Page 32 of The Warrior's Salvation

When I pull into the parking lot at the docks, I see Darren's car right away. He's standing next to it, leaning on it like I’ve seen him do a few times before. He's an arrogant man, betting on his own ability to intimidate me, but this time, he's in for a surprise.

I park my car but leave it running, door open as I stomp toward him with the burner phone in hand. He gave me orders to bring him the times and locations of my father's meetings with Ronan O'Rourke, Loch's older brother and the chief of their organization. I'm not a fool. I know he intends to use that information to either set them up or have them killed, and I won't give him the assist.

"Smart girl, Evelyn. Now where is my information?" Connelly unfolds his arms, pushes off his car, and stalks toward me. And when I slam the phone into his open palm, he narrows his eyes at me.

"I'm done," I tell him, starting to back away before he even registers my words. "Find someone else." My back is toward him, which may be a mistake, but I walk toward my car with even, determined steps.

Darren's low, deep chuckle makes my hair stand on end. I know he's a cruel man, and I don't doubt he's capable of wicked, vile things, including killing me, but I won't be bullied. Not by him, not by my parents, not by Lochlan. I will live the life I want to live.

"Do you know you're signing your father's death certificate?"

Reeling around, I glare at him, narrowing my eyes to thin slits. "You're a fool, Connelly. You've made mistakes." The blood thrumming past my ear drum is enough to make me realize how bad this fight or flight in my body is, but I don’t back down.

"Oh?" he says, lifting his eyebrows. "What mistake is that?" He moves closer to me slowly, as if he's trying not to spook me. I'm not worried. There are plenty of people here to hear my scream. Even if they can't stop him from hurting me, they will know who he is. He'll be caught eventually. The important thing is that I'm breaking this tie. I'm not playing his pawn anymore.

"Yes, you led me right to my own answer. Your very proof that my da is guilty is what gave me the idea. My father has Garda officials, politicians, and lawyers on his payroll. If you think he's going to go down for anything, you're wrong. He has the whole fecking city in his back pocket." My hand trembles on the top of my open door as I continue. "You can't touch him."

Darren moves swiftly, coming after me, and I try to launch into the car. But he's faster than me. His hands grab around my waist, the phone skittering across the pavement, and he yanks me out kicking and screaming.

"You little bitch," he growls, grabbing me roughly and tossing me to the ground next to the running car.

I scramble backward, crab crawling as fast as I can, but he swings a booted foot and kicks my ankles out from under me. When I think he's going to pin me down, we both hear squealing on the pavement of someone's tires and he looks up. It gives me enough time to jump off the ground and start running before I hear gunfire erupt. I don’t know where it's coming from, Darren or someone else. All I do is run.

The booms are so loud, I cover my ears while I race away, not even sure where I will go now. My car is still there, running with its door open, but I can't turn back and run into the fire fight. I duck behind a large metal shipping container to catch my breath and feel tears streaking down my cheeks.

The gunshots continue, and I can't even allow myself to peek out there to see what's happening. I hear more squealing tires, and then an engine approaching. When the car skids to a stop, I leap up to run again but I see Lochlan's angry eyes and instead run toward him. He opens the door, pulls me in, and presses on the accelerator, peeling out.

My chest is heaving. I'm sobbing, hands shaking, and I crawl across the center console to curl into a ball in his passenger seat. Lochlan had to have followed me, and I've never been happier to know he is so obsessive.

"What the hell were you thinking, Evie?" He's angry, and rightly so. Darren was going to kill me. There is no doubt in my mind.

"I wasn't," I sob, palms pressed against my ear as he continues to shout at me while he drives.

"You leave my house after I tell you I will speak to your father, tell him I want you, and you go straight to that bastard's arms?"

The car lurches as it weaves, slamming me into the door a few times, and all I can do is sob and wonder if I've just dropped a nuke in my own life. Lochlan will never forgive me. I ran right out of his arms to Darren Connelly, and he thinks I'm ducking out on him to see another man. It's so overwhelming and I've royally fucked up. I need my da to fix this because this time, I don’t think I know the way out.

24

LOCHLAN

When Evie finally adjusts in her seat and buckles in, I stop going off on her. She's not supposed to know about this world. It's supposed to exist around her in plain sight without her being aware of any of it. But here we are after a fire fight, with her sobbing in my passenger seat with her innocence shattered. She's a damn fool is what she is, and I'm an idiot for letting her walk out of my house. I'm just thankful I decided to follow her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I ask again, shaking my head.

"I was fine," she blubs, covering her face. I hear the anger in her tone, but there is fear there too. She wasn't fine. She isn't fine. She is realizing for the first time the dangerous world we live in and she's in shock that her father willingly partakes of it. If she thinks his laundering and extortion are the worst of it, she has no clue the pain she's about to experience.

My hands trip the wheel so tightly, my knuckles are white. I'm not thinking rationally. My mind is racing too fast for that.

"You were about to be killed or raped. Do you realize that? Can't you see? You were warned so many fucking times, Evelyn. Your da told you to listen to me. I told you to stop fecking around with that man. You just keep walking right back into danger like you're invincible and you're going to get killed."

"Stop it!" she screams. Her hands fall from her face as she glares at me. Her eyes are red-rimmed, tears streaming down her cheeks, and she pounds her fist into my shoulder so hard it actually hurts. Then she pulls her hand back, cradling it. "Just stop. You don't fecking own me. I keep telling you that. And why the hell did you follow me?"

"Because you're a lunatic. You ignored direct orders, put yourself and this entire mission in danger. You walked into that building and?—"

"What building!" Evie screeches, and I hear a horn blasting in my ear. I jerk my head around to see an oncoming car and I’m in their lane, so I swerve back into mine and slow my pace. The speedometer shows I'm going twice the legal limit without realizing it. My hands are trembling at the near miss.

"What fecking building? What are you talking about?"

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