“You don’t thinkhe’smaking a play for the vacancy?” Connor’s voice was a whisper. “Picking off the strong, and taking the remains?”
I hummed under my breath. It was…possible. “His grandpappy was the oldest son.”
“And your lineage comes from your ma,” Connor added thoughtfully. “But the McDonagh Clan never passed the title down like that. It’s always been the strongest.”
“Or the most cunning.” As I spoke, I watched my kinsman pull out his phone and head to the exit. My beer-drenched gut told me Kevin was up to something.
It would make the puzzle of whole lot clearer if the unknown threat came from inside our organization. There were too many external threats to count and not enough intel. And our people did have a bloodthirsty history of stabbing one another in the struggle to rise to the top.
Plus…Kevin had access to the McDonagh books. If he needed money to pay an assassin, he had it.
But how does Deluca fit into the picture?
Rubbing the fast-forming ache between my eyes, I settled on a course of action. “Gather the lads most loyal, we’re headed to the country.”
Connor shot me a look, but his chin dipped in a nod. “When?”
“Tonight.”
Connor’s whistle of surprise was the answer I needed. If he was as shocked by the suggestion, then the sudden bid for the throne would be ten times as impactful when the others heard it.
“I’ll have to get a bus to haul their drunk arses north,” he muttered.
I glared at him.
Connor held up his hands. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. I’m just saying, babysitting a bleeding party bus wasn’t on the agenda for tonight.”
“This needs to happen,” I insisted.
It felt…right. There didn’t seem a good reason to delay it. A dirge for my father, with the end note placing the crown on my head. Quick, decisive action. Tomorrow, we would wake up and if one of my kinsmen was behind the attacks, it would force their hand when they heard I’d taken charge of the McDonagh Clan.
Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that plan already? I ground my teeth as I slipped out the back of the pub. The answer to that was obvious the moment I slipped into my Jag. The faint aroma of peaches brushed against my skin like a warm caress. Maybe, if I hadn’t been so fucking distracted, I would have seen the threat before now.
The engine started with a vicious roar. Either way, I owed it to my da. Our legacy needed to be kept alive. But if I was going to the sacred place to steal the crown in the dead of night, I was dragging her with me. No other man was going to make thatbeauty their queen. Gabriella would rule the underworld by my side.
A blare of an alarm cut through the tangled web of thoughts in my head. Slowing the vehicle, I stopped at a green light. A firetruck barreled through the intersection, racing to help. There might not even be a fire.
But the interior of the car suddenly shrank.
I clawed at my necktie, breathing hard as it choked the air from my lungs. The bleeding buttons on my dress shirt wouldn’t give. I forced them open with a vicious tug.
The vehicle behind me beeped.
I didn’t have time to put the car in park. My shaking hands couldn’t reach the button for the hazard lights.
I couldn’tbreathe.
Ghostly tongues of flames licked over the right side of my body. The agony was in my head, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t powerful.
I jerked to the side. My shoulder hit the car door.
There was no escape.
I was going to burn alive!
Mouth hanging open, I desperately gulped air. It wheezed past my lips. Short and shallow, very little hit my lungs.
This isn’t real!
