“Last night,” Carter answered ruefully. “We were having a very romantic candlelit dinner when Ivan called us and said there were things to shoot. Kind of ruined the moment. We meant to tell everyone today.”
“I get to walk Daddy down the aisle,” Remi informed Kyou, excitement making her bounce on her toes. “He promised. And wear a poofy dress.”
Kyou smoothed a hand over her head, his smile gentle. “Sounds like you’re already into pre-wedding planning. Here, give me that, then say a proper hi to Brannigan.”
She promptly did so, then stuck a hand out like her fathers had done. “Hi, Brannigan.”
Brannigan didn’t feel odd taking that small hand into his, not considering the work she’d already done on his behalf. Young, yes, but she was clearly capable. “Hello, Widow. Thanks for your help.”
Remi beamed up at him. “No problem!”
It was Smiley—Carter—who voiced the concern. “What do you guys have here? Anything?”
“I didn’t even have time to snag my evac bag,” Kyou said with a groan, pulling the laptop free. “I grabbed him from an open park. What we have is what we’re wearing.”
“Hmm, that’s a problem. Two options: I can go buy some clothes to tide you over, grab some more equipment to help boost you, or we can slip back into your individual apartments and grab some things.”
Kyou threw in, “Remi did an eval before we got here. Genovese property is being watched.”
“I vote we send Ivan in,” Ari stated, tapping a finger to his chin as he thought. “He can slip past everyone and get what we need. Easier than try to buy it all. Brannigan, if you’d sit and make a quick list for him and where it’s located, that will make things easier on him.”
“I certainly will. Ah…K? Can I have him bring my laptop or anything?”
Kyou turned a black look upon him, his outrage almost a living thing. “Of course you can. I don’t do insecure connections in my safe houses.”
Brannigan spread his hands in surrender. “Stupid question. Don’t shoot. Anyone got pen and paper?”
He sat at the table and made a list of things, or started to, but he really had no idea what to plan for. His start in life was a little…interesting…sure, but that didn’t mean he’d had a hit on him before. Well, he’d apparently had, but not one he’d been aware of. Mostly because, by the time he was twenty-six, he’d been under Kyou’s rather obsessive protection. Not much got past his guard. This situation was unprecedented.
Uncertainly, he asked, “Gentlemen? How long do you think this will take to resolve?”
They all stopped and looked at each other, a query on their faces, looking about for an answer. When no one immediately spoke, Carter cleared his throat. “I’d say get at least four changes of clothes. Something you can wash and re-wear. We don’t have an immediate plan of action for this. That’ll take a sounding board session, and I’d prefer to do that with Ivan here, as he has more knowledge of the layout of our enemy’s stronghold than we do.”
“That’s fair,” Brannigan allowed. “Should we do that before I make this list?”
“Probably. Set it aside for now.”
The garage door rumbled as it opened. Remi danced toward the door and opened it. “Here’s Uncle Ivan!”
“Ah, my solnishko,” a voice rumbled in pleasure. “You look beautiful today. My Aiden has good taste in clothes.”
“It’s really comfy,” Remi allowed before closing in for a hug. “We’re waiting on you before taking out the bad guys.”
“Da, I figured you would.” The same man with the Russian accent and rangy build from the other night stepped in through the connecting door. He kept a hand on Remi, lingering on her shoulder, and gave Brannigan a welcome smile. “Brannigan, glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” Brannigan answered honestly, trying (and failing) to not sound very smug.
Kyou growled at him wordlessly.
Ivan eyed him sideways. “You’ll discover that he has no sense of humor when he gets tired.”
“Oh, that I already know,” Brannigan assured him. “And he definitely needs a nap after we figure out the game plan. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I only see one of two options open to us. One, take each assassin as they come for me and wait it out. Two, tackle the O’Conner family directly and force them to retract the contract. I’m honestly not sure which is more feasible.”
“Taking on the assassins will mean a very long game and keeping you under tight security at all times. It will be long, tedious, and eventually someone will slip up at the wrong moment.” Ari shook his head firmly. “I’m not a fan of this plan. Speaking as one, this is exactly the sort of waiting game assassins excel at.”
“Also not in favor of this,” Carter admitted sourly. “But I’m not sure I like the other option better.”
Ivan bounced on his toes, eyes alight with glee. “I do!”
Sitting hunched over the laptop, Kyou sighed a decade’s worth of sighs. “Of course you do. The O’Conner family doesn’t keep anything like a roster, but from what I can tell they have about twenty-three people left here in Boston. Their main house is very heavily secured and, frankly, it would take Ivan to get through it.”
“Security was a bit tricky,” Ivan allowed. He rubbed his hands together briskly. “Best fun I’ve had all year. Can’t wait to do it again.”
Brannigan watched him with keen curiosity. He knew nothing about Ivan other than the obvious—he was Russian and a very good thief. But he must be exceptional if the entire group was confident he could walk in and out of secure places without being detected.
Still, this idea was a bit alarming. And by a bit, he meant very. “Mobs are…not rational. They’re family oriented and usually run off of fear more than anything else. Fear and loyalty. You will have to kill a lot of the O’Conner family in order to convince them that the cost is too high to win this. Is that really preferable over taking out their assassins?”
“Assassins are disposable to them,” Ari pointed out, although there was a grimace of distaste on his face. “They’ll be willing to go through dozens before rethinking their strategy and trying something else. It’s no skin off their nose if multiple people lose their lives trying to get to you. If we make this personal, we have a better chance of forcing them to back down.”
“Bran, I know this makes you uneasy.” Kyou lifted both shoulders in a tired shrug. He really did look five minutes from crashing. “But really, we’ve been headed in this direction for a while. Ever since you bought up their territory, they’ve been yearning to stick a knife in you.”
Brannigan groaned but couldn’t deny it. “I’d naïvely hoped to negotiate their departure. Eventually. When it got too expensive for them to stay. I suppose we’re past that option at this point. Alright, then is everyone in agreement? We’re really taking out the O’Conners?”
“At least this branch of them.” Carter canted his head, eyes trained on the ceiling as he thought it through. “This will take a bit of planning, I think. Better plan for at least a week. Possibly two.”