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He assured me he could get it.
I think the part of Piper’s story where she said she was in a hotel and smashed through a glass table was the truth. She was in shock when she told me that and it slipped out.
The other stuff about muggers was bullshit.
The way Piper reacted to mine and Tag’s questions makes me sure it was McGuire business. Family business she shouldn’t have been part of and, unless we missed something along the way, hasn’t been part of before now.
The hour of night and her sexy red dress makes me think she was dressed to impress.
But impress who?
And why would Mattie wave his nineteen-year-old daughter in front of anyone in our business?
Maybe she was telling the truth, and she was out with friends when she got recognized.
Maybe a transaction went sour because of something she said or did?
She’s holding a lot of guilt over whatever happened. She said she couldn’t stand to be a disappointment as well as a traitor. How could her getting beat up ever make her into a disappointment?
I just don’t understand her fucking family.
And what about making the man who beat her up pay? She doesn’t seem in the least bit anxious for revenge. If that were me, I’d be gunning to make them pay.
Why isn’t that a consideration?
I park my bike out front and spot Seamus in a back booth. Dinky’s is a favorite local breakfast place downtown, but it’s nearly eleven on a Thursday, so there aren’t many other diners.
“Hey, thanks for meeting me.” I slide into the booth opposite him and smile at the coffee and the piece of apple crumble waiting for me. “You’re a good man, Peterson.”
He chuckles. “If my superiors knew I trade favors with the Quinn boys, they might disagree.”
I scoop a large forkful of apple bliss and shovel it into my mouth. “There’s a certain give and take to keeping the peace. We do our best, as do you, and it works out well for both of us.”
“Aye, it does at that.”
“So, were you able to backtrack the footage of the girl I told you about?”
Seamus cues up a section of video and turns his laptop around so I can view the screen. “It started at the NYX.”
“Where the fuck is the NYX?”
“It’s the Hard Rock Hotel. Newly remodeled but still with some of the same rocker vibe. Anyway, I wound the footage back, and this is where we first see the girl in the red dress.”
I lean in and watch as Piper rushes out of the old Hard Rock Hotel, looks around like she doesn’t know what to do next, and then, when two men step out of the hotel, she staggers down the sidewalk into the shadows.
The footage follows her as she limps down Exchange Street, across Essex Gate, and then onto Parliament with those same two men chasing her.
“Who the fuck are those guys?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. Watch.”
I watch as one of the bearded brutes catches her from behind, and she goes down hard. Her face smashes into the concrete and she’s out cold for a few seconds.
“Fucking hell.”
“She wakes up fighting like a wildcat, though.”
One guy grabs her in a caveman hold and drags her into the shadows by the hair. Then he tosses her down and fucking kicks her.
