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“It’s okay, baby girl. I’m going to be fine.” My father managed to back away on his own, almost instantly supported by the medics as he led him to another part of the room.
I cupped my face, gasping for air as Madden and the men who worked for him were led outside. Then my eyes settled on Declan.
I flew toward him, my rage bursting through the surface. “You piece of shit!”
“He’s not to blame, little miss sunshine,” Foxx said as he prevented me from scratching Declan’s eyes out.
“Like hell he isn’t.”
“You need to listen,” Hudson said in such a quiet voice of reverence that I was drawn to the sound, taking a breath as I glanced at all four men.
“What is going on?” I asked, fearful I would fall to the floor.
“Will you allow me to explain?” Declan asked, the look on his face entirely different than I was used to.
“You can trust him,” Jack offered. “He’s one of the good guys.”
I glanced around the group again, uncertain what to expect but I nodded in acknowledgment that I wanted to understand what was happening.
As Declan began to tell a story about Madden and the long-term investigation, about how he’d been directed to go undercover and about the fact my father and his friend in the United States had been active participants in a four-year investigation of Madden and his entire criminal family, I was stunned into a moment of disbelief. I couldn’t believe Declan had been undercover for months or that Conor had worked for Madden, determined to own the rig at all costs.
Lives had been lost. Years of my life. The threats. The danger. The loss. I was sick inside, Hudson’s arm around my waist the only thing keeping me from falling to the floor.
Even Declan’s accent was mostly faked, the American man’s deep voice so different than what I was used to. He’d offered his credentials, two agents assisting in the arrest attesting to his identity, yet I was still sick inside, fighting to accept what I’d been told.
Until he mentioned my husband and all bets were off.
“What about Finn?” I asked, although the tone was demanding.
Declan studied my eyes, his more haunted than I would have expected.
“What about my dead husband?”
“He came to the Garda before his death because Madden had insisted on a meeting, threatening the lives of you and your son, your father and sister if the rig wasn’t given up. For that, he was killed.”
I wasn’t certain whether I could believe him or not, but I had a sense that what Declan was telling me was the truth. “What?” I finally asked, my body going limp.
Declan nodded. “Your husband was a true hero. He loved you very much.”
For all the moments in my life where nothing had made any sense, where I’d blamed God for taking what had been most important away from me, a strange sense of light powered over the room. In my mind, there was no doubt Finn was looking down, my husband having done everything in his power to look over and after his little family.
Because he loved me.
While I could barely accept what I’d learned, I knew in my heart that the information was correct.
And that the three men who’d entered my life were indeed true heroes.
As well as the hunks that I planned on spending the rest of my life with.
Eight weeks later
Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling…
My father had told me so many years before that the song was his favorite, something he’d been sung to as a child by my grandmother. The sound of the bagpipes was only being imagined in my head, but they were pure and melodic, something that would help ease the pain of my father’s death.
We’d had two incredible months together, my father rebounding from his concussion, the strange little family we’d grouped together able to enjoy so many incredible moments of laughter, food and wine, and just being together.
The entire time the three Americans remained by my side, on and off the rig of the friend who’d hired my father. The money had been incredible, the debt owed to the bank almost paid off in its entirety.
