Page 84 of Sinful King

“Your actions told me so,” she said, placing one hand palm side up behind her back for me to take. “But none of you have ever openly said it. Guess I was surprised to hear it.”

I slipped my fingers through hers, gaze focused solely on the tiny semi-colon tattoo etched into her wrist.

Mmm. Wonder when she got this.

“We’re your family, B,” Finn told her as I brushed my finger over it and she shuddered. “Let’s get shit straight now, you can rely on everybody in this room for the good, bad and chaotic.”

They were in the middle of a moment Blair needed for a lot of reasons. But all I could think about was if there were any more tattoos I hadn’t noticed.

“I’m still learning to accept that there are people who love me other than Sean,” she said, pulling our hands forward until they were against her stomach. “The feeling is mutual.”

Two hard knocks at the door, signaled the end of this pow wow.

“We can finish this conversation later. Open the door…” I tapped Blair’s thigh and she stood, walking away without looking back. “Gianna, let me talk to you for a second.”

I moved off to the side, irritation churning in my gut out of nowhere.

“What’s up?” Gianna asked, frowning up at me. “You look upset.”

I shook my head, relaxing the strain in my eyebrows.

“Do me a favor and let Cian take you back to Philly,” I requested, ignoring the question I didn’t have an answer to. “I appreciate you wanting to follow family customs, but your loyalty isn’t in question.”

She took a second but eventually I got a slow nod of agreement.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Every day, I became more and more unsure about a lot of shit.

“I’ll get back to you on that.”

Cian walked up and draped an arm over Gianna’s shoulder, his gaze bouncing between us.

“Y’all good?”

“Better than good,” Gianna said before I could respond. “Sean agreed we should go home after this.”

My brother gave me a pointed look, as if he knew I’d put her up to it. But after a few seconds, he conceded.

“If that’s what you want, beauty,” Cian said, cutting his eyes at her. “Let me feed you.”

They walked away and I felt a little of the pressure mounting my shoulders disappear. I needed to keep as many of them out of the red zone as possible and spent the rest of the night strategically moving pieces to execute exactly that.

Cian and Gianna were heading back to Philly with Anessa.

Siobhan was knee deep in her marriage scam and off grid until further notice.

I forced Niamh and Aoife together, not wanting either operating alone.

“I don’t need security,” Yasmine argued, still trying to make her point ten minutes after my announcement. “We can manage on our own.”

Every time she opened her mouth, my patience dwindled.

Blair had been avoiding me all night and I could only attribute my lack of giving a fuck to that.

“Yas, you’re leaving here with security,” I said slowly, looking her directly in the eye. “We aren’t debating or negotiating my decision.”

I moved on, speaking to and dismissing anybody on the route to my intended destination.

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