Page 73 of Dublin Beast

But what is ‘normal’, anyway?

Running my fingers over the touch pad of Bryan’s laptop, I bring the machine to life. The picture of him smiling and in love with his lost love hurts my heart.

Man, every woman deserves to have a man look at her that way. Like he would raze the earth for her. Like she is the air that feeds his cells, and he would wither and die without her in his life.

I have a feeling that’s not far from the truth.

But that’s a thought for another night—a night when Bryan isn’t part of a gunfight. I type in his passcode—I may have snooped a few times when he typed it in—and open things up.

I have no interest in anything other than the video feed of the farmhouse. Not that it’s all that enlightening. There is no sound. The entire compound is as dark as the night sky. And the only thing that I see are flashes from gunfire, but I can’t make out the shooters or the targets.

Adrenaline pumping, my mind spins.

The more I think about it, the more I need to get moving. If there’s another group going after Siobhan, the farmhouse is burned.

No matter how I imagine the night playing out, we need to be ready to move. Scooting out from behind the table, I grab my mug and a few other dishes and head to the sink. After that, I pack my stuff and set my suitcase and my purse next to the door.

Bryan and Kieran are each living out of a duffle bag, so it doesn’t take any time to pull their stuff together and set it by the door as well.

With that taken care of, I race back to Bryan’s laptop, hoping it will show me something more—something that tells me he’s safe.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

Bryan

There’s a good chance the McGuires have just beat us to the target and have Siobhan Daley. I grind my teeth as I watch the drone footage, my need for revenge warring with my competitive need to win.

The fucking McGuires.

But really, as long as the bitch is put down, does it matter who ends her life?

It does. Fucking right, it does.

I want to look into her eyes when she realizes there is no lie she can tell and no seduction that will work to save her pathetic life. When she understands there is nothing left for her except the debt to pay for killing our da.

“How many are still alive?”

Kieran points to the screen of the laptop and shakes his head. “I think this guy and possibly this one are still breathing, but these two are the only ones with strong heat signatures. It’s hard to tell with all the fire.”

We watch as two men from the attacking force drag the person from the second floor of the farmhouse, hauling her toward the trees.

The farmhouse is going up like a torch, the attackers taking a page from my playbook and using rockets to blow the place up and take down the Sentinel force.

They may have had a fortress, but that team went in hard, and from what we can tell, only two of them made it out alive.

“Is it Siobhan?” I ask.

“Maybe. It’s impossible to tell with the whole place lit up with the fire.”

“What about photo imaging?”

“Hold on. Maybe the moonlight can catch them when they come out of the trees.” Kieran navigates the drone to follow the three as they flee the destruction of the farmhouse.

“Their movements are sloppy. Are they hit?”

“They’ve likely got a few holes in them somewhere. That was one hell of a firefight.”

It was. “If that really was a McGuire team, I’m impressed. I honestly didn’t think they had it in them.”

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