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“On the day itself?” Conor shook his head again. “Declan, I swear to fuck, for a guy who loves all that tragic romance, all the arts and stuff, you’re clueless, aren’t you? Let me guess. You want to get married in front of a justice of the peace?”
“Don’t see why not.” I shrugged. “We’re both private people.”
Conor scowled at me. “We’re a private family, doesn’t mean things don’t have a time and a place.”
“I refuse to go through what Eoghan did,” I argued. “Hell, I went through all that shit so he didn’t have to! I’m the one who had to prop Inessa up because he was chickenshit. If anything, he should go through it for me.”
“Nah, Inessa meant jack to him back then. Aela matters to you.” Conor pursed his lips, eyes narrowed like he was deep in thought. “In fact, I tell you what. I’m going to plan your service. You don’t have to do shit, just turn up on the day at the place and time when I tell you. I bet she loves it.”
I glared at him. “What the fuck do you know about this shit?”
“Doesn’t take a goddamn degree,” he retorted, holding out his hand. “We got an agreement?”
“So long as it’s not that whole dog and pony show like Eoghan had to deal with.”
Conor snorted. “Bro, their ceremony was all for show. This isn’t.”
“Isn’t it? Gotta make Seamus legit before you get me shot again,” I groused, waggling the file he’d handed me in his face.
“Well, okay, if you want to think of it that way, then do.” He hitched a shoulder. “Not gonna affect me.”
A breath gusted from between my lips as I conceded, “Okay. Go for it. But I get to take full credit with Aela.”
“That’s it,” Conor joked. “Start married life off the right way—with a lie.”
My nose crinkled, so I reached up after I shook his hand, scratched it, and flipped him the bird. “But I’ll tell you when and where—when I’ve made a decision.”
He just grinned at me, then pointed to the file. “Now. As you so rightly said, I gotta get you shot.”
“This just seems insane to me,” I replied, my attention averted. “Caroline Dunbar can’t be behind the blackmail. She’s too much of a stickler for the rules.”
“She’s always had a boner for you,” Conor argued. “Ever since Jimmy D.”
“How the fuck she knew you were behind it, I don’t know,” Brennan rumbled, his body angled toward the front of the building we were watching for signs of life.
If that bitch had a tail on us, we had one on her. We knew every move she made, and if she took a piss or went for a shit, then we knew about it.
That was why we were waiting for her to come home.
This afternoon, when my brothers had burst into my office at the warehouse I managed, both of them looking like they’d found a treasure map with an ‘X’ marking the spot, then had reeled off the tale of how Conor had discovered exactly who the blackmailer was, the day had long since spiraled out of control.
I wasn’t even sure what we were doing here.
So I said as much. “What are we supposed to do? Confront her?”
“Yeah. Of course,” Conor grumbled. “You think I tracked that account through a gazillion goddamn VPNs and IPs and spent a week solid tracing it just for you to carry on paying? You owe me the ten grand you were going to give her.”
I griped, “That’s it. Remind me why I didn’t get you involved before.”
He sniffed. “You’re a dumbass, that’s why.” Then he heaved in a breath. “Of course, I know it’s because we never stuck up for you as a kid, so you didn’t trust us. But I think you trust us now, so that’s something.”
I tensed up. “Course I trusted you. We’re kin, ain’t we?”
“We are, but when Seamus stuck up for you on Sunday? Well, man, it just rammed it home how we never did that when Da used to give you crap about liking museums and shit, you know?” His shoulders wriggled. “Then I thought about all the time you were paying that bitch hush money, and it fit that you didn’t think you could trust us with the truth. But you trusted us with Seamus and Aela, so I knew shit had changed.”
My own shoulders weren’t just wriggling, they were up by my ears.
“That true, Dec?” Brennan asked softly.
