Kierney shook his head. “You’ll have to excuse my brother; he’s a touch off.”
Ronan elbowed him in the gut and grinned. “My little brother wouldn’t know what a good fight was if he was tossed in the middle of it.”
Kierney rolled his eyes but chuckled.
I smiled, enjoying the comradery between the two brothers. I think we were going to get along with them well.
“Shall we cut to the chase?” Ronan asked, as our drink appeared. The bartender left and walked over to Trick.
I turned back to Ronan and nodded. “Yeah, seems like you know quite a bit about what I need to know. You work with Hillcrest?”
“Fuck no!” Ronan and Kierney yelled together.
“Fuck that cunt,” Ronan spat, his Irish brogue coming out thick.
“He’s a dirty mother fucker,” Kierney added.
I nodded. “How do you know him then?”
“He fucked over a friend of mine. Made a deal with the mayor. Took a land project up from under him. He does dirty business and doesn’t care who he hurts.” Ronan took a sip of his drink.
“Yeah, he’s been stalking our girl,” I admitted, nodding at Nico.
“He kidnapped her for a while. We were able to get her back.”
Kierney hissed. “That’s damn lucky. I hear he’s dealing in the skin trade.”
“Trafficking, yeah. We killed most of his guys at a warehouse down south when we got Maya back, but Hillcrest has all but disappeared since then.” I swig back my whiskey and nod at the waitress standing near the stairs.
Trick and James settled into their own booth to wait for us.
The bartender scurried over to the VIP bar and began making me a fresh drink.
“That’s fucked up man. Your girl, she OK now?” Ronan asked.
“She’s got her days, but she’s a fighter. She’s doing good,” Nico answered.
I smiled and nodded. “She’s learning self-defense and kick boxing, talking to a therapist. She’s doing alright.”
Ronan smiled, his lower lip cracking open. “That’s great. I hate nothing more than then fuckers selling people. We’ll help you any way we can. I wanna nail this fucker to the wall.”
“Yeah, there’s a long line of people that want in on his torture session.” I nodded.
The bartender walked over and set down fresh drinks for everyone.
“Look into his shell company Summit Holdings. He’s got buildings in Cicero and Englewood. You come to the city, and we’ll help you take him out. We can ride around and do some recon before we figure out the best action plan.” Ronan said.
I nodded slowly. “Ok. I’m gonna have my tech guy work on Summit Holdings. I need to bring this to my club, but potentially a recon trip would be viable. We’d need to move quickly though; I don’t want this fucker getting away.” I texted Jack immediately with the information.
“Absolutely. You and your guys can stay with me. I’ve got a place on Lake Shore drive, bring your girl. She can hit the sights while we work.”
I smiled wryly. “I appreciate that. My son has school though. He missed a lot while his mother was kidnapped. He can’t missmuch more, I’m afraid. And my girl, we don’t leave her alone without one of us, so I’ll probably stay behind and send Nico and my enforcer Jason Langford north.” I glanced at Nico, who nodded once.
“Ah, you have a son. How old?” Ronan’s brogue popped out in the odd sentence that made me chuckle.
“He’s nine. Almost ten. He’s a good kid. Nic’s teaching him how to fight. He’s working through his anger over his own kidnapping at Hillcrest’s hands and his mother turning herself in to save him.” I sighed, not really sure why I was giving the man so much information. Ronan Tiernan seemed like a good dude though.
Both Ronan and Kierney cursed and shook their heads. “Jesus H. Christ,” Ronan groaned.
