“I’ll rally the lads in the morning,” I responded, feeling the crick in my neck from sleeping in the library last night. Tonight, I’d find a better pillow. “To keep them united, I need to keep them active. Sate their bloodlust. Channel their hunger for wealth. The usual.”
If Kevin was trying to split our loyalties, the bonds I forged now would be vitally important.
I raked a hand over my hair. Da thought we had time. Hell,Ithought we had time. Even with his illness, I figured there was enough of that currency.
“Okay, I’ll set a meeting—”
“No.” I cut my friend off. “You’ll follow Gabriella.”
Connor jerked back as if I’d visibly struck him. “What? Why?”
I leveled him with a piercing stare. He shifted, dropped his gaze, and then proceeded to pour himself another shot.
“We have work to do, Liam,” Connor muttered.
I moved to join him behind the bar, but I shook my head when he offered me a drink. “It’s Tuesday.”
A vicious, animalistic snarl ripped from my best friend’s throat. The bottle slammed on the bar’s top. “Your fucking obsession with that woman is worth more than making sure the lads are loyal to you?”
“The lads will be there when the dust settles.”And I have a feeling she might not.
The thing about little birds was that they had wings. I hadn’t taken the precaution to clip my wife’s. Scaring her, making her miserable, was just wrong. The alternative to making her flightless was tying her down. But Gabriella didn’t belong in acage, no matter how beautifully I gilded it. That meant she was a flight risk. If the chance arose, she would flee.
Ensuring that didn’t happen was a more important threat to my life. It was more important than the possibility of division in our organization.
“Liam—” Connor shut his mouth and fumed.
“Say it.”
Breathing hard, my best friend stared at me, choosing his next words carefully. He knew as well as I did that they might be his last.
“Fucking say it,” I growled and took a step forward.
“You’re not acting rationally,” he spat.
“What’s new?” I scoffed.
Connor threw up his hands. “You’ll destroy everything over that woman. She’s not our focus.”
“He father gave her a tracker that led an assassin to her. Twice.” And then to my own father.
“But our focus needs to be here!” Connor stabbed a finger at the empty pub. The dimmed lights barely illuminated the space. The silence was deafening without the band. And the air reeked of cleaner after the lads wiped the tables and bar for the night.
“There’s nothing here,” I murmured.
There was nothing without Gabriella. Just an empty room, a heavy crown, and a bullet with my name on it, waiting in the future.
With her…there was the possibility of everything.
“Liam, mate, see reason!” Connor implored. “Don’t go losing your head over a nice pair of—”
I was in his face, gloved hand around his throat. “I dare you to finish that thought.”
“The McDonaghs have ruled Boston since it was founded,” he argued, not struggling or trying to escape.
I tightened my grip, cutting off his air, but still he didn’t fight back.
“If it burns to the ground, I’ll build it back. But I can’t make her happy if I don’t understand what is at stake.” And her Tuesday ritual was key to that knowledge. “Am I your boss or not?”
