Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
I shrug. “Because of Bunny.”
“He knows who I am.”
He does. And he’s still here because he loves Cillian. “But that doesn’t mean you never worry that one day he won’t be…or that something will happen to you and he’ll be left alone. It won’t. I promise you, Cil, you will always be the one who makes it home. I’ll make sure of that.”
He curses, grabs me and tugs me close, pressing our foreheads together. “Don’t say shit like that. Your life is just as valuable as mine. You think I’ll ever let you get hurt? You know I won’t. We’ll both always make it home. I refuse to allow even the possibility of anything else.”
I nod. There’s another secret I’ve been keeping from Cillian—I know he considered walking away from it all for Ollie, and if Ollie had let him, he would have. I’m not upset with Cillian for that. He was willing to do for Ollie what his father could never do for his mom…what mine would never have done for my mother. I can’t be upset because I know Cil would have hated it, it would have killed him to leave this behind, to leave me behind. I guess that too is what love is, being willing to sacrifice your happiness for someone else’s, and because of that I’m even more determined that Cillian will grow old with Ollie.
“Then let’s fucking kill these sons of bitches so you can get home to your boy.”
He grins, the fire I’m familiar seeing blazing in his eyes.
He slides the magazine into his handgun. “Yes. Let’s fucking do it.”
*
I hear the water lapping at the shore in the distance. Other than that and the occasional bird, the docks are silent, the buildings dark and abandoned hours ago, all except one. Two men guard the front door.
Cillian and I give it a wide berth, each one of us coming at it from the sides of the building. Two bullets to the back of their heads, quick and easy, thank fuck for silencers. We grin at each other, and Cil uses his comms to tell the rest of the guys the front is clear. Seconds later Dean and Tiernan give the okay for the back. The cameras have been disabled by Finan, so we don’t have to worry about that.
Cillian opens the door, and we rush inside. A guard goes for Cillian, but I jump on his back, pull out my knife, and stab it into the side of his throat. Blood rushes out, spilling all over my hands before he drops to the ground.
“Really?” Cil asks. “Couldn’t use your gun?”
“What if I accidentally hit you?” I tease, and he chuckles.
It’s a madhouse inside, but they didn’t have many men with them here, so it doesn’t take us long to kill who we want and capture the rest. Rian wanted Alex alive, so the guy’s currently sitting in the middle of the warehouse floor, his arms and legs tied together, surrounded by us. Dean has a black eye, Cillian bruised knuckles and a cut on his hand. I took some nasty kicks to the ribs, but other than that, we’re fine.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know?” Rian asks, a coldness to his voice deadly enough to scare anyone.
“What are you—” His words are broken off by Rian kicking him in the face. Alex falls onto his back, blood pouring from his nose.
“Don’t fucking play games with me. You thought you could take advantage of us, and now you’re going to die.”
Tiernan joins Rian, and they kneel beside Alex. “I may have hated him, but I am my father’s son.”
Rian’s gaze shoots to T, clearly surprised by his words. Tiernan shouldn’t have mentioned hating Sloan, not in front of Rian, Finan, and Flynn. Conan will lose his shit, but then, just hating him doesn’t mean he had anything to do with his death. Anyone in this room would have to be suicidal to accuse Tiernan of that.
In the swiftest of movements, Tiernan pulls a knife from his sheath, grabs Alex’s hair, and slices the knife across his throat—thick, red blood staining Alex’s clothes and the ground instantly. Tiernan smoothly rises to his feet, wipes the blood from his blade, and slides it back into place. “Make sure this gets cleaned up. We’re going home.” He walks straight over to Dean, clasping their hands together.
While he’s likely killed more people than either Cillian or I have, it affects Tiernan in a deeper way than it does us. It will never stop him from doing what needs to be done, but it does something to him that I’ll likely never understand. And Dean…Dean soothes that.
The two of them walk out of the building together.
Cillian gives his father a look, nods, and follows, with me behind them.