Hard Irish (30 page)

“Finn later found out that Mary had taken the diamonds from the package when Anne was out of the apartment, and had put them in Anne’s purse so they could go shopping.  Finn didn’t come see me until three months after everything had happened.   He was killed a week later, supposedly by British troops.  Personally, I think Dougal and Riley had a tail on me and caught up to Finn because he came out of hiding to see me.  It’ll haunt me for the rest of me days wonderin’ if  that’s what happened.”  McNall shook his head sadly.  “By the time Finn told me about what happened, a fire, no doubt deliberately set, had burned down the entire block of where Finn said Pearson had been murdered.  The General and his wife’s bodies have never been found.  I had no evidence, but Finn’s story.  The diamonds were gone.  And be it right or wrong, I had to make a choice then.  Report a crime there was no evidence of, and send a world-wide manhunt after a young, pregnant woman who’d been a pawn in a nasty game.  As well as reveal to Pearson’s bereaved family, who’d already concluded their loved ones were dead, just how horrible those deaths had been.  Or let it be.  I let it be.”

“But what about Dougal and Riley?” Rocky whispered.  “They got away with—”

“Ye’ve got to understand the times, lass.  Dougal and Riley were already wanted men for other murders.  The authorities were already after them.  Back then a man could disappear in the IRA’s inner circle and nobody could get to them.  I chose to protect you, Finn’s child, and I don’t have any regrets.  Ye can go ahead and tell the world now, if ye think that’s best.  I’ll face whatever consequences there are.”

Rocky sat stunned.  Part of her ached for what had happened to her mother and the father she never knew.  It was tragic.  Part of her raged at her mother and Rory, the man she thought was her father, for lying to her.  At some point they’d come to love and care for each other, but dear God, she wasn’t who she thought she was.  Even as all of her emotions were spinning violently like a tornado, there was another part of her that understood what they had done.  What choices had they had?  And above it all she loved them anyway.  And the man across from her was family.  Her uncle.  By protecting her mother and her, the man had put himself on a chopping block.  She didn’t quite know what to do with all that she’d learned.  Except for one thing...stop the violence.

“Let’s cross ‘the who or what to tell’ bridge later,” Jesse said.  He squeezed Rocky’s hand, then released it to pace away from her as he spoke.  “We need to focus on finding the shark beneath the surface of Rocky’s life.  Now that Riley’s dead, that person is going to do one of two things.  Get desperate or—”

“Lay low,” Mulligan added.  “I’d lay low.  Reports on Mack, Alice, and Maggie came in while you were at the hospital.  All three were not born in the US, but have been here for at least twenty years.  Mack is from Australia, Alice from British Columbia, and Maggie from London.  So far, no red flags have shown up in their history, and no connection to Riley Scott outside of work.  But then, we’re having a difficult time chasing down what’s fact and what’s fiction on Riley’s reports.  He had several aliases.  Looks as if this situation could last a while.”

Rocky shook her head.  Were Mack or Maggie or Alice involved?  There had to be someone else she just wasn’t seeing yet.  She wanted this to be over with.  The thought of living for weeks like she’d been living for the past three days turned her inside out.  “The diamonds,” she murmured.  “My mother ended up with the diamonds.  Let’s give the shark the diamonds.”

All three men looked at her as if she sprouted horns.

“You have them?” Jesse asked.

“No, but the shark doesn’t know that.  And if he thinks I’m getting ready to skip out on my life here with the goods, I bet you he’ll follow me.”

“Perfect,” Mulligan said.

Jesse shook his head.  “No.  Too much can go wrong, and not only would Jared kill me if anything happened to you, I’d shoot myself.”

“I’ve a better idea,” McNall said.  “I’m new on the scene.  Whoever is behind this knows the history of the diamonds, and will connect me to Finn.  I’ll pretend to be helping the lass, but then steal the diamonds from her.”

Mulligan frowned.  “Who says we can trust you?”

McNall smiled.  “You can’t.”  He winked at Rocky.  “But the lass can.  I’ve waited a long time to meet my niece and I’m not about to lose her again.”

“We have our who and how.  Now we just have to decide where?”

“The McKenna construction office.” Rocky said.  “It’s the only property left that my mother spent time in and the only property my father fully owns.  Da sold the house they shared a few years after she died and as far as I know there are no safety deposit boxes.  Just the safe at the construction office.”

