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Panic stirred inside me. “Are we in danger?”
“Of course not. We’re Irish now,” Inessa declared, her words loaded with her satisfaction.
I had no idea where Eoghan came from—seriously, he was like a ghost sometimes—but he was there all of a sudden, his arm sliding around her waist, and he was growling something in her ear that made Inessa blush.
Eoghan apparently liked hearing that Inessa considered herself Irish now.
I’d have rolled my eyes if I weren’t used to their PDAs.
“You’re not in danger,” Eoghan confirmed a moment later. His gaze was measured as he zeroed in on me, gracing me with every inch of his focus. For someone who’d been starved of attention from a male authority figure, he never ceased to reassure me when he looked at me this way. “I told you, Victoria, I will always keep you safe.”
My throat bobbed. “If the Russians are—”
“Maxim is in charge of the new faction and the soldiers are separating from the Bratva. Nothing is really changing on this end. The men are no longer heeding Moscow’s call.”
His explanation was brisk and to the point and it both concerned me and put my mind at rest.
“Won’t that anger Moscow?”
“Undoubtedly. Lyanov has our backing though, and Moscow is far away from here.”
Was anything truly far away nowadays?
Unease settled inside me as the kitchen as a whole grew busier when the men waded in. Finn got his hand slapped when he tried to grab a brownie, and Declan burped baby Cameron while Brennan did something that made Camille turn bright pink. I didn’t even want to know why Savannah’s eyes were sparking with anger because whenever she looked like that and Aidan was in the vicinity, they tended to disappear.
It was amid that chaos that Cin shuffled closer to me. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
In the face of her confidence, I felt pathetic.
Did anything frighten this woman?
“Y-You weren’t to know—”
“I’m used to speaking my mind and I’m not comfortable around kids.”
“I’m not a kid,” I grumbled.
“You are to me,” she said simply, but it didn’t offend me, oddly enough. Mostly because I knew she didn’t make that comparison based on years on the planet but on experience.
There was no denying that I was a child to this woman as I easily fell into both categories.
“Is Maxim okay? Why wasn’t he lucid?”
“Do you care?” She tipped her head to the side. “You seemed scared when I spoke of him.”
“No. I was confused. H-He’s a friend.”
“A friend.” She smirked. “Do mobsters have friends?”
My scowl was immediate. “You shouldn’t judge people you don’t know. The O’Donnellys didn’t have to bring me into their family, but they did. I’m here. I’m safe. I wasn’t before. They saved me from people who’d have hurt me, and they protect me. I don’t like that you’ve disrespected them twice now. And while you’re under their roof too.”
Cin’s brows rose but she conceded, “I worked for the government.”
“So? They’re not exactly the good guys, are they? The newspapers prove that!” I scoffed, shoving a piece of hair behind my ear before I demanded again, “Why wasn’t Maxim lucid?”
“Because he got injured trying to rescue my friend.”
I stiffened. “How badly?”
