His unspoken words ring in my ears. He just wants what is best for me. If I’m being threatened with losing one parent, I should try with the other. I sigh bitterly and rub my face in frustration. “I know I’m second best with my mom. She chose her life in America over me. How . . . how am I supposed to ignore that?”
“Asking me won’t answer that question. You know who you have to ask, Delilah.” Just as he speaks, my phone lights up again, vibrating insistently on the table. It’s my mom, and I look over at Keenan worriedly. He nods, his lips thin. “Answer the call and get the answers you’ve always wanted.”
Reaching for my phone tentatively, my thumb hovers over the screen as I pause. I cast him a hesitant look, and he nods again. Inhaling shallowly, I hold my breath in fiery lungs as I answer the call and press the speaker button.
“Hello?” I wince at how high my voice is, nearly cracking, and Keenan tightens his grip on my hand. “What’s up, Mom? I’m glad you called. There are some things I wanted to talk to you about.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR
KEENAN
Delilah left about an hour ago to head into the office for the day. Since then, I’ve been mulling around, unsure as what to do. With all the information Liam provided me with, I’m seeing red. Cormac has some serious balls to be doing what he has all these years. He’s simply been using Knitted Hearts as a way to funnel money. I wonder if he built up his empire and this was his plan all along. Bloody hell, he might be funneling money out of his other businesses as well, but that’s not my concern. I’m only invested in this mess because Delilah means the world to me. While I’m sure she has most of it under control, I’m going to aid her in whatever way I can.
I rise from the couch, and with my coffee in hand, I walk through the living room and stop in the threshold. Keeva’s coming down the stairwell in a light pink dress, and I don’t think I’ve seen her in this before. Then again, I never pay too much attention to my sisters or their fashion choices. “Where are you heading off to?” I question her, and a sly smirk stretches across her face.
Keeva flips her hair behind her back, and there’s a sparkle in her eyes. “Oh, you know, just out.”
Delaney comes from the hallway down by the kitchen and walks into the foyer. “Dang, you look . . .”
“Amazing. Fantabulous. Beautiful. It’s okay, you can throw your compliments at me, and I’ll listen.” Keeva’s eating this shite up.
The door opens, and in walks Eamon with Bran at his side. I haven’t had all of my siblings together since we went to paintball. So, this will be the first time we can all chat. “Soaking up the attention I see,” Bran grumbles in annoyance.
“Oh, shut it. No one even asked for your input.” Keeva rolls her eyes and throws a nasty glare at Bran.
“Enough,” I grit, and my tone is serious enough to damn near shake the house. All of my siblings stop what they’re doing and look directly at me. I wait a moment to make sure they’re still going to be quiet, but I finally speak up. “I need to talk to you all about something. I think some of you have some knowledge of who our family is, but there are others who don’t. For example, Keeva, are you planning on leaving the house alone?”
Keeva looks around nervously and shrugs. “Well, yeah. I get you have your babysitters since you got shot and everything, but I don’t need—”
One glance at her, and she knows things aren’t as they seem. “We don’t have ‘babysitters’ because I was shot, Keeva. I should’ve come clean a long time ago, and I’m sorry I didn’t, but I think it’s time I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.”
“Is everything okay, brother?” Delaney furrows her brows and takes a few steps toward me.
Licking my lips nervously, I wonder how everyone will take this news. Eamon knows everything there is to know, and Bran knows bits and pieces. Still, I won’t make it seem like anyone is clued in. If I do, my sisters might be mad at my brothers and I won’t have family drama starting. Not when we’ve all been through so much together already.
“Yes. Now, I will say none of you are to leave without a member of the security team with you. It’s across the board, every person in this household will have someone with them at all times.”
“What for?” Keeva’s the first to ask, and Delaney chimes in as well.
“Yeah, is this really necessary?”
My mouth goes dry and I inhale through my nose, giving me a few seconds to try and think how I’ll word this properly. “We’re all aware that before I was shot, we’d recently discovered we had relatives we didn’t yet know about. Family that’s very well off, and extremely prominent in the United Kingdom. It’s what I told you all when we moved here, that our family was simply rich and offering to help us get out of a house much too small, and offering to keep me safe after the shooting. I haven’t been as honest as I should’ve been in the past, so I’m telling you the truth now, every bit of the truth, if you’ll all hear me out.”
I’m met with silence, and Eamon clears his throat. I know he’s acting, but I appreciate he’ll be the one who speaks up to start the group discussion. “What haven’t you told us?”
“The truth, obviously.” Keeva crosses her arms and cocks a brow. Meanwhile, her full lips are pressed into a tight line and annoyance oozes off her.
“Keeva’s partially correct, but not fully. You’re aware Liam, Greer, Sloane, and the lot of them are Mackenzies. Now, I don’t know what you know of the Mackenzie family, but they’re rooted in the criminal world. Liam’s the head of the Mackenzie family, which is the Irish mafia. They’re the top of the food chain, and while there are other families who work under them, there are only two other families that work alongside them—their cousins.”
“No way. You aren’t about to say what I think you are.” Keeva covers her hand over her mouth in surprise, surely knowing what’s coming.
The air is growing thicker in the room by every moment, but I continue on. “They have cousins in Boston, the O’Dea family, and they have cousins in Northern Ireland, which are us. Liam’s taken me under his wing for quite a few months, however, the shooting stalled things a bit. I’ll be working for our cousin, and in return, we have this beautiful estate and are taken care of in a financial manner.”
“What in the bloody hell does that mean for us?” Keeva snaps with all her might. She comes right up to me and pushes in the middle of my chest. “Are Delaney and I going to be forced into loveless marriages and raped, huh!?”
My eyes go wide at her words, and Delaney throws her hands over her face and groans, “Ugh. She’s been reading those dark romance books again.”
“Wait, Keeva can read?” Bran pokes fun at her, but the jokes on him. She averts her attention to him, closes her fist, and smashes it into the side of his cheek. He steps back a couple feet and brings his hand up to his cheek, obviously shaken by what she just did.
