I pursed my lips, searching for diplomacy. Found none. “That’s hardly surprising, is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“ADHD...” I gauged Orla’s deep frown. “River doesn’t have ADHD?”
The disbelief I couldn’t quite repress made Orla frown harder. “I don’t know. God, do you think he has? I’ve never thought about it. He’s justRiver, you know?”
“He’ll always be River, queenie. Acronyms don’t change that.” I glanced at Willow. She and Nash had their heads together, looking at something on her phone. She couldn’t get the lid off her lemon Fanta. I blinked and he’d done it without taking his eyes from whatever she was showing him. Just like Logan would have. Or Folk.Rocco. But as full as my heart was of love for those men, none of them made my heart give itself a goddamn cuddle like Nash did.
Willow returned to my side. “Nash said our auction starts soon.”
I checked the time. “Five minutes.”
“Yay.” Willow bounced on the balls of her feet, anticipation vibrating from every pore.
I gave our surroundings another vigilant sweep, then dropped my hands on her slender shoulders, stilling her. “Don’t get too excited, squirt. Someone might outbid us.”
Spoiler: no one did.
In fact, no one bid at all. I put up the low reserve, and that was it. Job done. The Fiat was ours.
Frowning, I flipped through the program to find the brief. “Did I miss something? Does it have three fuckin’ wheels and I didn’t notice?”
Nash laughed. “Nah, you’re good.”
“Then why did no one else want it?”
“Cos no one round here wants to bet against the queen.”
Nash moved forward, leading us out, abandoning Embry to my confusion while Orla and Willow walked together.
“This is an O’Brian business,” Embry explained. “Cam’s not the only property tycoon around here.”
“Orla owns this place?”
“Yup. But don’t go thinking she gave you that car. Give her a little credit, eh?”
Embry backed off to guard the girls from a distance, leaving me to shake my head—at myself as much as anything else. Of course, a King owned this business. AQueen. They had the whole county locked up, and I’d spent more than a decade trapped in an organisation that hated them for that very reason.
I didn’t hate them, though. As I watched my daughter run and jump on Nash’s back as if she’d known him her entire life, I fuckin’ fell in love with them a little bit more.
* * *
Half an hour later, we emerged from the auction warehouse to heavy rain and a band of brothers waiting on us.
Rubi, Cam, and Folk.
“Miss Willow.” Rubi held out his hand for the key Willow clutched in her fist. “I’m gonna drive your little beast back to the club so Lord Nashie and Sunshine River can cast their spells.”
Me and Logan were big enough that Willow didn’t blink at the sheer size of the man in front of her. She relinquished the key. “Who’s Sunshine River?”
“Pretty boy with a spanner.” Rubi tipped her a wink and ambled away.
A minute later, he drove the little Fiat out of the warehouse, hunched over, knees by his ears, some fucked-up sea shanty blasting through the open windows.
Cam glared, shaking his head. “What’s that melt doing?”
“Seat mechanism’s bust and the radio’s stuck on Fisherman FM.” Nash smirked and lit a cigarette. “Coulda fixed it. Didn’t.”
