I pull my knife from Con’s wrist and kick the body off the chair. It hits the floor with a dull thud. “What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Came to lend you a hand, but…” Seamus looks around the half-empty club as the bartender rises from behind the bar. Seamus crouches by the corpse, finds a thick roll of cash. The money that Con owed us. He sighs. “I’ll give it to the bratva boss. But you sure did manage to do your Dec magic and fuck the rest nicely.”
“I took care of business,” I snarl.
He hands the money to the bartender and orders two drinks. Fury rises sharp and hot in my throat. “He had it coming.”
Seamus passes me a glass and looks at me for a long minute. So long, I start to squirm. “You could’ve waited until we got him out of here,” he says evenly. He doesn’t say anything about me thinking I’d be handling this alone. Hedoesn’t have to.
He’s right. I should’ve tortured the bastard somewhere quieter. Found out what he knew about the bounty on Molly.
“He had it coming,” I repeat, less sure. “He said things about Marlowe.”
“Fuck, Dec?—”
“Don’t.” I tip back the whiskey. It burns going down. “I don’t like her. But I’m supposed to protect her. That’s the job.”
Along with finding this Mario. The one O’Shay mentioned before he vanished, the name that keeps popping up in the little black book Molly handed us.
Or maybe Cal’s right. Maybe I should let Mario go and stick to tracking down her father. But every path I’ve followed has run me into a brick wall. Finding people isn’t my strong suit. That’s Roark’s domain, and he’s still coming up dry.
“You’re more disciplined when it’s about her,” Seamus says thoughtfully.
“Ah,shite,”I mutter. “I shouldn’t’ve killed him. He said some cartel bastard was offering more than the bounty, and he wanted to collect.”
There’s only one cartel-adjacent prick I can think of who might do that. I don’t like him. I don’t trust him. But would Leon do that?
“He’s not known for truth. Just self-preservation,” Seamus says. “Or, was, anyway.”
The Russian owner comes out and spits on Con’s corpse. “He lie all the time. Get rough with girls.”
I open my mouth to say something smart, but Seamus steps on my foot.
“Thanks, Dmitri.” Seamus hands the man more money. “Ava appreciates it. If you hear anything?—”
“I let you know,” Dmitri says.
Seamus looks at me. “Drink up. I want to get home.”
Once we get home, my brothers and I strategize aboutclearing Molly’s name. We kick around plans for an hour, trying to figure out the best way to smother the rumors about her and eliminate the hit.
We didn’t have a blood wedding. Hell, we’re not even actually married. Once we walk away from this sham, the bounty resets to open season unless we handle things first.
For now, the Murphy name holds the worst of the wolves at bay. But fuckers like Con will always crawl out of whatever hole they live in, thinking they can cash in.
Unless I kill the rumor dead and get the hit rescinded, she stays on every thug’s list.
I made sure that she’d have a safe place to live after this is all over. Her apartment has been fixed up. Windows have been reinforced. Locks have been upgraded. And it’s been staged so that when she does move back in, she can decorate however she wants. Make it nice and comfortable and normal.
But that’s later. I don’t trust anyone—including her—enough to let her go there yet.
I shove that thought aside and flop on the sofa after leaving my brothers. Clawzilla immediately curls up on my lap. Arnold wedges himself against my leg.
“You two are mine in spirit,” I tell them.
Monarch appears with Petal rolling behind him in her little chariot. A screech pierces the air from Pepper’s room.
“Fuck! Zulus! Zulus everywhere. It’s somecraic!”
