He was surprised by her reaction. She had never met his daughter, and while he was sure he had mentioned her in passing, he didn’t think he had discussed her at length. That just wasn’t his way. And yet, somehow she seemed to intuit the bond that he had with her, and her feelings toward him seemed to impart an empathy for his love for his daughter.

“They took her,” Cormack said. “They’re holding her as leverage.”

Steele’s face was serious and troubled. “My people saw her,” she said. “My people saw them with her.”

“What are you talking about?” Cormack demanded. “When? How? I don’t understand.”

She took a deep breath. “We’ve been watching Soh’s warehouse in Eastie. We know he’s involved with Vincente Carpio’s brother and that he’s planning something. My people saw them bring a woman in earlier today.”

“How could they not do something?” Cormack shouted. He grabbed her by the arm and shook her. She pulled her arm away and looked at him.

“What were they supposed to do?” Steele pointed out. “We’ve just got a couple of men. It happened quickly, and Soh’s men were heavily armed. They’ve had half a dozen men or more moving through there over the last day or so. My guys didn’t know who it was or why they had her. Even I didn’t know it was Diamond until you just told me. If they’d tried to do something at that point, Soh’s men would have killed her rather than give her up.”

Cormack considered that for a moment. “OK,” he said at last. “Maybe you’re right.” He gave the matter more thought. “At least we know where she is,” he said.

Steele shook her head. “We don’t,” she said. “They didn’t take her into the warehouse. They loaded her right onto a boat and took her out.”

“Out?” he yelled. “Out where?”

“We don’t know,” Steele said. “It happened too fast, and we didn’t have anyone on the water.”

Cormack turned away from her. “Then she’s gone.”

She tugged at his arm. “Have they contacted you yet?”

“They have.”

“What do they want?”

“Me,” Cormack said. “They want me to step down from the union. They want me out of the way.”

Steele looked skeptical. “They know you’d never do that,” she said. She waved her arm at the harbor. “This is all you know. They know it.”

Cormack nodded. “They’ll kill me. And they’ll kill her.” His mind was working furiously. “You said they have half a dozen men there?” he asked.

“Around that,” she replied. “It changes from moment to moment.”

He rubbed his beard and realized it was caked with ice, but he didn’t care. “We figure he’s got two dozen, maybe more, total. So if there are only a few at his warehouse…”