Private Dublin

Chapter 67

I raced to the rectangular stand and hid behind the metal screen that separated it from the parking lot. I didn’t waste time looking to see if Andi would try to follow me. I knew that she would but hoped I’d made it to the bleachers before she’d seen me. This would mean she couldn’t be certain I hadn’t made a run for the clubhouse, a long low building on the other side of the parking lot.

I hurried along the stand, sprinting the length of the front row of seats until I reached the wall of aluminum siding at the other end. As I rounded the structure, I glanced back to see Andi in the parking lot, brandishing the pistol as she searched around the clubhouse. I ducked down behind the side of the stand and hauled myself over the wall further along Donnybrook Road.

By the time I dropped onto the sidewalk on the other side, I was drenched in sweat thanks to a combination of nerves and exertion, and must have looked wild-eyed. Thankfully, there were no pedestrians and only a handful of pre-dawn commuters besides some cab and delivery drivers.

I jogged south until I reached a wide, tree-lined avenue that was flanked by grand terraces, villas and apartment blocks. Further on, by a large monument to a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, I went left again and kept running until I found a series of high-end apartment buildings that overlooked a large city park.

I went into the expansive green space, which was almost empty except for a couple of very early-morning joggers, and kept going until I reached a bench by the lake at the heart of the park. Here I sat down and put my head in my hands.

I knew self-pity was counterproductive, but couldn’t help feeling defeated and beleaguered. Private, the organization I had worked so hard to build, had been compromised by one of the most formidable criminal entities I’d ever encountered. Nothing I thought I knew about my people would ever be the same again. I had no idea who I could trust outside my core group. We’d welcomed Andi into the Private family and she’d conspired to have me and Justine killed. I was devastated by the realization that someone who I’d thought I could trust was capable of such evil and deceit.

My phone rang and I recognized Mo-bot’s number.

“Jack,” she said the moment I answered. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alive,” I told her. “But I’m not sure I’m okay. Andi tried to kill me just now. She collaborated with Raymond Chalmont to murder me and Justine.”

“I’m sorry, Jack,” Mo-bot responded, and I could sense her heartbreak. She was a key part of the Private family and would feel Andi’s betrayal too. “Are you safe?”

I looked around the park and saw no sign of pursuit in the dim light. “For now. I managed to escape. But she’ll be looking for me. She has friends in the Garda, and the Dark Fates have a lot of bodies on the street.”

“We need to get you off it in that case. Let me start to work on that,” Mo-bot said.

“Mo, where there’s one rat, there are usually more. We need every country office to do in-depth background checks of every new hire. Look for connections to any key players in this investigation, including Andi.”

“I’ll send out an alert to all office heads,” Mo-bot told me. “Stay safe until I get back to you with a place to lie low.”

“Thanks, Mo,” I replied.

She could have no idea just how grateful I was at that moment to have someone in my life I could trust, completely and unequivocally.