Ace threw down his gavel onto the table, and we were dismissed. Viper held my arm back to signal to stay behind. Ace hadn’t risen from his seat, probably knowing there was more to be said. Bear and Hawk remained, too.
“Speak,” Ace said. “I know there’s something going on that you don’t want to voice to the others.”
“Shona went up there to protect her sister. He bargains his daughters off as property, which is what it sounded like he was doing to her and Shona had to step in. She swore she wouldn’t have gone unless it was because of that,” I said. “I just have a bad feeling about this. Like he was expecting to catch us out with Shona, use her against us, maybe.”
“She’s not loyal to him.”
“No, but she’s loyal to her sister,” I added. “If it were her sister or her…she would take her place.”
“And you…what would you do?” Ace asked me. “You clearly have claimed her, and as much as I think it’s about time, now isn’t the time to flaunt it. We need to keep our secrets, especially when we go into war. She can be used against you, especially considering who she is.”
I nodded. “I know…I just…don’t want to not be with her, Prez. I know I can protect her better than anyone.”
Hawk and Bear nodded, knowing they would do the same for their women.
“Agreed,” Ace said, surprising us all. “If I were to ask you to take her to Galway for a while. You stay with the O’Farrell’s and help them, would you?”
I turned to Viper. We always went into battle together. Would I choose to leave him behind over Shona?
“I wouldn’t ask you to choose,” he said, patting me on the back. We were too similar. We’d been through too much, sometimes it felt like he could read my mind. “I have the boys. You protect what is yours.”
“There is something I want to run by you all, though.”
“What is it?” Hawk asked.
“You were saying earlier that it sounds like he wants to be King.”
Ace nodded. “Yes?”
“I didn’t immediately think of Eamon. Eamon isn’t cruel, and hasn’t used people to get what he wants. He’s earned the respect of who he is by sheer hard work and resilience. There is one other who flaunts his power and prestige to whoever crosses him, someone who has done the worst of the worst to get where he is now. Someone we don’t want on Irish soil.”
My blood ran cold when I realised who he was talking about. We never spoke about him. Ever. Ace had an inkling as to who he was, but no one else did and I’d wanted to keep it that way. The more people who knew, the less likely I could stay hidden from him.
“Who is he talking about, Savage?”
I turned to the three men who I considered to be like older brothers to me, sometimes even the cool Uncles who taught you shit but still kept you in line.
“My father.”
It felt weird to call him that, but that’s exactly who he was. The man who made up fifty percent of my DNA. The man my mother died to protect me from. He couldn’t be involved…he wouldn’t…but if he was…we were all fucked.
“Tell us,” Ace said. I sat down and told them what I knew about him and what he was capable of, how he was connected. Everything I had discovered about him. I still didn’t know what he looked like or why he was so feared, but I knew if my mother had died to protect me from him, I probably didn’t want to stick around to find out. When I was done, a look of concern came across their faces. One I wore every time I spoke about him. It was like he was the boogeyman…speak about him and he will appear. “I need to go and talk to Shona.”
Ace nodded. “Okay. Go and talk to her, figure out what to do about seeing the O’Farrell’s. Hopefully, we can get you guys off to Galway by tomorrow afternoon.”
I nodded at him and headed out of chapel, my mind very much in the clouds. I didn’t want Shona to find out from anyone else. I didn’t want her to realisethat I was the man of a monster, and that one day I may just become one myself. I needed to protect her because if anything were to happen to her, I would become the monster they all feared me to be…and nothing could bring me back.
SEVEN
Shona
I was pacing the floor when Savage came back into his room, a cold sweat running down my back. He noticed immediately, and came over to me to pull me into his arms.
“I don’t even know why I’m so nervous,” I laughed into his chest. His warm body pressed against mine already felt incredible.
It felt like home.
He felt like my home.
