But I don’t do any of that.
“Are you—?” she starts.
“Punishment, remember?” I snap. “You don’t get to come. You don’t get rewarded for running toward danger like you do—like you did tonight.”
Her jaw tightens.
“Let me be very clear, Molly,” I say. “You don’t go anywhere without me or one of my brothers. You stay here. And you don’t drag my sisters-in-law into thisshite.”
“I’m not?—”
“Basically,” I say, “we’re stuck together like superglue.”
“So you’re not doing anything about the price on our heads,” she snaps.
“Yours, darling lass,” I correct. “Just yours. But don’t worry. No one’s touching you while you’re married to a Murphy.”
She frowns. “But I’m not married to you.”
“You’re not stupid. Nobody else knows that.”
She isn’t stupid. Spoiled, yes. Not stupid. She’s no criminal mastermind either. Unless Leon somehow orchestrated the truckyard, the dead cop, the drugs, the stalker…
Marlowe watches me closely. “How are you going to make sure it’s all good?” she asks quietly. “And find Daddy?”
I smile, slow and sharp. “Wait and see.”
I turn, walk out of her room, and pull my phone from my pocket.
They think I’m just the baby brother, the joker, the fucking comic relief.
But now they’re about to learn what I can really do when someone comes for what’s mine.
SIXTEEN
marlowe
I’m halfwaypast Callahan’s office when his deep voice hooks straight into my spine.
“Are you sure, Dec?”
I’m not eavesdropping. I swear I’m not.
I just…stop. Completely.
I hover in the hallway, heart thudding.
“Even though the gun I lifted off the guy was police-issue, Roark’s now positive the body wasn’t a cop,” Declan says. “If someone’s claiming he was, and this so-called cop was there to get intel from Marlowe on the cartel, then we need to make sure people know the photo of her is a deep fake and she wasn’t actually there.”
“What else makes Roark think the guy wasn’t a cop?” Torin asks.
“He had a badge on him, but it wasn’t real. Had a fake number. And he was definitely alone.” Declan’s voice is clipped. Annoyed. “No cop trying to bring down an entire organized crime ring does it solo. Not like that.”
I knock.
I don’t mean to. My knuckles hit the wood before my braincatches up.
The door rips open. Declan fills the frame.
