Rowen came over to us and put his arms around me and Cillian at the same time, squeezing us both. Aspen sat on Cillian’s other side and turned toward us. Rowen cuddled in close and handed me his phone, and my heart squeezed in my chest. I flipped through pictures of the house I’d grown up in, and it was like the office. Flames licked up from the roof to kiss the sky, and the front door was a blackened, bombed-out hole.
“Far as the word is, it was quick,” Rowen said softly. “They must’ve gone in looking for ye because ye weren’t at yer office. They hit yer office and probably had a crew hit yer parents’ home as soon as they came up empty at the university. Seems to line up. Very professional.”
“What do you mean quick?” I gasped out.
Aspen cleared his throat, and I glanced at him. “The crowd at the corner of the block watching the fire fighters said the cops were talking over their radios. There was one man inside the house. The fire crew dragged him out because they could see him from a window when they arrived, but he had a bullet in the head.”
“The house is connected to the neighbors’ on two sides,” I whispered, horrified. My dad was dead, and that information didn’t seem real. It didn’t seem possible. This couldn’t be happening.
“It might be okay for them. The fire department was out in all their glory,” Aspen said.
Rowen let out a strangled sound.
“I’m falling,” I whispered, and Cillian held me tighter.
“No, I’ve got ye.”
I struggled to breathe and lost my grip on Rowen’s phone. “Maybe it wasn’t him.”
No one said anything. I glanced at Rowen, but he stared at the floor. Aspen shook his head at me when I met his gaze, and I turned to curl against Cillian. He brought his hand up and held the back of my head, taking away my choice of whether or not to fall apart right in his arms. “But maybe it wasn’t him,” I repeated, my voice breaking. He kissed the top of my head, and I sobbed.
My phone rang and I heard Rowen answer it, but I didn’t care. I wanted this to all be a dream, a fucking nightmare, and to wake up and have everything just be the same awful, but mostly entertaining, game it had been yesterday. “I’m so fucking stupid,” I mumbled.
Cillian hushed me and rocked me, and I couldn’t stop shivering.
17
ROWEN
Fuckme to hell and back. I knew shite would hit the fan, but not quite like this. Now I was telling Vail’s mother about her husband’s death and listening to the screams of anguish. I’d never heard anything quite like it. I’d killed people but never stuck around for the aftermath. That wasn’t to say I hadn’t imagined the families of the people who got into our sights being told their loved one was dead, and it had driven me to confession more times than I could count.
This time, the death wasn’t my fault, but it didn’t stop me from feeling guilty. I should’ve tried harder to make Vail give up on this research business the very second I learned of it, but I was caught in his web of attractiveness instead—blinded by the way he made me feel.
Fuck.I passed the phone off to Vail, and he trembled as he spoke to his ma. He cried and apologized until his words weren’t understandable, and Cillian took the phone from him. For the first time in a long while, I heard Cillian speak politely.
“I’m sorry about yer loss, Mrs. Mifflin. Ye don’t have to worry about Vail. We’ll take care of him until he’s ready to talk.” She said something in a gush of sobs, and his mouth twisted. “No. He’s not ready. All ye need to know is that we’re looking after him. He’s important to us. I’m sure the police will be in contact with ye soon. Come home and sort out yer husband’s affairs. It should be safe.” He went silent and there was more chatter on the other end of the line. “Yes, I understand. I promise I’ll make sure he’s okay.” Cillian dragged Vail closer, and Vail buried his head against his chest, shaking harder. “Goodbye.”
Vail tilted his chin up toward Cillian, his bottom lip wobbling as he waited until Cillian had thrown the phone down on the couch beside him. “What did she say? Was she mad at me?”
“Nah. She’s not angry with ye, bug.” He kissed the top of Vail’s head in a somewhat gentle way that had my eyes widening. “She’s upset, like ye are.”
“We don’t know anything yet,” I said. I squeezed Vail tight and kissed his shoulder. “The police haven’t even called yer mother.”
“Are you saying it could be someone else dead, not my dad?” The hope in his voice shattered my heart, and I shook my head.
“It has to be him, angel.” I hated being the bad guy, telling him the truth, but I couldn’t have him hoping for a miracle that didn’t exist.
He slumped into Cillian’s arms and fresh tears trailed down his reddened cheeks. Cillian kissed his temple and forehead, too, and sighed. Stress tightened lines across his face and he stared at me over Vail’s head, the message in his eyes clear: those fuckers were going to regret this.
I couldn’t argue, but I also knew it wasn’t as easy as us deciding to go off and murder a hit squad, either. We were two men, and unless we had Sloan’s backing we didn’t stand a chance. Even with Aspen. I glanced at our friend on the other side of Cillian, stoic as ever. It wasn’t hard to see the sympathy in his gaze as he stared at Vail; we all felt it.
The front door opened and I stiffened, but relaxed when Fallon came rushing into the sitting room, his face pale and eyes wide. “Fuck. It’s true, then. Oisín told me... I didn’t believe it.”
“Fallon,” Cillian growled out, baring his teeth in a way that reminded me of a rabid dog. He dragged Vail closer, enveloping him in a tight hug. Vail hid from the world with his face in Cillian’s chest, shivering and sobbing through his pain.
I smoothed a hand down Vail’s back and sidled closer to him, laying another kiss between his shoulders. I rested my cheek there so we covered him like a thick blanket of comfort.
Fallon moved farther into the room and fell on his knees in front of the couch, laying his hand on Vail’s knee. It was a gentle gesture from a man who I’d seen brutally beat other people’s faces in until they were almost unrecognizable. He blanched and there was helplessness in his expression, the same way I felt. The desire to find and kill the men who’d hurt Vail swelled in me, to bring their bloody heads to him as tribute.
