Page 40 of The Celtic Resolution
She scoops her hair into a ponytail as she nods. “Yup. Well, I’m hopeful. It’s been a while since anything has gone missing so I’ve been tracking what I can with some extra tricks just so I can keep an eye on things. Sooner or later something is gonna walk right into the hands of our culprit.”
“I love a smart woman.”
“Oh, I bet you do.” Fully dressed, she grins at me and leans down, giving me ample view of her cleavage as she kisses my forehead. “I’ll call you when I’m done.”
“It’s a date.”
“Fuck off.” She laughs, wiggling her fingers at me. “Bye!”
The door closes and all that’s left is the cloud of her perfume and the lingering taste of her on my lips. Fuck. Is this what it feels like to look forward to things? To feel like the future is really in my favor?
I need to wrap this up.
The sooner I nail whoever is framing my father, the sooner I’ll have my family back and I’ll be able to introduce them to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met.
It’s about time life spins in my favor.
18
SAOIRSE
The next two weeks are a whirlwind. Bruno and I text every day and while it starts off purely about work-related things, it quickly dissolves into open flirting that neither of us tries to hide. I learn all sorts of things about him, such as his preference for stale bread because regular bread is too soft for him now, and if you want to inject life back into a near-empty jar of peanut butter, just spin it around incredibly fast to re-fluff up what remains.
A trick from prison that I store in the back of my mind.
I’m just as open to him. The more we talk, the easier it gets and for the first time in my life it feels like there’s someone who genuinely wants to get to know me. Too often in the past, I had to hide my line of work from anyone I was interested in because anyoneinterestingI found often wasn’t embroiled in the criminal underworld.
But Bruno is different. He’s in the know and he’s interesting enough to hold my attention. And my growing affection.
Outside of flirting, two things take up my attention—the missing women and the suddenly untouched drug shipments. The hospital eventually gets back to us with records of thewomen we rescued and while there’s not a lot to go on, one thing stands out. The drugs lingering in the bloodstream of those poor women were our drugs. The shit we supply. Logically, I know anyone can get their hands on that product because that’s the whole reason we sell it but that coupled with the tidbit from the dead Triad about Irish hands meddling in the skin trade?
My suspicions are raised.
Bruno focuses on his Triad connections who are closing ranks after the deaths we inflicted on them and he’s not able to get much out of them. Not unless he’s willing to do something truly heinous to prove his loyalty to them and Bruno just isn’t that kind of guy. While he’s busy with that, I focus on digging deep into our own families looking for anyone who has a quiet beef with Cormac. There are a few ego problems, and a few situations where heads have clashed but there’s nothing in my opinion that should lead anyone to turn so far away from Cormac that they throw in with human trafficking.
Unless there’s something I’m missing.
Days turn into weeks and I pour over every family’s history with a fine tooth comb. Nothing stands out. Anyone with any vocal grudge usually meets with Cormac face-to-face and goes home happy. If there is anyone with an issue then they are sitting on it, hard. Bruno calls often late at night and laments over his failed attempts to contact his father through his sister. Despite the wall of silence, he still pushes and holds so much hope that when we get to the bottom of this, he’ll finally be able to prove himself as a good and loyal son.
The one time I tried to tell him that he shouldn’t have to work this hard to receive that, he didn’t text me for three days. I learned quickly that while we’re flirting, we’re not at the stage where Bruno will accept advice but when he invites me out to dinner after those three days of silence, I accept.
“I’m sorry,” Bruno says, his fingers lingering on the edge of his glass. “I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. You were only trying to help.”
My attention drifts over the glittering, glowy sea of lights beneath us as the city swells into its nightly routine. “You don’t have to apologize.”
“Nah, don’t pull that,” Bruno remarks. “What I did was shitty. You don’t deserve to take the brunt of my family's frustration.”
“You’re right.” I finally return my attention to him and lift my glass of lemonade. “I didn’t deserve you telling me to keep my fucking nose out.”
Bruno leans forward and his face grows pained. “I’m really sorry. You’ve been so decent to me since I got out of prison and I value that a lot. I was frustrated and you were there.”
“Doesn’t excuse it.”
“I’m not trying to excuse it, I’m trying to explain it. I was shitty and I’m sorry.”
He sounds it, and I honestly don’t blame him for lashing out. He’s alone and his emotions are building to boiling point. Everyone needs an outlet and I was, unfortunately, his. But I can’t hold it against him when he looks at me with those puppy dog eyes.
“I mean it when I say it’s okay,” I say, softening my voice. “The silence I don’t appreciate, but it was probably wise for us to have space.” The orange juice is sweet enough to satisfy as I drink but Bruno doesn’t lose the wounded puppy look. “Listen, we’ve spent the past two weeks combing the entire city for six missing women who just vanished while also trying to find out what the fuck is going on with—” Pausing, I glance around at the rest of the patrons who don’t appear to be listening but I don’t trust them. “—with work. And I don’t know about you but the only thing that’s been keeping me sane is you.”
