Chapter 7

Declan~

I was pissed, and for a lot more reasons than Cathal taking all of our money tonight. After the poker game, the blonde cocktail waitress had been ready to suck my dick and ease the sting of losing seventy-five-thousand dollars to my little brother, but those plans had immediately come to a halt when Desmond hadn't been able to get a hold of Ren and Jacob. About four hours into our game, Desmond had gotten a call, Ren telling him that they'd finally found Kenneth Swanson, and that was the last that we'd heard from either Ren or Jacob.

Now, normally, it was James that cleaned up the messes, but there was more at play here, and I knew it. There was no way in hell that Kenneth Swanson could take out one of my men, let alone two of them, so whatever the fuck was going on, I wanted to see it for myself.

When Ren had called to tell Desmond that there'd been some activity at Kenneth's house, it should have been a simple kidnapping or bullet to Kenneth's head. Two of my guys missing shouldn't be a possibility, especially since I only brought in the best. Neither Ren nor Jacob were rookies, so it was plausible that Kenneth had gotten in bed with someone else. My bet would be those fuckers that ran with Klive Simpson, simply because I couldn't see the Kotovs or Sartoris bothering with a small-timer like Kenneth Swanson.

Luckily for us, Kenneth didn't live in town. His place was closer to the docks than was wise, but still deep in O'Brien territory for it not to be a problem. Nevertheless, as Noah and I got out of the car, we looked around in case of an ambush. When the second car carrying James and Desmond pulled up next to us, they did the same as they got out of the car.

"That's Kenneth's vehicle, and Ren's car is still parked down the block," Desmond stated, jerking his head towards a white Mercedes. "So, either Kenneth is still in there, or he took off running."

"Noah and I will take the front, you guys take the back," I ordered. "Also, call Kevin and have him check for cameras." While he couldn't hack into a security system without getting caught, he could pick up active operating systems in the area.

As James and Desmond made their way towards the back of the property, Noah and I cautiously made our way to the front. Like cops approaching a crime scene, we were looking for anything that could tell us what the fuck was going on here.

"The door's open," Noah said as he kicked it open slowly.

I walked in, immediately noticing Jacob dead on the floor. "Fuck."

"That's one hell of a shot," Noah remarked, referring to the perfect hole in the middle of Jacob's forehead.

Carefully, we continued to make our way inside the small two-bedroom house, and when we rounded the kitchen counter, it was to see Ren dead, having bled out on the floor.

I could hear a low whistle coming from the other end of the living room. "Well, this is one hell of a surprise."

I looked over at James' voice. "Can you not be a dick?"

He shook his head. "Nah, it's in my blood, laddie."

"There's no way that Kenneth Swanson did this," Desmond remarked, echoing my same thoughts.

"Look around, but don't touch anything," I instructed, though we were all far from amateurs. "Don't linger, either." Though we were all dressed like we were about to rob a bank, I didn't want to take any chances.

As we carefully looked around, all that seemed curious was the two empty wine glasses that'd been sitting out, a bottle of wine next to them. Apart from that, the house looked surprisingly clean and neat for such a degenerate. Granted, since he spent most of his time at the tables, I doubted that he was home enough to make any kind of mess.

"Did we ever find out if Kenneth had a girlfriend?" James asked as he walked out of the hallway. "I found a pair of earrings on the bathroom counter."

"I can get Kevin on it," Desmond said. "But as far as I know, he was single."

"Maybe it was just a hookup, and she left some shit behind," Noah suggested.

"Yeah, like a couple of dead bodies," James snorted.

I looked over at my brother. "Do you honestly believe that a female took these two down?"

"Why not?" he asked.

"Are you serious?" I practically gawked, trying to understand his logic.

"If she didn't take them down, then maybe she helped," he replied. "Kenneth Swanson would never have been able to take Ren and Jacob down alone, Declan." He shook his head. "It's impossible. The man is a weasel on his best day."

"He's not wrong," Noah chimed in. "Ren and Jacob aren't rookies and never would have let Swanson get the upper hand on them."

"Or maybe it was more than just some hookup," James offered. "Maybe he was having a party, and they all helped take Jake and Ren down."

"So, do we leave the bodies here, then let the police do the footwork of finding DNA and all that shit, or do we clean up the place ourselves?" I asked them.

"The bodies will be traced back to us," Noah pointed out. "I say we clean up the mess ourselves, then put our feet to the pavement to find Swanson. Their guns are missing, and I don't particularly feel comfortable with anyone that's not an O'Brien walking around with our personal guns on them."

"That ain't no lie," Desmond muttered.

"Tell Cathal that there's a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on Kenneth Swanson delivered to us alive, and if he can be found in the next twenty-four hours, I'll double it to a hundred-grand," I said, instructing Desmond. "Kenneth only, don't mention any extras."

Desmond gave me a terse nod as James asked, "What do you want to do about the earrings?"

"I want them," I answered. "Also, we're taking the wine and glasses. I want it to look like Kenneth hasn't been here in days."

James nodded before going to get the earrings, and James went to grab the wine and glasses. As they did their thing, I kept eyeing the house, looking for any kind of camera. For a man that gambled like Kenneth Swanson, a security system wouldn't be a bad investment. Of course, the man had no money, so maybe it was just a sensible luxury that he couldn't afford.

"I want him found."

"We'll find him," Noah assured me. "Besides, someone has to answer for Ren and Jacob."

"If he thought that he was in a world of hurt for a gambling debt, he has no idea what he's in for now," I replied. "He killed two of my best men, and if he didn't kill them, then he got them killed."

"It's a clean shot, Declan," Noah remarked seriously.

"I noticed," I said before letting out a heavy sigh. "It was also a gutting, which tells me that we're not dealing with an amateur or scared rabbit."

"Maybe Kenneth pissed off someone else besides us," Noah suggested. "At this point, anything is possible."

He had a valid point. When a person was addicted to something, they usually had more than one source for their addictions. A drug addict never had just one dealer, so it stood to reason that Kenneth probably owed quite a few people money, and if he was making noise about not paying any of us, then I could see someone offing him. Or in this case, ambushing him, then making off with him.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking of calling Kotov and Sartori to see if he's been messing around in their territories lately," I answered, mulling it over in my head.

Noah's brows furrowed a bit. "Ye think they'd come ‘n ‘ere en take ‘im? What with us all gettin' along these days?"

I flipped him off.

Now was not the time for sarcasm.

Noah just chuckled as Desmond said, "The crew is on their way."

I gave him a terse nod as James came out of the hallway, the earrings in hand. "I didn't see anything else that might have been left behind."

Studying the earrings in my hand, they were nothing but a pair of large silver hoops, the kind that you saw anywhere and everywhere. There wasn't anything special or personal about them, so they weren't going to tell me much unless I decided to build a DNA lab, which I wasn't about to.

Sliding the jewelry in my pocket, I said, "Alright, we're heading back. Let me know when everything is taken care of."

Not waiting for their answers, Noah and I left, and as we were walking through the yard, I looked down and noticed a pair of footsteps that stood out from all the others. They stood out because they were too small to belong to a man.