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“Not a fucking chance, brother!” He yells back as he makes his way down the hall. Harper climbs off the bed and makes her way into the bathroom.
“You want me to draw you a bath, Angel?” Finn asks, already back to making sure she’s okay and has everything she needs. Not that he ever really stopped, I realize.
She spins around to look at him, a dazzling smile covering her face. “No, Love. I’m okay. I’m just going to shower quick and crawl into bed. I’m exhausted now.”
“Alright, Angel. Mac and I will change the sheets.” I watch a different shade of pink spreads across her chest and cheeks but choose not to comment on it. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. If I could watch her squirt every day for the rest of my life, I’d be a happy fucking man.
“Will you guys… will you stay here with me?” Finn and I look at one another in confusion, then back at her. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m sure you’d rather sleep in your own rooms. Don’t worry about it.” She waves her hands in our direction, trying to dismiss what she just said. I’ll have none of that.
“Mo grá…” I say sternly, “Of course, we’re staying in here. We wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Her green eyes brighten. “Oh! Okay, well, I’m just gonna go…” She hikes a thumb over her shoulder before spinning around and closing herself into the bathroom.
I turn to face Finn and raise a brow, “Love?”
He rubs the back of his neck, “Yeah, I guess so.” He and I get to work pulling the wet sheets from the bed. “We are so done for, aren’t we?”
Laughing, I answer, “So fucking done, man.”
Ronan walks back in with glasses of water, and we finish changing the sheets, ignoring that none of us have clothes on and Harper isn’t even in the room. A few minutes later, she comes out of the bathroom, and we all get settled on the bed. Harper in the middle, Ronan and Finn on either side of her, and me curled up between her legs, head resting on her stomach. When I asked her if she wanted me to move, worried I was crushing her, she sweetly said, “No, Honey. You’re perfect.” Fuck, if that name didn’t do something to me.
One by one, the three of them doze. As their soft snores filled the room, I drifted off to sleep with the sound of Harper’s heart beating in my ear.
* * *
It’s a little after nine the next morning when Ronan and I roll out of bed. I don’t think I’ve gotten that good of a night’s sleep in a long time. More often than not, I find myself waking up throughout the night or not being able to sleep at all. Nightmares of the blood I’ve spilled tend to keep me awake. Not last night. Last night, curled up against Harper, I didn’t wake up once. For a moment, I thought sharing a bed with Ronan and Finn would be weird, but all of it just felt… right. Like we were all right where we were supposed to be. However, if we are going to make that a habit, we’re definitely going to have to get a bigger bed.
Ronan and I decided to let Finn and Harper sleep a little longer, mainly because he and I knew we still had a few things to discuss, and we didn’t want the two of them feeling like they had to weigh in on a decision about our parents.
When we got home yesterday, we spent most of the afternoon filling Finn in on what Ronan and I found out from Max. After brainstorming a few possible reasons why on earth our mother would be working against us, we decided to call it a day. Realizing we were just grasping at straws. We have no answers, and we’re just guessing at this point. We still haven’t even heard back from Ronan’s contact in Ireland. All of us are growing restless. The best solution to get the answers we needed would be to just talk to Mum directly.
She’s nothing like our father. Nothing. She spent our whole lives caring for us and trying to shield us as best she could from the evil things he had done, but she couldn’t hide everything. She had her own battles to fight. While I know he never laid a hand on her in front of us, that doesn’t mean there weren’t other things happening behind closed doors. I’d like to think he wasn’t that kind of person. Unfortunately, I know better.
So, this morning Ronan and I decided we would give her a call. We learned from one of her bodyguards that she should be on her way to the salon this morning and that Dad would be nowhere near her.
I open the oven and slide in the soda bread I quickly whipped up. A recipe our mother passed down to us after her mother passed it down to her. It’s a simple dish but one that fills my heart and my stomach all the same. Once the bread is in the oven, I take a cup of coffee off the counter that Ronan poured. I’m immediately hit with the smell of whiskey. I look up at him from over the brim of my mug, “That kind of morning? Thought you’d for sure be in a better mood after last night.”
A soft smile pulls at the corners of my brother’s mouth. “We’re Irish, Mac. There’s never a bad time for whiskey in your coffee.” He takes a long, dramatic drink. “And I’m never in a good mood.” I snort into my cup.
“So… what do you think?” I ask him hesitantly.
“There’s no way she’s in on it, Mac… whatever it is.” I nod my head in agreement. “I mean… this is our fucking mother. The same woman who sang to us and laid in our bed until we fell asleep. The same woman who begged our father to take Finn in when he had no one. She doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. I’d be willing to bet she knows nothing about the deal between dear ole Dad and Delcan. There’s no way she would willingly put an innocent woman in harm’s way like that. Let alone the daughter of two people she cared for.”
I agree with my brother completely, but, “Then why was she in contact with Max? Why was she telling him to steal our shipments?”
“I really don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. The only way we’ll know for sure is if we talk to her.” He takes another long sip of his coffee. Taking a deep breath, he looks at me dead in the eyes, “But I do know that she’s going to be furious the second we insinuate she has anything other than good intentions.”
“Ronan.” I hold my hand up, “Let me talk to her. You have a hot head, and we both know you will say something to piss her off.”
“I’ll mind my tongue. I don’t want you to worry about this. I’ll talk to her.”
“No, Ronan.” I bite out. “This won’t be on you.”
“Yes, brother, it will be. You’ve been through enough in this life when it comes to one parent. The last thing I will do is put this weight on your shoulders. Let me do this.” I open my mouth to argue, but he stops me. “Don’t even bother arguing. My mind is made up on this.” Just like that, I know it’s done. He’s speaking not only as my brother but as the mafia leader. I know my place. “Let’s give Mum a call, shall we?”
I remain on my side of the kitchen as Ronan pulls out his phone and video chats our mother, angling the phone so I’m out of the screen, but I can still see. After the third ring, her smiling face fills the screen. “Ronan! My sweet boy. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Morning, Mum.” Ronan offers her a genuine smile. One he reserves for only a select few. “How are you today?”
