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“We’re ready to go, Matt.” Vas motioned for me to follow him to where our transportation waited, ready to takeoff. It was a hot load. We kept our heads low, avoiding the blades. Liam nodded at his two sons as he trailed behind me. Once we reached the helicopter, he loaded himself inside, motioning for me to hand Ava to him.
I hesitated to let her go, even to him, but it was foolish to think I could get us both inside with her in my arms.
“It’s okay,” Liam yelled over the whir of the blades. “You’ll get her right back, I promise.”
Swallowing back the lump of anxiety in my throat, I nodded, carefully placing my wife in his arms before climbing up myself. Liam gently kissed her forehead before he arranged her on my lap. When we were all settled, Vas signaled the pilot, and we were off, the ground fading fast below us.
Vas positioned a pair of headphones over my ears that held a mic so we could communicate. Helicopters weren’t quiet by any means.
“No sign of any Seamus look-alike,” he informed me, a scowl covering his face as he took in my wife’s battered state. “But we did take some of the guards alive.”
“You can use my place if you need to,” Liam offered, but Vas shook his head.
“Thanks, but we have a special place just for this.” He smirked cruelly. “And trust me when I say we’re all gonna take pleasure in what comes next.”
I agreed.
“Have Mark check to see if he can get any footage from the cameras inside the house and basement. There were several set up.”
Vas nodded and took out his phone.
Leaning my head back against the seat, I closed my eyes and let the comfort of having my wife in my arms wash over me.
“She’ll have a long road ahead of her.” Liam sighed. “Ava might try to push you away, but she’ll need you.”
I was well aware of my wife’s stubbornness, and I had no intention of letting her block my help at every turn. I’d be there for her every step of the way, whether she liked it or not.
“Who is Noah Kelly?” I asked my father-in-law. Liam tensed in his seat, just like he had at the mansion.
“A ghost,” he snarled. “A dead one.”
“How dead?”
“Shot him point blank through the head with a forty-five.”
“That’s pretty dead,” I agreed. Liam nodded.
“Who was he to you?”
Liam Kavanaugh was not known for being easily rattled, but the mention of one man’s name shook him off balance.
“A long time ago, the McDonough clan was split in two.” He let out a frustrated sigh, running a hand down his face, looking defeated. “There had been a long bloody war between two brothers. Twins, funnily enough.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Liam blew out his cheeks. “Ava belongs to the McDonoughs of the north. What many in Ireland consider the ‘true blood’ clan. Noah Kelly is the descendant of the second clan. A clan so far removed from McDonough blood that they are barely recognized anymore.”
I kept silent, letting him continue. “We grew up together in Boston. Noah and me. We were best mates until his father and Katherine’s arranged for them to be married.”
“Because you loved her.” It didn’t take a psychic to know that.
Liam nodded. “We’d been seeing each other for some time behind our families’ backs,” he admitted. “They were friends, but my family didn’t come from wealth and prestige like Ava’s. My grandfather was her grandfather’s second. A soldier. And my father followed suit.”
“I assume you told them.”
“Yeah.” Liam chuckled. “Seamus…” He paused for a moment, pain lancing through his grief-stricken eyes. “The man I believed was Seamus was furious. He told us to end it. That he wouldn’t put the treaty at risk for a silly infatuation.” He took a breath before continuing. “Katherine was a firecracker, though. Stubborn as a mule too.”
I chuckled at that. Ava was just like her then.
