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5
NIALL
Ricardo offered me a room in his home tonight, but I declined it. After everything that’s happened, I have no desire to stay at the Santiago compound for the night. My hotel room isn’t much better, as it’s filled with memories of Gabriela—or Isabella, rather--as it is, but at least it’s somewhat familiar. I’m also not entirely certain I can trust Ricardo, though I believe he genuinely wants me to get his daughter back.
I’ll feel safer not under a roof of a house full of another man’s guards, though.
Besides, I need to clear my head. I take the long way back to the hotel, opening up the bike on the road to punishing speeds, over a hundred miles an hour. The speed thrills me, heightening my adrenaline and purging me of the night’s bullshit. Even as bloodied, bruised, and cut up as I am, I can still handle a motorcycle. The feeling of flying down the open road at full speed makes me feel as if I have some control again. God knows I lost enough of whatever goddamned control I thought I had over the Santiago situation tonight.
Once I’m back at the hotel, I call Liam first, before anything else.
“We have a situation,” I tell him without preamble, and I hear Liam let out a breath.
“What’s going on? You’re supposed to be back here tomorrow. Did something happen in the ninth hour?”
“You could say that.”
“Well?” Liam’s voice sounds tired, and I can hear the sounds of a crying infant in the background.Guess he’s getting as little sleep as I probably will be tonight.“What happened, Niall? Is the deal still in place?”
“Yes—and no.” I let out a breath, sinking onto the edge of my bed. “You should probably conference Connor in.”
I wait while Liam adds Connor to the call. I can hear Saoirse’s musical voice from further off as Connor tells her he’ll be back, that he’s stepping outside to take this, and it irritates me more than anything else now. I’d been so desperate to find a way to move past her, to get over what I’d felt had been the great love of my life, that I’d stumbled right into a similar trap. Another mob princess bent on using me for her own ends, her own pleasures.
At least, that’s what it feels like right now. Maybe one day I’ll be able to look at both through kinder, more understanding eyes—but not tonight.
“You’re telling me he bloody botched it?” Connor’s growling voice comes over the line. “What the fuck, Flanagan?”
“Good evening to you too,” I say dryly.
“Fill us in,” Liam says, and I can hear the sound of a chair creaking as he sits down heavily. “What’s the problem?”
There’s nothing to do but to come out with it. “There was an attack at the Santiago gala tonight. Diego Gonzalez. He has the eldest Santiago daughter now—Isabella. Ricardo is willing to give us anything we want if I go and retrieve her for him, even though that will mean pissing Diego off and maybe inciting a war between the families.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Connor says, at the same time that Liam lets out a heavy sigh. “How did this happen? Why did Diego go from threatening to full violence in the space of an evening?”
There’s no point in lying. “I accidentally slept with his fiancée.”
The silence on the other end is deafening. “Who is his fiancée?” Liam asks quietly, as if he already has figured it out, but has to hear it aloud to believe it.
“Isabella Santiago,” I say flatly. “It was a bloody fucking accident. I never meant to. Ricardo keeps his daughters away from visitors when there are strange men in the house. She was at a bar and gave me a fake name. Turns out she was just looking for some fucking patsy to give her virginity to, so she could cheat Diego out of it. Trust me,” I add before either of them can say anything. “No one is more pissed off or feels more like a fucking fool than I do.”
“A fool who won’t have a seat at the table after this,” Connor snarls, and I hear Liam clear his throat.
“Not so fast,” Liam says carefully. “This is a right mess, to be sure, but if Niall can get the daughter back, Ricardo will be deeply in our debt.”
“We said no men, no support, if it looked like war was on the table,” Connor snaps. “And now you want to go back on that?”
“This can be discussed at the table tomorrow,” Liam says tiredly. “Niall, what’s the plan if you get Isabella back for Ricardo?”
“He wants me to take her back to the States. I suggested that our allies in New York might help. Max and Father Donahue, in particular, could help to ensure her safety, check in on her—even get her to another country later, if she wanted. Diego is furious and will only be more so if she’s stolen back. Ricardo thinks having her at the Santiago compound puts the rest of the family in danger.”
“He’s not wrong about that,” Liam says. “It’s a wise strategy.”
“Bringing her here puts us and our allies in danger.” Connor sounds thoroughly pissed. “If I’d known you’d muck up things this badly, Flanagan—couldn’t keep your cock in your pants there either, could you?”
“Don’t make this about Saoirse,” I snap irritably. “A man has a right to enjoy some pleasure in his life. There was no way to know she was anything but a pretty girl.”
“A man like you should know when the honeypot is a honey trap,” Connor sneers from the other end of the line. “You wanted to get laid, and now you’ve jeopardized all of it.”
