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“Why should I stay back there when Da and Ma are both dead and buried?” she challenged. “You got to leave that cac town, why shouldn’t I have the same privileges you do?”
“That town wasn’t a shit town, Lil,” he chided. “It was our home and when I left there, only trouble followed me. You’d be better off back home than here, trust me.”
“Trust you?” she challenged. “Why should I go and do a crazy thing like that? You broke Ma’s heart, Cillian. You left her to believe that she was the cause of you going to prison and she never got over that.”
“Not getting home to see Da or Ma before they passed is my major regret, Lil,” Cillian said. “I beat myself up the whole time I was in prison, but I can’t change any of that now. All I can do is be there for my wife and kids and be the best husband and father I can be.”
“Wife and kids?” Lil repeated.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m married and have two kids with another on the way. You should come by and meet the family. Hell, why don’t you stay with us?” he asked.
“I can’t do that,” Lil said.
“Why the feck not?” Cillian growled.
“Because it will put you all in danger and I won’t do that to you, no matter how angry I am at you, Cillian,” Lil said.
“Danger,” the big guy behind her said.
“Jesus,” she breathed, “there are more of them, and they keep getting bigger,” she muttered to herself.
The huge man with the salt and pepper beard laughed so hard that he garnered a good bit of attention, just what she was trying to avoid. “I’m Savage,” he said, holding out his hand to her. She looked it over as if it offended her, finally deciding to shake it.
“Lilianna James,” she said.
“As in Cillian’s little sister from Ireland?” he asked.
“The one and well, not only, since my ma had a bunch of us kids,” Lil said.
“She’s the youngest,” Cillian offered.
“We met when you were just a baby then,” he said, “when your family first came to America. I was a friend of your father’s.”
“Yeah—she was probably a year or so when we got here,” Cillian said.
“Okay, can we stop talking about me as if I weren’t here?” she asked.
“I like your sister, Cillian,” Bowie said. “I’ve got to get these guys some beers. It was good to meet you, Lil.”
“You too, Bowie,” Lil said.
“I’d like to hear more about the danger you are in,” Savage said.
“I don’t see that it’s any of your business,” she sassed. Savage threw back his head again and laughed.
“Bowie’s right,” he said. “I like her too. And it is my business what happens to you, Lil. Cillian is like a younger brother to me and that makes you family. I get involved in all my family member’s business. How about we use my office for a little privacy?” he asked. She looked around the bar, wondering if she had made a huge mistake looking for her brother there.
“Just give him a chance, Lil,” Cillian asked. “He helped me out when I was in prison. Da trusted him, you should too.”
“Fine,” she agreed. She needed help and if the big guy wanted to give it, then she’d take whatever he offered.
Lil followed the two men back down a dark hallway to a door with the word, “Office” written on it. “You get lost a lot, Savage?” she asked, nodding to the sign.
“Naw—that’s mostly to keep the barflies out of here when they come looking for trouble. My wife, Dallas, didn’t want anyone stumbling into my office claiming to be looking for the ladies’ room.”
Lil smiled and took a seat on the sofa that spanned most of the back wall of his office. “I like the way Dallas thinks,” she said. “She sounds like a smart woman.”
“She is,” he agreed, “hot too.” Cillian rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of Savage’s desk, while the big guy took a seat behind it. “How about you tell us what this danger is that you claim to be in,” Savage ordered.
