My apartment felt just as lonely as it usually did. The warmth that seemed to settle over the place for the short time Aoife was there felt as though it had been leached out of the building.
“Come on sweetheart, where are you?”I mumbled to myself as something caught my eye in the living room.
Aoife’s phone appeared to have been tossed haphazardly on the coffee table. I reached down and grabbed it, thinking I’d have to take it down to my office to crack it. That was when I realized it was a cheap throw away phone and it had zero password protections. The minute I opened the damn thing, it was clear why Aoife had left. I read the letter her father sent and then opened the video. The motherfucker had Lucian and I dead to rights in the videotaped murder of Andrew Connolly.
“Fuck!” I pulled my phone out and shot texts to Miles and Lucian to meet me in my office ASAP.
When I gotto the office, I was met with all three of my brothers and Miles. “What did you find out?” The latter asked immediately.
“She left willingly, but under duress all the same.” I tossed Aoife’s phone to him. “Figure out where that video came from and wipe it out. I’m sure good ol’ Bill Quinn has a hard copy for insurance because the asshole isn’t stupid. I’ll deal with that when I find him.”
“She went to her father?” Lucian asked.
“After he sent her a video that showed me killing the Connolly fucker and you there to witness it.”
“Fuck,” Lucian growled.
“Do you think he’ll have her taken somewhere safe or that will put her in harm’s way?” Adrian asked. “You did kill her fiancé after she disrespected him by leaving with the man who put a gun to his head the night before.”
I shook my head. “Bill won’t send her away. He will expect the Connolly family to come seeking retribution. Aoife is safely tucked away at his place right about now.”
“For how long?” Gideon asked. “We all know Bill’s power has been challenged quite a bit since his daughter disappeared. Some have even gone so far as to say he can’t lead the Sweeney Family without an heir.”
“How the fuck would you know that?” I asked. My oldest brother was a bit of a mystery to me most days. I wasn’t even aware he’d kept up with Aoife’s family after her disappearance. In fact, he had encouraged me many times to give up the search and let her go.
His shoulders bounced with indifference. “I hear a lot of shit. When those rumblings are adjacent to my family, I pay attention.”
“But you didn’t feel the need to pass along that information?”
“Figured you’d catch wind of things with all your techie shit.”
“We can’t leave Lucian and Logan swinging in the wind with this over their heads,” Adrian cut in.
“And Aoife,” I added.
“And Aoife,” he agreed. It surprised me that none of my brothers put up a fight about including her.
“She’s going to be mine as soon as I get her back.”
“She already is, Logan. We’ve all known that for years,” Adrian assured me.
“Miles, I need you to focus on the video. Find the source, wipe it out as best you can. We’re taking a trip to see Bill Quinn and get my girl back. Again.”
SIXTEEN
Rescued
AOIFE
I had not beeninside my father’s apartment for many years. He always preferred it to our family house outside of the city because it kept him in the middle of everything he needed to organize. Being an apartment, and not being absurdly wealthy enough to own the entire building, like the Maddox brothers apparently did, made the place a bit of a security risk. It had worked for him for a long time because he held the respect of all his men and he placed many of them in the same building at strategic points.
His right hand man had the apartment that used to be owned by Logan’s father. The same one that connected to the rooftop access along with my father’s. The same place where Logan and I met as children for the very first time.
“What do you hope to accomplish by bringing me here?”
“By bringing you home, you mean?” My fathered answered my question with his own.
“I didn’t ask to come home.”
