Her mouth trembles, then steels. “You hate this. Your family?—”
“I hate everything about it,” I admit. “But I hate the alternative more.”
She stares at me for a long beat that stretches the room. “And after?”
“After I personally put Tiernan six feet under and pull that contract from over your head?” I exhale. “I’ll tell Ale the truth, I’ll tell all of them. Then I’ll take every punch he throws and stand there and take the rest.”
Silence hums. In the hall, someone clears his throat. Life keeps going like it didn’t just hear a man choose to disappear himself.
She reaches, finally, and takes my wrist the way she did last night, pulse to pulse. “You don’t owe me your life,” she whispers.
“I already gave it to you a long time ago. All I’m doing now is filing the paperwork.”
It earns me the hint of a smile, wrecked and beautiful. “You’re an idiot.”
“World-class,” I agree. I stand and offer her a hand up. She takes it, and for two seconds we hold on like the floor is unreliable. Then I step into the hall and jerk my chin at Leo. “We have to talk.”
His face folds at once. We’ve discussed it as a contingency plan and he understands too quickly. That’s his job and his curse. “You want me to call Ale?”
I nod. My voice comes out rough. “Tell him, no, tell them all, I love them. Tell Serena to take his phone before he starts a war in the group chat. Tell Bella… just tell Bella I’m sorry.” A beat. “Make it big and showy so everyone knows it’s real.”
Leo’s jaw works. “A wake?”
“Private. Closed casket.” I look back at the room where Cat is lacing her boots like they’re armor. “And get word to the right ears in Belfast that Tiernan’s victory party starts now.”
He touches his earpiece, already moving. “Copy.”
Cat appears in the doorway, hair pulled back, and jacket zipped over the fresh bandage. She looks like she didn’t bleed last night and like she’d do it again if it gets her sister one more quiet morning like this one.
“I don’t like this,” she says again. “You don’t have to?—”
“It’s the only way,” I cut in.
She flinches. “You’re sure.”
“Of course not,” I reply, and that’s the truth. “But we don’t get sure today.”
Saoirse materializes with a thermos and a healthy dose of disapproval. “You look like bad decisions in nice shoes.” She shoves the thermos into my chest. “Here’s some tea for the road. Don’t die and most importantly don’t get her killed.”
“I’m already dead.” I grin, and even I hate how easy it comes. “And I’d never let anything happen to Cat.” She softens at the edges and steps aside.
By the time we reach the sitting room, the perimeter is set and the car is idling out front. Leo stands by the window with the phone to his ear and his face blanked to professional. I know that look. He’s listening to Ale break.
I turn away before I hear the sound and change my mind.
Cat reappears, a single tear staining her cheek.
“You said goodbye to Siobhan?”
“She’s still asleep.” She flicks away the lone droplet and draws in a breath. “I didn’t want to wake her. It’s better this way.”
“You’ll see her again soon.”
She nods, but it’s half-hearted, as if she doesn’t believe that any of this will end well. But it has to.
On the front stoop, the London morning halts between a drizzle. I put a possessive hand on Cat’s lower back to steer us through a world that feels like chaos. At the curb, I pause. “Promise me that if this works, you’ll leave this life behind you.”
Her eyes drop between us.
