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If only I’d let matters be and not pursued who killed my ma, then things would have been different. If I never went to Dublin, then none of this would have happened. But the bloodshed around us, it’s my doing.
All of it is.
So many have suffered because of me…this is my fault.
Cian elbows Liam in the stomach, but the masked men ascend on him, beating him and Rory while Brody stands back with a smile.
He wants me to see what I caused. The mayhem I brought onto the people I love.
When one of the men pulls Babydoll’s hair and yanks her head back, licking along her neck, I know what I have to do. I hurt the ones I love and it’s time I stopped it. Stopped it all.
“Ya won, Brody. Let them go,” I coolly say, standing tall, regardless of my wounds. “Promise me they’ll be all right.”
Brody orders the man who has Babydoll to let her go.
“Ye ’ave my word.”
“She gets everythin’ ya promised her?”
“I swear it.”
Babydoll tries to fight, but the man grips her waist, holding her back. “No! Let me go. Don’t do this, Punky! You’ll go to jail for a very long time.”
I ignore her and focus on Cian and Rory. “I’m sorry I got ya involved.”
“Y’ve got nothin’ to be sorry for,” Cian says, tears in his eyes. He knows we can’t win this, not with Uncle Sean and Connor dead.
Uncle Sean thought he had men on his side, but if only I’d told him sooner about Ronan and my theory about the traitors among us, he would have known the men fighting with him weren’t with us—they were against us.
“My da—” Rory starts, but is soon cut off.
“Yer da will suffer the same way as Connor Kelly if ye retaliate. We know who they are. We were willin’ to let matters be, but then ye had to stick yer nose in business that didn’t concern ya,” Brody states confidently.
This is our punishment for thinking we could outsmart a world we know nothing about.
“There is so much ye don’t know, Puck. Maybe one day I’ll tell ya.”
“Should we head?” Liam asks as the sirens get closer and closer.
“That’s up to yer brother.”
Cian and Rory look between us slowly, confused. But I don’t have the time to explain.
“Aye, head on. I’ll deal with the peelers.”
“NO!” Babydoll cries, running over to me. “Punky, no! Fight. Tell the police the truth.”
“Who are they going to believe, I do wonder?” I say, looking at Brody. “And I don’t do this, yer ma, she dies. I won’t allow that. Y’ve a chance to help her, and I’ve a chance to make this right.”
“I’ll n-never stop fighting for y-you,” she cries, throwing her arms around me.
I hug her back, allowing myself this comfort because I won’t feel it ever again. “I’m doin’ this so we’re even. But I don’t want to see ye again. No matter what ye did, ya lied to me, and now I have the deaths of my family on my hands. I cannot forgive ya. And ye shouldn’t forgive me.”
I gently push her away, gesturing to Brody to take her away.
“Punky?” she questions, violently ripping free when one of the men try to drag her toward the van. “This isn’t your fault!”
But I don’t want to hear it.
