I don't believe that's why she's telling me, not entirely. But motives don't automatically make information false, so I listen.
She leaves before I can respond, leaving me alone with a question I hadn't considered five minutes ago.
“That was unexpected,” Ciro says, coming to stand beside me. “But I spoke with Marco, and he has been doing some digging, and yes, Orla Geraghty died around two years ago. From what he gathered, it was from suicide, but that’s all that he has for us.”
A lot of this doesn't make sense. Tony is Ronan's right hand, he's a huge part of the Irish mafia, one of Ronan's most trusted men.
His daughter is dead, and according to Daire, Quinn had something to do with it. Yet Tony is still here, still standing beside Ronan, still trusted.
It doesn't fit.
The problem is that Quinn reacted, and I saw it. The moment Orla's name left Daire's mouth, something changed in her expression before she locked it down again, I don't know what it means. But I know what I saw, and until I know why Quinn reacted the way she did, I can't ignore it.
I have a lot of questions to ask my soon-to-be wife, that’s for sure. And I have no doubt that the more questions I ask, the more questions I’ll have.
“What are you going to do?” Ciro asks me.
“I’m going to speak with Quinn,” I say low. That’s the only thing left for me to do.
He nods. “Good luck, you’re going to need it. If it’s as buried as we think, it’ll be hard to get anything out of her or her father.”
Quinn finds me twenty minutes later, her brows knitted together as she comes to stand beside me with that fake smile she’s perfected, plastered on her face. We stand in silence as we both watch the room. After a few minutes, she glances up at me. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” I tell her.
"Did I do something?" she asks quietly.
"Why would you ask that?”
She keeps her gaze on me. "You're acting differently."
I know that she’s noticed I’ve pulled away, but I do not trust her, nor do I think I can ever. This marriage is exactly as I had said from the get-go. No trust, no closeness, nothing. She’ll be my wife in name only. I understand that I do not know everything about her, but this family has lied and kept shit from us before now and finding out about Orla Geraghty has me on high alert about what else could be hidden. "I'm fine."
"Lorenzo."
I turn to look at her. I keep my face where it needs to be. "I've a lot on my mind," I say. "Work things."
It's a lie. Quinn knows it's a lie, and she can't say so because we're surrounded by people, and she's too smart to make a scene or to even draw attention toward us. She looks at me for a moment longer and then turns back to the room. She smiles at someone across it, and the smile is perfect, and I watch it, and I think: there it is. The thing I keep coming back to. It’s how good she is at performing whatever the moment requires.
Thankfully, the evening is winding down, and people are going home. My father, Vittoria, Ciro and my sisters leave shortly after the East Street Kings and within ten minutes, there’s only a handful of people left and they’re saying their goodbyes.
Quinn moves away from me, not saying a word. She doesn’t even give me a second glance. I watch her walk up the stairs and disappear from sight.
Leaving the Delaney house, I feel a weird sensation in my chest, almost as though something heavy is sitting on it. I walk toward my car, and I can feel someone watching me. I turn and look up at the windows and see Quinn in the window watching me. Even in the darkness, I can see the pain and anguish in her eyes. I ignore it and slide into my car.
I don’t know what to do about Quinn or the news that I learned. Tomorrow brings a new day and hopefully more information about Orla Geraghty. Because, as much as I know something happened to Orla and somehow Quinn is involved, I don’t put much stock in what Daire Delaney says. That woman can, and has, lied through her teeth without breaking a sweat. I have both Ciro and Marco on this, and I’m determined to find out the truth.
Tonight solidified the fact that no matter what, no Delaney can be trusted, and that includes my pretty little fiancée.
If I find out that there’s a fucking lot more that the Delaneys are hiding, I’ll topple their entire organization without a second thought. I will not allow another family to target the syndicate again. I will not let my family bear the brunt of even more deaths. I’ll slaughter every single Delaney before I let it happen again.
Chapter 10
Quinn
I don't sleep, not really. I drift in and out of a fitful sleep, waking every hour or so with everything that happened last night. I felt it the moment that Lorenzo's hand left my back, the way his face changed from a little soft in the eyes when he spoke to me to ice cold eyes that showed me that something has definitely changed.
Not to mention the distance he put between us. Sure, he was standing beside me, but there could have been a mountain between us, and I’d have still felt the same.
