Page 136 of Sins of Innocence

"I've got news about one of the FBI agents that interviewed Áine six years ago." McLaren taps on her computer and the images on one monitor change to phone logs with certain calls highlighted. The other monitor shows a map with overlapping location markers.

"Special Agent Raymond Fisk," she says, as a headshot of a man with a receding hairline and sallow complexion pops up on the screen with the phone logs. "And congratulations to Kenneth Shaughnessy for apparently believing burner phones become invisible if you put them in your other pocket."

Dagda barks out a laugh.

Thomas shakes his head. "No way he's that stupid."

"Oh, he's absolutely that stupid." McLaren enlarges the map. "His primary phone and burner track together constantly. Home. Meetings. Restaurants. Even now." She points toward a blinking marker. "Probably carrying both phones on him as we speak."

"Confident bastard," Torch mutters.

"No," I say. "Careless."

McLaren nods once. "This particular burner number goes back 18 months, but the two men have known each other since university."

"It's not a coincidence that he's one of the feds who talked to Áine six years ago," Dagda says.

"Kenneth was setting her up as his patsy," I growl.

Thomas hums. "You think his plan was to turn Mick in to the feds and then blame her for it?"

"So, what stopped him?" Dagda asks.

"He wasn't ready." Ethan pushes off the wall and joins the rest of us at the conference table, sliding a file folder in front of me. "He's been building connections with syndicates that are not our allies."

I open the folder and spread the surveillance photos across the table. Kenneth leaving a steakhouse in Midtown. Kenneth meeting a union rep in Queens. Kenneth entering an apartment building in Brooklyn none of us officially own.

Kenneth looking over his shoulder in every damn frame like he knows someone's coming for him.

Good instincts.

Too bad they can't make up for his lack of brains.

"Kenneth's movements have gotten more erratic since the demotion," Ethan says quietly. "He's changing routes more often and rotating drivers."

"Smartest thing he's done so far," Thomas mutters.

"Not smart enough." McLaren makes a disgusted sound. "He's still carrying both phones together."

Dagda shakes his head slowly. "The man thinks he's a mastermind, but he's a muppet."

"He thought family ties would protect him," I say flatly.

Noah leans back in his chair. "So, he's been planning some kind of underboss takeover against Mick? For six years?"

"Looks like it," I agree.

Thomas swears quietly in Yoruba under his breath. "That's treason."

The atmosphere in the room changes. The easy camaraderie drains away leaving only cold operational focus behind.

We all knew that was the probable scenario, but the calculated long-term plan to get Mick out of the way is betrayal of the brotherhood. Punishable by death.

That I will administer.

Because Áine is mine and he planned to use her. If he had succeeded, she would have been killed for ratting Mick out.

Ways I want to torture the man before he begs for death play in my head while I go through Ethan's surveillance photos.