“How do you know that diamonds aren’t there?” Jesse asked.

“That’s just it,” Rocky told him.  “I think they are.  Where they might specifically be, I don’t know.  In the bedtime story my mother told me, the princess returned the treasure to the Dragonlords to save her mother the queen.  My mother painted pictures of a princess in the Rainbow Room.  Maybe there is a clue in the murals.”

“I’d say that’s a sure bet, and even if you are wrong, it sounds perfect,” Mulligan said.  “There is no way our man will be able to resist acting on it.  When?” he asked.  “When do you want to put this plan into action?”

“Tomorrow,” Jesse said.  “Our biggest problem will be convincing the shark that Rocky escaped from me and Mulligan.”

“Not a problem,” McNall said.  “I can just shoot both of you and take the lass in broad daylight.”

Jesse frowned at Mulligan.  “I thought you said you trusted this guy.”

Mulligan shrugged.  “I never said that.”

Rocky shifted her gaze between each of the men, not a hint of humor showed in their poker-smooth expressions, or their deadpan tones.  She pressed her palms to her aching temples.  “Can we play mental chicken later?  James hasn’t called about Jared yet and I am worried.”

Jesse winced.  “Sorry.  We’ve a morbid sense of humor.  Let’s go to the conference room and call.”

“Please,” she said, standing.

McNall stood as well.  “You’re an answer to prayer, lass, and ye’ve a slew of relatives who’d be pleased to learn Finn left a part of himself behind, but there’s time for all that later. I’ll see you in the mornin’ for our shark hunt?”

The burly man, whom had likely faced all manner of situations throughout his life, looked as unsteady and unsure as she felt.  He didn’t have to tell her about the past.  He could have pretended he didn’t know anything at all, and she would have been left wondering.  She moved around the coffee table, and leaned in to give him a quick hug. “Yes.  And I’ll look forward to hearing more about Finn and family.”

Jesse waited for her at the door.  She hurried to him.  He touched her shoulder.  “Try not to worry.  If anything were seriously wrong with Jared.  Someone would have called.”

“I know,” she whispered then shrugged.  “It’s just, knowing that someone will call and actually being there are worlds apart. She hadn’t expected to feel so unsettled about leaving Jared.  Even as exhausted as she was, the idea of going up stairs and sleeping in the huge bed without him, left her aching inside.

She followed Jesse to the conference room.  He called James.  “Jared awake yet?”

“Yes and no,” James said.

Jesse frowned.  “Switch to video.”  James’s face appeared on the large screen TV.  He was clearly in a hospital room.  “What does yes and no mean?” Jesse asked.

“Well, he was still out-of-it-groggy from surgery when they brought him to his room, but was so determined to get up and find Rocky that they knocked him back out.  Apparently, it’s essential that he stay calm and still for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.  Mom and I are with him.”

“Take me back,” Rocky told Jesse.

 “You sure?  You’ll be up all night and slow tomorrow.  And as James said, he and my mother are there.”

She shook her head.  “It doesn’t matter.  I’ll get better rest there with him than I will here alone.”

“It isn’t exactly rational, but okay.  Go upstairs and get what you need.  We’ll leave in ten minutes.”

Mulligan left the car at the hospital entrance while he and Jesse walked her to the elevators.  Then he left to park the car.  Rocky hadn’t realized that by returning to the hospital, she was putting them both back on duty, until she overheard Jesse calling his wife to tell her he’d be at the hospital all night.   At nine thirty at night the lobby had considerably fewer people around and having them both with her seemed overkill, but she wasn’t the security expert.  The bodyguard Jesse left with Jared was waiting at the elevator on the fifth floor.

The elevator doors opened, Jesse checked it, then motioned for her to enter.  She settled by the control panel and pushed the button for the fifth floor as Jesse got on.  The doors started to close.

“Rocky!  Wait!  Did you get the call about your Da?”

Rocky pushed the open door button to see Maggie hurrying forward.  “No.  What’s wrong?”

“Shit.”  Jesse grabbed Rocky’s arm, jerking her back, as he stepped in front of her.  Horrified, Rocky saw Maggie shoot Jesse from a gun hidden in her coat pocket.  Jesse’s grip went slack.

Before Maggie could shoot again, Rocky shoved Jesse aside, and launched herself at the woman with a full body tackle.  She wrapped both hands around the wrist of Maggie’s gun hand as they slammed to the ground.  Rocky brought her knee up hard as she shoved Maggie’s arm down.  Wedged between Rocky’s knee and hands, Maggie’s wrist bones snapped and the gun fired.

