“He runs the tech incubator that made the news for selling over a billion in an assortment of startups and solutions. About eighteen months ago, I considered partnering with him on an encryption prototype, but when his name blew up in the business world, I figured his time was pretty much buttoned up.”
Leo took a seat near me again, dragging out his phone. “Let me check. Maybe I know his face. So you?
??ve met him?”
“A few times,” I admitted, my eyes on his phone. He keyed in Liam’s name, then lifted the phone for me to see. There was Liam’s picture with a shit ton of news articles.
“This guy?”
“Yeah, him.”
“Shit, the red headed fucker even looks like O’Sullivan.”
He continued scrolling through the stuff on his phone and didn’t notice I was doing the same on mine. Except I wasn’t looking for details on Liam. I was bringing up his number in my contact list, then sent him a quick text. I told Leo what I did.
“You know him well enough to send the guy a text?”
“You know how it is,” I answered. “The tech community is tiny here in New York. Hell, it’s tiny all the way to Silicon Valley. Everyone knows everyone.”
“Wait, what exactly are you suggesting we do with this Liam character?”
“Find out if we can trust him, if we can do some kind of exchange. His dirt on his uncle for something I can do for him. He’s got something on Shamus, I’m sure. To stay out of the family business, Liam’s got to be holding something over his uncle’s head.”
Two messages popped up on my phone at almost the same time. One was from Shamus, instructing us to meet him in an hour at a bar on Sixty-Third. I told Leo about it and pulled up the second text. From Liam.
Saw the news. I assume I have something you want. Just like I want in on the ZX-7 prototype manufacturing. I’ll call you in ten.
I smiled. Liam was smart. Harvard undergrad, MBA from Wharton. He could connect the dots easily enough. While there was no mention of his uncle in any of the news articles, the shootout was probably enough for him to put it all together. I hadn’t seen him at the engagement party—the groom was his cousin after all—but I had no doubt he kept up to date on his family. Including who the bride was. And my connection to her father. Yeah, the fucking tech world was small. I wanted dirt, and he wanted an in with my Asian client who was building the latest in tablet technology.
We were set. I was sure of it.
“Do you know Liam O’Sullivan well enough to trust him? You’re expecting the guy to turn on his own uncle? Those Irish families are fucking tight.”
“In every interview he’s ever done, he’s openly stated and restated and stressed he’s a legit business owner. The man’s a broken record on the subject—the press knows who his fucking uncle is—since it needs to be reiterated because his name alone has a stigma that’s fucked up his company’s ability to do business with the more secure industries. He’s been shut out of government and military contracts because of the O’Sullivan name alone.”
“Sounds like fucking justice to me,” Leo grumbled. Obviously, he believed in karma.
“Unless it’s all true,” I countered. “Which, judging from this text from Liam himself, it is.”
“Jesus fuck, Dane. That was fast. I’m still wary. Our lives riding on a text from a work colleague who’s the nephew of the mob boss who wants us dead.”
I grinned. “Yeah.” I tossed him my phone, let him read the text. “He’s in, too. And it’s go time. Uncle Shamus sent the meeting details. I’ll talk to Liam in the car on the way.”
Leo held up a hand. “Let me see Shamus’s text and see what the fuck these yahoos are setting us up for.”
I waited, calm and relaxed as he read the texts. Not much there. In this, Leo would have to trust me. At least while I talked to Liam in the car. Then we could make our plan.
His eyes slowly rose to meet mine when he was done, and with it, a smile grew and spread across his face. “Fuck. Liam will trade shit on his uncle for some prototype?”
I shrugged. “He deals in widgets and microchips. He wants nothing to do with bullets and the shootouts like at Harper’s kitchen.”
He gave a dry laugh, shook his head slowly. “You were right.”
Yeah, I was. But it didn’t matter. All I wanted was to get us all out of this shit and back to Harper. To be with her without worrying about being shot.
“Let’s get to that meeting,” I said, walking out of the room and down the hall.
Harper came out of my bedroom, wrapped in just a towel, stopping at the sight of us.