I folded the map up and threw it back on the nightstand. “Maybe the fact that Mr. D killed his sister there was the problem, you think of that?” He looked less shocked at my words than I expected.
“Maybe,” he allowed. “But maybe it was something more. What if there’s something going on that Luca needs to know about?”
Damn him, he’d pressed the right button that time,andhe knew it, from the gleam in his eye. Protecting Aidan came first, but protecting the Boss came a close fucking second, and information was power.
“Just a drive-by,” Aidan said, pressing the advantage when he saw me thinking about it. “It’s not like they’ll be expecting us, right?”
* * *
The problem,we found out, was that we couldn’t just drive past the Donovan estate, because it was set so far back from the road. The driveway was signaled by two large stone pillars and some gates, and there was an iron-bar wall running around the estate as far as I could see—which, given the size of the place, wasn’t actually very far.
There were also two guards situated in front of those stone pillars, who stood up, alert, as the headlights from our car swung over them. “Shit,” I muttered, and tried not to look like I was slowing down.
I drove on by the gates and further up the street until we got far enough that I figured we wouldn’t draw attention, and then I pulled over.
“Why would anyone need guards on a renovation project?” Aidan asked. He was only echoing my own thoughts.
I sat and stared into the darkness, wondering what to do.
“Teo?”
I started the car, but I didn’t put it in drive. “We need to get out of here.”
Aidan was chewing his fingernail again. “Do you think the Donovans are…doing something out here?”
“Yeah, I do.”
He waited for me to speak again. I liked that. I liked that he could do what he was told, unlike a certain Mr. D, say, who only ever did what he was told if he wanted to. But then, Aidan wasn’t used to living with so much danger around him.
“We go back to the motel and we get the hell out of here,” I decided. “I’ll call the Boss on the way and give them a heads up, too. We go back to New York and I’ll drive you here again on Sunday. I know you wanted to spend time with your folks, but—”
Aidan put his hand on mine where I’d grabbed the gearstick. “Wait.”
“Forwhat?”
He took a deep breath. “I think we should check this out.”
“No. What? No, you don’t.” I was getting too loud. I dropped my voice to a more reasonable level to add, “You think we should go back to the motel and get the fuck out of here.”
“The Jedi mind trick isn’t really a thing,” he said, and he sounded amused.Amused. Aidan O’Leary had definitely learnedwaytoo much from hanging around Mr. D.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Hear me out,” he begged. “I’m tired of running away from this. We don’t even knowwhythey’re trying to kill me. Maybe they think I know something I shouldn’t, or…I don’t know. But Iwantto know, that’s the point. And I hate to think my parents are in danger, or that you are, for that matter. Besides, whatever this is, I don’t think it’s going to go away after I get ordained. And I can’t take a bodyguard with me up to the altar every Sunday when I give Mass.”
I could see him in the dim lights of the dashboard, his skin turned faintly green in the glow. He looked determined. And I knew what determined looked like. I’d spent more than enough time around Mr. D when he got an idea in his head.
But Aidan also had a good point. And we’d come this far…
If Tara Donovan had lied about the Innisfree retreat being empty and renovated, wouldn’t that be more proof of her guilt? If there was something going on at the estate, that would be important for the Boss to know. But I needed evidence. I needed to see it with my own eyes.
“We can call someone in from New York,” I tried. “I’ll take you back to the motel and—”
Aidan squeezed my fingers. “If Finch and Luca are in danger from Tara, we need to know tonight. As soon as possible. Now.”
Damn it.
“We could park at that campground on the other side,” Aidan went on. “Finch told me once that he and his sisters used to go through the forest to get to it when they were staying at Innisfree. We could do the same, coming the other way—park at the campsite and go through the trees to the house.”
