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Finn rubbed his forehead. “Yeah. I really am that much of a dumb fuck.”
Brennan grunted. “Kept it from her for all this time?”
“I did. Senior assured me that nothing I did would make shit better. Lena was never going to jail, he’d see to that, and it was either—” He sucked in a breath. “It was either lose my whole fucking family or keep this shit a secret.”
Brennan frowned. “What changed?”
“Ma went to visit Michael in the hospital and learned that he’s acheile,” Conor explained grimly. “She saw his ink, that damn phoenix. Then she realized that he was the one who’d told her Aoife’s mom was Da’s girlfriend and knew that had to be for a reason seeing as Aoife’s mom was a goddamn stranger to the family.
“He was the one who told her that he got the info from the Old Wives’ Club so she believed him. But learning he was acheilemade her question everything.”
Finn’s gaze shuttered as Brennan demanded, “Where the fuck’s Michael? Why didn’t you bring me in on this?”
“I dealt with it,” Conor retorted.
“It being Michael? Or the situation?” Declan asked carefully.
“Both.”
Having seen how he’d handled it, it wasn’t like I could argue.
“Why wasn’t I involved?” Brennan snapped.
“Because Ma thought you’d get Da in on this, and…” Conor seemed to brace himself. “She doesn’t trust him.”
If anything could have silenced the others, it was that.
Until Brennan grumbled, “About time she fucking learned that lesson.”
Rubbing my chin, because I didn’t disagree, I muttered, “Then, we have the issue that Aoife is President Davidson’s daughter.”
Declan and Brennan’s eyes widened, but it was Declan who sniped, “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Nothing is a fucking coincidence,” Finn retorted. “And we learned that Aoife’s got this secret uncle, Eamonn—”
“Who’s the leader of the ECD,” Conor finished.
Eoghan twisted to face Finn at that, then he demanded, “Eamonn Keegan is Aoife’s uncle?”
Conor nodded. “He’s been in jail since the nineties—”
“I know, Conor,” Eoghan grated out. “I know more about the fuckingcheilesthan you do.”
“Yeah? Like what?” I inquired, curiosity stirred.
My baby bro rarely brought up the war or his time in the military, but when he did, it was always like fucking story time for adults.
Eoghan pulled a face but said, “He served in the British Army during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
“They say his skills are one of the reasons the Falklands War only lasted two weeks. He got deployed in Belfast then went AWOL. He got arrested, escaped, resurfaced again as the leader of thecheiles,then the soldiers hauled him in one last time, and the rest is history. He goes by the alias Dagda.”
“He approached Aoife in a bar just after New Year’s,” Finn murmured. “I wonder why he introduced himself to her as that and not his real name?"
“Anonymity? Maybe he didn’t know that his sister had never mentioned him?” I turned to him. “If he instigated a meet, she’s clearly a priority of his.”
Finn nodded grimly. “She needs a battalion of fucking guards on her.”
“Why is he one of the reasons the Falklands War went on for two weeks?” Brennan asked.
