“You didn’t give me the chance to decide, so now we’ll never know, will we?”
Liam took a step forward, and everyone tensed. “If you were so bothered with protecting innocent lives, you wouldn’t have come after my sister, asshole.”
Cian didn’t look bothered by the accusation or the name-calling. I was sure he’d been called worse. His impassiveness seemed to incense Liam even further.
“She’s an Olysses,” Cian scoffed. “Nothing innocent about her.”
I tensed, ready to step in if needed. Liam was fiercely protective of his sister. And Cian knew it, which was why I was surprised he’d say something so stupid.
Liam ground his teeth but didn’t explode like I’d expected. “Fucking take the deal or not. I really don’t give a shit. But if you send anyone after my sister again, I don’t care about the consequences. Iwillend you.”
And I’d be right behind him. Because keeping Freya safe had become my priority. It wasn’t a choice anymore but a need as essential as breathing.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t taking the deal,” Cian said, looking smug.
The deal Liam was offering him was a good one. It would give Cian control of almost half the town. I wondered why Liam would just hand over all that territory.
But he was one of the smartest people I knew. He’d have good reasons. Not that he would share them with anyone. He kept his cards close to his chest.
Liam shook his head. “Stop playing coy. We all know you’re an opportunistic bastard. You don’t care about the man I shot. You care about getting something out of it.”
“Fine. You’ve got a deal,” Cian said, reaching out a hand to Liam, finally catching on that Liam’s control was close to snapping.
The Olysses heir sneered at the hand but held out his own, and they shook on it.
Without another word, Liam turned on his heels and walked away. He didn’t once look back, just stalked out like he was leaving a business meeting. And I guess that was all this was. Business.
But even I couldn’t keep us in one piece if the Irish decided to start shooting. I followed him.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Liam ground out as soon as we were back outside.
He got into the car and pulled away the moment I climbed in on the passenger side. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel, and he looked like he was ready to rip it out.
Once we were a few miles away, he stopped at the side of the road and got out. I stayed put, having no intention to get anywhere near him when he was that angry.
Turned out that was a good decision, because the lunatic pulled his gun out and shot at a tree until his clip was empty.
I relaxed my tense body once he holstered his gun and came back to the car, looking like he didn’t just try to kill an innocent tree.
“Feeling better?” I asked once we’d pulled back on the road.
“Yup,” he responded, his hold on the steering wheel much softer than before.
We stopped on a dark side street a few minutes later. The guys joined us shortly after.
“Well, that was fun,” Carter said, grinning.
You’d think he didn’t take anything seriously, but I knew better after having worked with him for over fifteen years. He was the best sniper I’d ever met and could plan a mission down to the last detail in less than thirty minutes.
I wondered what he was still doing working for me instead of starting his own business. But Carter did whatever he wanted, and if he wanted to work for me, I’d take it for as long as I could.
“What a dick,” Gabriel said, getting out of his car, Jude right behind him. “I still don’t think you should have given him so much.”
“He won’t have it for long,” Liam said and nodded at me. “Good work. Thanks for having my back.”
“It’s what you hired us for.”
“Right. I just bet that was the only reason you were here tonight,” he said and turned back to his car.
