Page 161 of Deceived Wrath

Kieran goes still. “Adrian gave the order?”

“I don’tknow. I think they might have been watching my building. There is no way they would knowexactlywhere I was going to be when this was a last-minute arrangement.”

Kieran steps closer, clutching my refilled glass so tightly I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter.

“Cormac… What if someone told us you were going out? Did you talk to anyone after you left the office? Who knew your movements?”

My stomach twists as Fiona’s face flashes in my mind, the quiet worry in her eyes as she watched me head out the door.

Did she know? Is that why she looked so pained to see me go?

I swallow hard as I push the thought down. I didn’t tell her where I was going. I didn’t even tell her that I was leaving the house until she saw me by the elevator.

“I made arrangements to meet Aiden Clark on the phone.”

Kieran exhales sharply as he drops down onto the couch beside me and hands me my glass.

“Then your phone is compromised.”

My world fractures in slow motion.

If my phone is compromised, then whoever has been listening knows not only where I live, but about Scout too.

“Drink,” Kieran orders.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re shaking.”

I look down, and my hands are trembling so badly from the adrenaline still pumping through my veins that my drink threatens to spill all over the carpet. I ball my free hand into a fist as I knock back my drink, hissing as the liquor burns my throat.

“Ok, brother. Now, start from the beginning.”

I tell him everything, from where the car appeared to the phones and laptop I stashed in my car.

Kieran listens without interrupting, but I see the storm building behind his eyes.

When I finish, the silence stretches between us.

“Kieran… I can’t go home.” The words tear out of me before I can stop them. “If someone followed me after the crash, if they tracked the plates, if I lead them to Scout?—”

“You have to.”

I blink. “What?”

“You’re going back to get Fiona and Scout. And you’re bringing them here.”

“No. Absolutely not. I’m not dragging danger to your fucking doorstep. Not with Riley and the baby?—”

Kieran’s expression doesn’t change, but something fierce flickers behind his eyes.

“Cormac! Do you think you’re the only one in this family who lives with a target on his back?”

“That’s not what I?—”

“We chose this life. We chose to have families of our own, and this is the cost.”

I clench my jaw.