Page 116 of Dylan
I ignore him and keep walking. I’m done with all this back-and-forth. Theo’s hands are shaking as I move in on him.
Words Ciara’s father once spoke to us come back to me. I begin to speak them to Ciara. We can end this together.
“I’ll keep their focus on me. You hit the hell out of them. Then we both pounce. The way we have each other’s backs will always work in our favor. We have more of something none of them have,” I say in Gaelic.
“And what’s that, Dyl?” she replies, just as she once asked her father.
“Heart, love. We both have tons of heart. That’s something no one can take from us. They’ll try, but they’ll never take that away,” I repeat her father’s words once again.
“What the fuck are you two talking about? Speak English. I said stop or I’ll fucking shoot.”
I grin at him as I close in. The war between shooting me and losing the money or allowing me to get near him and rip his head off plays across his face. Preservation wins out.
He pulls the trigger, shooting me in my side. I grunt, but I don’t stop moving. Instead, I grin wider and tilt my head at him before I bat the gun down and punch the shit out of him.
“No,” Ciara screams.
I feel the sting of a second bullet as it grazes my arm before I register the sound. Theo is on the floor in a heap. He’ll be out for a bit.
Ignoring the pain, I turn for Ciara and Ciarán. Sean is doubled over, holding his side. Ciara must have hit him when he pulled the trigger to shoot me.
She begins raining blows down on him that ring out through the room. I wince as his neck makes a cracking sound under the force of one of her punches.
A few paces away, Ciarán has gotten free of Arnold’s hold and is beating his ass. I smile. The kid’s form is damn near perfect.
Arnold swings, but Ciarán ducks and comes up with a killer uppercut that sends Arnold flying back like a piece of paper in the wind. My chest swells with pride.
It all happens so fast. The guy who had been holding Ciara before gets to his feet and scrambles for the gun on the floor that Sean dropped. Ciarán grabs his pack and pulls what looks like my favorite Glock that I keep in my office.
He then aims at the asshole who’s reaching for the gun to aim at his sister and fires a shot at his leg. The dude cries out and reaches for his leg, the gun he didn’t have a firm grasp on falling to the floor.
Ciara kicks him in the face, but he grabs her foot and throws her a little off balance. I rush over and place the asshole in a choke hold. He taps my arm frantically as I squeeze the life out of him. My arm and side are burning, but I’m not letting go until he’s not breathing and never will breathe again.
“Don’t you fucking touch my sister,” Ciarán barks out, his voice cracking like it’s been doing a lot lately.
I glance up to see Sean has gotten back on his feet. His face is pretty fucked up. Ciara whipped his ass.
“Ciarán, you don’t want to do this,” Lily Young says.
“I’m tired of him picking on us. I’m tired of you guys trying to take our happiness. This is our home. We’re happy here. You’re not taking me from my sister and you’re not taking her away from me.”
“I don’t want to take either of you away, honey. I came here to make sure you guys remain safe. But Ciarán, I need you to let the adults handle this. Put the gun down, sweetheart,” Lily coos.
Slowly, she’s inching toward Ciarán to try to get the gun from him. Ciarán begins to lower the gun, but Sean’s stupid ass lunges for Ciara. Ciarán lifts the gun and shoots.
I toss this guy’s body to the side and jump to my feet. Lily jumps in front of the bullet meant for her brother and drops to the ground. It all happens so fast.
Ciara ducks out of the way as Sean tries to grab her. She then takes him to the ground and wraps his neck with her legs as she pins his arm. My chest swells with pride as I watch the light go out of his eyes.
His body goes limp, and Ciara gets to her feet. She rushes to pull Ciarán into her arms as Laki goes to wrap around them both. The look of relief that covers his face is evident. Ciarán is shaking as he hugs his sister back.
“We’ve got you, buddy. Your dad would be proud of you. We’re going to take care of everything,” Laki chokes out.
“Look at what we found,” Uncle Ronan croons as he and Logan drag Cadlha and the lanky dark-haired guy back in.
“We need a medic. She doesn’t deserve this. She’s not like them,” the one Ciara called Amy cries out.
“They’re safe. That’s all I ever wanted,” Lily says as she lies in her arms.
