Page 66 of Then We Shatter

Derelict sheds and machinery block our view, but my heart leaps into my throat when I see beams of light traveling in our direction. Five of our men are unaccounted for but there are only three beams. Two men are missing.

When I’m close enough, I aim my light at the approaching figures. “Thank fuck,” I hiss in a hoarse whisper I can just about hear. “Are you lads OK?”

“We’re grand,” Malachy replies, grimacing as he comes up to me. “Mikey took a bullet in his leg and he’s hobbling along behind us with Conor.”

“I’ll go find them,” says Lorcan, already disappearing into the night.

His eagerness isn’t just about helping the missing men. He wants to slip away before someone, most likely me, says something about feelings and shit.

“One down,” Malachy says as we fall into step.

“Three would have been better.”

“We’ll get them.”

I nod, but tonight might be a matter of one step forward and two steps back. If Ignacio was nearby, he won’t be for long. He’ll burrow deeper somewhere else, and it could be four more years before we get another break. Unless Katarina’s sestra can help again.

“You were right about seeing you in action,” I say, recalling my phone call to Dad when I’d been goading Malachy. “You’ve come into your own. And Lorcan…” I rub the back of my neck. “He needed someone to believe in the old him, not the damaged version we got back.”

All these years I’ve been duty-bound to my family because I believed they couldn’t manage without me. They’ve done more than manage.

“The pair of you have thrived without me.”

Malachy kicks at a stone. “We still need you, Kill,” he says as if he knows my thoughts are leading me straight back to Chicago and into trouble. “I’ve not had to deal with one of Lorcan’s episodes on my own yet. I’m not sure I want to.”

“Just remember there’s a time and place for tough love, and it’s not when he’s disassociating.”

“I won’t need to remember. You’ll be back with us.”

“Sure, I will,” I say. “But I need some breathing space to clear my head first. I’m going to take a little road trip. I’ll take a car and make my own way…” Back home, I go to say, but that might just be a lie.

The ground beneath us shakes as one final, earth-shattering explosion rips through the warehouse. We carry on walking, both pretending we didn’t feel it.

Chapter 24

Katarina

Now

“No!” I spit, tugging on the complicated buckles fastening the voluminous skirt to the bodice of my ugly-as-fuck wedding dress. I hear a satisfying rip. “I told you I wanted a simple tie.”

Vivienne cowers at my snarl, but I don’t care. It must be obvious that I’m being coerced into marriage, but she’s chosen to stay the course. Eric has to be paying her a hefty bonus after our last run-in.

“I can try something else,” she says, taking over and removing the skirt before I rip this one to shreds too. Today’s the big day and with only hours left until I’m expected to promise myself to Eric, there’s no time to make another dress.

“One tug and it should drop to the floor,” I say, spelling out the request I’ve been making repeatedly. I swear I’m speaking a different language to everyone Eric hired for my transformation. “Understand?”

“My, my, you are eager to please your husband,” Grigor says, entering the room.

He frowns in disappointment when he finds me sporting black cycling shorts rather than the skimpy underwear he expected me to be standing around in while my dress is being altered.

Sasha laughs. “He still has to get through all that lycra.”

“My niece knows what’s expected of her,” Vasili says, the last to enter my already crammed suite in the guest villa.

I’ve been kept away from the groom in the main house today to give the impression we’re having a traditional wedding. Too bad. Eric should have shopped around for a traditional bride if that’s what he wanted.

“Tell that to the hairstylist with three broken fingers,” mutters Sasha.