“We’re saying goodbye to your uncles. And Tally is going to rest.” She purses her lips, like she does when she’s about to argue with any, or all, of us, but her focus goes to Tally.
Tally brushes her hand over Daisy’s shoulder and gives Maeve a final look. “Thank you both for the visit.”
“And we will only use the front door next time,” Daisy promises loudly before she swings around to glare at me, then Kee before she’s out of Maeve’s arms again and racing through the door.
“Rafferty, are you sure you’re okay? I could stay and look after you.”
There’s an awkward moment when Tally realizes that Raff is also with us without being actually with us. She kind of looks like she’s talking to herself, then in the next moment, after another small smile towards Maeve, she walks out of the bedroom we’re all in and back into the rest of her apartment.
She gets on and does her thing, making it painfully obvious she’s deliberately ignoring us. Her thing involves walking to and from her bedroom, to the kitchen a few times. But a few times becomes too many, and both Keegan and I get up to see what she’s doing.
My stomach drops. Her suitcase is on her bed, and she’s collecting all her things, basically throwing them into her bag.
Keegan growls under his breath before storming back into our side, his phone at his ear. I can hear Ronin’s voice echoing, loud as always, through the handset. It’s only seconds later that Maeve and Daisy yell out their final farewells. Not that Tally responds, since she’s absorbed by what she’s doing.
She disappears into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her. At the same time, the key code to her door beeps, and a beat later, Ronin walks in.
Keegan races back into Tally’s place, an expression of determination on his face and the master access card in his hand. One swipe over the state-of-the-art computer screen on the kitchen wall, and it comes alive. His fingers fly over the touch screen, and even from here I can see what he’s doing; he’s disabling her access and locking us together.
He walks past me, slower. The cocky smirk on his face only gets bigger when he walks back into Raff’s side, no doubt to do the same thing there.
It’s a brave, and stupid, move, locking us all together. Goddamn, it’s brilliant too.
Ronin stops next to me. “Where’s our wife?”
“Packing.”
Ronin pulls his tie loose, letting it hang, and his suit jacket goes next.
I totally forgot it was Sunday. Ronin’s ma is going to slaughter us for missing church. “How was Mass?”
“As you’d expect after the granddaughter of Paddy O’Connor was taken. Father O’Leary spent a lot of time talking about God’s plan and leaving vengeance to God himself.” Ronin laughs.
“How’d that go down with Paddy?”
Ronin shrugs, a wicked smile on his face getting bigger the longer he doesn’t answer. Eventually, though, his eyes drift back down the hallway to where Tally’s gathering frustration is wafting. “Sometimes what’s important is that you get the blessing you need. Whether it’s Father O’Leary who blesses you or Paddy O’Connor, it’s the same.”
If push came to shove, I have no doubt Father O’Leary would twist his sermons so he didn’t offend any of the O’Connors. The Father knows who holds the power of life and death in his hands,and on these streets, it’s Paddy O’Connor who’s God. And one day, it will be Ronin O’Connor.
“And how upset was your ma?”
“Well, we’ve got a week to make good again.” He takes a step away before he stops and looks over his shoulder and clarifies. “Seven days to convince our wife she really is our wife and that being our wife means she’s expected at Sunday Mass and lunch. Since she’s family and all.”
“Ronin…” I groan, though it turns into laughter when I find him smiling again.
“Ma wants to spoil us, considering we caught the guard as quick as we did.”
“Luck was on our side.”
“It was.” And it was pure luck one of our trusted soldiers saw the Alpha trying to get a ferry over to London. Ronin and I were there within minutes, and not long after, the guard was locked in Paddy O'Connor's basement. We were home, showered, and in Raff’s nest again within an hour.
“Right, then, we may as well get the yelling started.” He passes his jacket over, rolls his shirt sleeves up. With a wink and a crack side to side of his neck, like he’s going off to battle, he charges. “Angry fucking sorts everything out.”
I probably should have told him to take off his shoulder holster and leave behind his guns.
Chapter Twenty
RONIN
