Page 49 of Blood in the Water

It was true for now at least. Her parents had opted to stay on the island with Owen for awhile, agreeing to take Nolan up on the offer to pay for Maurice for the foreseeable future. Bridget hadn’t expected them to be so agreeable, but she was relieved they were finally accepting help.

The change of scenery had been good for Owen too. He spent hours sitting on the beach in his chair, the plywood back in place thanks to Harold. Her dad had been busymaking repairs to the house even though Nolan had said he’d just send someone to fix everything. Bridget thought her dad enjoyed the work, that it felt good to be outside for a change, and that it was probably his way of paying Nolan back even though Nolan would never take a dime from her father.

She looked over at Rachel as she let loose a bawdy round of laughter, leaning into Will as he said something too softly for the rest for them to hear. Bridget couldn’t believe that after all of Rachel’s assertions about never ending up with a Southie boy, she seemed to have set her sights on Will.

Actually, she could believe it. Will was amazing.

It was a flirtation borne out of all the hours they’d spent at the hospital, waiting for Nolan to come out of three different surgeries. They’d kept a rotating schedule of vigils, Bridget rarely leaving his side, Rachel and Will taking turns bringing Bridget food, coffee, and once Nolan was feeling better, beer smuggled in under Will’s jacket.

Bridget had only seen Moira Adams once. Bridget’s face had heated with shame as the other woman paused to look at her from the door of Nolan’s room before stepping inside. Bridget had left, wanting to give them privacy, and had spent the next half hour worrying over whether Moira would choose Nolan’s recovery to tell him about the money she’d used to pay off Bridget all those years ago.

As far as Bridget knew, Moira hadn’t, but Bridget knew she wasn’t off the hook. She’d had a reprieve because of Nolan’s injury, but he’d gotten out of the hospital the week before and was growing stronger every day.

She was running out of excuses.

And her secret from Nolan wasn’t the only thing she had to confront.

They’d discovered on their return to the mainland that Seamus had been murdered, execution style, which explained his absence on the island during the storm. Nolan hypothesized that Baren had done it before coming to the island, that he’d thought Seamus was weak because of all the problems that had occurred and that he planned to take over the territory himself.

No one knew for sure. They didn’t even know if Baren was alive. The second the storm began to recede, they’d airlifted Nolan to Boston General. Christophe and the other Syndicate men had combed the island for Baren to no avail. No one could figure out how he might have escaped until Nolan regained consciousness and told them there had been a skiff tied to a tree at the other end of the island.

When Bridget had asked her father to look for it, he’d said it was gone.

“Want to blow this joint?”

She was pulled from her thoughts by Nolan’s voice in her ear, his grin leaving no doubt why he was in a hurry to get back to the apartment at Millennium Tower. They hadn’t spent a night apart since his discharge from the hospital, and while Nolan would have preferred the tiny studio apartment, Bridget insisted on the security of the bigger, more visible building.

She smiled. “You’re supposed to be recovering, mister.”

“I’m recovered, I swear.” He slid a hand up her thigh. “Let me prove it to you.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You’re the worst.”

“And the best.”

She met his eyes. “And the best.”

They weren’t out of the woods yet. The Syndicate had initiated phase two of their operation while Nolan had been in the hospital, officially taking over the Cat, the Playpen,and all of Seamus’s other businesses, but it hardly seemed to matter with Seamus dead and Baren still on the loose.

Would Baren come back? Exact revenge for Sean’s death? Try to take the territory himself or with the help of Niall Devlin who, according to Christophe, had entered the country two weeks earlier under another name?

She didn’t know. She didn’t know much of anything except she was free of her debt to Seamus, and if another debt would be extracted from her for the killing of Sean Maguire, she would deal with it when the time came.

Nolan leaned closer, nuzzling her neck. “I fucking love you, Bridge.”

She closed her eyes. “I love you too.”

And this. She knew this.

“So does that mean we’re going home?” Nolan asked.

Bridget laughed and let him pull her off the stool.

They were going home.