Lachlan (Dangerous Doms #5) - Jane Henry Page 0,67
look at it a second time.
I answer on the second ring.
“Lachlan, Calum here. Need to speak to you.”
“Aye?”
“Think we’ve found some news.”
“Have you?”
“Yes, but it’s more complicated than we thought.”
I listen as he explains the lengths his men went to find what they have.
“Seems the betrayal and retaliation run deeper than we thought,” he says. “Fucking years. All the way back to when Seamus McCarthy took Maeve as his wife.”
“Christ. Are you serious?” I never thought for a minute that Maeve and Seamus, the McCarthy Clan matriarch and patriarch, would have had anything to do with a vendetta in Boston.
“Seems one of our rivals thinks he’s rightfully due a portion of the McCarthy Clan wealth.”
“What? That’s ridiculous.”
“Aye,” he says. “What do you know about Keenan’s wife?”
“Keenan’s wife? Caitlin?”
“Aye.”
“Not much,” I confess. “I know she was the lighthouse keeper’s daughter.” Then memory floods me and I’m on my feet, shaking my head. From the corner of my eye, I see Fiona covering herself with a sheet, her eyes distant and troubled. “But wait. He wasn’t her father, was he? Her father was from Boston.”
“Ah, then,” Calum says. “Her father was from Boston. She belongs to Keenan now that she’s wed him, but the ties to Boston are undeniable. The Irish lighthouse keeper raised her, but she wasn’t his kin, was she?”
I shake my head. “She wasn’t.”
“Her mother fucked Jay Byrne, one of our rivals. She took off when she found out she was pregnant, went back to Ireland, and had the baby. The bloke’s fucking off his nut,” Calum says. “Senile in his old age. He’s been trailing the McCarthys for fucking ages, has affiliations with the Martins and O’Gregors. Thinks because his daughter married McCarthy stock, the McCarthys have stolen from him.”
Christ. I have to talk to Keenan.
“And what does he plan to do about that?”
“No fucking idea, lad,” Calum says. “But I know this. You and Tiernan aren’t enough here. He’s got more on his payroll than you’ve bargained for.”
“Thank you,” I tell him, and hang up the phone. Christ. He’s right. This is far too big for me and Tiernan. I look at Fiona.
“We have to go home is right,” I tell her. “I’m sorry about your classes.”
“They’re shite,” she says, her chin jutting into the air. “Could do just as well at home.”
They’re not, but I know she’s brushing them off to justify returning home.
“Get dressed,” I tell her. “I need to talk to Tiernan, and we need to make arrangements. You sure you’re okay with leaving Aisling?”
“I’ve no choice, do I?” she says. She still won’t really meet my eyes, and I wonder what’s going on. I know she’s devastated by the news from home. Is there something else going on?
Tiernan messages me, and tells me to meet him in the lobby. We get ready to leave, packing up our things like nomads. God, I long to be home, back on the streets of Ballyhock. I want to be home again, and this time, I want her with me.
Can I keep her safe? How can I, when Calum himself says there aren’t enough of us here to protect her?
“Fiona…” my voice trails off. She won’t talk to me. Won’t speak at all. I ask her questions and get mumbled, one-word answers. I let it go for now. We need to meet with Tiernan, need to make sure everyone’s safe.
We pack our things and go to the lobby. She goes straight to Tiernan and tells him about Sheena. Still, she won’t look at me.
“When do you go?” he asks, his face pained after talking to him about his sister.
“Need to go soon, don’t we?” I say. “Jesus, I hate to leave you like this, brother.”
He shakes his head. “I’ve one sister in Ballyhock that needs the other. Don’t think of me at a time like this. It’s the right decision, Lach.”
She still won’t look at me, and I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but when I reach for her hand she turns away. What’s going on with her? Is she pulling away from me? And if she is, why?
“I’ll have Aisling pack up my things,” she says in a distant voice.
“Fiona.”
“Aye?” Her gaze is over my shoulder.
“Look at me, love.”
She reluctantly obeys. But I don’t see the woman I’ve come to know, the woman I love. I see the broken girl I met in the dilapidated kitchen in Stone City five years ago. I reach for her, but she pulls away.