waiting for someone to get the hint. Declan did and clomped over to the bathroom. As Finn doled out meds like a pharmacist, I took them in my hand and popped them when Declan gave me the glass.
I thought I’d been in pain before, but it was nothing compared to the come down that let me feel all the myriad aches that encompassed my body. They were suddenly there, suddenly so acute I wanted to cry out, but I firmed my mouth and gritted my teeth to withhold the moans of discomfort that longed to break free. Fuck, when were the meds going to kick in?
“We need to take her to the compound.”
“No!” I barked, surprising myself with how strident my tone was after I’d just been inwardly whining over how weak my voice sounded. “I’m not leaving Finn.”
I grabbed his hand and he tightened his fingers around mine. He looked carefully into my eyes and murmured, “I’m going to do some things you won’t like, Aoife.”
“I don’t care,” I told him instantly.
His nostrils flared. “I care. I’m going to be the husband you deserve.”
Panic fluttered through me, but it was oddly muted. What did being the husband I deserved entail? So long as he didn’t leave me frickin’ alone again, he could do whatever the hell he wanted.
I squeezed down hard on his hand and said as much. “Finn, do not put me in lockdown unless you’re going to be there too.”
He dipped his chin. “I never intended to do anything less.”
From the surprised looks on his brothers’ faces—Conor looked particularly awestruck by Finn’s statement—I gathered that was unusual.
Typical men.
Shove a bunch of women together while they go off and play war. Bastards.
“You promise?” There was a quiver to my voice, but it wasn’t from weakness, it was from fatigue. It was from the rage I’d feel if he lied to me.
“I promise.”
I sank back, flopping like a whoopee cushion someone had sat on, then regretted it when my left side twinged like a busted guitar string. “Good.”
“I’ll pack your things.”
“How long will we be away for?”
He shrugged then leaned over to kiss my temple. I grabbed the front of his shirt so he couldn’t pull away.
“How long, Finn?”
“As long as it takes, Aoife,” he rasped, then dropped me another kiss—this one to the tip of my nose.
I tried not to be charmed by that and called myself a sucker when I fell into those bright blue pools that were his damn eyes.
My body needed more than a kiss on the nose and a pat on the hand, but what it needed, it wasn’t ready for.
Someone had just tried to—
I wasn’t even sure what their intention had been. Just knew that they hadn’t dropped a bouquet of flowers at the bottom of the bed with a ‘Get Well Soon’ card.
For whatever reason, we seemed to have two enemies now. A war on two fronts—the Colombians and the Russians vs. us.
I tried not to feel sick at the thought, and then just embraced the nausea because no amount of lying to myself was going to make this situation any better.
Chapter Nineteen
Finn
I kept on surprising myself.
My control seemed to grow exponentially as each hour passed, even when I felt sure it would fold in on itself, crumble, leaving me a raging lunatic, it didn’t. Its limits increased until I knew even Aidan Sr. was impressed.
Not that he could judge.
The fucker had zero control, and if Lena had been the one who was targeted today, then I knew he’d be on a rampage. Exactly how I wanted to be.
I didn’t just need to cut some motherfuckers, I craved it. Craved it like no good Catholic ever should, but screw that shit. If they thought they could get to me through Aoife, they could think again while I hung them up from their wrists like a dead cow on a hook. The slaughterhouse was there for a reason, just waiting for me to figure out what the hell was going on.
“The Russians are either working on their own, or have united with the Colombians,” Conor stated something we all knew but didn’t want to say.
“That’s not like Vasov,” Aidan Sr. grouched, rubbing his chin.
“He said it himself. The Colombians are his biggest suppliers,” I murmured, my voice hushed as I traced the lines of the mahogany table around which the council was seated.
Only Aidan Jr. wasn’t here, and he wouldn’t be for at least another eight weeks thanks to the new steel pins