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“I’ll find her,” he promised. “We’ve looked everywhere for this ghost. I haven’t been able to find him and haven’t seen a trace of your mom. She might be wherever he’s staying.”
“Then I need to get to her,” I said resolutely.
Kieran clenched his jaw and took steadying breaths for a few moments before nodding toward Beck. “Beck’s right. If you get the ghost to come to you, we’ll have him where we need him. He’ll bring you back, and I can slip into his car. I can hide out in there until he takes me to where he’s been staying. Then I’ll make a move. If your mom’s there, I’ll get her and take her somewhere safe.” He waited a bit to see if I would object before looking to Beck. “Agreed?”
“Yeah, man.”
“I need to know what you’re thinking,” he said low in my ear.
My head shook distractedly. “I’ve always been the one to take care of her. I’ve always been the one to do any and everything to keep her alive. Only me. Then Mickey showed up on a day when I was already feeling so helpless. I’d just paid off AJ, and when I got home I thought”—I swallowed thickly and tried to block the memory from resurfacing—“I thought she was gone. I finally got her to wake up, but I knew one day I was going to come back and I wouldn’t be able to. And I didn’t know how to stop that day from coming . . . so I agreed to his offer.” I rubbed my forehead as a pathetic-sounding laugh fell from my lips. “I knew who he was. I knew he was a sick bastard. I’m an idiot for thinking he would ever help her.”
“No, you’re not,” Beck said quickly.
“You’re not.” Kieran lightly tapped my chin and waited until I looked at him. “Mickey O’Sullivan can make anyone believe anything that comes from his sadistic mouth. From stories we’ve heard, the boss before him was a good man. The kind of man you followed to your death. When Mickey was in his twenties, he killed him for his title and Holloway rioted. By the end of the night, he had every single member on his side ready to blindly follow him.”
“Don’t forget he made dozens of men believe they’d be doing women a favor by kidnapping them and buying them,” Beck added.
Kieran tilted his head in Beck’s direction in agreement. “And he used the person who means the most to you against you.”
“You guys don’t blindly follow him,” I mumbled. “You don’t ever believe anything he says.”
Kieran looked at where Beck was sitting behind me then sighed. “I used to. But I figured him out.” His pale eyes met mine, the corner of his mouth twitching into a brief smirk. “I waited for you to stop laughing to know when it was real. Mickey smiles when he manipulates.”
I couldn’t remember ever seeing Mickey without a smile . . . but I was stuck on what Kieran had said just before.
“It was all real,” I said on a breath.
His expression fell, doubt and pain etched across his face. But after a few moments, he nodded subtly.
I could see he wanted it to be enough.
And I hated that it wasn’t.
I would give anything to be able to erase the doubt. But if I hadn’t accepted Mickey’s offer, Kieran would still only be someone I saw through cracks in doors and listened to from other rooms when I spied on Beck.
I wouldn’t know him.
I wouldn’t need him or crave him.
I wouldn’t know what it was to love someone. To love him.
Kieran shifted and cleared his throat. When I focused on him again, his face was indifferent. “I meant, I need to know what you’re thinking about the plan.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll find another way if you’re not comfortable.”
“What’s with all this I?” Beck interrupted. “I’ll do this. I’ll do that? Where the hell do you think I’m gonna be during this?”
“Dealing,” Kieran replied immediately. “We need to time this right. I went through everything last night, including his calendar. He has meetings all afternoon and a dinner meeting with his lawyer.” His eyes met mine and something terrifying settled there. “Considering what he’s planning with Jessica, I have a feeling I know why he wants to meet with him.”
“But the zombie man isn’t with him,” Beck argued. “And he’s what this is all about. We could get rid of him while Mickey’s gone and be waiting for Mickey when he comes back.”
“We don’t know where the ghost is.” Kieran’s stare drifted back to Beck when he said, “He could be waiting for her, or he might not be if Conor’s supposed to be guarding her and Mickey has a camera on the place.” His grip on me tightened. “But as it stands, he knows Conor is too scared to fuck up, and he thinks Jessica is too worried to make him mad because she wants her mom. He’s confident. He’s not watching the camera. If she sends Conor out for food or something, Conor will have to call Mickey, and Mickey will make sure someone else is watching her. He doesn’t trust anyone right now other than that ghost, he’ll send him.”
“Goddammit,” Beck mumbled. “Why is the robotic asshole always right?”
“Because he trained me to be,” he said with a cold grin. “The ghost needs to go wherever he’s been hiding once he brings Jessica back. The only way that has a chance of working is if Mickey’s here to keep an eye on Jessica. This all needs to go down when Mickey’s on his way back from Raleigh.”
