Page 65 of Ruthless Savior
The side door leads to a narrow hallway that connects to the parish offices. Owen is waiting there with three other men I don't recognize, all of them armed and ready.
"Car's out back," Owen says tersely. "Danny's bringing the mother."
As if summoned, Danny appears with my mother in his arms. She's conscious but clearly in shock, her face pale and her eyes wide with terror. Alicia is at his side, equally pale and shell-shocked.
"Mom!" I reach for her, but Finn won't let me stop.
"We'll get her in the car," he says. "Keep moving."
We burst through the back doors of the cathedral into the cold December air. There are three black SUVs waiting, engines running, doors open. Finn pushes me toward the middle one while Danny helps my mother into the same vehicle.
"What about Ronan?" I ask frantically, trying to look back at the cathedral.
"He can take care of himself," Finn says grimly. "Our job is to get you safe."
But I can still hear gunfire from inside the church, and my heart is pounding so hard I think it might explode. The thought of Ronan still in there, still fighting, makes me feel sick with fear. What happens if he doesn’t make it? What will happen to me? To my mother? What will his father do?
If he dies, it’ll be my fault.
"We can't just leave him!" I protest as Finn pushes me into the SUV.
"We're not leaving him," Owen says as he gets into the driver's seat. "We're following orders. His orders."
The SUVs tear out of the cathedral's back parking lot with squealing tires, and I twist around to look back at the building.Several of the priceless windows are shattered, and I can see people running out the front doors. Some of them are bleeding.
"Who was it?" I ask, my voice barely a whisper.
"Could be anyone," Finn says tersely. "De Luca's people, probably. Or someone else who took advantage of the tension to make their own stand. But more than likely, De Luca."
My mother reaches for my hand, and I can feel her trembling. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm so sorry you're in this mess because of me." Her eyes meet mine, and I can tell she’s putting puzzle pieces of who Ronan is together. She probably did as soon as she walked into that church and saw the guest list. It looked like a who’s who of the Boston criminal underworld.
"This isn't your fault," I tell her firmly, squeezing her hand. "None of this is your fault. I made my own decisions, Mom."
She falls silent, and I know what she’s thinking: that if she hadn’t been sick, I’d have never taken out that loan. There’s nothing I can say to make it better, so I don’t, just cling to her hand as we drive, and I try not to melt into a panic attack. The thought that Ronan might be dead, that I might have become a widow on my wedding day, makes me feel like I can't breathe.
We drive for what feels like an eternity but is probably only thirty or so minutes, taking a circuitous route through Boston to make sure we're not being followed, before leaving the city proper and driving further into a more rural part of Massachusetts. After what feels like another hour, we pull up to a two-story colonial on a sprawling piece of land, several other SUVs and security that must have come ahead scattered around. I catch a glimpse of security cameras as Owen pulls up to the front door, and Finn comes around to open the side door of the car.
"We'll be safe here," Finn says as he helps me out of the car. My dress is torn and dirty now at the hem, the beautiful silk stained with dust and debris from the cathedral floor. “We’ll getthe three of you settled and then find out what’s happening with Ronan.”
The interior of the house is beautifully furnished, with that same antique feeling that the mansion on Ronan’s primary estate has. I feel slightly dazed as we walk in, my head spinning.
My mom can walk on her own two feet now, and Danny escorts her into the living room, Finn hustling me and Alicia along behind them. "How long do we stay here?" I ask as Finn checks the windows and Owen speaks quietly into a radio.
"Until we get the all-clear," Finn says. "Could be a few hours, could be longer."
My mother sinks onto the couch, still looking shell-shocked. I sit beside her and wrap my arms around myself, both of us still in our formal clothes, both of us trying to process what just happened.
"Is this what your life is going to be like now?" she asks quietly, her eyes piercing as she looks at me. I shake my head, biting my lip. I don't have an answer for that.
Finn and Owen leave to rendezvous with Ronan, refusing to answer any of my questions. Danny stays, making coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen as security mills around inside and out, adding to the tense atmosphere. The three of us—my mother, Alicia, and I—barely speak, too fearful and worried, and confused to know what to say.
Every minute that passes without news makes me more anxious. I keep thinking about the gunfire, about the chaos, about all the ways Ronan could be hurt or worse. The rational part of my brain knows that he's experienced, that he has good people protecting him, that he's probably survived situations like this before. But the rest of me is terrified.
It's almost evening when Danny's phone finally rings. He answers it immediately, and I can see the relief on his face before he even speaks.
"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, we're all secure. How many?" A pause. "Jesus. Okay. Yeah, we'll wait for you."
He hangs up and looks at me. "He's alive. He's coming here." He glances at Alicia. “We’ll have some men escort you home. Ronan doesn’t think there’s any threat to you. Mrs. Murphy, he wants you to stay here for now.”
