Page 70 of Redemption

“What do you mean?”

“She’s slippery. Tells people what she thinks they want to hear. Turns and twists herself into whatever version suits the person she’s speaking to. Did her father abuse her?” He shrugs. “I got a feeling it was more”—he taps his temple—“than physical.”

His phone buzzes on the nightstand, and he leaves the door to check it. I follow him into the bedroom and run my hand along his back. His muscles flex under my fingers, and he turns to offer a quick kiss on my temple. “Lorcan and Kim think we should head south tomorrow.”

“South?” I frown.

“One of the bombs the PLA secured was delivered to someone in Cork.”

“Their PLA faction there?” Finn and Lorcan just gave them more manpower by taking over the McCaffrey organization in Cork. We were always flies in their web, and we’ve been luring more flies with us.

“Don’t know.” Finn sets down his phone. “Lorcan thinks we should go see Thomas in Dublin.”

“Lorcan can’t see him.” We’re walking a dangerous line with him by going south. At least up here, few people recognize the Donaghey brothers. Down there? Their misdeeds are legendary. “Even Kim they’ve met before in Boston.”

Is she supposed to be dead too? I try to remember the news stories I read, but I can’t recall those details. My primary focus was Finn. Every outlet reported Lorcan’s death, but my FBI contact, the one who dragged him out, relayed the truth.

“You gonna tell me what Semyon wanted from you?”

I check the clock on the nightstand. Have they landed yet? I haven’t heard from anyone to be sure they’re safe. Until then, I can’t take any chances. Would he listen to me? To reason? Likely. Not worth derailing everything else we need to accomplish right now. “Not yet,” I say. “But I will.”

He searches my face, and his gaze is intense. “Is whatever you agreed to do going to cause you any pain or hurt?”

“Not even a little.”

He wraps his arms around me, drawing me into him. “Then the truth can wait.”

When we get into bed, he gathers me close. My head rests on his chest and my casted hand on his stomach. He sighs into my hair.

“What are you thinking?” At one time, I would have cringed asking. Now it’s natural—normal—to ask and to expect him to tell me the truth. There’s no pretending between us anymore. We are who we are.

He tightens his hold, and his lips brush my hair. “I lay in that prison for months not letting myself remember what being with you felt like.Thiswasn’t something I was ever going to get again.”

Whereas I lay in my bed and tried to recall every detail of him. What it felt like to have his arms sliding around my waist, my head pillowed against his chest, and his breath stirring my hair. The easiest way for me to get to sleep was to wrap myself in a blanket of Finn memories and sensations. I never stopped hoping or believing we’d be together once again.

“I’m not a good man, and I’m not a peaceful man, but I’m almost both of those when I’m with you.”

I glance up to make eye contact with him, and love swells in me. He’s the man I’m meant to be with, and I’ll love him until the day I die. “When this is all over, you can be whoever you want to be.”

“I’ll fight like hell to make sure I come home to you and Lucas in three years. They may think they have the lead, but I’ve been doing this long enough to realize I can steal their advantage and make it mine. We just have to figure out the right moves.”

I mull over his words as sleep threatens to drag me under. When we understand our opponents, the right steps are easy to determine. Pearl Jade and Pierre-Jacques are so cloaked in false identities, how will we ever know enough in time to foil them? Impossible isn’t a word we use, so I keep my thoughts to myself. Whether or not we can win, we’ll go down fighting. Giving up isn’t an option.

Chapter Thirty-One

Finn

Thebuzzingbesidemybed wakes me. I squint at the clock on the side table and realize it’s 5 a.m. already. The alarm isn’t what’s woken me up, though, it’s Lorcan calling. I extract myself from Carys, who is groggy and curled against me, to answer.

“What’s happening?” I ask as soon as I hit the green button.

“We’ve got company at the hotel. Not sure how many or where, but Kim gave the front desk people extra to let us know of anyone milling around.”

“Shit,” I mutter. “How do you want to play this?”

“Kim reckons we split up and meet in the car park. It’s possible they’ve traced our piece-of-shit car, so we’ll need to nick a vehicle.”

Not a problem. Lorcan and I have hot-wired enough vehicles in our youth to stock a car dealership. Little trickier now with this digital crap. At the window, I peek out the curtains to the darkened cityscape. Carys dresses in silence behind me. She must have heard enough of the conversation to understand we must move fast. “Across the street, there’s another carpark, not the one we used, so we should meet there. Toward the back, there’s an older black SUV. Do you see it?” It’s the farthest, oldest car in the lot. Here’s hoping there’s a full tank of gas.

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