Ari nodded, agreeing. “I don’t think we can warn this guy off. Let’s assume we’ll have to take him out instead.”
“Is Brannigan in the same situation I was in?” Aiden inquired, wandering over from the table.
“Basically, lyubimyy,” Ivan confirmed.
Brannigan pointed towards his nose. “I don’t follow.”
Succinctly, Aiden explained, “It’s how Ivan and I first met. He was on a job, it was also an open contract, and everyone assumed I had the stamp they wanted to steal. I didn’t. Ivan had to quickly find the stamp and close the contract to get me out of danger. It was a rather harrowing week and a half. Looks like you’re in the same boat, Brannigan. The only way to get the assassins to go away is to deal quickly with the ones who put the hit out on you. How difficult is this going to be, guys?”
Kyou’s eyes lifted in degrees, practically making cranking noises as he levered them up to glare at Ivan. “You didn’t tell him?”
“I told him!” Ivan protested, turning to his husband for validation. “I told you O’Conner family, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know who they are.” Aiden shrugged his ignorance. “I just assumed they were bad guys.”
“Ivan, you can’t expect him to know the names of all the families in the criminal underworld just because he’s married to you.” Carter shook his head. “Aiden, we’re talking Irish Mob.”
Aiden’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Shit! Seriously?! Oh man, now I know why you guys are worried. Uh…babe, I’m due back on shift in twenty-something hours. Is this going to be handled before I’m back at work?”
“Depends.” Ivan gave his friends a hopeful smile. “We play soon, da?”
“I want a good plan before we go in,” Carter cautioned them all. “But yes, I vote the sooner the better. We can’t give this situation much time. It’ll blow up in our faces.”
Ari headed back to the stove. “Let’s eat first, then plan.”
9
Brannigan
Brannigan stood at the sink, washing dishes, keeping a sharp ear on the planning session happening at the table. The men were talking with so much lingo, so many acronyms, and shorthand phrases, that they were like their own language. He could only catch about half of it.
What he did understand sounded alarming. Kyou wanted to hack their bank accounts and run them dry so they couldn’t pay anyone, halting any contracts in their tracks. Carter was all for setting charges and blowing the place sky-high. Ivan wanted to sneak in and take them apart piece by piece, like chasing mice through a maze. Ari seemed to waffle between Ivan’s and Carter’s methods and was somehow trying to marry the two ideas together.
Were they always like this?
Aiden stood on the other side of the dishwasher, wiping down the counters. He was still in scrubs, his auburn hair escaping the gel he’d put into it God-knows-when. He kept casting wry, amused smiles at the table, like he was watching four little boys plan an epic battle against a Lego castle.
Brannigan leaned in and asked in a low tone, “Is this typical?”
“Pretty par for the course,” Aiden confirmed cheerfully, the smile lighting up his face and turning his clean-cut appearance into something that hinted at impish amusement. “Sometimes they do this just for the fun of it. Pick out some insane target and theoretically plan how they’d take it on. Right now they’re serious, though. Ivan’s just enjoying it.”
He probably should have left it there, but Brannigan was far too curious. “You said a little about how you and Ivan met?”
“Ah, yes. That’s a story in and of itself. The short version is, he can be utterly charming when he puts his mind to it. I didn’t stand much of a chance.” Aiden laughed saying this, hazel eyes sparkling. “He moved to protect me very quickly, and I ended up spending a lot of time with him and the others. I liked them. Ivan unapologetically seduced me, which I happily went along with, but it was the package as a whole that did me in. Having him, and Remi, and amazing friends who automatically have my back. I’d never had that before. I fell in love so fast I’m still a little dizzy with it.”
“And it never bothered you once that you’d fallen for a thief?”
“No. Because, you see, my family stole everything from me. They did it through bribing judges and lawyers, so it was completely unfair, but they got away with it. They were worse thieves. At least with Ivan, he was stealing for me. He never steals from someone who can’t afford the loss. It’s a moral grey area, but I’m pretty comfortable with it.”
He had to be, if he was married to Ivan.
Aiden’s eyes sharpened, studying Brannigan with unapologetic frankness. “Does it bother you? What Kyou does.”
“Hell no. I’m from criminal roots myself, although we’re legit now. Kyou’s saved my hide far too many times for it to bother me. I’m not sure if Kyou’s convinced of that, though.”
That satisfied Aiden, and he went back to being the genial, smiling doctor again. “I’m glad. Kyou’s not good at peopling. Just be persistent, that’s my advice.”
“I’ll take it.”
Aiden cocked his head at him in question. “I’d half-expected a business man like you to be in the thick of the planning.”
“I know absolutely nothing about staging a full-scale attack on a Mob family. Part of being a businessman is knowing how to call in experts and letting them do their jobs.”
With a nod, Aiden agreed, “That’s sensible.”
From the head of the table, Kyou called, “Bran. I think we’ve got a plan.”
Brannigan dried his hands off quickly and joined them. “I’m all ears.”
“Three stage attack.” Carter tapped a finger to the paper filled with scribbles and messy handwriting on the table. “First, Kyou hacks their banks and phones. We start tracing everything they’re doing and where everyone is. We do this for two days until we find the time when the most people are at HQ. Probably sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Even hardened criminals tend to sleep by then. While Kyou’s working his magic, Ivan and Ari will do theirs. They’ll sneak into HQ and start planting bombs, something with a trigger remote. We’ll be careful to keep this just powerful enough to limit damage to the surrounding area. Third stage is cleanup. We’ll take anyone on that isn’t in the building at the time of the explosion. I expect this to take about four days. How does that sound to you?”
Ruthless. That’s what it sounded like. Brannigan felt only vaguely uneasy about the idea of massacring an entire family. In truth, they were very bad people, so it was hard to dredge up true sympathy. He had only one real concern. Two, really. “Do we know if there are any innocents in the line of fire?”
“Njet,” Ivan answered readily.
“By that he means, yes we do know,” Carter clarified. “And no, there aren’t. No kids, at least. These are all adults.”
Okay, that was a relief. “Second question, doing it this quickly isn’t going to put any of you in danger, is it?”
For some reason, everyone smiled at him as if he’d just said something sweet.