again. I was faintly aware that my skull was on fire as I returned the favor. Shot for shot.
He wasn’t as lucky as I was. He’d never make another shot again.
I pulled back a bloodstained palm after running it along the side of my head. The bullet must’ve grazed my skin.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Father Flanagan stood in front of the mess, making the sign of the cross.
“They weren’t as close as two steps.” I nodded toward them. “But they found me regardless. Guess they thought I’d be a cheap date.” I took my gun from guy two–he’d tucked it into his pants–and then pulled out my phone. “Careful of your robe, Father. You don’t want the blood of the wicked to stain your holy clothes.
Then I called Raff and told him to send men to clean up my mess.
8
Keely
I crossed my arms over my chest, looking out of the window of Harrison’s vintage car as he navigated the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. “Why? Why did I let you talk me into this? How did I let you do this to me? You know I HATE the man!”
Not even a hundred years would be long enough to not see him, and it had only been a couple of days since the festival.
Harrison gave me the side-eye from underneath his glasses. “You owe me for not telling me about the detective.”
“I owe you nothing. But maybe I would’ve told you, if you would’ve told me about Mari, oh, say, YEARS ago!”
“That’s complicated and you know it.”
“What’s so complicated about it?”
“You would’ve told her.”
“So?”
“Your timing is not mine.” He shrugged.
“Fair enough. But still. How did I let you TALK me into this?”
“Hate. Years. Talk. Why did you scream those three words?”
“Stop trying to change the subject!”
“Yeah. Okay. You’re doing this for me because we both know who my boss is. And I don’t have the option to tell him no.”
I studied my brother for a minute.
This guy, the one with the nice car and even nicer clothes, wasn’t my brother. My brother was easy-going. He wanted a simple life. A nice house. A decent car. A family. Kids he could teach how to play baseball. That was my brother. I’d give him that this car was something he would have bought for himself, but the rest? The fancy lawyer gig? The gangster boss? Wasn’t him.
Click. Click. Click. The pieces suddenly made sense.
“You did this for Mari, didn’t you?”
He became quiet for a minute before he sighed. “Swear on your Broadway career that you won’t tell her.”
“Swear.” I held up my hand, my fingers splayed.
“I did.”
A breath left me that I had no control over. “You need to tell her, Harrison. Tell her how you feel. Life’s too short to keep waiting. Fuck timing. We only have this second.”
“What about the detective?” He turned the convo on me. “Are you in love with him?”
I’d been avoiding this conversation with him under the pretense that I was still pissed about him not telling me about his feelings for Mari. It was true, but not the real reason I didn’t want to talk about it. Like he said, that situation was complicated.
“Mam told me that my great love was going to come to me.” I shrugged. “Stone came to me.”
Even under the sunglasses I could tell his eyes narrowed. “Tea leaves? Are you kidding me, Kee? You’re going to let Mam decide your fate with tea leaves?”
“It’s complicated, Harrison.”
“Mam told me to stay away from Mari because of the tea leaves. She was only going to cause chaos in my life and those around me. Her exact words were, ‘a ripple effect from a dark blue stone.’ Should I listen to her?”
I whipped my head around. Mam had never told me that, and neither had Harrison. “What did you say?”
He shrugged. “Nothing to her face, but I chose not to listen to her. Not to believe it. I’ve never felt anything like that around Mari. I’ve only felt—” He looked over at me and then turned his eyes back to the road.
“Love,” I said. “You’ve only felt love around her.”
“Something like that.”
I grinned to myself, because my brother was in loooove. Big time. I only hoped Mari felt the same, or would give him a shot. Though, honestly, it would’ve been a hell of a lot easier if Harrison had fallen for Desiree Gibson. She loved him all throughout high school, and she still asked about him whenever I went to her salon for a