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Sounded a little like jealousy to me. And not because they wanted me on their arm. More like they wanted to be me. Have someone who didn’t want something from them for once. Even a cold-hearted bastard felt lonely now and then. And being holed up in this compound twelve months out of the year, except when they were working a job… yeah, something told me the isolation was getting to 'em more than they liked to let on. Probably why they let me through the door in the first place.
It was hard not to be bitter, to open myself up to whatever emotions this dumb fuck beside me was stirring up in my chest. But I had to admit—at least to my subconscious—that the idea of having him around was growing on me. Even now, as he slept, he had an arm slung around my waist. Like he was afraid I might run. Which meant he knew me better than most people. Because that’s exactly what I wanted to do.
Avoidance was my favorite flavor. Self-destruction my usual mode of transportation. Sex and alcohol the accelerants that fueled the fire. I was a walking red flag that the poor son of a bitch had mistaken for a green light. And there was something both off-putting and appealing about that.
I gently nudged Connor’s arm aside and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, and he was pulling me back down before I made it to my feet.
“Go to sleep, Dani,” he muttered into the pillow, not bothering to look up to see what I was doing.
“Can’t sleep,” I huffed before flopping back down beside him. I should have been a tad more careful but the fact that he caught me was irritating.
“Happens a lot, doesn’t it?” Connor’s voice was weighed down by a mix of pills that sounded real good right about now, but it was clear none of it was gonna stop him from trying to dig deeper under my skin. “Normally, I’d be all about fucking you unconscious but even I have my limits. So why don’t we try talking 'bout it for once, baby girl?”
“Talk about what, Chatty Cathy?”
“All that shit goin’ on in that head of yours, Dani. Those weird trances you go under where the rest of the world seems to go on 'round you but you’re miles away. The reason you showed up at Mollies that night. The reason we’re both here. And I don’t mean in this bed. I mean on the run. What’s your history with the Mulligans?”
“That’s a lot to unpack in one night, Connor. As for the Mulligans, you already know the history there.” I sighed. “The Irish and Italians have been fightin’ on those streets for ages, long before I came around. They don’t hate me. Just my last name.”
“Nope.” He rolled onto his back, slowly, the whole ordeal painful to watch. I could only imagine how it felt.
“Nope?” I parroted.
“Nope,” he repeated. “There’s more to it than that. This is personal. Whatever’s goin’ on between ya. Junior especially. Were you two a thing or something? A breakup gone wrong.”
This had me coughing out a laugh. “Me and Junior? Fuck no. I’d love to see that little prick even try to put hislittle prickanywhere near me. I’d cut it off, if that didn’t mean I’d have to touch it first.”
“Right, then, what is it?”
“A long fucking story is what it is, Connor.”
I could make out the pearly white of his grin even in the pitch-blackness of the room. “Good thing I have all fucking night, baby girl.”
27
SIX YEARS PRIOR
“Caught your creepy little brother watching me again,” I huffed the moment Leo pulled up on his bike.
He knocked the kickstand into place and removed his helmet while attempting to smooth things over with that panty-melting smirk of his. We both knew what he was doing, trying to disarm me with his cock magic, hoping I’d drop the subject and not make it a thing.
But fuck that.
“I’m not messin’ around, Mulligan. I think the kid’s seen something. And we both know he’s desperate enough to use it against you.Us.” I crossed my arms over my chest, my hip set in a way that told him I was serious. “I don’t know 'bout you, but I sure as fuck don’t feel like cleanin’ up the streets after the bloodbath my pops is sure to unleash if he gets wind of how you corrupted his perfect little girl.”
Leo tilted his head to one side, observing me like some sort of curiosity. Then he grinned, a sign that he must have likedwhatever it was he saw. “Mecorruptyou, babe? Pretty sure it was the other way around.” He tucked his helmet under one arm before tugging me against his chest, gripping a handful of my hair and yanking my head back so that I was forced to look him in the eye.
“Maybe, but my old man won’t see it that way.” I shrugged. “And it will be your ass that’s on the line. Shotgun wedding and all that. Probably kill you shortly after—it’s much better to be a widow than a whore in my family.”
“Wedding, ya say? Is that your way of askin’ me to marry you, Rossi?”
“Fuck no,” I grunted, shoving Leo back a step. The son of a bitch clearly needed air. Seemed the lack of oxygen was going to his head.
“Would it really be so bad?”
Scratch that. It was too late. His brain was fried and there was no coming back. It was time to pull the plug.
“Think about it, babe. We could finally put an end to this war. Do somethin’ good for both sides. Is the idea of being with me that much of a hardship you’d rather risk sneaking around?”
