Page 28 of His Kidnapped Irish Mafia Virgin

Paddy looked at Liam instead of answering immediately. I caught the silent exchange that passed between them. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen that look. Paddy was waiting to see how much his boss wanted me to hear. Not long ago, Liam would have told me to go into another room.

He would have talked to Paddy alone, then told me an edited version of their conversation that revealed almost nothing. I knew that because he’d done it before. This time, he didn’t. He picked up one of the photographs, studied it briefly, and then placed it back on the table before looking at me.

“Of course we have,” he said quietly. “Did you think we were just sitting here waiting for whoever did this to make their next move?”

I hesitated, feeling strangely foolish. “I...I don’t know what I thought. I assumed the priority was keeping me hidden.”

“It is,” he replied. “Keeping you alive has always been the priority. But finding the people who want to hurt you is how we make sure you don’t have to keep hiding forever.”

His answer settled over me in a way I hadn’t expected. For the first time since all of this had begun, I realized Liam hadn’t been reacting to events as they happened. While I’d been waking up every morning wondering whether the danger had finally found me again, he’d been trying to find the danger itself.

I looked back at the photographs spread across the coffee table. Suddenly they didn’t seem like ordinary pieces of paper anymore. Every page represented days of work I hadn’t known existed. Every photograph was another attempt to understand the people who’d turned my life upside-down.

“So...” I said slowly, unable to keep the knot from tightening in my throat. “You found something?”

Nobody answered immediately. The silence that followed told me that the answer wasn’t going to make me feel better.

Liam rested his forearms on his knees, his eyes still fixed on the papers in front of him. Paddy closed the folder and moved one photo to the top of the pile.

“We did,” Liam said finally. “I think it’s time you knew what we’ve been dealing with.”

Paddy took a deep breath before continuing his report. “We started with the kidnapping attempt.”

The conversation went on around me. I stopped listening when Paddy explained how they were tracking my attempted kidnappers through how my assailants had tracked me. Liam asked another question. The words started to sound like meaningless noise. One thought stuck in my mind: I couldn’t outrun this.

My would-be kidnappers hadn’t found me through guesswork. They had evidence, names, photos, and money trails that connected my old life to the city where I’d thought I was hidden.

Fear started to creep in. It felt familiar and cold. For the first time since waking up beside Liam that morning, the peace I’d found started to break. This wasn’t over. The danger was still there, still looking for me, still moving closer. Strangely, I didn’t want to run. I couldn’t spend my life looking over my shoulder and hoping my past would give up. One of us would have to stop running sooner or later.

For the first time, I knew it wouldn’t be me. Liam and Paddy were dealing with it. They had evidence. They were getting close. And if they found answers, I’d finally feel safe.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Liam

I left the house long before Nora woke. For several minutes I stood beside the bed, watching her sleep. I knew if she opened her eyes before I walked out of the room, there was a very good chance I wouldn’t leave at all. Yesterday had changed something between us that neither of us had expected. Seeing her asleep, without the constant tension that was usually on her face, made walking away difficult.

She deserved one morning that belonged entirely to her, one morning where she could wake up without being reminded of the danger she was in.

By the time I reached the operations office, the building was already awake.

Phones were ringing somewhere as keyboards clicked steadily from offices. Several members of my team were moving between desks carrying folders, and it seemed like no one slept the night before. Around here, people only worked through the night when progress was being made.

Paddy walked behind me, carrying the thick brown folder he’d taken from the house earlier, and everyone gradually made their way to the conference table. Michael was already standing beside one of the monitors with a laptop open in front of him, while two other analysts sorted through printed surveillance photographs that covered almost the entire polished surface. I looked around the room before pulling out a chair.

“I take it nobody called me here just to admire your filing system.”

A few quiet smiles appeared around the table before disappearing almost immediately. Whatever they’d found, it was important enough that nobody remained distracted for very long. Michael closed the laptop halfway and slid several photographs toward me.

“We’ve spent the last forty-eight hours going back over everything connected to Miss Walsh. Most of it led nowhere.”

I nodded. “That usually means you’re about to tell me the part that did.”

He exchanged a quick glance with Paddy before continuing.

“Originally we believed the man who came asking questions about Miss Walsh outside the nightclub and the people who carried out the kidnapping might not be connected. The behavior was different, the timing was different, and the people involved looked like they came from completely different worlds.”

Paddy opened the folder and removed another sheet covered in columns of numbers.