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Lawless Sinners

Page 230

by Autumn Archer

The first sob tears out of me.

Saint holds me through it, his chin pressed against the top of my head while my body shakes against his.

When he finally lets me go, his hand stays on the back of my neck.

“I’ve got men looking for Rafe,” he says. “Once I get Keira home, I’m going after answers. And no one’s getting in my way.”

He returns to Keira’s bedside.

Fionn steps up behind me and slips his hand into mine. I thread our fingers together again before turning into him. His arms close around me, and I bury my face against his chest, letting my next breath leave without fighting to keep it steady.

When Rafe comes home, I’ll tell him about Fionn. He can lose his fucking mind as long as he’s here to do it.

Chapter 42

Sera

The wind whips across the heath as the four of us drive our shovels into the mound beside Ma’s grave.

Saint stands on my right with his black coat pulling tight across his shoulders. Dane is on my left, his shirt collar open despite the chill, while Shay works beside him with his head lowered.

An ache twists in my stomach because Rafe should be here too.

The handle grinds against my palm as I lift and angle a scoop of dirt over the grave.

Ma’s coffin lies in the deep hole Dane dug last night while Saint carved out a temporary wooden marker with her name on it.

Máirín Tallon. Devoted mother.

We work until my shoulders burn and the skin across my palms turns red. The thud of soil striking the coffin grows duller with every load.

The dark red roses I’d thrown in disappear first, then the brass plate bearing Ma’s name, until Dane throws another shovel full, and the final strip of lacquered wood vanishes beneath the earth.

I let go of the shovel and reach inside my knee-length coat, taking out a copy of the land deed.

“What’s that?” Saint asks.

I crouch at the edge of the grave and lay it across the freshly turned soil.

“We got it back, Ma.” My fingers remain on the paper as the wind tries to take it. “The land where Da was killed. It belongs to us again.”

“What did ya just say?” Saint reaches for the page.

I rise and wipe the mud from my palm onto my coat. “The land is in Keira’s name and mine.”

He unfolds it and scans the printed document. “How the fuck did it become yours?”

I look over at Fionn. “He added me as a beneficiary of the trust. I have a legal interest in everything it owns.”

Saint follows my stare, then lowers his attention to the document and reads it again.

“Just like that?” he asks. “No strings?”

“No strings,” I echo.

I take the page back, set it in the dirt, pick up my shovel and send the next load of earth over the top of it.

Ma died believing Harringtons only knew how to take. She’ll never know that Fionn returned the ground where Da was killed, or that he chose me over his own blood.