my brain’s stuck between two things that don’t fit.

I’m hiding two things from my brothers. One I can justify. The other one sits in my throat like a lump I can’t swallow.

“So you’re watching but not acting,” Ronan says. His eyes darken, sparking with anger. “How long do I wait while you watch?”

“I’ve got a detailed profile of how they work, what systems they’ve hit, and how they move. When I have enough to trace the puppet master, I’ll bring you everything.”

“When,” Lochlan says. “Not if?”

“When. Whoever’s pulling this person’s strings isn’t going to stop. There’s too much at stake.”

Lochlan leans forward. “You keep saying someone’s directing them. Who?”

I bring a hand to the back of my head and rub my neck. “I’m still working on that.”

“That’s a lot of ‘still working on it,’” Gavin says from the couch. “Even for you.”

He’s not wrong. I’m usually the one with answers before anyone knows the questions. The fact that I’m showing up empty-handed for the second time doesn’t sit well with anyone in this room, least of all me.

Ronan’s stare could cut glass. “These intrusions have been hitting our systems and the DiMichelis’ for months. Adriana’s team flagged another hit two weeks ago. We look exposed, Wolfe. Weak. And I don’t do fucking weak.”