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My fiancé had stepped in to de-escalate the situation with my father, but that didn’t necessarily make him a good man. He was a criminal. A bully, in a way, though I didn’t feel the same sense of impending doom around him as I did with my father. In a sick way, I almost enjoyed the push and pull with him. Something about him drew me in and made me feel alive. Was I naïve to think he was different?
He burned a man alive, Em. How different can he be?
Ugh. What a mess.
I picked up my phone, needing a distraction and remembering I’d asked Pip for information on Conner.
Me: You find anything?
She’d know what I meant.
Pippa: Was just about to send you an email.
Pippa: K, done!
I opened my email and clicked on the message as soon as it appeared. Dad had access to my account, but I didn’t think he’d care about Pip sending me info on Conner.
Here’swhat I could find. Up until recently, the Byrne family was headed by Jimmy, Brody, and Tully Byrne, along with help from Conner’s dad, Seamus Reid. Two weeks ago, Brody was gunned down outside one of their clubs by Albanians. Tully always had a more passive role, so now it’s mostly Jimmy running things. Rumor has it, the younger generation is starting to take over—Oran, Brody’s son, and Keir, who is Jimmy’s eldest. Conner is right there with them staking his claim. The group operates illegal gambling clubs and runs an underground fight circuit. They’ve scraped and clawed their way back to power. Not gonna lie, they sound pretty ruthless.
I couldn’t find much on Conner individually. He’s in his late twenties. Only child. No police record, which seemed kind of surprising. He’s linked to the gambling side of their operations—runs a club called Bastion. That’s about it.
I hadn’t knownabout Conner’s uncle. Had they been close? No matter how irritating my fiancé could be, I felt bad for his family’s loss. I knew what it felt like to lose someone close. In my gut, I didn’t think he was so callous as to be unaffected by that kind of cruel turn of fate.
Me: Thanks, honey.
Pippa: Not sure how I feel about this.
Me either, Pip. But it doesn’t change anything.
Me: That’s the world we live in.
Pippa: I guess.
Pippa: I had just hoped after everything that’s happened, you’d find your happily ever after. Not this.
My cousin was intrepid and sometimes even seemed fearless, but I knew inside she worried just like the rest of us. Instead of adding to her burden, which wouldn’t help anyone, I tried to be optimistic.
Me: You never know, Pip ??
If I’d learned anything in the past year, it was that life could change in the blink of an eye.
People died. Fortunes changed.
I preferred having some semblance of control over my life, but if I had to rely on a little luck, so be it.
Never in a millionyears did I think I’d find myself sitting next to my father while meeting with my wedding planner. He hadn’t attended a single school performance or been present at any of the most memorable events in my life. Planning my wedding alongside him seemed ludicrous.
Then again, so would the prospect of my dad killing my mom.
But Mom was dead, Dad was to blame, and I was stuck next to him in wedding hell. The one silver lining was my soon-to-be mother-in-law. Mirren Reid was remarkably gracious and friendly. Maybe I’d swung too far toward optimism, but I had a feeling she could be a valuable ally for me. Maybe even a friend.
We spent almost two hours hashing out details. Mostly, we gave the planner as much guidance as we could, and she was going to handle the logistics of making it all happen. When we finished, Dad announced he had a meeting to get to and instructed Umberto to drive me home after we made a quick stop to drop off paperwork at Conner’s office.
All traces of the exhaustion I’d felt seconds before vanished.
Would we be going to one of the Irish gambling clubs? Would I see him on our brief visit?
An undeniable sense of excitement assaulted me on the way across town. Was it purely curiosity that set my blood flowing, or something even more destructive? Was I actually looking forward to seeing him? I told myself that if the answer was yes, it was only because I was rarely allowed out of the house. Any social interaction at all was a refreshing change of pace for me. It had nothing to do with the man himself.
