Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

“Hi, beautiful,” the man said with a smile as he stepped toward me.

I dropped the cup onto the ground and reached for my gun. I was a little unsteady with only one hand, but I did my best to keep from shaking as I pointed it at the stranger.

“I asked who you were,” I repeated coldly.

“Whoa,” he replied nervously. “No need to get hostile. I’m here to help you.”

“Don’t move,” Nelson’s voice called from behind me, and I felt a rush of relief. Once again, we were the only ones in the office, and I felt much safer with two against one.

“Help with that?” I demanded as the man’s gaze shifted between Nelson and me. “And how did you get in here?”

“We’ve got a problem in common,” he responded. “That being, someone within our organization is off stirring up trouble. You feds don’t like it, and honestly, we don’t either, so I’m here to negotiate a truce between us.”

“You’re with the mafia,” I concluded as I glared into his eyes. I needed to be very careful about what I did and said. This man obviously wasn’t playing around. He’d broken through our security like it was nothing, and now he was standing there cool as a cucumber with two guns aimed at him. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“I suppose you can’t,” the man shrugged. “Oh, but where are my manners? My name’s Brennan Gallagher.”

He lifted his hand and stepped forward as if to introduce himself.

“I will shoot you,” I snapped as my finger twitched against the trigger. Inside, I was completely panicking, and I was a little impressed by how cool and collected I was remaining externally.

“Alright, alright,” he smiled as he put his hands up in a sign of surrender. “You did warn me. That one was on me. I really am just here to help, though. Our family wants to stop that idiot just as much as you do, trust me.”

“And what exactly would your ‘help’ entail?” I asked coldly. My arm was beginning to hurt from holding the gun up straight with just one hand, but I focused all of my energy on keeping it from trembling.

“Well, I’m not sure how much I’m at liberty to say,” he hummed. “I’m just a messenger, after all. Just rest assured that we’ll do everything in our power to assist you once you’ve found the location of Liam O’Sullivan.”

I knit my brows together in thought as I glared at him. He knew that I was looking for O’Sullivan, which meant that he probably wasn’t bluffing.

“I don’t trust you,” I sneered. Regardless of how much he knew about our case, I couldn’t be sure of his intentions.

“Aye, that’s fair,” Brennan nodded. “As a show of good faith, then, how about we do this? We'll assist you without asking for anything. Then, if we do end up helping you catch O’Sullivan, you’ll owe us a favor.”

My heart started to thrum painfully fast at his words. Making a deal with a member of the mafia sounded like a horrible idea, but I had a feeling that this guy wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Even so, I was pretty sure I didn’t have the authority to make deals on MBLIS’s behalf.

“We’re not going to make a deal with a criminal,” Nelson replied calmly from behind me.

The easygoing smile on Brennan’s face slipped into a scowl as he looked past me to glare at Nelson.

“I don’t recall asking you,” he spat before turning his gaze back to me. “I asked the pretty lady here, so let her answer.”

“Deal,” I replied curtly. I’d have to deal with whatever consequences came of this later, but for now, I needed to keep this guy calm and get him out of the office so we could call for backup.

“Wonderful.” He grinned as he slipped his hands into his pockets and adopted a relaxed stance. “Oh, how’s little Brady doing? I don’t suppose I could pop back to wherever you’re hiding him and check on him?”

“No. Get out,” I deadpanned as I gestured toward the door with my gun.

“Aye, I figured that’d probably be pushing my luck,” he chuckled as he backed away toward the entrance. “Tell Brady I’ll be back for him soon and to collect my favor.”

He winked at me before quickly exiting the office, and I let my arm drop with a sigh as soon as he was out of sight.

“Are you alright?” Nelson asked as he hurried to my side.

“I’m fine,” I huffed between breaths. My entire body was shaking, and I was having trouble bringing air into my lungs, but I’d kept it together in front of Gallagher, which was all I really cared about.

“I’ll call Wallace and let him know what happened,” Nelson said as he slipped his phone out of his pocket.

I fell into the nearest chair and put my head in my hands. I couldn’t believe I’d just agreed to a deal with a member of the mafia. It wasn’t like I had a choice since I seriously doubted he would have just agreed and left if I’d said no, but still.

“We need more agents,” I groaned out loud as I pulled my head out of my hands to look up at Nelson. He was just finishing his phone call, and he placed his phone down gently on one of the desks. “This is the second time we’ve almost died in our own office this week because all our field agents were out.”

“That’s a good idea,” Nelson agreed as he sank into a chair beside me. “We are always looking for more members, but MBLIS isn’t a well-known department. We don’t really have a lot of people clamoring to sign up. Thought that might change now that we’ve been all over the news for the past few days.”

“And the internet,” I added. “Did you see the video someone uploaded of Charlie tackling Gallagher directly