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He closed his eyes in dismissal. “I need to rest.”
That could have been an affirmative, but I had no way of knowing.
I treated my guards like family. Everyone knew that.
Rogan’s son was at St. Paul’s Academy because of me—I was helping to pay Harry’s tuition. When Fenris’ daughter had gotten sick, I’d paid for Jenna’s funeral.
Was I just a dupe to them?
Someone to con? To manipulate?
I thought about the young man outside.
Could Jamie be trusted?
Was he one of these cowards too?
Because that was all they were.
Men who claimed innocents were as guilty as politicians and treated them like collateral damage were cowards in my opinion, and the ECD was home to the worst of the worst.
Nothing mattered to them other than a unified Ireland. Nothing and no one.
My throat closed as I got to my feet. Knowing he wouldn’t give me the answers I needed, I snatched up my purse and stormed over to the door.
I motioned to Jamie and strode down the hall toward the bathroom.
Brothers of the ECDwere always marked.Always. And I needed to know. Ihadto knowif Jamie was one of them.
Opening the door to the restroom, I held it wide and directed, “Go inside.”
He frowned at me, but I was Lena O’Donnelly—Five Pointers obeyed me as if I were their queen—and for once, I wasn’t afraid to act like it.
After he shuffled into the bathroom, I ordered, “Check there’s no one in here.”
Confusion in his eyes, he obeyed, opening the doors to the cubicles and peering inside. “It’s clear.”
“Take off your shirt,” I further directed, holding my purse against my chest as if it were a comforter—how I wished it were.
At that moment, only Aidan’s embrace would soothe the ache in my soul, but I couldn’t tell him.
Not if he’d let acheileguard me.
I couldn’t trust him.
The only man who could give me comfort couldn’t be trusted.
“Ma’am?” he queried warily, breaking into my terror.
“I’m not a desperate old woman who wants to see your body, Jamie,” I snarled. “Take off your shirt. Now!”
At my order, he straightened, dragged off his coat, placed it on the vanity, then followed up with his suit jacket and shirt.
When he was bare from the waist up, I commanded, “Turn around.”
The relief that filled me when I saw he only had ink that Aidan wouldn’t approve of made me shaky.
Japanese tigers and koi fish were one thing, but there were no phoenixes or Irish phrases anywhere on his chest or back.
