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My mind wanders over Mellie, Tiggy, Lauren and Andie. They all have one thing in common – their complete and total loyalty to their husbands. Could I be that loyal to Ronan? That totally loyal?
The better question would be: how much residual loyalty do I have to Grant? Do I have any? Do I want Grant dead? Because I’m not naïve enough not to know that Ronan would kill Grant if he knew about my past. He wouldn’t even hesitate.
Would I miss Grant if he was dead? Would I feel bad that he was killed because I opened my mouth? Because I snitched on him to the Irish Mafia? To Ronan? Would I hear that he was dead and immediately be flooded with guilt and all the good memories of him?
Shit. Do I have a single good memory of Grant? I wrack my brain, pressing my forehead to my knees again. I don’t know if I do. I honestly don’t know if I have a single nice thing to think about him. Is that enough to knowingly set him up to be killed? Could I live with myself?
RONAN
I groan as I frown at the blood splashed liberally across my jeans. Stretching my jaw, I know I will have a hell of a bruise beneath my stubble on the left-hand side.
That fucking Italian had a hell of a right hook and completely caught me off guard. As we approach my truck, I glare over at Liam.
“This is not how I was planning on spending my Christmas morning. Remind me how they got the jump on ye, lad?”
Liam shrugs, shifting uncomfortably as he looks over at me.
“I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention,” he mutters. My eyes narrow on his face. He has a hell of a shiner where he took a straight cross to the face, but his other eye is puffy and bruised too – from tiredness.
“Maybe if ye weren’t up half the night, ye wouldn’t have been so tired and distracted.”
Liam scratches the side of his neck. “There was this new stripper….”
I roll my eyes, snorting at him. “Ye don’t need to stick yer dick in every new stripper, lad.”
Liam grins sheepishly at me, snagging a bottle of water from my SUV and pouring it over his face. “Gotta try everything once.”
I chuckle at his comment, but at the same time, I’m wondering when the fuck he became so jaded.
“Ah, to be young and stupid again,” I mutter. Liam smirks, flipping me off.
When I first met Liam, he was just a kid. A kid who was trying to jack my SUV. From right outside the diner I was eating in because the lad had a death wish.
I threw him in the car and was halfway to Oracle when Liam had broken down and admitted that he jacked cars to feed his Pa’s heroin addiction.
He was eighteen. I gave him two options that day. I could shoot him, or he could agree to cut off all contact with his Pa and come and work for me. Liam never fucking looked back.
I’ve kept tabs on his Pa over the years. After Liam had up and disappeared, he struggled to feed his habit for a bit. Then he started stealing on his own. The man is in jail now.
I told Liam when he landed there. The lad didn’t even blink. That was about two years ago. That was around when Liam started his campaign of sampling every pussy he came in contact with. I have no idea what snapped in him back then – maybe it was knowing that his Pa was in prison and unlikely to come out for a long time. Perhaps it was something else.
Whatever it was, he needs to pull his finger out now. Liam climbs into the SUV with me, and I pull away from the curb, sighing, which catches his attention.
“Ye need to be careful, lad,” I tell him. Liam frowns over at me, shifting in his seat.
“What do you mean?” he asks, sounding confused. I rub my hand over my eyes.
“There’s going to come a point when Seamus has had enough, lad,” I warn him. Liam has the sense to look shame-faced. “Ye need to pull yer finger out. There is no harm in sleeping around, but ye can’t let it affect yer judgment like today.”
Liam nods, turning to stare out the window, lost in thought. We drive in silence, and my conscience pricks at me.
“Come to Christmas lunch with Fiona and me at Niall’s.”
Liam’s head snaps around, his eyebrows shooting up. “Since when do we do Christmases?”
“Since Mellie and Fiona wanted to.”
Liam slides out of the SUV as I pull up in front of his condo building, nodding to me.
