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She shakes her head. “They're not gonna stay hidden for another fucking second.”
“No.”
“Torin.”
“I said no.” I'm on my feet again, and this time Cormac doesn't stop me. “You want the real objection or the polite one? Here's the real one. You were held for weeks. They put their fucking hands on you.” I’m practically spitting venom. “You walk into a room with those men in it, and they will know you within four seconds.”
“I know.”
“You'll be on a fucking block, Valentina. Not near one. On it. With a goddamn number.” My voice has gone somewhere I don't like. “And every man who bids is a man who watched it happen the first time, then went home and fucking slept.”
“I know that too.”
The room breathes in silence.
“Fair,” she says. “I get why you don’t want that.”
“Don’t want that? No. Won’t fucking allow that.”
They’re silent again. I turn to my uncle.
“She hasn’t had enough training.”
“Right.” Valentina doesn't look away from me. “Which doesn’t fucking matter, Torin, because I'm not going in there to fight but to bait.” Her lips thin. “You've been trying to bring them together for four months. It will work.”
Nobody says anything. I’m fighting the need to break something.
“You'll not do this, Valentina,” I say, and I hear how it comes out. Not an order, but closer to asking.
Cormac sets both hands flat on the table.
“Right,” he says. “Seamus is in a bed with one eye, and I'm in his chair, so it's mine to say, and I'll say it once. She's right, and it's the only play we've got.” He looks at me before I can speak. “Sit down, lad.”
“Cormac.”
“Sit down.”
I sit, fuming.
“You've got two choices now, and neither is whether she goes. You run it, or Declan runs it, and you stay in Ireland.” His words drop like lead. “Choose.”
I speak through gritted teeth. “As if there’s any fucking choice. I run it.”
“Good lad.”
Christ.
If I vow to protect her, what good is that promise if I can't keep it? I'm nothing but a fucking pussy if the only time I can protect her is when she's within arm's reach.
“Think of it this way,” Valentina says, her voice seductively sweet. “You'll be within shooting distance of everyone on that hit list. You won't have to hunt them anymore. They'll be right there.”
“And so will you.”
“I know, Torin,” she says quietly. “But they won’t win. I trust you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
VALENTINA
