Brennan tilts his tablet. “Already on it. I’ve got two dozen men on their way.”
Cormac meets my eyes from across the room.
“Thank you,” he mouths.
While Ronan, Kieran, and Brennan load up on weapons with grim efficiency, Cormac hands Scout back over to me and presses a kiss to both our foreheads.
“I’ll be right outside,” Cormac tells Scout, though his eyes flick to me. “Just making sure everything’s locked down.”
Once the front door closes, the silence that follows is loud.
“That was a hell of a house call.”
My head snaps up to find Riley and Ciara standing at the top of the stairs.
I sigh. “You can say that.”
“Does anyone want tea? Or something stronger pretending to be tea?” Riley suggests.
“I don’t know about you, Scout,” I start. “But I could definitely do with a hot chocolate. And I think Auntie Ciara might even have some cookies lying around somewhere.”
“They’re in a top-secret location that only very special little boys can find. Shall we see if we can find them?” Ciara plasters on a smile as she heads down the stairs.
“Fiona’s coming too?” He looks anxiously at me.
“Are you kidding? I’m not missing out on cookies for anything.”
The three of us keep our tones as light as possible as we whip up some hot chocolate and cookies, though I can see the worry in both Ciara and Riley’s faces.
I manage to get Scout to let go of me long enough to get him settled on the couch with his snack, and I put on a film that will hopefully serve as a distraction, at least for a little while.
“We were barely gone for two hours. This could have been so much worse,” Riley mutters as the three of us stand in the corner of the room, watching Scout.
“I think Adrian was waiting for you to leave to make his move,” I say quietly.
“The fact that he was even in my house—” Riley sucks a breath before exhaling slowly. “It makes me want to throw up.”
“I still can’t believe Cormac let Adrian live,” Ciara says, the animosity clear as day in her tone.
“I get why he did it.”
“Do you? Because I don’t. Blood doesn’t mean anything. Trust me, I learned that the hard way.”
Riley nods. “Same.”
“I know. And I’m not saying Adrian deserves Cormac’s forgiveness. But how I see it, Scout should be able to make the choice for himself. When I lost my sister, I didn’t get tochoose that. She was taken from me. And that kind of loss… It feels different. So, I’m a little unwilling to pretend family stops mattering just because it’s complicated.”
“Well, now Riley and I just sound like assholes,” Ciara mutters, and I huff a laugh.
For a moment, the three of us stand in silence, watching out of the window as Cormac and his brothers move to re-secure the estate.
They have everything under control, so why does it feel like I’m still not able to take a full breath?
That night, Cormac and I both tuck Scout into bed and stay watching him long after he’s fallen asleep.
I lean back against the headboard, letting out a shaky exhale, and glance at Cormac, who lounges along the bottom of the bed.
“Is everything good?” I ask quietly. “I mean…the house. Is it secure now?”