Maggie screamed.  Rocky got the pistol out of the woman’s pocket and pinned her to the ground.  People in the lobby were screaming and running wild.  Alarms went off.

“Remind me to never piss you off,” Jesse said.

“She’s deadly,” Mulligan said.

Rocky looked up, gapping at Jesse standing there unhurt and perfectly calm, with his pistol aimed at Maggie’s head.  He had a bullet hole right over his heart.  She’d forgotten about the bullet proof vests they all wore.  Mulligan stood opposite.  He must have walked out the door and came right back in instead of parking the car.

Mulligan took the gun from Rocky helped her up then stared down at Maggie.  “Figured we were dealing with desperate.”

Nursing her arm, Maggie sat up, tears streaming down her face.

Now that Rocky realized Jesse was unharmed, she knelt down in front of Maggie.  It was hard to believe that Maggie was behind it all.  Then the pieces clicked.  “You’re Mary Magdalene, Dougal O'Prey’s daughter.  You knew my mother.”

“She treated me like a daughter.   She gave me a birthday party.  She made me a beautiful dress.  And she just left me.  She took me to someone’s house and left.  She left and because I cost him the diamonds, my father beat me every day until he left me with that monster of an uncle who was worse.  Those diamonds are mine.  I paid for them.  You don’t need them.  You have everything.”   

“I don’t have the diamonds, Maggie.  My mother and Da must have hid them somewhere, but I don’t have them.  How did you find me?” Rocky asked.

“The news segment on Build-A-Future.  They showed a picture of Anne.  I recognized her then realized you looked just like Finn.”

“Who was Riley Scott?

“Riley Dunlavey’s son.  He and his came over here and joined the Westies.  I made the mistake of telling him I found your mother.  He showed up here and started taking things over.  Your father walked in on us fighting at the office and realized who we were.  Riley demanded he give us the diamonds and—”

“That’s when my father had a stroke.”

Maggie nodded.  “When your father tried to speak to you on Sunday, Riley said we were out of time.  We either had to find the diamonds before you found out about us and them, or we had to put you out of commission.”

Rocky heard a commotion and looked up to see a number of police officers and hospital security men had arrived.  Jesse caught her elbow and urged her up.  “We need to let the police move in now.”

“I just wanted the diamonds,” Maggie cried.  “I paid for them.”

Rocky shook her head, saddened by the pain, devastation, and tragedy that a parent could bring to a child’s life.  She realized that even though her father wasn’t who she thought her father was, she did really have it all. She’d had love.

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN

Jared knew he’d done it now.  He couldn’t move.  He couldn’t think.  He couldn’t even breathe.  He hurt like a son of a bitch from head to toe.  This had to be the worst hangover of his life.  He felt as if he’d gone to hell and the devil had chewed him up and spit him back out.

And who in damnation was he with now?  He felt a woman’s head on his right shoulder at an odd angle.  As if she wasn’t quite all the way on the bed with him.  He managed a slight sniff, groaning at the explosion of pain in his left side as the niggling scent of citrus and coconuts tickled his memory.  Trying not to breathe so he didn’t hurt, he searched his mind...

Rocky!  Gasping, he jerked his eyes open and tried to sit up.

“He’s awake!” James’s voice boomed from across the room.

“God is good!  Can you hear me, son?”  Jared recognized his mother’s voice, but couldn't seem to speak.  His throat felt raw.  There was a tube in his nose, his throat.  What had happened to him?

The weight on his shoulder lifted.  “Jared?  Can you hear us?”

He shifted his gaze and saw Rocky and nodded.

She clasped his hand in hers.  “You were hurt, but everything is all good now.  Just rest.  We’re all here.”

He nodded.  Shut his eyes then remembered what happened.  He gripped Rocky’s hand.  “Riileey,” he croaked.

“Is dead.  Now you need to rest and get better.  Do you need something for pain?”

He nodded.  “First...must...ask.”

“Ask me what?”

“Date.  Will...you?”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

 He nodded.  He heard James laughing and decided he’d punch him later then realized Rocky hadn’t answered him.  He blinked to clear his blurry vision and saw tears streaming down her face.  He gripped her hand tighter, his heart sinking.  “Don’t...cry...no...is...okay.”