“Unsolved killing? Demise?” I suggest.
“Either would work. But now it seems we’ve got a new issue. DOCB and UKPPS are increasingly concerned about the recent spate of killings in Ireland and the ones in the US. All victims have had their left ring fingers hacked off, and the perpetrator is souveniring the fingers. Hallmarks of a serial killer. And that makes everyone nervous.”
I belt out a laugh so loud and sudden, a flock of Italian sparrows take off in fright. Snorting my way through endless giggles while trying to catch my breath, and not fall face-first into the snow, has Joe making a grab for the back of my jacket.
“Don’t touch my wife,” Keegan hisses, melding out of the shadows straight to my side.
“Don’t be mean to Joe,” I manage before squealing in delight as Keegan sweeps me up into his arms. “I wasn’t going to fall.”
“You sure about that? Yesterday, I got the distinct impression you already had. It’s okay to admit you fell for me, dude,” Keegan teases, but he does it in such a way he’s dragging our history into every conversation we have.
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“Dude? Nope. Honestly, Tal, of all the things I thought might come out of your mouth, you calling me dude was not one.” He laughs, his Irish accent heavy, highlighting how wrongdudesounds. He bites the crook of my neck before guiding my feet back to the ground.
“Shoo, I’m talking to Joe.”
He uses his hand, making a blah-blah motion, before he goes back to where he was. Far enough away to give us privacy, close enough to swoop in and rescue.
“If they’re suffocating you, Tally, I will have them arrested.” Joe glares towards the tree line where Keegan’s hiding.
“I can handle them,” I say quietly, and I really can. “I just can’t handle me.”
We start walking again before Joe leans down to say, “They can. Even I know that.”
“How exactly do you see us working?”
“Us, as in you and me, or us as in you and Pack O’Connor?”
“Both.”
He hums his response as we come to a small bench. It’s something Harris made from an old tree stump and a few large rocks he found in the garden. I don’t need to take a break anymore, but I always stop here still.
“Since you’re asking for my fatherly advice…” He grins when I turn to look at him. “I think you’ve found your reason. It’s your time, Tally. And, yes, it worries me how they smother and overwhelm you, but I also think it might be exactly what you need.”
I side-eye him, and he meets me head-on with a stare full of challenge, daring me to prove him wrong. I don’t, and he starts talking again.
“Professionally speaking, the Irish Mob are violent repeat offenders engaging in illegal activities not limited to weapons and drug trafficking, extortion, gambling operations, and loan sharking. Along with revenge killings. And while I would never suggest anyone get involved in the underworld, there’s no one else I’d trust with your happiness, kid. Do I think they’re perfect? No chance. Do I think they’re perfect for you? Without a doubt.”
“Just like that?”
Then it’s Joe’s turn to scare the birds with his laugh. “Tally, it hasn’t been just like that. Your time with them started the day you landed in Ireland. Pretty sure I heard you admitting you were in way over your head. Scent-matching is as overwhelming as it is instant, and just because you’re actually considering a life with four men doesn’t mean you’re losing who you are.”
Joe leans forward, resting his arms on the top of his thighs, finishing our chat, giving me the space to absorb everything he said. I wrap my arms around me, Ronin’s chocolate and pepper scent as rich and strong as his embrace would be.
Everything comes to a stuttering and sudden stop when the implication about what I just thought hits like an arrow through the night. I shouldn’t be able to smell Ronin. And normally I wouldn’t, but yesterday, and this morning, I haven’t taken my suppressants. I keep them separate from the other tablets because a part of me, my Omega part, loses my damn mind if anyone touches them. “Shit.”
“Shit?”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize I said that out loud.”
“You did. Why the shit?”
With my senses starting to come alive again, I feel Keegan’s attention on me. I can tell he’s confused, and worried, before hesteps out of the tree line. “What?” His hand moves in sign, his lips clear for me to read.
A breeze blows that’s barely noticeable, really, except, with my senses suddenly deciding to go supernova, making me way too receptive, and Joe’s scent crashes into me. I feel it like a smack to the face with a plank of wood. Not great. The whine I make is one of pain, because all of a sudden, Joe’s presence is like sandpaper on my tender soul. He blasts to his feet, spinning on a coin to search out what’s causing me to react like this.
“Don’t move!” I yell at him.
